*** JAN WOUTERS, HANS BRUYNINCKX, SUDESHNA BASE, SIMON SCHUNZ (Eds.): The European Union and Multilateral Governance. Assessing EU Participation in United Nations Human Rights and Environmental Fora. Palgrave Macmillan (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, UK. Tel: (44-1256) 329242 - Fax: 812521 - Internet: http://www.macmillandistribution.co.uk ). “Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics”. 2012, 285 pp, £60. ISBN 978-0-230-28231-5.
It is obvious that the European Union asserts itself as the indefatigable example and stubborn spearhead of multilateral governance, After all, this trend has been genetically inscribed now that Article 21 of the EU Treaty says it has the mission of promoting 'multilateral solutions to common problems, in particular in the framework of the United Nations'. The authors of this high-flying scientific work, the result of a multidisciplinary research project at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, are at pains to verify the practical outcomes of this unequivocal pledge and to this end, they decided to focus on two domains - human rights and the environment - areas which the EU27 champions and which they have made priority issues in relations with the rest of the world.
The authors work to gain greater understanding of how the European Union participates in the United Nations' efforts to boost human rights and environmental protection, discerning the outcomes it achieves (or fails to achieve). To this end, they look at the legal, institutional and political instruments that determine its action, whether these are its own instruments or those granted to it under specific United Nations' forums. What is the EU's legal status and what role is it given in UN governance in these two subjects? How can its views be accounted for? How relevant are the legal and political aspects of the EU's involvement in UN human rights and environmental forums? Finally, and most importantly, what is the EU's contribution to multilateralism under the UN umbrella? The authors of these thirteen essays provide knowledgeable answers to these, and many other, questions in the light of an interdisciplinary analytical framework developed for this very purpose and described at the start of the book.
The next two sections look at the EU's action in connection with the various bodies, documents and meetings concerning human rights (the General Assembly's third committee, the Human Rights Council, drawing up the moratorium on use of the death penalty, the Durban conference on racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia), along with protection of the environment (the Sustainable Development Committee, measures to deal with climate change, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosecurity and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development). Each of these two sections starts with a chapter taking an in-depth look at the legal and institutional niceties that determine how the European Union participates in work at the United Nations. This scientific work is too rich and detailed to be accurately described in only a few lines. It demonstrates that the European Union still has some progress to make before it really becomes the effective multilateral player it aspires to be.
Pierre Bouvier
*** OTTO SPIJKERS: The United Nations, the Evolution of Global Values and International Law. Intersentia (31 Groenstraat, B-2640 Mortsel. Tel: (32-3) 6801550 - Fax: 6587121 - Email: mail@intersentia.be - Internet: http://www.intersentia.com ). School of Human Rights Research Series, 47. 2011, 525 pp, €68, £65, $95. ISBN 978-1-78068-036-1.
This thesis for the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands examines the creation of the United Nations and how it and its values have changed over time. Making use of research at the UN headquarters in New York, Otto Spijkers of the Netherlands shows how the United Nations Charter - which initially pitted good against evil, true against false, the way the world is as opposed to the way the world should be. The situation is far more complex today. A common desire to get rid of war, poverty, inhuman treatment and the exploitation of human beings leads to the assertion of the values of peace and security, along with social progress and dignity, are now basic human rights. Otto Spijkers analyses how the United Nations in general and the General Assembly in particular impacts on the international moral order.
In the introduction, the author quotes a representative of Luxembourg who, during the first United Nations' conference, compared the burgeoning organisation with a cathedra under construction, the plans of which being the draft Charter drawn up by the fifty countries represented in San Francisco on 26 Junes 1945. His study focuses on the United Nations Charter, assessing the changes in the international articulated by the UN since it was set up. After describing the methodology, explaining the area of research and giving a brief outline of the general thrust of his work, he starts examining UN documents, quoting Dutch politician and United Nations Special Representative in Sudan, Jan Pronk, who said: 'The United Nations are more than a negotiating body, more than an organisation intervening on the basis of consensus when international peace and security are under threat, and also more than the sum of organisations implementing peace, development and anti-poverty programmes.' How and to what extent were the ethical positions laid down as global values able to influence the setting up of the United Nations and impact on changes in its objectives, principles and strategy? How has the UN in its turn influenced moral opinion through its own contributions to the debate about values and translating these values into the language of international law, particularly the passing of general resolutions, statements and treaties? These are the big issues underlying the book. The first part sees Otto Spijkers defining global values and showing their preferential position within the international community, the debate they give rise to around the world and the decisions they inspire.
