Journal of International Law and International Relations 2010 — N 1
Summaries
International Law
European Union Law
Towards the Issue of the European Union Law Sources States — Elena Dovgan
International Security Law
The Criteria of Necessity and Proportionality of the Right to Self-defense — Yuliya Sinitsyna
Codification and Progress In International Law
The Stages and Means of Diplomatic Protection — Olga Popkova
Theoretical Issues
On the New Concepts and Categories of State Succession: Theoretical and Practical Issues — Petr Kremnev
Documents and Materials
UNHCR Executive Committee Conclusion on Protracted Refugee Situations (N 109 (LX) — 2009) (only Russian)
International Relations
Sino-American Commercial and Economic Relations: Achievements and Contradictions — Svyatoslav Vitkovsky
Muslim Communities and the Receiving Society of Great Britain: Crosscultural Communication Analysis — Anton Ignatovich
The Syrian-Lebanese Relations in the Context of Regional Security (1989—2003) — Feras Sallum
Foreign Experience
Some Aspects of Working with Asylum Seekers and Refugees in the United Kingdom and Finland — Tatiana Mayorova (only Russian)
Documents and Materials
Report of the United Natons High Commissioner for Refugees (only Russian)
Bookshelf
Anatomy of Russia: Review of I. Kotlyar monograph «Russia of the XXI century. A Belarusian Political Scientist’ Assessment of Socio-political Process — Alexandr Chelyadinsky (only Russian)
International Economic Relations
Institutional Consequences of the Contemporary Stage of Scientific and Technological Revolution: Political and Economic Aspects — Sergey Solodovnikov
Customs Regulation Mechanism Evolution in the Republic of Belarus in Correspondence with the Norms and Principles of International Customary Law — Anatoly Sirotsky
Raising International Competitiveness of Belarusian Engineering Enterprises in Post-crisis Development of the World Economy — Dmitry Kalinin, Hu Junrong
Retrospective View of the International Labour Migration Theories — Anastasiya Nesterova
FULL ISSUE 
English Summaries
«Towards the Issue of the European Union Law Sources States» (Elena Dovgan)
The article presents an overview of the sources of the European Union law, including the primary, secondary and supplementary law. Within the primary law the author considers the scope, status and legal force of the EU establishing treaties and determines the impact of the international law principles and special principles of the European Union on the EU legal system.
The EU system of law includes a range of different acts. Attention is paid to the legal force of the acts taken by the EU bodies not only within the first pillar but also in the realms of common foreign and security policy and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
Another matter of focus is the supplementary or tertiary law of the European Union. The author considers for example the legal force of the decisions of the European Court of Justice and the impact of these decisions on the development of the EU law. The article also analyses contemporary challenges and tendencies in the EU legal system as well as amendments in the sphere brought on by the Lisbon Treaty amending the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community.
«The Criteria of Necessity and Proportionality of the Right to Self-defense» (Yuliya Sinitsyna)
This article focuses on defining the content of the criteria of necessity and proportionality in exercising the right to self-defense. Starting from the analysis of international legal acts, the existing State practice, judicial decisions, as well as theoretical positions of Russian and foreign authors, the article demonstrates the formation process of the abovementioned criteria. Differences in understanding and interpretation of these criteria in the existing doctrine and practice were identified and discussed. The article points out the problem of determining the criterion of proportionality which is confusing the requirements of proportionality, as the criterion of validity of self-defense, with proportionality as a principle of international humanitarian law. In this article the author revealed the content and proposed a definition of the criteria of proportionality and necessity.
«The Stages and Means of Diplomatic Protection» (Olga Popkova)
The article examines the issue of stages and means of diplomatic protection of nationals abroad that was sufficiently researched neither in the theory of international law nor within the codification work on diplomatic protection carried out by the International Law Commission.
Reviewing international legal practice, the basic rules of diplomatic protection and international responsibility, the author identifies and analyses in detail seven successive procedural stages of diplomatic protection. These stages are as follows: the establishment of the nationality of an international claim, establishment of the admissibility of presenting an international claim by the State of nationality, subrogation of relevant rights of citizens and legal persons related to the international claim by the State of nationality, official presentation of the international claim to the respondent State, the employment of various means of diplomatic protection permissible in accordance with international law if the respondent State failed to meet the claim, the insurance of restoration of violated rights and compensation for the received injury or loss to the State and its nationals (reparation), the payment of compensation by the State which exercised the diplomatic protection towards its nationals at the cost of funds provided by the respondent State.
The article emphasizes that diplomatic protection presupposes first the application of diplomatic means of settlement of interstate disputes and only then the use of retortion and reprisals as an extreme measure to coerce the respondent State to fulfill its obligations. The use of force to protect citizens abroad provokes serious controversies between states and it is considered to be contrary to the provisions of the United Nations Charter related to the conditions of the use of force. The author believes that creation of international claims commissions or tribunals directly accessible to the nationals of the injured State as well as the recourse to the International Court of Justice constitute the most effective means of diplomatic protection. The article contains a proposal to adopt a national legal act on the procedure of diplomatic protection and application of coercive measures with respect to the respondent states.
