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ELSA Selected Papers on European Law 2002 (1)

Free Trade and Environmental Protection
Conflicting Aims of the World Trade Organisation?

by Elizabeth Spelman

Elizabeth Spelman is in her Final Year in the Law and European Studies course (LLB) in the University of Limerick, Ireland. Following her studies, she is starting as a trainee solicitor in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London, in February 2004. (elizabethspelman@hotmail.com)

Summary of Article: This article examines the World Trade Organisation's role in balancing the requirements of free trade and environmental protection from January 1995 until January 2002. Section 1 provides an overview of the WTO and its Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM). Section 2 presents the GATT's handling of trade and environment issues. Furthermore, the arguments of free traders and environmentalists and protectionists are assayed. Section 3 discusses the WTO's current stance on the issue. Section 4 analyses the GATT and WTO rulings on relevant cases. Finally Section 5 concludes that despite the progression of the WTO, reform on many levels is essential. Moreover, the possible reforms are identified and assessed briefly.

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The Legislation of European States in Today's Conditions

by Michael Gaspar

Michael Gaspar is professor of administrative law at the University of Kosice, Slovak Republic and member of the ELSA SPEL Editorial Advisory Board.

Summary of Article: The new Millennium calls at its beginning for an evaluation of substantial aspects of legislation of European states. The last fifty years has seen this legislation used as a broader source for the legislation of the European Union. These factors challenge us to formulate what, in essence, is needed for the building of some new legal base for the European Union. An opportunity arises here to anchor the activities of all bodies of the European Union on better legal grounds.

It is submitted that the new legal ground of the EU must be composed from three elements. The first element must be taken from the legal base of the EU as such. The second element must be the new element. As to third element, this must be taken from the legislation of the member states and associate states too. For these three subjects, an attempt has been made to formulate a new law-making theory.

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Boycott of Austria - Rule of Law?

by Joshua Hogan

Joshua Hogan, LLB Law & European Studies, is a LLM student at the University of Limerick, Ireland. (joshogan@hotmail.com)

Summary of Article: This paper explores the diplomatic boycott imposed by fourteen EU Member States on the Austrian government in February 2000 from the perspective of a European conception of the Rule of Law. Section 1 discusses the nature of the Rule of Law concept and suggests that its principles derive from three sources: the constitutional traditions of the Member States, Community Law, and the central ground between opposing formal and substantial theories. Section 2 argues that although the boycott was designated as 'bilateral,' it is most appropriately considered in the context of an EC/EU conception of the Rule of Law rather than one proceeding from International law. Three reasons plead in favour of this approach. First, the boycott possibly infringed a fundamental principle upon which the EU is founded. Second, regardless of its form, the boycott involved Member States sanctioning one of their own, and third, the decision to impose the boycott could in law be considered a decision of the Council of the European Union. Section 3 analyses the boycott with reference to certain fundamental principles of the Rule of Law. Each principle is defined and subsequently applied to the facts of the boycott. Breaches of the Rule of Law are highlighted and reference is made to amendments in the Treaty of Nice, which may help to avoid such breaches in the future. The paper concludes with the submission that the boycott of Austria constituted a dangerous departure from the Rule of Law in the European Union and the possible implications of this for the future of European integration are considered.

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Water Quality
Comparison of Implementation of Directive 91/271/EEC (Urban Waste Water Treatment) in Ireland and Finland. Case Study Dublin - Helsinki

by Harriet Silfverberg

Harriet Silfverberg is a final year LLB student at the University of Limerick, Ireland. This paper was submitted as part fulfilment of the LLB in Law and European Studies degree. (hsilfverberg@hotmail.com)

Summary of Article: The paper briefly introduces the respective environmental policies of the European Community, Ireland and Finland and the development of legislation for water protection. Hereafter the paper aims to examine Council Directive 91/271/EEC and the very different effects it has had on Ireland and Finland, both in a legal as well as a practical context. Finally the work draws conclusions on the consequences that Directive 91/271/EEC has had on Ireland and Finland.

The project has studied an aspect of EC environmental legislation in order to illustrate the substantial differences in both environmental attitudes as well as policies in Ireland and Finland. As a result of deciding on Directive 91/271/EEC as the subject, urban wastewater treatment plants were visited in Helsinki, as was the Ministry of the Environment and EC information offices. Furthermore the four local authorities responsible for urban wastewater treatment in Dublin assisted with attaining information. The writer reviewed relevant EC, Irish and Finnish legislation before examining secondary information sources.

The paper intends to show that the different effect of Directive 91/271/EEC in Ireland and Finland is closely related to the role the environment has previously been given in the respective Member States. The impact of EC environmental law is more apparent in Ireland, where domestic protection regimes are weak, than in Finland, where domestic measures are already strict.

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The preferred method of citing ELSA SPEL is Elizabeth Spelman, 'Free Trade and Environmental Protection; Conflicting Aims of the World Trade Organisation?', ELSA SPEL 2002 (1).