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The issue of the international personality of the Roman Catholic Church has been discussed on many occasions but still, as Josef L. Kunz rightly points out there is ‘... anastonishing lack of knowledge and understanding of the legal problem of the status of the Holy See in international law’. At least such is the case in Bulgarian legal doctrine, where even in the professional literature this issue is either underestimated, or very briefly or even inaccurately handled. The paper is built upon the premise that there is no doubt that the Holy See and the Vatican City State are two distinct subjects of international law. In the light of this statement, the study aims to achieve the twofold objective of clarifying some controversial issues and of bringing the subject up-to-date. To this end, the paper is organised in two parts which respectively deal, on the one hand, with the basic issue about the status of the Holy See and the Vatican City State as suigeneris subjects of international law, and, on the other hand, with the modern aspects of the international relations of those subjects, inter alia with the Republic of Bulgaria.
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The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization dedicated to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other community leaders to create global, regional and industry programs. The World Economic Forum is an international non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its original name was the European Management Forum, and in 1987, it changed to the World Economic Forum.
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This article is devoted to the certain aspects of protection of liberty of thought, conscience and religion in the meaning of Art. 9 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. We have studied the complexity of the key concepts interpretation, the essence of which is guaranteed by the Convention, due to the lack of extensive practice of the European Commission on Human Rights and the Human Rights Court. It is noted that for a long time in a significant number of complaints the Convention body has come to the conclusion that the issues raised in the complaints, might be considered through the prism or Art. 10, as they concerned freedom of expression, or fell within the limits of Art. 11 of the Convention, which guarantees freedom of assembly and association. At the same time, the values protected by Art. 9 are related to those ones, which are provided in Art. 8 and demand the respect for privacy. It is also closely linked to the right of parents to provide such education and training as it is consistent with their religious and ideological beliefs, as guaranteed by Art. 2 of the First Protocol to the Convention.This article illustrates the fact that the conventional understanding of these complex, deep and multifaceted concepts at the present stage is formed with the development of the case law of the European Human Rights Court, which in its activities is guided by the principle of effective and dynamic interpretation of conventions and other related principles, which ensures the protective mechanism effectiveness. As the time is extended, the Court case-law has developed an approach that allows to assess the views that the petitioners plan to benefit from the protection of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Such views in the meaning of Art. 9 must, first of all, be to some extent "convincing, serious, holistic and meaningful" and, secondly, be "compatible with human dignity".Taking into consideration the compiled content of the right guaranteed by Art. 9, viz. that it contains two aspects such as forum internum (internal) and forum externum (external), the article notes that regulation can be involved only in the case of forum externum. As long as liberty of thought, conscience and religion remains within a human being, this right is considered to be absolute. The state has a negative obligation not to interfere in such a right.In the framework of this article, the author considers it appropriate to state the position of the European Union on the attitude and ways to effectively address these issues. As the subject of international law and one of the most influential international organizations based on the values of human dignity, freedom, equality and respect for human rights (Art. 2 of the Treaty on European Union), the EU advocates for their real protection, which requires the development of specific legal instruments.Therefore, both the EU internal and international activities are based on the principles that underlie its creation. It is the foreign policy aspect of the EU human rights activities that is the subject of our article that is reflected in the “European Union Guiding Principles on the Promotion and Protection of Religious Freedom or Belief”.The article draws a number of conclusions. First of all, the right of liberty of thought, conscience and religion is one of the key principle of a democratic society and the value in European cultural and historical heritage. The issue of violation of the right to freedom of religion or belief is interrelated with freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association. The issues of combating various forms of discrimination are not set aside. Additionally, the right, guaranteed by Art. 9, is a fundamental right and one of the democratic society foundations and the value in the law of the European Union. Moreover, the EU identifies problematic issues in the field of protection of liberty of conscience and religion as those ones that require particular attention, and the EU makes efforts to address them not only within its borders, but as well as in the foreign policy relations and initiatives
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Each state is required to provide to refugees, staying lawfully in its territory, the right to choose their residence and to move freely within its territory, in accordance with the provisions generally applying to foreigners under the same circumstances. States are obliged to issue identity documents to any refugee, lawfully residing in their territory, who does not possess valid travel document, and documents to travel outside that territory, except where important reasons of national security or public order require otherwise.
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On 16 February 2019 Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2016 on promoting the free movement of citizens by simplifying the requirements for presenting certain public documents in the European Union and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 will become applicable. The Regulation aims to assure the free circulation of certain official documents in accordance with the principle of mutual trust and in order to promote the free movement of persons within the European Union. The Regulation steps back from the wide proposed scope of the project as set in the Green Paper and the Proposal for Regulation of European Commission. It is not envisaged to really insert the method of recognition of civil status of natural persons in the machinery of European Private International Law, thus leaving it open to the discretion of European Court of Justice to rule out in future cases of discontinuity of personal relationships of European citizens.
