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Founded on the underlying principles of equality, solidarity and cohesion, with economic growth envisioned as a vehicle to social well-being, Europe has emerged as a significant competitor in the global economy. Despite the subsidiarity principle, member states' social protection systems are increasingly being driven by the European neoliberal agenda. Malta is no exception: its socialist welfare regime, based on strong government interventions and universal provision, has progressively given way to a more regulated, privatised and means-tested model. The globalisation–inequality–social protection nexus suggests that Malta's high GDP growth and widening inequalities are not reflected in a reciprocal outlay in social protection expenditure. In a context where the social well-being of all is increasingly becoming subordinated to the economic well-being of the few, one questions to what extent the social model has remained a fundamental pillar of the EU and whether, through Europeanisation, Malta is concomitantly losing its social conscience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the editorial introduction to the special issue "Subsidiarity and the Logic of Gift in Business." It provides a conceptual overview of subsidiarity and the logic of gift in business and society and it introduces the five essays that compose the special issue. This introduction and the five essays open new perspectives on subsidiarity, a principle that enables people, organizations, and society to address different needs at the appropriate level, working to achieve human flourishing, and the common good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributivism holds that private property should be widely distributed among as many as possible and that such a distribution best serves the common good. This paper applies a distributist approach rooted in subsidiarity to the contemporary issue of the unaffordability of single‐family homes and the impact of investors buying up more single‐family homes, increasing their own wealth at the expense of typical home buyers. Here, we will first consider multiple factors in the housing "crisis," then highlight the impact of investors on the market. Second, we will consider a critique and analysis of the situation from a distributist perspective, rooted in principles of private property, solidarity, dignity, and subsidiarity (particularly turning to G.K. Chesterton's view on the importance of home). Due consideration is given to some objections to such a distributist critique, with response. Finally, several examples of proposals and implemented practices are provided to discourage this growing trend concerning the concentration of ownership of housing by investors and to better enable homeownership by families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subsidiarity is often implicitly conceived as an organizational model or a Weberian ideal type. The purpose of this paper is to show that, in contrast, subsidiarity is a principle in the sense of the tradition originating from Thomas Aquinas. Considered as an ideal type, subsidiarity may be perceived as impossible to apply because of its ideal status, abstracted from the circumstances. Here, we will demonstrate the consequences of the fact that subsidiarity is one of the common principles of practical moral reasoning of particular prudence. Because it is a principle, subsidiarity does not have a visualizable substance or prescribe an organizational model, unlike the ideal type. It thus avoids the indiscriminate application of organizational models to contexts that are not appropriate, and in the context of tension between external consultants and managers, it rehabilitates the prudence of leaders who know the circumstances of their organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fourth Industrial Revolution based on digitalization, the development of AI, robotics, big data, and increasing automation is dredging up older debates on the end of human work. This article contributes to this debate arguing that these changing circumstances represent an opportunity to advance a renewed consideration of human work. By emphasizing its most distinctively human dimensions, including gratuitousness, relationality, and meaningfulness, we propose the articulation of a social model that recognizes relational goods as a specific contribution of human work in an attempt to overcome the state and the market's monopoly of public life built around the dichotomy between the private and the public. Such a social model is based on the concept of circular subsidiarity, which represents a departure from traditional notions of subsidiarity by promoting a dynamic and reciprocal interplay between three essential societal spheres: the state, the market, and organized civil society, all of which have their role to fulfill by providing security, efficiency, and relational goods. Ultimately, this article suggests that circular subsidiarity can lead to a more inclusive and equitable social model by acknowledging how relational goods not only humanize civil society but also sustain the functioning of both the market and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As with any proposal for institutional reform, and especially one that has gained so much ground in such a short amount of time, this paper asks whether diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement is good for corporations. Are businesses stronger with DEI practices and ideas or weaker? We believe that the DEI movement is asking the right questions: How do we create more just and equitable institutions? The challenge, however, is whether this movement is giving the right answers to such questions. The main premise of our paper is that without deeper principles than DEI itself, these qualities of corporate life will be misunderstood, misused, and