Moving forward. In spite of all the problems still ahead (neither Brexit, the refugees' crisis, economic troubles or rule of law worries in some Eastern countries have been fully overcome), the EU is starting to move forward. In this edition of UNIO-EU Law Journal we reflect upon some of the challenges that lay before us. The first work, by Rita de Sousa Costa and Tiago Sérgio Cabral is an awardwinning paper about some of those challenges; in particular those posed by the rise of populist and Eurosceptic political forces. The authors try to understand the reasons leading to the Union's "existential crisis"; they conclude that the EU must reform in order to regain their citizens' trust and reinforce democracy. The following text, by Valentina Maglietta, gives us a different view on the same issues. This paper presents an analysis about the difficulties of involving European citizens in the integration process and in the process of political decision-making on vital common issues. For this, the author rethinks the meaning of European citizenship, and of citizenship status in a region without borders. She ends by signalling some areas where progress should be made to encourage a greater sense of integration among European citizens. Next, Yanko Moyano Díaz reflects upon the relationship between actions and political believes. The author finds it essential to establish an epistemological space in which the different levels of the political activity and political thinking can converge and communicate: the level of concrete political actions, the level of the general mechanisms of understanding and the level of the experience of everyday life of the citizens. The following text, by José Igreja Matos, is not a strictly scientific text, but an insider's view on challenges posed to judicial independence by emerging populist political regimes. The author makes a structural analysis of the main constraints to the upholding of an independent judiciary, and gives some suggestions of adequate measures to allow the judiciary to uphold and guarantee the values of Democracy and Rule of Law. On a more specific note, Bettina Steible ponders about the EU support to domestic prosecution of violations of International Humanitarian Law, by analysing whether and to what extent the Union has developed instruments facilitating domestic prosecution of alleged war criminals pursuant to the Geneva Conventions.
Bearing in mind the applicability of the General Data Protection Regulation as of May 25, 2018
Examining some recent examples from the Court of Justice of the European Union case law, this article intends to unravel the direction to which the European courts turn towards in times of crisis. The fiscal restraint and socioeconomic restructuring dictated by considerations of public debt reduction affect the daily lives of European citizens. However, the crisis and the austerity measures framed by Union law follow the new visibility that fundamental rights assumed in the integration process with the entry into force of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Therefore, in accordance to the moto proclaimed by Cunha Rodrigues, the crisis highlights the role of jurists and, in particular, the judges while guardians of democracy – understood as the safe exercise of fundamental rights. This paper therefore considers the transformative potential of the current crisis and its implications on the deepening of citizenship rights in the European Union.
The article discusses the ethical and technical consequences of Artificial intelligence (hereinafter, A.I) applications and their usage of the European Union data protection legal framework to enable citizens to defend themselves against them. This goal is under the larger European Union Digital Single Market policy, which has concerns about how this subject correlates with personal data protection. The article has four sections. The first one introduces the main issue by describing the importance of AI applications in the contemporary world scenario. The second one describes some fundamental concepts about AI. The third section has an analysis of the ongoing policies for AI in the European Union and the Council of Europe proposal about ethics applicable to AI in the judicial systems. The fourth section is the conclusion, which debates the current legal mechanisms for citizens protection against fully automated decisions, based on European Union Law and in particular the General Data Protection Regulation. The conclusion will be that European Union Law is still under construction when it comes to providing effective protection to its citizens against automated inferences that are unfair or unreasonable.
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