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Constitutional Foundations of EU Membership in Hungary Before and After the new Fundamental Law
29-47Views:186The paper examines the Hungarian constitutional framework which determines the relationship between domestic and EU law. The constitutional foundations changed in 2011 when the new constitution, the Fundamental Law was adopted. The former 1989 Constitution contained in Article 2/A the so-called ’European clause’ adopted before EU accession, which was referred to as the main constitutional basis of Hungary’s EU membership by the Constitutional Court. The new Fundamental Law contains a seemingly similar ’European clause’ in Article E. The paper scrutinizes the question whether the former and the new clauses are truly similar and concludes that opposite to the Constitutional Court’s point of view the new European clause should be interpreted differently from the former, which might lead to a different, less Europe-friendly approach towards EU membership.
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Review of the Book “Posted Workers in EU and Hungarian Law” by Gábor Kártyás
209-220Views:79In today’s globalized labour law, where borders, especially within the European Union, seem to be increasingly blurred, cross-border situations are becoming more common. Due to digitalisation and technology, which is evolving at a rapid pace especially in the present situation, working abroad can now be carried out without the worker actually moving away from his desk, namely not physically entering another country. In view of this, the topicality and exciting nature of the processed topic can hardly be questioned. Following a holistic approach, the reviewed book guides the readers with unique detail and provides them with a sure point of reference on the swampy ground of the posting, which is surrounded by many challenges and conflicts of interests. In our review, we will describe and evaluate the content of the monograph along these sure points of reference.
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Environmental Tax Harmonisation and Market-Oriented Legal Regulation in the Light of the CJEU Practice
95-117Views:179The subject of the present paper is the explanation and justification of environmental taxes in general terms and, in particular, the assessment of the recent european trends as well as the examination of the practice of the EU Court of Justice followed in this field. The paper considers ecotaxes as the means of fiscal policy that can be put into the service of green growth. For the time being, the enforcement of ecological policy is restricted in many aspects within the EU framework, being unilaterally subordinated to the requirement of free competition. For this reason, the EU law mechanisms of adjustment may get stuck in cases where intervention is not necessary in order to have more but, on the contrary, to have less freedom of market. Since it can be considered as obvious from the perspective of thermodynamic restraints that market imperfections cannot be precluded, the possible aim of intervention is certainly not the reconstruction of free trade, but the suspension of the laws of market. The political and legal basis for this is still missing in the European Union both in theory and practice what can be seen as a serious problem.
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Energy audit: EU-Law and its implementation in Germany
29-41Views:179The Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) No. 2012/27/EU establishes a set of binding measures to help the EU to reach its 20% energy efficiency target by 2020. Energy audits are an essential tool to achieve adequate energy savings (see art. 8. EED). The current study focuses on the EU legal requirement on Energy Audits and its implementation in Germany by the 2015 amended Act on Energy Services and other Energy Efficiency Measures (Gesetz über Energiedienstleistungen und andere Energieeffizienzmaßnahmen – EDL-G). The analysis is still relevant because of the infringement proceedings against Germany by the European Commission based on fragmentary transposition of the EED.
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Social Dumping in the Face of Cross-border Collective Agreements and Actions: A Dilemma of the European Legal Practice on the Edge of Law and Economy in the Light of the Framework of International Standards
180-202Views:148In this paper I outline the objectives of the ILO, the conventions relevant to collective bargaining and action, and furthermore the pronouncements of the ILO supervisory bodies. After describing social dumping I examine the jurisprudence of the European Union regarding the collision of fundamental freedoms and collective labour rights in the light of international labour standards. My observation is that the hierarchical relationship between fundamental freedoms and labour rights in favour of the former cannot be maintained even based on EU law.
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The Observation, Review, and Possible Modification of the EU Environmental Liability Directive in Hungary
29-41Views:173The main secondary legal source of environmental liability in the European Union is the Directive 2004/35/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage. Even though it was modified several times since then, it still remains the basic norm in the environmental field by establishing the regulatory frames by means of the polluter pays principle and the principle of prevention. The present study makes an overview of recent and potential further legislative steps in Hungary with regards to its implementation.
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The Nature of the EU Labour Market and Its Regulations
89-104Views:157Labour market regulation to prevent labour migration easily becomes protectionist, thus violating the rights of migrant workers. This paper focuses especially on the role of the labour market regulations relating to migrant workers in the EU. General labour market regulations will be analysed in the first section. When we talk about the labour market, the regulations will be assessed as to whether they are strong or not and to what extent the workers will get their rights protected. EU labour migration is large around the world and can be handled with labour legislation and the labour market. Therefore, EU labour market regulations and policies, especially active labour market policies, are analysed in this paper.