This article discusses aspects of State succession. In particular, it considers whether «continuing» is a concept identical with the concept of «continuity», whether it can proceed from the theory of the latter and whether continuity eliminates succession, and vice versa; or whether these two concepts can coexist simultaneously or appear in the same subject of international law. The article also inquires into the main doctrinal judgments of the concept «continuing». The study was conducted on the basis of extensive practice of law enforcement during and after the collapse of the USSR.
«Sino-American Commercial and Economic Relations: Achievements and Contradictions» (Svyatoslav Vitkovsky)
This article touches upon the main features of commercial and economic relations between the United States and China in the beginning of the XXI century. The author analyses American and Chinese approaches to the global economy and models of economic self-identification in order to elucidate achievements and contradictions existing in the US — China dialogue. Besides, the author pays close attention to the Sino-American interaction in the framework of international financial institutions.
«Muslim Communities and the Receiving Society of Great Britain: Crosscultural Communication Analysis» (Anton Ignatovich)
The article explores aspects of cultural communication between Muslims and the receiving society in Great Britain. They are determined by a number of factors: 1) the decline of the role of Christianity in British society; 2) differences in opinions about Islam among Muslims; 3) a high role of the mass media; 4) activity of Islamic youth; 5) aggravation of problems of Muslim community by the manifestations of islamophobia on the part of the state, the mass media and non-Muslim population; 6) Islam adaptation to new environment and changing it to its own advantage to survive. In these conditions the receiving society of Great Britain should direct efforts to strengthening national identities and conduct a more balanced confessional policy. The combination of integrational processes, mutually beneficial cooperation and the same time the preservation of elements of specific national and ethnic features while raising mutual competence of participants of communication will make it possible to create conditions for stability of multicultural society.
«The Syrian-Lebanese Relations in the Context of Regional Security (1989—2003)» (Feras Sallum)
The article is devoted to Syrian-Lebanese relations in the period from 1989, when the Taif Agreement was signed, till the U.S. military operation against Iraq in 2003. Special attention is paid to the influence of Damascus on the domestic politics of neighboring states and the relations of Syria and Lebanon in the context of regional security.
«Institutional Consequences of the Contemporary Stage of Scientific and Technological Revolution: Political and Economic Aspects» (Sergey Solodovnikov)
This article considers institutional consequences of the ontemporary stage of scientific and technological revolution. They include: universal (civilizational) interdependence of scientific, technological, social and institutional and economic dynamics; mechanisms of manifestation of these global regularities in the Republic of Belarus and ways of formation of post-capitalist social and scientific community in our country.
«Customs Regulation Mechanism Evolution in the Republic of Belarus in Correspondence with the Norms and Principles of International Customary Law» (Anatoly Sirotsky)
The article analyses rules and regulations implementation of the international law norms into the customs legislation of the Republic of Belarus. International conventions developed and passed under the aegis of the World Customs Organization and World Trade Organization are given special attention to. The author concludes that the Republic of Belarus is reforming the customs regulation mechanism consistently in compliance with the rules and laws of the international customary law and on the basis of common standards of the customs management.
«Raising International Competitiveness of Belarusian Engineering Enterprises in Post-crisis Development of the World Economy» (Dmitry Kalinin, Hu Junrong)
Contemporary economy, characterized by the negative effects of the global economic crisis, raises before Belarusian engineering enterprises an ambitious and at the same time, a rather difficult task — to fight for the preservation of its export potential and subsequent expansion of the competitive position as a post-crisis recovery in the global economy. The conceptual basis for the implementation of this unique opportunity can be raising in the international competitiveness of domestic producers, primarily through the reorganization of their organizational and economic structures and development of innovative strategies for the development of overseas markets. Based on these perspectives, the purpose of this article is the development of a conceptual approach to improve the international competitiveness of Belarusian engineering enterprises in terms of improving the strategy of their economic internationalization and their adaptation to modern conditions of the world economy post-crisis development.
The article shows the essence and makes a comparative analysis of two approaches to organization of foreign business activity of Belarusian engineering enterprises. The study found that in today's post-crisis management conditions accelerated development of multi-vector and production-oriented internationalization of their business is of increasing relevance and expedience.
«Retrospective View of the International Labour Migration Theories» (Anastasiya Nesterova)
The complexity of the population migration processes, their causes, motives and consequences contributed to the appearance of a large number of theories. Attempts have been undertaken to systematize and classify the theories of international labour migration. The author believes that the most logical and consistent approach to explain the causes and mechanism of migration is that of P. Stocker, who proposed the schemes of the individual, structural and systemic treatment.
The article reviews the main theories which explain international labour migration. The author believes that familiarity with Western theories of labor migration can create a necessary basis to explain the processes of export and import of labor force and form a conceptual approach to the state migration policy.
This publication was prepared in the framework of EU AENEAS — UNHCR project “Strengthening the Protection Capacity in the Republic of Belarus — phase II”