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The report analyzes the hypothesis of a conflict between EU Law and the national (constitutional) identities of the Member States over the issue of transnational recognition of same-sex marriages. Special emphasis is put on ECJ's decision in the Coman case (C-673/16), in which the Court postulated that the notion of "spouse" within the meaning of Directive 2004/38 is "gender-neutral".
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The purpose of the article is to analyze the main parameters according to which the holiday is classified as an intangible cultural heritage. Research methodology. General scientific and special methods of research analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison are used. The use of scientific approaches integrated with culturology, history, and ethnography testifies to the interdisciplinarity of the research. The scientific novelty is to determine the main characteristics of the holidays as intangible cultural heritage and analyze the experience of their inclusion in the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List. Conclusions. Intangible cultural heritage is an intangible element of culture, mostly traditional, all that can be considered the spiritual and intellectual achievements of the people. Intangible cultural heritage includes holidays embodied in relevant cultural practices, which may have the most stable and unconditional parameters, enshrined in the minds of people as carriers of historical experience, ethnocultural identity, and various socio-cultural practices that allow distinguishing cultures from each other. The main significance of the holidays, which are already included in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, is the preservation of traditions, communication, uniting communities around common rituals and values, passing on the relevant experience to the next generation.
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This article analyses the North Atlantic Treaty from the perspective of the new topic of the International Law Commission: “Treaties over Time”. The relevance of the concept of subsequent agreements and subsequent practice as a means of interpretation of the legal framework of NATO is outlined. The article also examines the relevance of the “treaties on wheels” theory to the processes taking place in NATO. The subsequent agreements and case law on the agreements, strategic concepts, declarations and other documents of the Alliance are evaluated as a most significant and predominant tool for the adaptation of the North Atlantic Treaty to the new, changed international context within which the Treaty operates. The practice of the NATO States and of NATO itself influenced the development of the meaning of subsequent agreements and case law beyond the concept of means of interpretation, under the provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Within the NATO framework, their definition was enriched to the extent that they became an instrument for the development and evolution of the treaties.
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The article analyzes some family law and property law questions, arising in connection with the declared state of emergency from 13.3.2020 to 13.5.2020 on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria due to the epidemic of COVID-19. Answers are given to the following questions: can the court consider a divorce claim or an application for divorce by mutual consent during the state of emergency; whether it is possible to attain judicial protection in cases of domestic violence in the state of emergency and under what conditions; as well as whether the acquisitive prescription is suspended during that period of time.
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The clarification of the concept of family and related concepts of parental rights and obligations is based on an analysis of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. In this respect, current and discussion issues of parental rights and obligations according to the ECHR practice under Article 8 of the ECHR are discussed. Special attention has been paid to the judgments handed down by the Court in cases against the Republic of Bulgaria.
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The article addresses issues related to the introduction of the new automated information system at Community level (ETIAS) - a foundation for creation, functionality and administrative capacity. ETIAS is part of the Intelligent Bounds package aimed at enhancing Community security and, in particular, defines the mode of travel of third-country nationals for whom no visa is required as a condition of entry into the Schengen area in accordance with the provisions of the Schengen Borders Code.
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During its evolution the United Nations (UN) has developed special procedures for the maintenance of peace by means of use of military elements and units. These have gained popularity as peace-keeping operations and differ considerably from original conceptions concerning the maintenance of international peace and security. The Charter of the United Nations (UN) provided for a system of collective security as a reaction by the international community to breaches of international peace. That concept was realistic up to a point when the Cold war broke up and started to develop. As a substitute to the non-efficient UN mechanisms during the Cold war era the regional systems for collective security as well as the UN peace-keeping forces have come into existence. This article surveys the basic elements of the concept of UN peace-keeping as well as the reasons for its broad practical use and acceptance.
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Доклади от Седмата международна научна конференция на Катедра „Европеистика“, Философски факултет, Софийски университет „Св. Климент Охридски“, май 2020 г.
This book presents reports from „The Next Seven of the European Union“, Seventh International Scientific Conference of the European Studies Department, Faculty of Philosophy at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. The conference was held in May 2020 with the support of Hanns Seidel Foundation.
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The collective dimension of religious freedom is the legal basis for the autonomous existence of churches and religious communities. The freedom of religion enjoyed in community and freely manifestation of religion or faith are guaranteed by the European countries constitutions. The churches and religious communities are separate constitutional category in most of the constitutional systems. Also, in most countries which were analyzed, the multi – level system of regulation of state church relations and the legal status of churches and religious communities has been adopted. Those issues are governed by different legal acts - not only by the provisions of the constitutions, but also by international treaties, ordinary laws and agreements between state and churches and religious communities. The treatment received by religious communities is determined by the system of sources of law, and vice versa. In all analyzed countries, churches and religious communities do not have identical legal status. Some of them have the status of public law corporations, while some are private law associations. The newly established churches and religious communities in most of analyzed countries acquire legal personality by the formal registrations. To be registered or to be recognized as a public law bodies, or associations with special rights in state legal order, churches and religious communities should meet certain conditions – to gather a certain number of persons, to have own religious teaching, to have basic legal act which regulates organizational structure and member’s rights and duties, to exist a certain period of time before the registration or recognition of special status, as well as to express loyalty to the legal order and to fulfill obligations to the state.
