Review of European and Comparative Law, 2025, Vol. 60, No 1

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12153/8551

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 5 of 12
  • Item
    The Concept and Legal Nature of EU Values
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2025) Motyl, Volodymyr
    Values are a fairly common concept that is used extensively at the everyday level and is the subject of study in many sciences, including philosophy, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, religious studies, economic theory, political science, etc. Following the substantiation of values as a separate philosophical category, a branch of philosophy that deals with the study of values – axiology – was formed. Values began to move into the field of law and were used mainly as categories of philosophy of law or axiology of law and only partially became the subject of study of constitutional law and legal theory, as their nature as legal categories remained questionable for a long time. The enshrining of the values on which the European Union (EU) is based in Article 2 of the TEU, together with the introduction of a special liability mechanism for the breach of values in Article 7 of the TEU, as well as the validation by the Court of Justice of the EU of the mechanism outlined in Articles 258–260 of TFEU in case of breach of EU values, has put on the agenda the issue of a paradigm shift in the legal nature of values. Have EU values become a part of law or a legal category? Have they become part of the EU legal order? The confirmation of the legal nature of values and their properties as a separate legal category of the EU’s legal system would have far-reaching consequences in the future shaping of the interpretation, application, and development of EU law, national legal systems of Member States and of third counties that cooperate with the EU. The absence of such a transformation and property of values would significantly reduce the potential for influence and significance of the core values of the EU. The article defines which values are the core values of the EU. The author draws a conceptual distinction from related legal concepts and categories, primarily principles and norms. The author formulates law’s main characteristics or attributes from the perspective of both Legal positivism and natural law doctrine, namely: normativity, binding nature, formal certainty, systematicity and coerciveness or liability, compliance with the ideals of freedom, justice, and fundamental human rights. It also analyzes the compliance of values with these attributes or key characteristics. The analysis confirms that the core EU values enshrined in Article 2 of the TEU meet these criteria, and the author concludes that values are a new category of law that has emerged within the EU legal order. The author uses mainly doctrinal legal and inter-disciplinary legal research methods to characterize the basic concepts of law and the concept of values, as well as to identify and formulate their main attributes. The comparative method is used to compare values with related legal categories, in particular principles and norms, to determine their common and distinctive features. Deduction techniques were used to identify the main characteristics of law from the perspective of Legal positivism and natural law doctrine and assess the compliance of the EU’s core values with these features.
  • Item
    A Global Analysis of Menstruation-Friendly Working Practices Through an Evaluation of International Examples
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2025) Solymosi-Szekeres, Bernadett
    Gender equality is a key issue and an important element of basic human rights, especially when it comes to the workplace. Labor laws often fail to address the specific challenges women face, like menstruation and menopause. This study focuses on how menstruation is treated in labor law, with a spotlight on international practices around menstrual leave. It looks at the purpose behind these national legislation-policies, how legal frameworks differ, and how the literature evaluates the function of these institutions. The aim of the paper is to provide useful insights for future lawmakers, social partners, drawing lessons from Spain – the only EU country with such a policy – Japan, Indonesia, Taiwan and other national examples, showing how menstrual leave can support women’s wellbeing at work. The research focuses only on the legal aspects of these menstrual leave policies, which is a very rare aspect in the literature.
  • Item
    European and EU Standards of Rights and Protection of Child Victims of Crime and Their Implementation in the Polish Criminal Process Through Amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure in 2020–2023
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2025) Kulesza, Cezary
    The basic assumption of the article is to examine to what extent the latest amendments to the Polish Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) are in line with international standards of rights and protection of child victims of crime. It should be noted that between 2020 and 2023, the Polish justice system has undergone significant evolution in this area, striving to meet the standards of child-friendly justice specified by legal acts of the Council of Europe and European Union legislation. The following acts were of particular importance here: of 13 January 2023, 7 July 2023, 27 July 2023 amending the provisions of CCP introducing, among others, the institution of individual assessment of the needs of victims (Article 52a), the legal representative of a minor victim (Article 51 § 2a) and amending the procedures for interviewing minor victims and witnesses specified in Articles 185a–185c and f of the Polish CCP. All these amendments will be assessed in the context of the standards set by the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against sexual exploitation of 25 October 2007 and the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence of 11 May 2011. Regarding EU standards, it is necessary to examine the standards of rights and protection of child victims of crime contained in Directive 2011/93/EU of 13 December 2011 on combating sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and Directive 2012/29/EU of 25 October 2012 on minimum standards of protection, rights and support for victims of crime and the draft amendments to this directive of 23 July 2023. This article highlights the most important of the Polish CCP changes in 2020–2023 and presents the current state of implementation of the above mentioned European and EU standards into Polish criminal procedure.
  • Item
    Work-life balance in US law using the example of California
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2025) Witoszko, Wioletta
    In the United States, parents’ entitlements, including the right to childcare leave, are regulated primarily by federal law and state law. An example of a state law, which is discussed in this paper, is the law of California, which is one of the leading states in terms of worker rights. The implementation of a work-life balance policy in California is mainly focused on extending childcare leave entitlements, guaranteeing that this leave is paid, enabling flexible work arrangements and facilitating the use of these entitlements by men.
  • Item
    The ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Kosovo as a Tool of Costly Counter-Secession
    (Wydawnictwo KUL, 2025) Jusic, Asim
    Secessions are costly. That does not mean that counter-secessions more generally, and international judicial opinions as tools of counter-secession specifically, are costless. The trajectory of the International Court of Justice’s 2010 Advisory Opinion (Opinion) on Kosovo’s declaration of independence is a case in point. Initially deemed as not unfavorable to Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, over time, the Opinion proved a useful counter-secession tool for the opponents of Kosovo’s independence. The current structure of the international legal system and the dynamics of power politics facilitated leveraging the Opinion as a mechanism of counter-secession efforts. It is shown that not even the sponsorship of a secessionist state such as Kosovo by an individual dominant power like the United States can override the structural impediment to recognizing new states: the absence of coherent norms on state recognition in international law. Moreover, the support of powers such as Russia and China has meant that Serbia, as a counter-secessionist state, could use the Opinion to sustain the lack of international consensus on Kosovo’s independence, engage in a campaign for Kosovo’s derecognition, and extract concessions from Kosovo’s main independence sponsors. Serbia’s use of the Opinion as a tool for counter-secession has proven costly, however, as its sovereignty has become beholden to the whims of great power politics in a similar way to which Kosovo is indebted to the main sponsors of its independence.