Keywords: Centre for Advanced Study; CAS; CAS-Sofia; Newsletter; CAS Newsletter; CAS Newsletter 2002
Articles, pictures and interviews can be reprinted only with the consent of Centre for Advanced Study Sofia (CAS - Sofia). Any citations should be duly acknowledged.
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Keywords: social structure in Hungary;Fidesz;income inequality;Income structure;
The author is trying to prove that although the economic crisis resulted in the polarization of inequality almost everywhere, the dramatic growth of the income gap in Hungary happened differently there than in other countries.
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Keywords: litigation; mediation; legality; unavailability; equality;
Mediation is an ADR which falls within the category of means of self-determination and which presupposes the intervention of a third party a mediator whose functionis to bring the parties together in a dispute in order to conclude an agreement between them. In the Portuguese legal system, it is not possible to mediate disputes between taxable persons and the Tax Administration. There are several obstacles to the mediatability of litigation in tax matters. In particular, we are thinking about the principles of legality, the unavailability of the tax credit, and equality. In this paper, it is sought to ascertain if these obstacles are absolute, not allowing any openness to the legality of legal-tax disputes, or if, on the contrary, they are not absolute, making feasible the thinking of creating a relation between Law Taxation and mediation. Adopting a method based essentially on dogmatic analysis, it is believed that it is possible to recognize the legality of legal-tax disputes, albeit within certain limits. The mediation will allow a closer approximation between the parties - taxable person and the Tax Administration - thus contributing to the creation of a greater ethical-tax awareness and, in this way, to the reduction of litigation.
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Keywords: Russia; media; television; humour; Perviy kanal; politics; Kremlin; communication; audience;
This case study looks at how Russian television uses humour as a support mechanism for strategic communications with its audience, specifically on the issue of Western leaders, and endeavours to determine the essence of the core message. To do this, various Russian Perviy Kanal (Первый Канал/ Channel One) entertainment broadcasts specializing in comedy will be analysed.
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Keywords: Humanitarian intervention;Use of force;Human rights;UN Charter;International customary law;
The issue of legality of unilateral humanitarian intervention in con¬temporary international law gives rise to significant difference in opinions among states and scholars. It is primarily due to the fact that the international treaty law contains no rule which explicitly allows or prohibits this kind of intervention. In this legal situation, in order to explore the legality of unilateral humanitarian intervention, we need to analyze the provisions of relevant international treaties and international customary law. The most important international treaty for assessing the legality of unilateral humanitarian intervention is the UN Charter. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits the threat and use of force, except in case of self-defense or upon the Security Council authorization. Given that unilateral humanitarian intervention does not fall into these exceptions, it constitutes a violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter. The fact that the Security Council did not act in cases involving mass or serious human rights violations does not allow states and international organizations to take unilateral military action and breach the aforementioned prohibition of the use of force. Beside the UN Charter, the IHL and human rights treaties are also important for assessing the legality of unilateral humanitarian intervention. Although these treaties envisage many forms of international control over the observance and implementation of human rights, none of treaties allows for the use of armed force in case of human rights’ violation, even in situations involving large-scale violations of human rights. For the purpose of assessing the status of unilateral humanitarian intervention in international customary law, it is necessary to analyze relevant practice in this area and opinio iuris sive necessitatis. After analyzing these two elements, we may conclude that the right to unilateral humanitarian intervention does not exist in the contemporary customary law. Even if such a right had existed before World War II, it was abolished by the UN Charter peremptory norm on the prohibition of the use of force. It is indisputable that, in the aftermath of World War II, the international community did not establish a new customary rule which would provide for undertaking unilateral humanitarian intervention by amending the pro¬visions of the UN Charter.
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Keywords: police forces; UN; international police missions; Western Balkan; EU;
The existence of a police component in UN peace operations is not a novelty. It goes back half a century ago and was first introduced in the Congo in the 1960’s. Embedding police components in UN missions became more extensive at the end of the 90’s, when different types of it (support of country security reforms, advice, monitoring etc.) were incorporated in all UN Security Council approved missions after 1999.