disordered in our increasingly fragmented and politicized culture. We propose in this essay that "subsidiarity" serves as one of those deeper principles that can order and enrich our understanding of DEI. It serves as a gift principle that begins to reveal the deepest nature of our work, namely, that our work allows us to exercise our gifts in serving others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU faces many challenges. Demagogic leaders and parties exploited them politically, lamenting a democratic deficit between the EU and the Member States, which resulted in a European 'polycrisis'. The Lisbon Treaty's Early Warning System is a mechanism that helps to foster National Parliaments, thus the relation with legislators and citizens, as well as with the EU. However, this so-called Virtual Third Chamber might be a suitable tool to answer populist claims of democratic deficit. With it, National Parliaments might monitor European activities and proposal-making closer. Not only do they work at the nation-state level, but they are more involved at the inter-state and European levels. The Early Warning System can reduce people's perceptions of democratic deficit and though indirectly, increase their sense of participation in European policy-making. With the System, the National Parliaments are new (indirect) legislators at the European level, with more opportunities to prevent possible breaches of the subsidiarity principle. The System assures more citizen-institutions integration, resulting in a stronger EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As AI-driven solutions continue to revolutionise the tech industry, scholars have rightly cautioned about the risks of 'ethics washing'. In this paper, we make a case for adopting a human rights-based ethical framework for regulating AI. We argue that human rights frameworks can be regarded as the common denominator between law and ethics and have a crucial role to play in the ethics-based legal governance of AI. This article examines the extent to which human rights-based regulation has been achieved in the primary example of legislation regulating AI governance, i.e., the EU AI Act 2024/1689. While the AI Act has a firm commitment to protect human rights, which in the EU legal order have been given expression in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, we argue that this alone does not contain adequate guarantees for enforcing some of these rights. This is because issues such as EU competence and the principle of subsidiarity make the idea of protection of fundamental rights by the EU rather than national constitutions controversial. However, we argue that human rights-based, ethical regulation of AI in the EU could be achieved through contextualisation within a values-based framing. In this context, we explore what are termed 'European values', which are values on which the EU was founded, notably Article 2 TEU, and consider the extent to which these could provide an interpretative framework to support effective regulation of AI and avoid 'ethics washing'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the governance norms of micro-regional cross-border cooperation (CBC) in Europe and Southeast Asia. We ask why world-wide cross-border micro-regional institutions, though at first sight pursuing similar economic and socio-political objectives, markedly differ in their institutional design. Guided by arguments derived from sociological institutionalism, we argue that cross-border institutions adopt the governance norms of the regional organization to which they are linked. Accordingly, while in Europe CBC is characterized by normative ideas, supranational tendencies tamed by subsidiarity, bottom-up processes, liberal participatory norms and legal formality, Southeast Asian cross-border institutions are more material, intergovernmental, hierarchical, state-controlled and informal. Cross-border regions established in countries acceding to a regional organization localize the latter's governance norms if these deviate markedly from entrenched extant normative arrangements. The diversity of CBC in the two world regions studied suggests that the 'varieties of regionalism' concept also applies to micro-regionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifteen years following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, this article seeks to analyse its impact on EU executive rulemaking. It delves into the constitutional concerns arising from the architecture of Articles 290 and 291 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), in particular relating to the institutional balance, the concept of implementation, the distinction between delegated and implementing acts and the legitimacy of the control mechanisms envisaged in the TFEU. The article argues that there is a need for reform and integration of Articles 290 and 291 TFEU in one Article dedicated to EU executive rulemaking, going beyond mere considerations of institutional balance. Such a reform entails a return to the essence of comitology as a general mechanism for consultation in and control of rulemaking, allowing Member States to deliberate with the Commission with a veto right for both the Parliament and the Council, embracing the idea of executive subsidiarity. It requires also to go beyond the old comitology mechanisms based on a pure interinstitutional perspective by connecting to Article 11 TEU (Treaty on European Union) and recognising the need for participatory engagement so as to enhance the legitimacy of EU executive rulemaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the question, What does a "common good building" church, that partners with others to serve homeless people, look like? This investigation will assist church leaders in focusing resources and training on an outworking of the Missio Dei that aspires to common good building. The method employed for this