<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The measures and policies states adopt and apply related to law enforcement at sea in peacetime, such as setting up and legislating about Coast Guards and their role, increasingly take maritime security into account. A grey area between military and civilian rules, actors, and activities, can be discerned in relation to maritime security. The article explores the issue of security concerns as a basis for the on-going widening of powers of the Finnish Border Guard, which includes the Coast Guard – in particular how such a widening of the powers relates to the Åland Islands’ demilitarised status. The main question here is whether there is a conflict between possible military aspects of the Coast Guard vis-à-vis the demilitarised status of the Åland Islands. The article identifies aspects of a military nature regarding how the Finnish Coast Guard functions; these are not assessed as being decisive: the Border Guard is not part of the armed forces in peacetime. The article highlights the need for a comprehensive exploration and analysis – including both Finnish authorities and Ålandic authorities – of the Åland Islands’ status in relation to possible future assistance by the Defence Forces on the Åland Islands.</abstract>

Maritime Security and the Role of Coast Guards: The Case of Finland and the Åland Islands’ Demilitarisation

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The article sets out the results of a research of the criminogenic potential capacity of cigarette smuggling. The article provides an analysis of the criminological connotation of the criminogenic potential capacity of tobacco products smuggling and presents the characteristics of the Ukrainian peculiarities of this pan-European problem. The article presents a view of the dynamics and geographical features of countering cigarette smuggling in Europe, regarding the use of FRONTEX (European Border and Coast Guard Agency) and the national border authorities. The article conveys the nature and consequences of the interrelation of cigarette smuggling and cross-border crime, and it identifies the ways to counteract this phenomenon in the context of the harmonization of the policies of different countries and the EU in the relevant sphere. Additionally, the article covers the reasons for the legislative trends in the criminalization of the excisable goods smuggling.</abstract>

The Smuggling of Tobacco Products in Europe: Criminogenic Potential Capacity

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The article examines how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working with children from poor and socially excluded families operate in the neoliberal environment. The case of non-governmental school-age childcare centres (SACCs) in Lithuania was analysed. SACCs provide social services to children from poor and socially excluded families. The study is based on 62 qualitative interviews with experts working in non-governmental SACCs. Results indicate that financial support from ministry and municipalities enables SACCs to survive. From the perspective of SACCs it has been observed that government uses new public management tools in a modern fashion to transfer the responsibility onto the shoulders of non-governmental SACCs, while the government reduces its contribution to symbolic financial support and the request for accountability. The current government–NGOs relationship, based on neoliberal ideology and new public managements tools, has negative consequences and does not ensure social services for socially excluded target groups, especially in a country with a sizable welfare gap.</abstract>

Non-Governmental Childcare Centres in a Neoliberal Environment: the Case of Lithuania

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The sovereign nature of the forms of operation of cultural heritage protection authorities, the polarization between the individual interest and the public interest, discretion margin in the activities of the authorities – all these elements create a kind of “explosive mixture”, which is the source of the legal disputes between the owners of historical monuments and historical monuments protection bodies. The key element of the guarantee of individual freedom is the judicial review of public administration. Therefore, it is a matter of dispute to which extent the public administration is subject to judicial review when performing the tasks entrusted. The aim of this article is to show how Polish administrative courts approach the problem. What methodology of the review of discretion margin do they use? How do they solve the dilemma: who makes the final decision – the body or the court? Do they retain judicial self-restraint or are they ready and willing to interfere in the merits of the decision?</abstract>

Judicial Review of Discretionary Powers in the Activity of Historical Monuments Protection Bodies in the Polish Legal System

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">An unfavorable investment climate, especially in the sphere of corporate relationships, necessitates the revision of investment and corporate legislation in Ukraine. The purposes of this study are to reveal the particular legislative defects and the practical problems caused by these defects that European investors may face during the realization of their corporate rights in Ukraine and to evaluate how Ukrainian investment law, particularly legal norms aimed at protection of investors’ rights, corresponds to international (European) standards. This research identifies gaps and contradictions in Ukrainian legislation in the sphere of corporate investment that cause difficulties in practical applications and attempts to find ways to solve these problems. This paper argues that most problems caused by legislative contradictions can be solved by using the rule of the correlation of general and special normative legal acts, unlike legislative gaps, which must be eliminated by appropriate legislative amendments.</abstract>

Problematic Issues in the Protection of the Rights of European Investors in Corporate Relationships in Ukraine

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article does not to seek a universal answer to the question of what morality or public morals are; rather it focuses on the issue of morality as grounds for limiting constitutional rights and freedoms. We narrow the problem to constitutional practice, and in particular to the judgments of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, which settles disputes centered around the freedom of humans and public morals. Public morals as grounds for limiting personal rights or liberties rarely appear on the Constitutional Tribunal’s docket. The Constitutional Tribunal does not conduct philosophical, moralistic or ethical discussions in search of the meaning of public morals. Judges tend to apply the concept in an intuitive manner. We argue that they limit it to a folk understanding, which may be explained as follows: do good and avoid evil. Judges assign meaning to the public morals clause by referring to their own experiences or seek insight into morality in public opinion polls, which may not be a reliable source of knowledge about what is good and what is evil (the primacy of the “will of the majority”). Two difficult cases await the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal. Each of them concerns major ethical and moral dilemmas. The first one relates to eugenic abortion, which is legal in Poland under certain conditions, while the second one involves the relationships of homosexual couples, which are not currently subject to legalization. The Constitutional Tribunal is not ready to solve these cases, making uses of public morality as grounds for limiting constitutional rights and freedoms.</abstract>

University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Faculty of Law and Administration

University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn

Freedoms and Rights Versus Public Morals: Notes on Constitutional Practice in Poland

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">In the last few years, it has been recognized more and more that human rights also play a role in the maritime sector. Human rights violations at sea are easy to overlook because they happen largely out of sight of most of society and they are based often on the structural power imbalances between seafarers or coastal residents and ship operators or far-away flag states. This article reveals some of the relationships between different actors and the potential for human rights violations in the maritime context. The article highlights the role and limitations of international law in this context. It will also be shown how different state and non-state actors, including consumers, can contribute to strengthening the protection of human rights at sea.</abstract>

Human Rights and Fishing: A Multidimensional Challenge

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Modern game theory and the economic theory of federalism may offer an alternative view on the Brexit fiasco, in which the British government should not bear exclusive responsibility for current disaster. Moreover, the design of Article 50 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) contains an intrinsic dysfunctional mechanism that generates irrational strategies. Article 50 is underdeveloped and should be redrafted. The two-year deadline provision should be replaced with a reasonable time period and should provide for a third-party dispute resolution mechanism in instances where free negotiations between the EU and the withdrawing Member State in the reasonable time period fail to achieve a winwin solution. This article also argues that the current sub-optimal institutional framework on the vertical and horizontal division of competences might be an additional generator of Euroscepticism. In order to prevent the decline of public support the EU should do less in current fields and should do much more in fields where it failed to exercise its authority and which cannot be addressed effectively at the local levels. The EU should redesign itself as an institution that mitigates broad potential sources of negative externalities, reinforcing the rule of law, protecting liberal democracy with all related civil liberties, reinforcing its political-global dimension, protecting its common cultural heritage, and combating destructive nationalisms, isolationisms and cultural introspections.</abstract>

The Brexit Fiasco and the Failure of Article 50 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 16 (2024): Issue 2 (February 2024)

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Volume 3 (2010): Issue 2 (December 2010) The Problem of the State of Exception

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Baltic Journal of Law & Politics

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