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Keywords: Hamas; Islamist militant group; Gaza Strip; human shields; conflict; civilians; war crimes; civilian casualties; Israel;
Hamas, an Islamist militant group and the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip, has been using human shields in conflicts with Israel since 2007. According to the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the war crime of using human shields encompasses “utilizing the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render certain points, areas, or military forces immune from military operations.” Hamas has launched rockets, positioned military-related infrastructure-hubs and routes, and engaged the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) from, or in proximity to, residential and commercial areas. The strategic logic of human shields has two components. It is based on an awareness of Israel’s desire to minimise collateral damage, and of Western public opinion’s sensitivity towards civilian casualties. If the IDF uses lethal force and causes an increase in civilian casualties, Hamas can utilise that as a lawfare tool: it can accuse Israel of committing war crimes, which could result in the imposition of a wide array of sanctions. Alternatively, if the IDF limits its use of military force in Gaza to avoid collateral damage, Hamas will be less susceptible to Israeli attacks, and thereby able to protect its assets while continuing to fight. Moreover, despite the Israeli public’s high level of support for the Israeli political and military leadership during operations, civilian casualties are one of the friction points between Israeli left-wing and right-wing supporters, with the former questioning the outcomes of the operation.
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Keywords: EU and global climate change policy; GHG emissions; UNFCCC; space-based observation;
The European Union has long played a key rolein global efforts to reduce GHG emissions and, where necessary, to adapt to its impacts. It has also been an advocate of a legally binding comprehensive global climate change agreement.
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Keywords: Euro crisis; Economic and Monetary Union; financial crisis; policy measures; government; financial markets; banks; economic policy; economic development; EU foreign policy; energy; climate changes; environmental policy;
The euro crisis has inflicted severe financial, economic and political damage in all countries of the eurozone and beyond. Progress was made in 2012 to address these problems and to reduce the risk of repetition but they are by far not yet fully overcome. The good news is that this crisis has forced agreement on policy measures towards more centralised, European decision-making, which was unthinkable only a few years ago, and towards more European integration in those policy areas where this is needed. The recent positions taken by member countries in the European Council testify to the need as well as the difficulties of making real progress, requiring a combination of substantial solidarity and tough discipline on the part of all countries leading to further transfer of national sovereignty.
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Keywords: Latin America; human mobility; migration; resilience; family; transnational family return;
A partir de la primera década del siglo XXI con el incremento de leyes y políticas en contra de la migración no autorizada en los Estados Unidos, aunado a la crisis de los mercados laborales, que se manifiesta a partir del 2008, se ha venido presentando un aumento del flujo de migrantes que han retornado a México, como un fenómeno emergente debido al número de familias mexicanas que regresaron a residir a sus comunidades de origen (Durand, 2013). Siguiendo a lo anterior, se observa la presencia de nuevos sujetos sociales constituidos por la presencia de menores nacidos en los Estados Unidos que regresan junto con sus familias enfrentando nuevos retos y condiciones de inserción a las comunidades a las que se llegan (Moctezuma, 2014; Jensen et al, 2017).
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Keywords: Europe; OSCE; military policy; US military presence in Europe; military expenditures; international relations;
Two opposite trends in force posture in Europe became evident in the last decade. Out of the six biggest military spenders among the OSCE participating States, four—France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom—have been on a downward trend in regard to their force posture: reducing the number of personnel, downscaling high-end capabilities and decreasing force readiness; the same is true for the U.S. military presence in Europe. The outlier was Russia. While the Russian armed forces were shrinking and disposing of large quantities of legacy equipment, the military capabilities required for high-intensity conventional operations were revamped, force readiness improved, and scenarios involving a large-scale conflict in the OSCE area practiced.
