Sovereignty, Article 4(2) TEU and the Respect of National Identities: Swinging the Balance of Power in Favour of the Member States?

The question of whether and to what extent sovereignty has been transferred to the European Union (EU) from its Member States remains a central debate within the EU and is interlinked with issues such as Kompetenz-Kompetenz, direct effect and primacy. Central to any claim to sovereignty is the principle of primacy, which requires that Member States uphold EU law over national law where there is a conflict. However, limitations to primacy can traditionally be found in national jurisprudence and the Maastricht Treaty introduced a possible EU limitation with the requirement that the EU respect national identities of Member States. The Lisbon Treaty provided only minimal further support to the principle of primacy whilst simultaneously developing the provision on national identities, now found within Article 4(2) TEU. There are indications from the literature, national constitutional courts and the Court of Justice of the EU that the provision is gathering strength as a legal tool and is likely to have a wider scope than the text might indicate. In its new role, Article 4(2) TEU bolsters the Member States’ claim to sovereignty and the possibility to uphold aspects crucial to them in conflict with EU law and the principle of primacy. Consequently, it is central to the relationship between the constitutional courts of the Member States and the CJEU, and where the final elements of control remain in ‘hard cases’. However, it does so as part of EU law, thereby facilitating the evasion of direct fundamental conflicts and reflecting the concept of constitutional pluralism.

Tales Out of School – The ‘Hidden Curriculum’ in National Schools in the North of Ireland During the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

The paper addresses the possibility of the existence of a ‘hidden curriculum’ in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century National Schools by comparing working practices evident from an analysis of a sample of schools from two case study areas in the north of Ireland – Derry City and the rural area of Boho/Derrygonnelly in western County Fermanagh. The relationship between the placement of the school buildings and variations in their external appearances are examined in respect to their relationships with different churches. The possible significance of this relationship is scrutinised given that the primary aim of the National School system was joint secular education in a religiously divided society. Both the external and internal architecture of the buildings are also examined for the purposes of reconstructing aspects of the intentions and practices that governed their use. In particular, the relationship between allocated space and the categories of age and gender are studied by means of an access analysis of the floor plans of a representative sample of primary schools from both case study areas. Information derived from oral history accounts, archived material from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and school registers is used to supplement the findings obtained from the architectural analyses.

Speaking with One Voice?: Ethno-national Division on the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina

The challenge of designing institutions to manage ethno-national conflict is one of the enduring concerns of political science. One important but relatively understudied aspect of this challenge is the design of constitutional courts. Courts are likely to play a key role in the maintenence of a constitutional settlement. But this role can be especially onerous in a deeply divided and post-conflict setting where the rule of law is weak and judges have ethno-national affiliations that may undermine the appearance of judicial neutrality. In such contexts, a court’s authority (including compliance with its decisions) cannot be taken for granted.

With reference the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and using an original dataset of the Court's non-unanimous plenary decisions, we test several hypotheses about the degree to which ethno-national affiliation influences judicial behavior. We find that (1) judges on the Constitutional Court do in fact divide predictably along ethno-national lines, (2) that these patterns are robust to changes in the tenure system, and (3) are independent of party political background.

The Shifting Battleground of Article 4(2) TEU: Evolving National Identities and the corresponding need for EU management?

Article 4(2) TEU requires that the European Union (EU) respect the Member States’ national identities, creating a legal obligation enforceable before the CJEU and valuable in political negotiations. However, the concept of national identities is unclear, leaving open questions about the scope or parameters of the provision and its applicability. The CJEU appears likely to take a relatively flexible approach in light of Article 4(2) TEU’s relationship with national constitutional courts’ reserves. This flexible approach would enable Member States to rely upon a range of aspects as part of their national identity, including ones that were previously unidentified. This is a crucial feature if one considers that national identities may evolve gradually or even dramatically, including where Member States purposefully attempt to develop their national identities further. This possibility of an evolved national identity is exemplified by the French Charte de l’Environnement. It may thereby be possible for Member States to stretch the scope and application of Article 4(2) TEU through reference to these evolving national identities. This potential raises significant challenges for the EU regarding the management of Article 4(2) TEU, which it will need to address if it wishes to ensure harmonisation and uniformity in the relevant areas.

