The Council of Europe and Russia : Emerging from a Crisis or Heading Towards a New One?

The Crisis of Multilateral Legal Order : Causes, Dynamics and Implications / edited by Lukasz Gruszczynski, Marcin Menkes, Veronika Bílková and Paolo Davide Farah. London ; New York : Routledge, 2023, s. 284-302.

This chapter discusses the importance of legitimacy for multilateralism and the functioning of international institutions, based on a case study of the crisis over participation by the Russian delegation in the works of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and its aftermath. It argues that while solving one crisis (i.e. political and financial), the Council of Europe (CoE) has plunged into a crisis about its own legitimacy and the legitimacy of its system of enforcement. To this end, the first section summarises the origins of the crisis in question, its development, and the remedies implemented by the organisation to address it. The second section presents the concept of legitimacy in the international system based on the work of the late Thomas Franck. The third section continues the previous discussion by examining the impact of the measures taken by the CoE to restore Russian representation in the PACE on the legitimacy of the organisation and its enforcement system. The final section of the chapter offers some general conclusions.

[Book review: Mateusz Błachucki, International Cooperation, Competition Authorities and Transnational Networks, Routledge, Oxford-New York: 2023, pp. 296]

Polish Yearbook of International Law 2023, t. XLIII, s. 453–455.

The book aims to clarify the legal nature of the transnational competition net-works (TCNs) that bring together national competition authorities, to establish their typology and to analyse and classify the forms of cooperation between national competition authorities within these networks. The book consists of 11 chapters, which the author himself divides into four main parts in the introduction (unfor-tunately, this division is not reflected in the table of contents). The first of these (chapter 2) introduces the reader to the concept of transnational competition networks. The second part (chapters 3–5) analyses the different types of networks, both those operating independently and those established within intergovernmental organisations at the global, continental, and regional levels. It provides a careful overview of the current state of affairs in this field, taking into account the reasons for the establishment of each network, its internal organisation, membership, field of activity, and its various forms. In the extensive third part (chapters 6–8), the au-thor classifies the forms of cooperation between national competition authorities within supranational networks. This part of the work, which is perhaps the most comprehensive, appears to be particularly valuable for practitioners, who may find in it arguments for protecting their clients against possible infringements of their rights in connection with the activities of public authorities within such networks. Błachucki divides the forms of cooperation of transnational networks into three categories: soft, developed, and enhanced; depending on the level of cooperation and the involvement of national authorities in the activities of a given network. As he points out, soft cooperation involves the exchange of experience and administrative practices, the establishment of common standards of action, and their coordination through the use of soft law instruments such as guidelines or recommendations, as well as the verification of compliance with the standards adopted by the network. Developed cooperation is more advanced and includes, inter alia, the exchange of information on the initiation of proceedings, of classified information and of in-formation and evidence to which the parties have consented, as well as mutual legal assistance. Finally, enhanced cooperation consists of the joint conduct of adminis-trative proceedings and determination of the content of administrative decisions, and also the mutual recognition of administrative acts. The fourth part of the book (Chapters 9–11), which may be of most interest to non-lawyers, discusses issues related to the supervision of the activities of transnational competition networks and the prospects for the development of these networks, including the associated benefits and challenges. It also presents the conclusions of the overall analysis.

Les résolutions du Conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies et "les personnes agissant de concert en leur qualité de représentants du peuple" : quelques remarques sur l'avis consultatif de la CIJ sur le Kosovo

Diversification des acteurs et dynamique normative en droit international contemporain / M. Arcari, L. Balmond (eds.) – Milano: Editoriale Scientifica, 2013, s. 309-334.