investigation was a critical correlation which prioritized the givenness of God within the constructivist approach of producing a qualitative grounded theory. This theory tested qualitative data from focus groups against theoretical sensitizing and further tested it in a "common good building" conference and in abductive reflection with a range of theologians. The research outcome emphasizes the significance of respectful listening in empowering, particularly those with subjugated knowledge of themselves. Further conversations are needed between understandings of mission and those of work. How power is used and abused is critical; subsidiarity is central to mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ius et Praxis (07172877) is the property of Universidad de Talca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In judicial practice, criminal preventive measures attract attention that could be used for better purposes, moving away from their complementary role in per se criminal proceedings and deepening the sensitive border crack between private and societal interests. The current Code of Criminal Proceedure establish a series of criteria that must be observed by the judge, criteria developed over a decade of national jurisprudence and augmented by the supervision of the Council of Europe and European Union judicial institutions. The study hereby analyzes these criteria and follows up with a few reasonable conclusions, observing the balance between the fracture of contemporary jus puniendi: individual freedom and public security. The risk of automatic judicial sentencing regarding preventive measures is a concrete and current phenomenon exposing Romania to breaches of conventional rights. Obviously, these conclusions can be challenged using the same reasoning applied to judicial rulings: subjectivity, discretionary power and unpredictibility.

The rise of liberal market economies, propagated by neoliberal free market thought, has created a vacant responsibility for public interests in the market order of society. This development has been critiqued by Catholic social teaching (CST), forcefully arguing that governments and businesses should be directed to the common good. In this debate, no attention has yet been given to the Reformational tradition and its principle of sphere sovereignty, which provides guidelines on the responsibilities of governments and companies for the public interest of society. This article analyzes the differences and similarities between CST and the Reformational philosophy in their critiques of the neoliberal free market perspective of Hayek. We apply the three perspectives to the case of orphan drugs in the pharmaceutical industry and show that CST and the Reformational philosophy offer valuable insights in correction to Hayek's views on the responsibilities of governments and companies for public health interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this perspective, we present and discuss four major causes of the worldwide nature conservation failure: 1) ideologies based on nature–culture dualism, 2) the bias prioritising forests in conservation, 3) the illusory objectiveness of selected biological indicators, and 4) the mismanagement of rural agricultural landscapes. All of these relate to ignorance of historical ecology and neglect of the role past plays in shaping landscapes and fostering biodiversity. These led to a false anthropology focussed on the broader human economy (including agriculture) as the absolute culprit of biodiversity loss. It is believed, therefore, that biodiversity preservation depends on conservation policies and actions providing protection against human activities, such as farming. In this way, nature conservation has been detached from the rich experiences of long and fruitful coexistence of people with other elements of nature. The bio-cultural legacy includes biodiversity-rich rural landscapes, whose habitats are often either neglected or wrongly interpreted as "remnants of natural ecosystems". Consequently, conservation efforts are frequently ineffective or worse still, counter-effective. In the face of policies favouring subsidised intensive agribusiness at the cost of destroying smallholder family farming, even expensive conservation projects are usually nothing more than a "fig leaf" to cover failure. We advocate re-focussing of conservation planning to put more emphasis on landscapes' historical ecology responsible for their bio-cultural diversity. It implies the need for new principles in policies necessary to secure the economic and cultural sovereignty of local socio-ecological systems responsible for the world's bio-cultural diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the constitutional and legal foundations of the territorial integrity of the federal states, focusing on historical and contemporary examples. The authors examine cases of successful and unsuccessful secession, as well as legal mechanisms used to prevent separatism. We take Spain, the USA, Canada, India, and Germany, as the examples to analyze the role of constitutional provisions in maintaining state unity. A key aspect of the study is the distribution of competencies between federal structures and federation subjects, which ensures a balance of interests and prevents internal conflicts. A great attention is paid to the principle of subsidiarity and the role of federation subjects in governance, contributing to the preservation of territorial integrity. The authors emphasize the importance of integration mechanisms and constitutional guarantees in maintaining the stability of the federal states. The article establishes that the territorial integrity of federal states is ensured through a set of constitutional and legal norms that regulate the relations between federal authorities and the subjects of the federation. These norms include a clear distribution of competencies, where