{"title":"One Hundred Years of Faith: The Baltic States’ Contribution to International Justice","authors":"R. Satkauskas","doi":"10.1163/22115897_01701_004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22115897_01701_004","url":null,"abstract":"One hundred years on from the establishment of the first World Court provides an excellent occasion to assess the evolution of International Justice and its role in setting new standards of inter-State behaviour. Faith in the rule of law and international justice in the institutionalised world order by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia was based on the public mood in the aftermath of the First World War, as well as distinctly practical security interests. Early acceptance of the Court’s jurisdiction in turn contributed to the formation of international law with three cases and interpretation by the Court of numerous rules of international law.","PeriodicalId":261948,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online","volume":"98 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124925650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights as a Source of Human Rights Law","authors":"Ineta Ziemele","doi":"10.1163/22115897_01701_008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22115897_01701_008","url":null,"abstract":"The European Court of Human Rights with its case law has been for decades a particularly important actor in developing human rights law in Europe and beyond. At the same time the question as to the legal nature of its case law has not received a single answer. Most traditionally, the answer to this question has been that case law is binding on all States parties to the Convention at least to the extent that it contains lex interpretata as part of the Court’s authoritative interpretation of the Convention entrusted to it by the founding States of the Convention regime. In accordance with the Convention’s Article 46, judgments of the Court are binding on the respondent State. At the same time, judgments are followed more generally by the Contracting Parties while the Court’s case law has added to the original – admittedly open-ended – text of the Convention. This article explores the impact of civil law tradition, Anglo-Saxon tradition and the theory of sources of international law on better conceptualization of the legal nature of the case law of the Court. It arrives at the conclusion that at least for the time being, there is a coherent tendency in more advanced legal systems to acknowledge that the courts and judges do occasionally make law. The example of the European Court of Human Rights goes along with these developments. It is argued that case law is a material source of law while the overall consolidation of the Convention system begs for the conclusion that the Court’s case law has become a formal source of law.","PeriodicalId":261948,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122500727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Principles and Pragmatism in State Succession: Bargaining in the Economic Affairs Commission of the Tartu Peace Conference","authors":"Hent Kalmo","doi":"10.1163/22115897_01701_002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22115897_01701_002","url":null,"abstract":"The conventions of legal argumentation have the tendency to reinforce the notion that the development of international law is a principled affair. This article will examine the elaboration of one particular treaty – the Tartu Peace Treaty signed between Estonia and Soviet Russia in 1920 – in order to see to what extent it lends support to the idea that treaties grow out of principles. The Tartu Peace Treaty perfectly illustrates the point that the contents of a treaty can be entirely indeterminate with regard to their underlying principles. My conclusion is not that, in this case, pragmatism triumphed over principles: that the negotiating parties refrained from debates over abstract principles and took the more pragmatic route of finding an array of concrete solutions. Whilst it is true that the end result – the Treaty as it finally stood – was detached from any single foundational idea, it was not obtained by putting principles aside. The Tartu Peace Conference rather offers us a particularly good example of how principles can be used as rhetorical ploys.","PeriodicalId":261948,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126348390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the Borders of Law, History and Politics: Estonian Statesman Jüri Jaakson’s Views and Life in Context","authors":"Jaanika Erne","doi":"10.1163/22115897_01701_003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22115897_01701_003","url":null,"abstract":"Focusing on the life and work of the Estonian politician and Statesman Jüri Jaakson (1870–1942), the article gives an overview of the changing historical and social context that has influenced the formation of Estonian law. Estonia’s historical diversity can be regarded as events of transformation and disruption that have resulted in vague concepts.\u0000The article consists of three interrelated parts, taking into account that law and society are interconnected and that politics is constructed through language. The first part builds on Jüri Jaakson’s presentation at the first Estonian Lawyers’ Days in 1922, and shows how historical events have influenced political and legal conceptualisation. The second part shows how Jüri Jaakson’s own biography tragically reflects the changing Estonian historical context that he himself considered diverse and controversial. Finally, in the third part, some normative assertions have been made in an attempt to show that any legal term always relates to a certain social and political context.\u0000Although the author’s aim has not been to frame a doctrine or provide instruction, but rather, with the help of Jüri Jaakson’s thoughts situated in the context of his time, to offer a moral measure for understanding the developments that could influence small states, it offers a measure for understanding why societies require (new) conceptualisation and re-conceptualisation. Conceptualisation is understood as constructing something new that we cannot identify in the past, while reconceptualisation is understood as change, also resulting from discontinuity and/or interruption. Because there are no unchangeable social categories or meanings, continuity can at best mean a situation where the research objects have remained more static over a concrete period.