Evolving national park models: The emergence of an economic imperative and its effect on the contested nature of the 'national' park concept in Northern Ireland.

National park models have evolved in tandem with the emergence of a multifunctional countryside. Sustainable development has been added to the traditional twin aims of conservation and recreation. This is typified by recent national park designations, such as the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. A proposed Mournes national park in Northern Ireland has evolved a stage further with a model of national park to deliver national economic goals envisaged by government. This seeks to commodify the natural landscape. This paper compares Cairngorm and Mourne stakeholders’ views on the principal features of both models: park aims, management structures and planning functions. While Cairngorm stakeholders were largely positive from the outset, the model of national park introduced is not without criticism. Conversely, Mourne stakeholders have adopted an anti-national park stance. Nevertheless, the model of national park proposed possessing a strong economic imperative, an absence of the Sandford Principle as a means to manage likely conflicts, and lacking any planning powers in its own right, may still be insufficient to bring about widespread support for a Mourne national park. Such a model is also likely to accelerate the degradation of the Mourne landscape. Competing national identities (British and Irish) provide an additional dimension to the national park debate in Northern Ireland. Deep ideological cleavages are capable of derailing the introduction of a national park irrespective of the model proposed. In Northern Ireland the national park debate is not only about reconciling environmental and economic interests but also political and ethno-national differences.

A vision system for detecting paths and moving obstacles for the blind

In this paper we present a monocular vision system for a navigation aid. The system assists blind persons in following paths and sidewalks, and it alerts the user to moving obstacles which may be on collision course. Path borders and the vanishing point are de-tected by edges and an adapted Hough transform. Opti-cal flow is detected by using a hierarchical, multi-scale tree structure with annotated keypoints. The tree struc-ture also allows to segregate moving objects, indicating where on the path the objects are. Moreover, the centre of the object relative to the vanishing point indicates whether an object is approaching or not.

The SmartVision navigation prototype for the blind

The goal of the project "SmartVision: active vision for the blind" is to develop a small and portable but intelligent and reliable system for assisting the blind and visually impaired while navigating autonomously, both outdoor and indoor. In this paper we present an overview of the prototype, design issues, and its different modules which integrate a GIS with GPS, Wi-Fi, RFID tags and computer vision. The prototype addresses global navigation by following known landmarks, local navigation with path tracking and obstacle avoidance, and object recognition. The system does not replace the white cane, but extends it beyond its reach. The user-friendly interface consists of a 4-button hand-held box, a vibration actuator in the handle of the cane, and speech synthesis. A future version may also employ active RFID tags for marking navigation landmarks, and speech recognition may complement speech synthesis.

The discursive construction of Portuguese national identity in the media thirty years after the 1974 revolution

Tese dout., Philosophy, Lancaster University, 2010

Catalogue of articles on exhibition at the second annual fair of the South-Carolina Institute, at the Military hall, November, 1850

This document contains a catalogue of the articles on exhibition at the 1850 annual fair of the South Carolina Institute. It includes 337 items exhibited at the fair in Charleston at the Military Hall.

Conception and first results of a cross-sectional national study on the demography, disease characteristics and socioeconomics status of the Portuguese patients with multiple sclerosis : the PORT-MS study