federal authorities are responsible for national issues such as defense and foreign relations, while the subjects of the federation have powers in local governance. The principle of subsidiarity involves the participation of the federation’s subjects in state governance, ensuring a balance of interests and preventing internal conflicts. Additionally, the supreme legal authority of the federal constitution, mechanisms of federal intervention in case of threats to integrity, and the unity of the economic space all contribute to the stability and unity of the federal state, effectively countering separatist movements. It is determined that the participation of federation subjects in the process of constitutional amendments guarantees their representation and protection of interests, preventing unilateral changes in the state structure. The state language plays an important role, promoting national unity and preventing ethnic conflicts, which is critical for multinational federations. Furthermore, the representation of federation subjects in the national parliament ensures their influence on key decision-making, promoting more balanced policies and strengthening ties between the central government and the regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Computer und Recht is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Human rights bodies formulate highly specific orders to minimize the risk of State non-compliance. However, specificity comes at a cost, reducing State autonomy when local agents implement measures on the ground. This article develops the concept of specificity in human rights reparations and analyses the specificity formulas deployed by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in structural measures as a form of positive subsidiarity. We employ qualitative data analysis software to process 322 measures of non-repetition ordered by the Inter-American Court through to the end of 2020. This analysis identifies two modes of specificity: process-based, which defines procedures for compliance, and outcome-based, which sets the goals for the State. After coding over 800 segments of text from Court decisions, we outline an exhaustive legal framework with 26 process-based categories and 2 outcome-based forms of specificity. We conclude that outcome-based specificity can help courts balance positive subsidiarity and State autonomy in the design of reparations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cognitive mobilisation thesis suggests that increasing knowledge on the European Union (EU) would lead to increased support for the institution. We test this with a strategic case whereby we provide information on the EU's subsidiarity principle to the citizenry of a small member state and examine whether it mitigates negative EU attitudes. In an original, pre-registered, population-based survey experiment conducted with members of a panel representative of the Dutch population, respondents were assigned randomly to a control group or a treatment: a professionally produced information video mimicking EU communications. Along with estimating the overall treatment effects, based on extant literature we assess whether these effects are moderated by the respondents' prior EU knowledge and level of populist attitudes. Consistent with the information deficit theory, we find that information provision decreases negative attitudes among the least knowledgeable. We discuss the implications of our findings and provide suggestions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual essay extends decolonisation debates to the broader context of decoloniality of praxis. It acknowledges the significance of epistemological and pedagogical decolonisation but argues that these do not fully engage with the entrenched coloniality in tourism in Africa. The essay problematises the conventional explanations for Africa's underperformance in international tourism and its erasure of Africans as tourists. It proffers pragmatic arguments for decolonising tourism in Africa, given the unprecedented decline in international tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic, the historically contradictory images of Africa, the latent demand for domestic and regional tourism, the youthful population of Africa, and the possibility of Africa-wide freedom of movement emanating from implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area. The article emphasizes the need for concomitant representivity of Africans as producers and consumers of tourism experiences from within the continent, partly facilitated through principles of subsidiarity, although potential resistance to such a pursuit is acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Member States of the ECHR are complex entities made up of many levels. The subsidiarity principle is grounded in this social reality. However, the ECHR, just like general international law, treats its States as unitary entities: local authorities are procedurally and institutionally inexistent in the ECHR system, although they play important roles as protectors and violators of human rights. I show that the codification of the subsidiarity principle in the ECHR preamble was not intended to strengthen the role of local and regional authorities. Protocol No. 15 was only concerned with reinforcing 'the' States role vis-à-vis the Court. I explain this with the state's role as the bearer of political sovereignty and the fact that sovereignty is a pre-condition for a functioning political democracy and, therefore, a democratically legitimate human rights system. Finally, the paper enquires into whether the subsidiarity principle of the ECHR might be read as an interpretative principle, which contributes to determining the scope and content of the human rights that the Strasbourg Court must guarantee, and whether this might benefit local and regional associations. I answer in the