The Nineteenth Century Law of the Sea and the British Abolition of the Slave Trade

This study focuses on British attempts during the nineteenth century to outlaw the Atlantic Slave Trade internationally, for which it was successful, after seventy-five years of effort. It considers the lack of willingness to allow Great Britain, at the Congress of Vienna and during the Concert of Europe, to establish a universal treaty outlawing the slave trade. As a result, this mandated a change in British tactics, which would ultimately prove to be successful – the establishment of a web of bilateral agreements which came to included all maritime powers. The study then moves on to consider the evolution of these bilateral agreements while highlighting the relationship between Great Britain and States (Brazil, France, Portugal and the United States) which were obstinate in their willingness to join this bilateral regime. Finally, consideration is given to the move towards the establishment of the 1890 General Act of Brussels; and thus the conclusion of the decades long British foreign policy objective of a universal instrument meant to suppress the Atlantic Slave Trade.

The EU’s Biopolitical Governance of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products

This paper focuses on the specific example of the newly operational Regulation on Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products to explore the potential for biopolitics, an arena in which biocitizens can demand and contest the exercise of EU power over life. The paper shows how the discourses producing, organizing and orchestrating citizen participation in the EU’s governance of advanced therapies from above figure a ‘deficit model’ of citizens in need of education inter alia through their membership of patients’ associations who have membership of the Committee on Advanced Therapies established by the Regulation. Biocitizens are shown to be incorporated to service the EU’s legitimacy needs. The paper then warns against assuming biocitizens’ (self-) reflexivity ensures they do not reiterate and reinforce their construction within the ‘deficit model’ by unwittingly deploying the terms of their subjection. After which the paper highlights some elements that provide a rhetorical and operational opening for participation, and which therefore can be used by biocitizens to reconstruct their engagement with EU governance from below, the wider governance of advanced therapies, as well as in their self-governance.

UK Power Sector Challenge to National Allocation Plan Under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme Refused by the European Court of Justice

In Case T-130/06 Drax Power and others v European Commission, the Court of First Instance held that an application by Drax Power and others for annulment of Commission Decision (C(2006)426 final of 22 February 2006 concerning a proposed amendment to the National Allocation Plan notified by the UK in accordance with the EU Emissions Trading Directive was inadmissable. The Court ruled that the applicants could not be considered to be 'directly concerned' by the contested decision within the meaning of the fourth paragraph of Article 230 of the European Treaty, on legal standing: 'Any natural or legal person may, under the same conditions, institute proceedings against a decision addressed to that person or against a decision, which, although in the form of a regulation or a decision addressed to another persion, is of direct and individual concern to the former...'

Planning Through Dialogue for Rural Development: The European Citizens’ Panel Initiative

This paper presents a narrative of the operation of the European Citizens’ Panel that reported in 2007 on the future roles of rural areas. This dialogue was located within a wider and recent engagement by the EU with its citizens following rejection of the EU Constitutional Treaty. The paper draws attention to the contemporary rural development challenges in Europe that were debated by eight regional panels as a prelude to a wider European deliberation. The working method of the European Citizens’ Panel is outlined and critical commentary is provided on the interaction between planning through dialogue, EU citizenship renewal, and the shaping of bottom-up development trajectories.