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Access to higher education and right to free movement in the case-law of the CJEU
134-156Views:130This article examines the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concerning the right of EU citizens to gain access to higher education in other EU Member States. The case-law plays an important intermediary role between various EU policies, often contributing to their more effective implementation in this way. The paper presents an obvious example for that as legal principles developed by the Court in free movement and antidiscrimination cases essentially facilitate the promotion of student mobility that is one of the fundamental objectives of the Bologna Process and the Union‘s education policy. At the same time, free student mobility may go against national education policies and interests and Member States are often reluctant to accept that the rulings, despite the limited competencies conferred upon the EU to take measures in the education sector, set narrow boundaries for national actions. The analysis also seeks to indicate those factors which have an influence on the Court‘s sensitivity towards interests and policy autonomy of the Member States in the field of higher education.
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Groundwater protection in the light of a judgment of the Supreme Court of Hungary
178-191Views:227In the study the author analyses a judgment of the Supreme Court of Hungary, in which a progressive judicial interpretation is included concerning the obligation of fact-finding in connection with the protection of groundwaters. Before this, the author presents the legal doctrine regarding groundwater regulation. The regulation is not only drawn up on the national level, but also on the level of European Union. After the detailed presentation of the case, the author makes some conclusions.
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Impact of EU Law on National Criminal Law
79-93Views:97This paper aims to analyse the main linking points between EU law and national criminal law. For a long time, the criminal laws of the Member States have been heavily affected by EU law. This influence can be either negative or positive. The most lenient form of the positive effect is the assimilation principle, which does not seek to incorporate EU norms into national criminal law, only attempts to extend the latter’s applicability to the protection of the interests of the European Union. In the case of legal harmonization the Member States are required to adopt common criminal norms which aim to reduce the differences of the national criminal law systems. The most serious impact on national penal law is the supranational criminal legislation, which results not only in the approximation but the unification of the criminal laws of the Member States.
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Principle of Environmental Integration – Thoughts on the 7th EU Environment Action Programme
31-51Views:149Integration of environmental requirements into other policies is a priority objective of the new, 7th environmental action programme of the EU. Principle of environmental integration was developed by the international environmental policy; it was inserted into environmental policy principles and into provisions of the Founding Treaty at the establishment of the EC environmental policy. The aim of the environmental integration principle harmful environmental effects, thus to serve sustainable development. Objectives of the EU sustainable development and sustainable growth strategies cannot be realized without integration of environmental requirements: integration of economic, social and environmental aspects of development can ensure the establishment of a resource- efficient, competitive economy, free from environmental degradation, improvement of quality of human life, meeting the needs of present and future generations, and preservation of natural resources which serves as the fundament for development of the other two pillars. Environmental integration is a principle provided for in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, binding the decision-makers and legislators of the EU and the Member States; failure of its application might lead to judicial review and annulment of an act.
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International and Regional Fight Against Climate Change and its Economic Impacts
84-98Views:177The climate change represents one of the greatest challenges nowadays. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol tried to attend the problem in international level. However the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period will be finished in 2012 and a new international framework needs to have been negotiated and ratified that can deliver the stringent emission reductions. When it will be contracted, the European Union defends against the climate change with regional instruments, like EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The ETS tries to manage the problem by financial method.
The Copenhagen Accord declared that scientific view: the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius. The question is now, what the world and the EU should do for this goal. What is the expected global and EU emission in 2020? The EU has two kind of mitigation pledges: the 20% or 30% reduction. How EU achieves expectations and what kind of tools could help about this? The European Commission made several documents about this problem and the ways of mitigations.
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In Contrast: Responsibility for Environment and Regulation in Finance
128-155Views:254The more environmental policy comes into the focus of fiscal policies of governments, the more prevailing are the interests in it influencing the governance as a whole. In the context of the European Union, the governmental role of the Member States’ increased less for initiating the (often invoked) environmental protection but such an increase is rather an end in itself. The responsibility for environment seems to represent the bright side, while the reality of financial regulations shows the dark side of government priorities.
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Financial Support System of EU – EFTA (Member States) cooperation
62-85Views:154The economic cooperation between the EU and EFTA states constitutes a special cooperation form in several ways: the actors of cooperation (economic integrations and their Member States), the legal and institutional framework and the budgetary relations also have unique features. In our study the rules and changes of the EEA and Norwegian Financial Mechanism, as well as the Swiss Contribution are analyzed from aspect of integration theories and financial law. In the framework of historical analysis and comparative method the financial instruments of EFTA states are compared with the EU Cohesion and Structural Funds with the help of evaluating statistical data.
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Victim protection or real probation? Reversed burden of proof in employment discrimination cases in the Hungarian legal practice
123-138Views:291This paper emphasizes one of the most important questions of equal treatment that is the reversed burden of proof and aspects of the special sharing of burden of proof. The hypothesis of the paper is the following: although the Hungarian regulation follows the relevant directives of the European Union properly, the legal practice does not focus on victim protection to the expected level. The legal practice of the Equal Treatment Authority and the Supreme Court (Curia) of Hungary are both analysed, therefore the different approaches can be confronted. The paper provides de lege ferenda proposals mainly in connection with the unification of the Hungarian judicial practice.