negative. Such a reading would be contrary to Protocol No. 15, as it would further empower the Court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Ireland access to instrumental music education (IME) largely operates through the private market. Unlike other European countries Ireland does not have a music school law or policy position. The purpose of this article is to examine how a long-established history of subsidiarity which is enshrined in the Irish Constitution together with the ideology of choice, has underpinned the provision of IME. This has led to the growth of a market-led system of provision that promotes inequalities. The data suggests that parents seeking IME for their children are compelled to act as customers and competitive citizens and that the private choices of those who can pay to play, masks the dearth of state-supported universal IME provision. In conclusion, it is argued that by continuing to adopt the principles of subsidiarity, the State is both exonerated from being fully responsible and accountable for the adequate provision of IME and is complicit in perpetuating structural inequalities that favour access to capitals-rich families, be in the state-supported IME, or IME in the private education market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Logos: A Journal, of Religion, Philosophy Comparative Cultural Studies & Art (08687692) is the property of Logos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of the research within the scope of the scientific article is to clarify the essence of the model of building a system of local self-government in the Republic of Poland, taking into account the principles of decentralization in view of the use of certain forms of its implementation in Ukraine. To achieve the goal of the research, the following tasks were carried out: clarification of the prerequisites, forms and methods of building a model of the local self-government system in the Republic of Poland, taking into account the observance of the principles of decentralization; carrying out a comparative analysis of the construction of this model in Poland and Ukraine; identifying effective forms of implementation of the principles of decentralization of the model of local self-government in Poland and forecasting the possibility of their implementation in the process of local self-government reform in Ukraine. As a result of the study, it was established that the Polish system of local self-government is characterized by the presence of such a specific mechanism of delegation of power, such as their transfer between local self-government bodies of different levels. Within the framework of this mechanism, the powers of the self-governing bodies of the voivodship can be delegated to the relevant district bodies if necessary. It has been proven that this type of delegation of powers is a completely natural continuation of the principle of subsidiarity, as it is applied in the case when a certain administrative authority is legally assigned to a local self-government body of one level, but can be most effectively implemented by a local self-government body of another level - both higher and lower Ukrainian legislation does not allow such delegation of powers between local self-government bodies of different levels at all. That is why one of the measures of the decentralization reform in Ukraine should be the enshrining in the Law "On Local Self-Government in Ukraine" or in the prospective Municipal Code of Ukraine the provision that local self-government bodies can enter into administrative agreements with each other on the delegation of power and the transfer of necessary for them implementation of financial and (or) material and technical resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Administración Pública is the property of Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

E. F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful is one of the most succinct elaborations of Catholic social teaching (CST) and 'distributism' – construed as an alternative to both capitalism and socialism. Extending the logic of Polanyi, both market and state, and their right- and left-wing ideological expressions, are shown to be contending forms of collectivism – in that both aggregate the agency of disembedded 'billiard ball' individuals. Schumacher's socio-economic vision is rooted in Livelihood and is orthogonal to both left and right, creating an opportunity for an alternative to modernity involving patterns of embedded production, consumption and reproduction (family, household and place-bound community). 'Smallness' and 'localness' speak to forms of embedded social capital that are 'sticky', viscous and relational, more ascriptive and less fluid. But for precisely this reason, the political agenda implicit in Schumacher's vision is not only post-liberal, but explicitly both covenantal and Christian. It requires the ontology of sovereign, self-actualizing individuals to be reconnected and constrained through a transcendent relationality with God. Small is Beautiful is shown to be diametrically opposed to the eco-modernist, gnostic and sometimes even transhumanist worldview of global environmentalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe is the winner of the Cohesion Policy. It is vital that the model of shared management, multi-level governance, and partnership remains the guiding principle of the Cohesion Policy beyond 2027. Subsidiarity and a place-based approach are crucial; we can't afford to lose the territorial dimension. There is no future for this policy without a strong role of cities and regions. If you try to replace it with a centralized instrument as a top-down Recovery and Resilience Facility, you will destroy the very essence of the Cohesion Policy. The Cohesion Policy is working on the ground, and it must be maintained, in a modernized way. The Cohesion Policy must continue to be the single policy to address the challenges inherent to cohesion in Europe. That includes supporting a just transition in all regions and supporting all territories so that they can take advantage of the single market. That includes supporting all regions so that the EU can be more competitive at a global level. Cohesion Policy is a solution, not a problem!. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an account of the structure of property law based on the principle of subsidiarity. This principle holds that more centralized organizations, including governments, should fulfil a subsidiary role in relation to the individuals and groups of which they are comprised. While subsidiarity has been highly influential in the areas of public law, constitutional law, and international law, its relevance to property law has been underappreciated. Property rights distribute decision-making authority over resources to non-state parties. This promotes a number of interrelated benefits associated with subsidiarity, including the qualitatively distinct contributions made by individuals and groups to the common good, the instrumental benefits of decentralized decision-making, the intrinsic benefits of involvement in actions and decisions affecting oneself, and the development of virtues. However, the principle of subsidiarity also suggests important roles for public authorities, including assuring an appropriate distribution of resources in society and intervening where the private authority of owners fails to uphold the common good. In this respect, subsidiarity offers a distinctive understanding of the divide between private and public law. Private law doctrine appropriately provides owners with a significant sphere of presumptive authority, yet this is subject to broad powers of public authorities to alter the baseline where, in their judgment, the common good requires it. This article argues that the concept of subsidiarity can help to bridge the divide between progressive property theory and theoretical approaches that emphasize the authority of owners. It can also contribute to an understanding of the concept of property, public access rights to private property, property-based community governance, and legal protections for property rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cohesion Policy—the European Union's (EU) policy platform for regional and local development—represents a major yet often neglected instance of Social Europe. In this article we inquire into the delivery of Cohesion Policy projects concerned with social policy objectives. Specifically, we ask: how are these projects delivered? Building on the literature of subsidiarisation in social policy, we theorise that the interaction of two processes—vertical subsidiarisation across territorial levels and horizontal subisidiarisation across sectoral levels—generates different spaces of subsidiarity, with major implications for policy outputs and outcomes. Empirically, we explore the emergence of spaces of subsidiarity in over 800 Cohesion Policy projects for quality employment and labour mobility delivered in Italy, Portugal, and Spain, during the 2010s. We show that, despite common rules, the governance framework through which the social agenda of Cohesion Policy is implemented is not a constant but a variable, one that may be leveraged by future research to explain the heterogeneous impact of Cohesion Policy across the EU. Our contribution is relevant to research on Social Europe, research on the territorial dimension of post‐industrial welfare systems as well as research on Cohesion Policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a recent decision by the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic regarding noise protection. The court rejected a proposal to repeal certain provisions of a government regulation that increased noise limits in protected outdoor areas. The court upheld the authority of the government to set noise limits through regulations and emphasized the need to balance public health with the necessity of noise in modern society. The article also mentions that international organizations like the World Health Organization and the European Union do not set binding noise limits, leaving it up to individual countries to determine their own limits. The court concluded that increased noise limits do not necessarily violate constitutional rights and that the goal of the law is still to protect public health and reduce noise. [Extracted from the article]

The African Union Border Programme (AUBP) was established in 2007 as part of African Union’s efforts to strengthen the structural conflict prevention capacities of its Member States. The main objective of the AUBP is the promotion of peace, security and stability through: delimitation and demarcation of borders, cross-border cooperation, and capacity building. The Program is implemented on three levels: national, subregional and continental, based on the principle of subsidiarity. In implementing the Programme, the AU Commission cooperates both with African organisations (primarily regional economic communities) and the United Nations, European states (especially Germany) and European organisations of cross-border cooperation (for example AEBR and MOT). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of the inveterate politicization and polarization of synodical practice, this article aims to reclaim synodality as a spiritual pathway, in the spirit of Pope Francis's current initiative. It argues that participation in synodality is the birthright of Christians and that the widest consultation is mandated. Synodality calls for an organic model of the church that is inimical to hierarchy and top-down forms of leadership. Synodality, so understood, has the potential to revitalize the church, not least in evangelization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Just transition is a concept used to describe how communities should navigate the shift toward a more sustainable way of living. This paper discusses the contribution of Catholic Social Thought to understanding just transition and how it can be applied to a particular context--in this case, the Philippine setting. Specifically, this paper will discuss the concepts of justice, the common good, and subsidiarity, and how these can elaborate on what a just transition is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The principle of subsidiarity, which also appeared in antiquity, was refined and perfected by the Catholic Church. The essence of the principle of subsidiarity is to ensure that decision-making takes place as close as possible to the individuals, thus avoiding unnecessary centralisation and encouraging effective decentralisation. The rationale behind this principle is the recognition that higher levels of government do not always have an adequate level of insight or understanding of local realities, and that decision-making should therefore be taken at the lowest possible level of authority to achieve the best quality of governance. The principle of subsidiarity is a fundamental principle of the European Union’s decision-making system. A return to subsidiarity can play an important role in the constitutional disputes that have been revived in recent years between national constitutional courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union. This paper analyses the evolution of the subsidiarity principle in EU decision-making and the institutions and procedures that are supposed to guarantee its application. By examining the political and legal enforceability of the principle of subsidiarity, the paper draws conclusions on the present state of the enforcement of the principle and makes some proposals for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of the subsidiarity principle by the Maastricht Treaty was intended to strike a balance between the Member States and the supranational level in terms of non-exclusive competences. However, the principle of subsidiarity in the current EU structure is Janus-faced: although it was theoretically included in the founding treaty to protect the lower levels, its modus operandi is actually aimed at demonstrating the supranational level’s capacity to act. Perhaps this is why the enshrinement of the subsidiarity principle in the Treaty has not lived up to expectations, and the relevant Treaty provisions have largely remained dead letters. At the same time, the need represented by the principle of subsidiarity, namely the protection of the autonomy of the Member States, remained present in European integration, which finally emerged in the concept of constitutional identity, linked to the redefined identity clause after the Lisbon Treaty. In this sense, the identity clause in Article 4(2) TEU has become the legal device or standard that is able to transfer the constitutional needs of the Member States to the level of EU law and provide the possibility for their recognition at EU level. For this to work, a cooperative approach by national constitutional courts seems essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of the institutionalised cooperation in Europe now looks back to more than seven decades. What differentiates this cooperation from other international organisations is the common heritage and destiny the European countries share and the community they have found in a high level of integration. However, since the very beginning of this cooperation, there have been debates about the best method and way to express common European positions. Part of this debate is the question of the democratic legitimacy of the Union institutions. As it is set out in Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union, democracy is not only a fundamental value of the Member States, but also an expectation towards the European Union. Even though the institutional setting of the European democracy has gone a long way in the past seven decades, the question of democratic legitimacy is still being one of the key subjects and future challenges within the framework of the currently ongoing discussions on the future of Europe. There is no shortage of reform proposals, nevertheless, the main debate has been rather one-sided as it envisions only one avenue to decrease the so-called “democratic deficit” and strengthen the European policy space. What is the function of democracy in the context of the European integration and how can it represent a European position or serve as a check over the Union institutions? What institutions could be able to create a bridge between the peoples of the Member States and the European institutions? This paper seeks to outline the different responses to these questions. To this end, it outlines the theoretical background and institutional evolution of democratic legitimacy in the European integration while seeks to evaluate the current proposals and envision the alternative ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores when constitutional damages can and should be awarded in South African law. The history of the divergence between common-law damages and constitutional damages (and the uncertainty that might arise about which type of damages a victim of an injury ought to pursue) is explored. Thereafter, a critical and constructive interpretation of the case law on constitutional damages is provided, which sets the scene for a precedent-inspired three-step approach to constitutional damages adjudication. This approach is then defended as a transformative constitutional one which squares easily against the notion of constitutional adjudicative subsidiarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article provides an account of the structure of property law based on the principle of subsidiarity. This principle holds that more