EUROPEAN UNION WORLD

Lisbon Treaty

Understanding the Lisbon Treaty

Lisbon Treaty Q & A: your guide to what it means and what happens next

The General Framework or Primacy of  the Social Dimension (Principles)

TOWARDS AN HUMAN-DEVELOPMENTAL INTERPRETATION OF THE EU’S ECONOMIC CONSTITUTION

The Economic Constitution under Pressure: The Impact of the Financial Crisis

 The neoclassical turn taken by the EU in the 1990s and 2000s has had far-reaching consequences not just for labour law and social policy, but for the direction of economic policy more generally. The Court’s validation of the neoclassical constitution in Viking and Laval nevertheless came at a very late stage in the process of its diffusion, when its limits and contradictions were becoming clear. The judgments were handed down a few weeks after the beginning of the credit crunch of 2007 and within nine months of the onset of the global financial crisis in the autumn of 2008. Events, rather than theoretical refutations, shift paradigms and the idea of the self-equilibrating market has come under severe pressure following the near-collapse of the global financial system in September 2008. A major depression was averted only by the use of traditional Keynesian measures of fiscal expansion, and by the automatic stabilisers provided by welfare states and employment protection laws.31 Discredited ideas take a time to fade away, however, and as the immediate crisis passed, much of the impetus for policy reform was lost.

Social Market Economy

EU should not grant China MES until it becomes a market economy

'Social Market Economy' as Europe's Social Model?

How To Create A Real European Social Market Economy

The General Framework or Primacy of  the Social Dimension (Principles)

The Lisbon Treaty, the Viking and Laval Judgments and the Financial Crisis: In Search of New Foundations for Europe’s ‘Social Market Economy’

The Shift From ‘Ordoliberal’ To ‘Neoclassical’ Conceptions Of The Market In EU Law

Ordoliberal Theory, the Rome Treaty and the Original ‘Social Market’ Economy

Viking/Laval and the Open Method of Coordination

Social policy has also moved on since the mid-1950s, but Viking and Laval are at odds with these more recent developments too. The most significant of them has been the application of the social policy of the regulatory techniques associated with open coordination methods. The open method of coordination (‘OMC’) is premised on the value of having, within the economic space of the internal market, a diverse range of regulatory approaches to policy issues. Within the parameters set by policy guidelines at the central level, Member States have leeway over the choice of mechanisms used to arrive at common goals.

WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS? HUMAN RIGHTS DEFINED

Teach Human Rights

How to teach ... human rights

Human Rights Topics for Upper Primary and Lower and Senior Secondary School

 A human rights culture attempts to define principles for the positive conduct of all human behaviour. What follows are issues involved in realizing these principles. Although only a few activities are described for each issue, they should provide teachers with a start for developing their own activities. As some of these issues may prove to be controversial, the teacher’s sensitivity and discretion are required.

Teachers who want to concentrate on specific issues (e.g. peace and disarmament, world development, prisoners of conscience, minority peoples, anti-racism or antisexism) should present them in a human rights context. Students will then be able to see that what they discuss is only one aspect of a larger framework involving many other issues. This general understanding will provide breadth while the specific issue will provide depth. Teachers who specialize in different aspects of human rights should work side by side to provide understanding in depth.