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Without a doubt, Slobodan Jovanović was one of the greatest Serbian jurists, and in the period between the two World Wars, he was probably the most influential Serbian jurist. In this context, his views on the Serbian–Russian relations have exerted an influence on the formation of the dominant discourse, but also on many generations that came after his time (his bust in front of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade symbolically shows how highly he is valued in today’s legal circles, more than 60 years after his death). In his voluminous opus Jovanović suggests that the Peace of Bucharest, the Akkerman Convention and the Peace of Edirne were bilateral agreements between Russia and Turkey, with provisions that went in favour of the third party (pactum in favorem tretii), i.e. Serbia. He also gave a positive assessment of the Russian diplomacy during the 19th century. In that sense, Jovanović criticizes the Serbian historians who claimed the opposite, and even Miloš Obrenović himself. Finally, as a jurist, he also rejects the ideological division according to which only reactionary influences came from Russia, and only freedom and enlightenment from the West. In his analysis of the Serbian–Russian relations Jovanović points out that it was Russia which insisted on the formation of a National Council in Serbia which was to ”limit” the absolute power of Miloš Obrenović. Such an attitude has retained its validity even in the 21st century because the dogma about the so-called Russian reactionary policy is still very much alive. As a jurist, Jovanović also shows understanding of the conflict of Russian and Serbian interests, or the interests of a small country and those of an empire. He remains midway between the uncritical idealization of Russia and even more intolerant Russophobia. He cites and compares numerous examples. He pointed out that, for instance, a Polish insurrection broke out in 1830, at the very same time when Russia was in negotiations with the Ottoman Porte over the Serbian issue. However, despite these (undeniable) facts, Jovanović does not draw Russophobic conclusions, which were so prevalent in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He remains midway between the non-critical idealization of Russia and even more intolerant Russophobia. Such opinions of a jurist, who was ideologically an anglophile, are still very important in 2018, when Russophobia present in the West, but also in a part of the Serbian elite, reaches the Cold War level.
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According to Slobodan Jovanović, Hans Kelsen was the most significant representative of a very new thought concerning state law and legal theory in general. Though Jovanović did not write extensively about him, he would point out what was quintessential in Kelsen's theory: the equating of law and the state, the preponderance of the basic standard, the sovereignty of law, and not of the state. He also made some thoughtful objections to Kelsen and, at the same time, presented his own views in relation to specific key issues. This was possible since he shared the same legal position with Kelsen, though with one outstanding difference: besides taking into account homo juridicus, which was of crucial importance for Kelsen, Jovanović was equally no less aware of homo politicus. Despite their differing ways, they both belonged to the movement, not only theoretical, characterized by the rule of law.
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This paper analyses the decision of the International Court of Justice of 15 December 2004 in the case of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) v. Belgium, as well as against other members of NATO, which on 24 March 1999 committed aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The key question treated by this Court was whether the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was, at the moment of filling the complaint against Belgium and other members of NATO, a member of the UN and, on the basis of this membership, a contracting party of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. Without this membership there is no right of accessing the Statute (locus standi in iudicio) on the basis of the Article 35 of this Statute. The author shows that by the 2000 there were justified legal reasons in the opinion of the General Secretary of the UN and its other bodies that FRY was a member of the UN and that its rights in the General Assembly were only suspended. Even after two years after the acceptance of membership of FRY in the UN as the new state, the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia also concluded that from 1992 to 2000 FRY was a factual member of the UN. On the basis of this, the author concludes the request for membership of FRY in the UN as the new state should not have been submitted in November 2000. Instead, only the revocation of suspension of FRY's membership rights in the General Assembly should have been requested.
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The end of Cold war, contrary to expectations has brought new conflicts and forms of violence, new divisions and new relativizations of the international legal order. Taking as an example the endevours to resolve the Kosovo conflict, the author attempts to indicate the broader implications of the international effors to constitute an independent state on part of the territory of an existing sovereign state. The arguments used to justify the redefinition of the borders of the Serbian state without its consent, the moral, democratic, peace arguments, are reviewed. Particular attention is paid to the argument that Kosovo is a unique case and therefore unique rules should be applied. The author seeks to understand the deeper significance of these efforts, concluding that dismanteling the present international legal order is not only a potential danger but a possible aim.
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