He moves on to the values of social progress and development, examining emergency aid and sustainable development, burning issues if ever there were any, then addressing human dignity and describing its conceptual basis, mentioning the freedom of association, equal rights and the special situation facing children, the elderly, immigrants, minorities and the native population. The author's next object of study is self-determination. Finally, Otto Spijkers discusses the UN's failures, such as the Rwandan genocide and the Srebrenica tragedy, although he says that these will not prevent the UN from developing crucial ideas for the future. In the author's view, the biggest issues for the future are finding ways of forcing all countries to take more seriously the UN Assembly General's general value statements and to put them into practice on the ground.
(MDV)
*** JAN WOUTERS, PHILIP DE MAN: Humanitarian and Security Law. A Compendium of International and European Instruments. Intersentia Publishing (see above). 2012, 998 pp, €145, £138, $203. ISBN 978-1-78068-051-4.
Assisted by a PhD student, Prof. Jan Wouters of the Catholic University of Leuven, where he heads the Centre for Global Governance Studies and the International Law Institute, has gathered together in this impressive tome the most important international and European legal instruments with regard to armed conflict and security threats. After briefly describing relevant international law, the authors spend the first part of the book examining the various legal facets of armed conflict, in other words the most important legislation on traditional humanitarian issues, arms control, conflict prevention and peace consolidation. The second section examines law governing international and cross-border crimes, i.e. the fundamental legislation on crimes against humanity, war crimes and terrorism. Next comes a section on Europe, examining the security legislation of the European Union, NATO and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The final part of the book looks at particularly significant extracts of rulings by the International Court of Justice and the special tribunals
for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, giving a precise interpretation of some of the previously discussed legal instruments. This is a work tool that will be of delight to numerous lawyers and ever so many students. (MT)
*** ANTONIO VARSORI, GUIA MIGANI (Eds.): Europe in the International Arena during the 1970s / L'Europe sur la scène internationale dans les années 1970. Entering a Different World / A la découverte d'un nouveau monde. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang
(1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). Euroclio / Etudes et documents series, No. 58. 2011, 387 pp, €45-50. ISBN 978-90-5201-689-4.
For Europe, the 1970's were a jaded, slightly forlorn connection between the golden age of the 1950's and the Swinging Sixties (the post-war boom) and the political upheavals leading up to the collapse of the Communist world dominated by the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980's. Or at least, that is how many people see it. The authors of this book, all of whom are historians, mostly from Italy, carried out a research project involving Florence, Padua, Perugia and Udine Universities, to examine the accuracy of this idea or at least this common feeling. They had their work cut out for them because as this book shows in its twenty essays, this period of history was just as interesting as any other, particularly for the European Union. Divided into five sections, the book focusses on the assertion in the 1970's of the European club as a global player, even if the seeds planted in the 70's often took decades to bear fruit. The first section is devoted to the impulses given to economic and political integration of Europe, with Eric Bussière showing how 'European regionalism' that took shape at this period was the Member States' response to the globalisation that was starting off back then and which paved the way for the later Economic and Monetary Union. Two other essays look at 'Germany between Ostpolitik and European integration' and the reasons or the 'exaggerated importance' given to the United Kingdom's membership. The essays in the second section look at the relationship between the European Community and the world superpowers against the backdrop of the Cold War and Detente, with Duccio Basosi showing how the changed made by the United States under Richard Nixon to the international monetary system had an impact on Western Europe's relations with Washington. The third section sees five authors analysing the growing attention paid by Europe in the 70's to the Third World, beginning, of course, with the southern rim of the Mediterranean and cooperation with Africa. As one would expect, there is an essay in which two researchers examine the roots of the 1973 oil crisis and compare it with the current situation. The fourth section is devoted to the rise in the 1970's of 'public opinion,' mass movements and new forms of foreign policy. The fifth examines the 'transition' seen in Southern Europe, from Italy to Greece, via the Portuguese Revolution. (MT)
*** DUSAN SIMKO, UELI MÄDER (Eds.): Stabilization and Progress in the Western Balkans. Proceedings of the Symposium 2010, Basel, Switzerland September 17-19. Peter Lang
(1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 -Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "Social Strategies" series, No. 46. 2011, 198 pp, 36, €70. ISBN 978-3-0343-0640-9.
This book reports back on a symposium at Basel University in Switzerland examining the situation in the Western Balkans eleven years after the end of the wars in former Yugoslavia. The academic conference was attended by historians, geographers, sociologists and political scientists from Europe, the Balkans and the United States, who examined topics such as economic and social development in the post-war periods and the social and cultural impact of democratisation. Particular attention is also paid to minorities, the refugee problem, the security situation in the region's fragile nations and, finally, the responsibility of the European Union and the United States for the general stagnation in the Balkans. (PBo)
*** Revue de droit monégasque (Monaco Palace of Justice, B. P. 513, MC 98015 Monaco cedex. (Tel: (377) 98984241). 2012, No. 11, 294 pp, €30.
This review sets out doctrine, legislation and case law from Monaco over the past two years. (MT)