RESUMO: Introdução e objetivos: Não existia um estudo multicêntrico que descrevesse as características dos doentes com EM, da doença em si, ou do seu tratamento, em Portugal.Métodos: Doentes McDonald 2010 positivos foram sequencialmente recrutados em 7 centros entre Maio e Novembro 2014. Aplicou-se um Caderno de Recolha de Dados incidindo na demografia, doença, educação e emprego (estudo PORT-MS). Resultados: 561 doentes incluídos. Primeiros sintomas aos 30,2±10,5 anos (RRMS 29,2±10, PPMS 39,4±11,7, p<0,001); diagnóstico 3,2±5,3 anos depois (RRMS 3,0±5,1, PPMS 4,9±2,5, p=0,002); tempo de doença após diagnóstico 9,4±7,2 anos (semelhante RRMS no diagnóstico e PPMS); idade atual 42,9±12,4 anos (grupo RRMS no diagnóstico 42,0±12,1, PPMS 52,5±11,3, p<0,001); EDSS atual 2,5 (RRMS 2.0, PPMS 6.0); proporção feminino:masculino é 2,5:1 (RRMS semelhante, PPMS 1,1:1, p<0,05); no diagnóstico RRMS 90,6%, SPMS 0,9%, PPMS 8,6%; 9,5% dos RRMS encontravam-se em SP na inclusão (nomeadamente os com mais idade no diagnóstico e/ou atualidade ou tempo de doença mais prolongado). PPMS mais frequente em doentes diagnosticados mais tardiamente (p<0,001), onde aumenta também ligeiramente a proporção de mulheres na PPMS. Nas últimas décadas: novos casos mostram estabilidade na proporção de géneros e tipos de doença; idade nos primeiros sintomas e no diagnóstico aumentou ligeiramente, tempo entre eles diminuiu ligeiramente. Proporção sob DMT (Maio 2014): global 84,5%; atualmente RRMS 90,4%; SPMS 70,8%; PPMS 36,8%; progressivas agregadas 48%. Tipo de DMT, amostra global: interferões 56,5%, GA 18,4%, Natalizumab 11,6%, Fingolimod 9,7%. Global: economicamente ativos 61,5%, desemprego 13,5%, 74,1% dos não activos estão reformados por doença. Gravidezes após diagnóstico em 15% mulheres. Casos com história familiar positiva 7,8%. Discussão e conclusões: Incluída cerca de 10% da população portuguesa. Resultados congruentes com dados internacionais. Elevada proporção sob DMT, mesmo EDSS alto e formas progressivas. Terapêuticas de segunda linha sub representadas. Doentes jovens e com doença ligeira com vida económica ativa; restantes essencialmente reformados por doença.---------------- ABSTRACT : Background/aims: In Portugal, there wasn’t a multicentric study on the general characteristics (demography, disease milestones, DMT, socioeconomic status) of Multiple Sclerosis patients. Methods: Patients fulfilling McDonald 2010 criteria were sequentially recruited from May to November 2014 in 7 centers and data was systematically collected. Results: 561 patients included. First symptoms occurred at 30,2±10,5 years-old (RRMS 29,2±10, PPMS 39,4±11,7, p<0,001); diagnosis 3,2±5,3 years later (RRMS 3,0±5,1, PPMS 4,9±2,5, p=0,002); 9,4±7,2 years elapsed since diagnosis (similar for those is RRMS at diagnosis and PPMS); current age 42,9±12,4 years-old (group RRMS at diagnosis 42,0±12,1, PPMS 52,5±11,3, p<0,001); current EDSS 2,5 (RRMS 2.0, PPMS 6.0); females to males 2,5:1 (RRMS similar, PPMS 1,1:1, p<0,05); at diagnosis RRMS 90,6%, SPMS 0,9%, PPMS 8,6%; 9,5% of RRMS reached SP at inclusion (those older at diagnosis, in actuality, or with longer follow-up). PPMS more frequente in patients diagnosed at older ages (p<0,001), also slight increase in females. Along the last decades: new cases have showed stable proportions of gender and disease types; age at first symptoms and diagnosis slightly increased, time between them slightly decreased. Proportion on DMT (May 2014): 84,5% of all; 90,4% of currently in RRMS; 70,8% of SPMS; 36,8% of PPMS; 48% of progressive forms together. Type of DMT, all patients: interferons 56,5%, Glatiramer Acetate 18,4%, Natalizumab 11,6%, Fingolimod 9,7%. Economically active 61,5% of all, unemployment 13,5%, 74,1% of non-active are retired due to disease. Females pregnant after diagnosis 15%. Positive family cases in 7,8%. Discussion/Conclusions: 10% of the national MS population collected. Data generally consistente with international reports. Proportion under DMT relatively high in all disease types, but second line therapies underrepresented. Young patients with mild disease have an active economic life. Those not active are essentially retired due to disease.