European Law & International Law (e-books)

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Ladislav Orosz    Ignác Brosch  (eds.)

Scientific proceedings from the traditional international scientific conference organized by the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic and the Faculty of Law of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, titled “The Relationship Between Domestic Law and European Union Law – 14th Constitutional Days,” consists of papers by renowned representatives of domestic and foreign constitutional doctrine, as well as authors who currently serve as judges of constitutional courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union, or as their advisors. From a substantive perspective, the contributions included in the collection address the challenges arising from current developments in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the case law of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic and certain other foreign constitutional courts regarding the relationship between national legal systems and European Union law. 

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Lucia Bakošová (ed.)
The proceedings Human Rights and Freedoms under Pressure from Algorithms: International and National AI Challenges constitute a peer-reviewed outcome of an international scientific conference devoted to the legal challenges arising from the development of artificial intelligence. The volume focuses on the impact of algorithmic systems on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the international, European and national levels. The individual contributions examine issues such as transparency, accountability, the right to a fair trial, privacy protection, non-discrimination, children’s rights, labour relations, digital constitutionalism, autonomous weapons, and the use of AI in public administration and armed conflicts. Particular attention is paid to the risks of algorithmic decision-making, legal hallucinations, profiling, surveillance, and the influence of digital technologies on democratic processes.

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Adam Giertl (ed.)

Proceedings of the Student Symposium on International Law and European Law held on April 28, 2017, at the Faculty of Law of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice

The Student Symposium is regularly organized by the Institute of International Law and European Law, and in 2017, it marked the jubilee tenth edition of the symposium, which over time expanded its focus to include European law.

The tradition of holding student symposia is also associated with the good practice of preparing proceedings from each event. Understandably, the tenth edition is no exception, and thus, the tenth edition of the symposium proceedings is now available to readers. In previous years, the symposium has always focused on specific areas of international and European law. Thus, the subjects of study for symposium participants have included migration issues (2016), the protection of cultural values (2015), and the challenges of cyberspace (2013).

This year, given that it is the jubilee tenth edition, the symposium organizers have chosen to approach the symposium's focus thematically and recall some significant milestones in the development of international law that occurred in years ending with the number seven.

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Kristián Csach - Ľubica Širicová

Private international law has undergone dramatic changes in recent periods. The fully operational process of communitarization of this legal field has not yet – and perhaps could not have been – effectively reflected by domestic legislators. Under the current legal status, it is not uncommon for legal issues to intertwine regulations of community origin and domestic legislation (embodied primarily by Act No. 97/1963 Coll. on Private International Law and Procedure).

Questions about the obsolescence of some provisions of this, until recently, universal codified regulation of private international law arise mainly (but not exclusively) from the conflict rules contained in the so-called "Rome I" Regulation on the law applicable to contractual obligations, the "Rome II" Regulation on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations, and most recently in Council Regulation (EC) No. 4/2009 of 18 December 2008 on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition, and enforcement of decisions and cooperation in matters relating to maintenance obligations.

Respecting the principle of the primacy of generally binding acts of the Community over domestic law, the correct application of normative texts cannot be achieved without the ability to quickly navigate through the norms and subsequently compare them.

Students and anyone else are therefore confronted with a multitude of legal regulations of substantial scope and detailed regulation. Currently, apart from systematically arranged references on the websites of the Ministry of Justice, we do not find a comprehensive material that would offer an overview of legal regulations in the field of private international law and procedure.

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Alexander Bröstl - Marta Breichová Lapčáková - Martin Štrkolec (eds.)

Collection of scientific papers by doctoral students.

Thematically, the contributions are diverse: they feature fundamental principles in public law (basic principles of criminal proceedings, the principle of contradiction, basic principles of constitutional court proceedings, basic principles in private law and procedural law (superficies solo cedit), the principle of civil court proceedings in deciding labor disputes, equality of participants and the duty to instruct, objection of bias in light of the right to an impartial court, the principle of speed and the principle of economy in the decision-making activities of general courts, basic principles in legal theory and international law (general legal principles recognized by civilized nations), coexistence of the principle of equality and the principle of non-discrimination in the legal order of the European Union, argumentation through the principle of rule of law in the decision-making activities of courts, the impact of fundamental principles on the interpretation of legal norms.

It is important that the authors, i.e., doctoral students from law faculties in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, almost unanimously examine these principles in the process of application (interpretation) of law, from the perspective of how legal (primarily judicial) practice deals with them. This should be fundamentally welcomed and appreciated.

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Adam Giertl (ed.)

Proceedings from the VII. annual student symposium on international law held on April 11-12, 2014 at the UPJŠ training facility in Danišovce

Despite this, flying and space travel are now a common part of human civilization. What is the role of law in this process? This is the question posed by the organizers of the VII. annual student symposium on international law, aiming to evaluate the contribution of international law in the field of aviation and space flights, especially in light of current developments.

The individual topics were tackled by second, third, and higher-year students of the Faculty of Law at UPJŠ in Košice. The result of their work on the assigned topics, which the authors could consult with members of the Institute of European Law and the Department of International Law, is the presented work.

The proceedings are thematically divided into two parts. The first part acquaints the reader with selected topics related to aviation law, and the second part is dedicated to international space law.

With its focus, the proceedings also have a broader impact, as in some aspects it fits into the broader context of research conducted at the Institute of European Law and the Department of International Law, which focuses on examining the influence of regionalism on general international law and vice versa. This issue is also reflected in the topics of the individual contributions.

