14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 649 (2008) Vasiliki E. Christou. Special Scientist, Athens Law Faculty, Greece. Ph.D. (Heidelberg), LL.M., LL.B. (Athens). The Schengen Information System, otherwise known as SIS, is a large-scale database system created by the Schengen Convention as a compensatory measure following the abolition of controls at internal borders within the Schengen area which includes the majority of European states. The Schengen Convention entered into force in 1985, as an intergovernmental agreement among the States of the Benelux Economic Union, Germany and France. The resulting Schengen acquis was later, on June 1990, integrated into the European Union through […]

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 621 (2008) Maciej Taborowski, Institute of Legal Studies, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. The author is grateful to Tim Corthaut (K.U. Leuven) for his inspiring remarks on an earlier version of this contribution and to Lukasz Abramowicz (University of Pennsylvania) for the linguistic overhaul. I owe special thanks to Zuzanna Szmelter. All errors and omissions remain the sole responsibility of the author. In 1981, when Ronald Reagan became the President of the USA, Prince Charles married Lady Di, and Greece was about to join the Community, the ECJ handed down its judgment […]

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 597 (2008) Dean Chapman, graduated with a J.D. from Columbia Law School in May 2008 as a Stone Scholar and will be an Associate at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in New York beginning in September 2008. Special thanks to Richard Winfield, Lecturer-in-Law of Comparative Mass Media, for his assistance with this paper. Though widely criticized for suppressing freedom of expression, criminal defamation and libel laws are still on the books in many European states. Prosecutions may be brought privately by the individual affected or publicly by the government. This paper focuses on the […]

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 563 (2008) Jason J. Kilborn, The John Marshall Law School (Chicago). This paper explores the connection between social welfare reform and the adoption of consumer debt relief law in Europe. Health care expenses and unemployment are significant contributors to overindebtedness in Europe, and outside the primary sources, one finds suggestions to the effect that the unraveling social safety net was a major contributing factor in the adoption of consumer debt relief laws in Europe in the 1990s. This paper critically analyzes this notion by tracking the recent scaling back of social assistance programs in Sweden, […]

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 509 (2008) Olivier De Schutter, Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) and at the College of Europe (Natolin), and a Member of the Global Law School Faculty at New York University. He is a visiting professor at Columbia University (2007 08). This article addresses the division of tasks between the Council of Europe and the European Union in the protection of fundamental rights in Europe. As part of its project to establish an area of freedom, security, and justice, the EU has recently sought to develop a more proactive fundamental rights policy. However, […]

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 467 (2008) Ian H. Eliasoph, Attorney, U.S. Department of Labor. B.A., Loyola College of Maryland (2000); J.D., University of California, Berkeley (2003); LL.M., Cambridge (U.K.) (2007). The views expressed are entirely my own and in no way represent those of the U.S. Department of Labor. This Article undertakes a comparative analysis of debates related to the legacies of the Lochner era in the United States with contemporary debates in Europe. It demonstrates that in the 1980s and   early  1990s the governance of the European Community (“EC) began to assume characteristics reminiscent of Lochner era governance, […]

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 445 (2008) Stephen C. Sieberson, Ph.D. in European Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam; J.D., University of Iowa; member of the faculty, Creighton University School of Law. Editor’s Note: In volume 10 of this journal the editors published an extensive article by the author, entitled “The Proposed European Union  Constitution-Will It Eliminate the EU’s Democratic Deficit? “‘ That article analyzed the first draft of the European Union’s Constitution against a wide array of scholarly comment on the EU’s so-called “democratic deficit. ” When the Union abandoned the Constitution in 2007, the editors invited Professor Sieberson to follow […]

14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 377 (2008) Charles E. McLure Jr., While Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Analysis in 1983 85, the author chaired the staff-level Task Force that supported the Worldwide Unitary Taxation Working Group appointed by Treasury Secretary Donald Regan at the request of President Ronald Reagan. A preliminary version of this paper was presented at a conference on “National Fiscal Sovereignty: Integration and Decentralization,” held in Ravenna, Italy on October 13-14, 2006. The Member States of the European Community have systems of taxing corporate income that are more appropriate for nations than for members […]