\u0000Methodologically this article is an attempt to connect legal research with a conceptual historical approach.","PeriodicalId":261948,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125753006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vulnerability as a Virtue: An Attempt to Transpose the Care Ethic in International Law","authors":"Marion Blondel","doi":"10.1163/22115897_01701_010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22115897_01701_010","url":null,"abstract":"The utilisation of the concept of vulnerability in international law has risen exponentially. This contribution intends to analyse the issues underlying this phenomenon. Vulnerability is frequently used in a functional manner in order to enhance the protection of individuals. Therefore, even if vulnerability has been initially developed as a non-legal concept, it has now become integrated into legal discourse. As it inevitably supposes the contributions of other disciplines such as moral philosophy and legal sociology, vulnerability reshapes the ways in which individuals are protected by law. Hence, the reconsideration of several concepts, especially individual autonomy and international responsibility, paves the way for better protection of individuals.","PeriodicalId":261948,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125045012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Big Data Ownership: Do we Need a New Regulatory Framework?","authors":"Andris Tauriņš","doi":"10.1163/22115897_01801_008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22115897_01801_008","url":null,"abstract":"Big data is the new oil – but who has the right to own it? Is the owner the creator of the individual data or the owners of data processing systems which add value to the mass of data – or should the information be shared for free with state institutions, for example, with the goal of limiting the amounts of traffic accidents in the city? This is one of the debates of our time. However, it seems that current frameworks, whether regarding ip law or trade secrets regulations, do not provide sufficient answers. Problems also arise with the offer of contractual relationships or licensing. That initiates the thought that a new type of regulation might be needed.","PeriodicalId":261948,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131483734","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Preliminary Material","authors":"Editors Baltic Yearbook of International La","doi":"10.1163/22115897-01801001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22115897-01801001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":261948,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123790618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Republic of Estonia Materials of International Law 2017–2018","authors":"René Värk","doi":"10.1163/22115897_01801_012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22115897_01801_012","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":261948,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128050226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Geo-blocking Regulation: Antitrust or Consumer Protection?","authors":"Klemen Podobnik","doi":"10.1163/22115897_01801_011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22115897_01801_011","url":null,"abstract":"The author attempts to show that the seeming absorption of a large-scale, general geo-blocking prohibition in the field of competition law (antitrust) is unsystematic, and can negatively influence the further development of European competition law and policy and related goals. The positive implications of the GBR regime in the area of consumer protection law (and for trade regulation as such) are not negated. The author, however, attempts to underscore the fact that, in certain constellations, legislative instruments should be very clearly designated, their nature and scope concisely labelled. Formal oversights, such as omission of clear denominations or even plain wrong designations can – in certain circumstances – lead to functional consequences. For this reason the author stresses the view that the GBR is a legislative instrument of market regulation and consumer protection and has no real appreciable link to antitrust.","PeriodicalId":261948,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125954352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Big Data and Competition Policy in the European Union","authors":"Éva Miskolczi-Bodnár","doi":"10.1163/22115897_01801_006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22115897_01801_006","url":null,"abstract":"Because of the specific features of digital markets and the emergence of new business models in the digital economy, competition often takes on a rather distinctive form, challenging competition authorities in the assessment of merger controls and anticompetitive behaviour. Several competition authorities have concluded recently that although generically formulated competition law provisions can be adapted to the particularities of a data-driven market, big data may require the use of somewhat specialized tools and methods in law enforcement, especially in the assessment of market power during merger control proceedings. One particular issue is whether data protection concerns might be covered by the scope of competition law. Recent case law suggests that national law enforcers are becoming increasingly flexible regarding privacy policies as a non-price competition factor in merger control in order to prevent future anti-competitive practices and a general reduction of competition in the relevant market.","PeriodicalId":261948,"journal":{"name":"Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134264502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}