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Ján Klučka a kol.

The presented monograph, “Regionalism and Its Contribution to General International Law,” was prepared at the Institute of European Law and the Department of International Law of the Faculty of Law at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice as part of a project of the same name (APVV-0823-11) carried out in the years 2011–2015, and represents one of its final publication outputs.

The main reason for choosing this topic was the effort to evaluate regionalism in its various forms in relation to international law, and, conversely, to assess the place, significance, and role of international law in the creation and functioning of different forms of regional groupings. In fact, although regionalism is receiving increasing attention in doctrine, a more comprehensive assessment of its impact on international law and vice versa has so far been lacking.

This monograph attempts to partially fill this gap. Against the background of a brief historical development of regionalism, as well as its substantive and terminological components, the monograph examines in greater detail the individual types of regionalism—such as old and new regionalism, as well as contractual and institutional regionalism—their specific features, and their contribution to general international law.

Attention is also devoted to a specific phenomenon of contemporary regionalism, namely the influence of the European Union on its stabilization and development, both through practical measures and through a set of measures regulated by international treaties.

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Ján Klučka - Ľudmila Elbert

The present monograph "Regionalism and its Contribution to General International Law" was written at the Institute of European Law and Department of International Law, Faculty of Law, Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice, as a part of the project (APVV-O823-11) carried out in 2011-2015, representing one of its final publication utputs. 

The main reason for choosing the topic was to evaluate regionalism in its various relationships and forms with respect to international law, and also to evaluate the place,importance and duties of international law in respect to the establishment and functioning of various forms of regionalgroups.

It is a fact that even though a lot of attention has been paid to regionalism, a more complex evaluation of the impact it has had on international law, and vice versa, is still lacking. The efforts of the present monograph are to partially eliminate this gap.

After giving a brief insight into how regionalism has developed, its content and terminology, the monograph studies in more details individual types of regionalism in the form of old and new regionalism, as well as treaty and institutional regionalism; its specifications and contributions to the international law.

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Ján Klučka(ed.)

Collection of Papers from the International Scientific Conference Held on May 29–30, 2014 at the Faculty of Law, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice.

In the first half of this year, a scientific conference entitled “10 Years in the EU: Relations, Questions, Issues” was held in Košice, and the contributions from this event constitute the content of the present collection bearing the same name.

The aim of the organizers—namely, the Slovak Association of European Law, the Representation of the European Commission in the Slovak Republic, and the Institute of European Law together with the Department of International Law of the Faculty of Law at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University—was not only (even if loosely) to follow up on the previous 2009 conference “Community Law in Slovakia – Five Years ‘After’”, but, after another five years, to continue its main objective: to provide participants from both the academic and non-academic community with a space for further analysis and exchange of views on legal issues related to the membership of the Slovak Republic in the European Union and various current issues of the Union’s legal order.

From this perspective, a shift in the overall focus of the conference contributions in 2009 and 2014 can be observed. While the contributions from the first conference focused primarily on various aspects of the application of Union law in the Slovak legal system and related application problems, especially before courts and other authorities, the basic orientation of the contributions from the second conference is already different. The present collection also confirms that the contributions focus primarily on current issues of the European legal order and on certain aspects of the Union’s external policy, while the relationship of Union law to the Slovak legal system is no longer given primary attention.

Several contributions focus on areas characterized by a certain overlap or “cohabitation” of Union law with public international law, private international law, or, more broadly, international relations.

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Adam Giertl - Ľudmila Elbert

Collection of Papers from the 8th Student Symposium held on April 20–21, 2015 in Danišovce

The capture of the historic Syrian city of Palmyra by fighters of the radical Islamic State caused shock among the global public. The main reason is the barbarism with which this organization proceeds, not only in relation to the treasures of the world’s cultural heritage. The situation in the Middle East, where cultural treasures of inestimable value are under direct threat, demonstrates how fragile the world’s cultural heritage is. The reaction of the international public and world leaders shows how sensitively the destruction of cultural heritage is perceived.

The quoted statement chosen by the editors relates to the threat posed by the Islamic State—however, the spirit of this statement can be applied to any cultural wealth that forms part of the world’s cultural heritage. The destruction or damage of these values primarily represents a loss for humanity as such. Each destroyed artifact of world cultural heritage signifies the disappearance of a unique legacy left by previous generations for the future. At the same time, cultural heritage must be understood as a broad spectrum of assets—both tangible and intangible. Their legal protection was the topic of this year’s symposium. As with any social interest, the protection of cultural heritage can be ensured through various mechanisms and under different forms of social organization.

These diverse approaches are unified by law as a normative system. The question for the 8th year of the symposium on international law was what role international law plays in the protection of cultural heritage. In the context of the European region, the role of the European Union as a regional organization was examined.

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Ľudmila Elbert

The presented scientific monograph addresses the issue of the Rule of Law and its place, roles, and particularities at the level of international law. The Rule of Law is understood as a value that should govern communities, both domestic and international. It is thus compared to Kelsen’s basic norm, which should stand at the top of the legal order as the norm justifying the validity and existence of the norms of the legal order, both domestic and international.

Although the Rule of Law is studied at the international law level, it cannot be considered without understanding the Rule of Law in domestic law. Just as its development differs depending on whether it evolved within Anglo-American or continental law, its application and development also differ between domestic law and international law.

These differences are mainly caused by the roles and objectives that international Rule of Law is meant to secure, as well as by the distinct characteristics of domestic and international law.

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