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Keywords: Identity; refugees; Italy; social status; migration;
Existing theories about the concept of identity associate the redefinition of the identity of migrants with the awareness of the social status they possess in their new environment. The formation of social status contributes to anti-immigration feelings that widen the gap between locals and refugees. In light of these premises, this study aims to deepen the issue of identity development in the migratory field, focusing on the case of refugees. In order to do so, ethnographic work has been carried out in the Italian context, conducting twenty-eight interviews with adult refugees in the Salento area in southern Italy. The results of this research refer to the social status of refugees in Italy, as well as the provisional nature of their identities. The temporality of identities lies both in the condition of the refugee itself and in the effects of anti-immigration policies.
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Keywords: Immigration; Education; PhD dissertations; Education Anthropology; Migration Studies;
There is extensive scientific production in the field of Migration Studies within the Spanish context. Nevertheless, there are yet few review proposals of such production in the various disciplines. This work aims at contributing to fill this gap, by reviewing the PhD dissertations in Migration Studies in the area of Education Anthropology that have been discussed in Spanish Universities. To do so, we have used the material available in the repository of PhD dissertations in migrations housed at the Institute for Migration Research of the University of Granada (Spain). In our review, two types of data have been used as the object of analysis. The first type is more quantitative, referring to the number and evolution of the dissertations, as well as, the institutions to which they refer. The second type is more qualitative, referring to the contexts and subjects of study, and to the object of study or topic that they addressed.
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Keywords: teaching translation;reasoned translation;professional translation;literary translation;didactic translation;translation method; translation memories
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Keywords: administrative issues;trust in political leaders;voting intentions;
The survey was conducted on September 3-6, 2020 on 808 adults living in the city. He measured the confidence of the candidates for mayor, the voting intentions, the expectations of the future mayor, the degree of involvement of the mayor’s office in various administrative issues, the appreciation of national political leaders.
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Keywords: stray-dogs;
Some of the animal attacks most publicized in the Romanian media are those by dogs without an owner. The entire issue is covered extensively by the domes¬tic media, with over 12 thousand articles containing the words “dogs without an owner” and almost 25 thousand articles containing the words “street dog.” The situation of street dogs has generated heated debates between animal lovers and those who will see the streets clear of the quadrupeds at any price. The debates are most often restricted to the law¬fulness and morality of the act of ending the life of unclaimed or unadopted dogs, a method which is preferred by authorities and receives generous bud¬gets but has proven ineffective in the medium and long run. While solutions have been sought all these years, the situation has remained almost unchanged – large numbers of dogs in the streets and ineffective authorities.
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Keywords: energy efficiency; climate change; poverty; sustainable development
The aim of this document is to identify the way in which energy effi ciency contributes to sustainable development, especially in countries with high poverty rates. To this end, a qualitative investigation was performed, which made use of content analysis. Therein, based on a bibliographic review of energy efficiency in the international setting, it was possible to identify several elements which permit determination of the way in which energy efficiency is a viable sustainable development alternative. This is so because it permits the mitigation of the effects of climate change and reduces poverty, thus providing a possible solution to the environmental, social, and economic crisis faced today by communities and territories worldwide.
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Keywords: Central Europe; 19th century; 20th century; identity;
O clată cu prăbușirea zidului Berlinului, ecoul căderii pieselor de domino se face auzit în întreaga Europă Centrală și de Est. Dezintegrarea „sistemului Yalta” (retragerea Rusiei sovietice) ridică probleme - mai vechi sau mai noi - în legătură cu rolul factorului german în ecuația central-europeană. Valul democratic - care, începînd cu septembrie 1989, a zdruncinat din temelii Republica Democrată Germană - a făcut și mai clară legătura directă dintre schimbările politice din Europa Centrală și așa-numita „problemă germană”. Din rațiuni strict istorice, este imposibil să revendicăm o identitate central-europeană fără a lua în considerare componenta ei germană, esențială ; iar ca națiune cu două state, Germania rămîne simbolul prin excelență al unui continent fărîmițat.
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