centralized organizations, including governments, should fulfil a subsidiary role in relation to the individuals and groups of which they are comprised. While subsidiarity has been highly influential in the areas of public law, constitutional law, and international law, its relevance to property law has been underappreciated. Property rights distribute decision-making authority over resources to non-state parties. This promotes a number of interrelated benefits associated with subsidiarity, including the qualitatively distinct contributions made by individuals and groups to the common good, the instrumental benefits of decentralized decision-making, the intrinsic benefits of involvement in actions and decisions affecting oneself, and the development of virtues. However, the principle of subsidiarity also suggests important roles for public authorities, including assuring an appropriate distribution of resources in society and intervening where the private authority of owners fails to uphold the common good. In this respect, subsidiarity offers a distinctive understanding of the divide between private and public law. Private law doctrine appropriately provides owners with a significant sphere of presumptive authority, yet this is subject to broad powers of public authorities to alter the baseline where, in their judgment, the common good requires it. This article argues that the concept of subsidiarity can help to bridge the divide between progressive property theory and theoretical approaches that emphasize the authority of owners. It can also contribute to an understanding of the concept of property, public access rights to private property, property-based community governance, and legal protections for property rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of adoption, subsidiarity is the principle that children should remain with their birth families whenever possible, and whenever not possible, that in-country placements should take precedence over intercountry adoption. This Comment looks at the specific meaning of subsidiarity in the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. It highlights that the convention does not require intercountry adoption be a last resort, but rather that "due consideration" be given to placements "within the State of origin." Then, the Comment looks at the domestic law of India, Colombia, and South Korea, three of the main sending countries in intercountry adoption, as case studies to see how these countries have implemented subsidiarity over time. It reveals a broad trend of these countries implementing stricter and stricter conceptions of subsidiarity over time and concludes that presently all three countries go far beyond what the convention requires, potentially in ways that undermine the best interests of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The aim of this article is to argue that institutionalisation of executive political leadership in South Africa's state democratic governance desecrated state-society subsidiarity and stateness, exposing people to security contortions. Theoretically, the state is privileged with causal power, which involves the exercise of statehood for the security of the nation. However, stateness resides in the legitimacy of exercising such power within the state-society subsidiarity principle. The state is not independent; instead, it remains vulnerable to fascist manoeuvres. This article holds that the crisis of stateness relating to disorder, illegality, and instability manifests when the state, a potent, omnipresent teacher, breeds contempt for the law. A literature survey demonstrates that African states' democratic governance has for years become case studies that anchor analyses of institutionalisation of executive political leadership and desecration of state-society subsidiarity with real-world situations about greed, corruption, economic misery, uneven development, and collapsing modern state and governance power relations inequities. South Africa is not an exception to the norm. Beside the decade-long state capture, South Africa's parliamentary conduct in the Nkandla and PhalaPhala scandals points to entrenched executive political leadership and the disintegration of stateness. The article concludes that de-institutionalisation of people, attendant to suppressing criticism, denigrating accountability, undermining rule of law, decimating state-idea, and political corruption, is the opposite side of the institutionalisation of presidential godfatherism, desecration of state-society subsidiarity, and erosion of stateness in South Africa's state democratic governance. The article recommends that South Africa's democratic governance needs to restore the balance of power relations in the state-society subsidiarity in order that the state may only be strong enough to serve and protect people's interests, and people strong enough to maintain sovereign control over the state, as entailed in the concept of nation-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The subject of the article are the executive acts of passive and active bribery under the Bulgarian Criminal Code. The author examines the issue if the forms of these acts are found in a subsidiarity ratio. This question is of determining importance both for the need of differentiation of criminal responsibility and for legal qualification of the criminal activity in case the bribery is committed with more than one act. The subject of the article are the executive acts of passive and active bribery under the Bulgarian Criminal Code. The author examines the issue if the forms of these acts are found in a subsidiarity ratio. This question is of determining importance both for the need of differentiation of criminal responsibility and for legal qualification of the criminal activity in case the bribery is committed with more than one act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]