European Union Establishment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

European Union Establishment - Essay Example Though, the primary task of my paper is to, after conducting the research and deeply studying the EU concepts, answer the question of whether the EU was mainly created due to political or economical reasons. It is rather surprising that the European Union was officially created fourteen years ago, in 1993, because the idea of United Europe was pursued by many thinkers long before the 1990s. The list of historical personalities, who in different ways followed an idea of EU, is remarkable. It starts with Charlemagne, Charles V, Napoleon, and Metternich, and can be continued with such intellectuals and philosophers as Rousseau, Marx, Kant, and Leibniz the remarkable thinkers who proposed the idea of a European Community "as a long-term desirable political objective" (Davies). Furthermore, the first great effort to integrate an imperative section of Eurasia and the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea was brought up in the times of Roman Empire. It was the time when the idea about "eurocenttrism" and superiority of the European civilization arose for the first time (Davies). For those living in Europe, World War I and World War II meant the beginning of the end of the traditional time-honored European civilization. ... For the majority it was the period of perplexity and uncertainty, the Europeans were simply squeezed between the two growing powers: the USA and the USSR. Though, there was a minority of people who, having survived the wars, drew some important conclusions. At that point of time people realized that the way Europe reacted to wars and actually its capacity to react to military operations depended on its ability to surmount the hostile nationalism that brought about only catastrophes, desolation, and misery (European History Spartacus Educational). For that little group of people it was clear that the time to adopt the ideal of a joint and peaceful Europe as a common project has come (Davies). Nonetheless the fact that there was only a minority of those advocating the creation of joint and peaceful Europe, there were three reasons, or so to say "realities" that evidently showed that the time for new orientation towards the European integration had come. To begin with, the Europeans, even the most nationalistic ones were fully aware of their overall political and economical weaknesses. The world was once and forever changed by the wars, and the eminent and traditional European hegemony was in the past, while the two new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, were formed possessing a superior economic, political and military strength. Secondly, having learnt the lesson from the two drastic wars, the European countries were fully aware of impossibility and malignancy of repeating the confrontation among European States. The last but not least reason for the establishment of European Union was a desire to create an open, just and more affluent continent in which the international relationships were developed in a frame of harmony, peace, and unity.

International Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

International Law - Essay Example Senegal has ratified the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and is obligated under its provisions to either prosecute or extradite Hebrà © (aut dedere aut prosequi).3 However, such obligation does not require Senegal to extradite Habre specifically to Belgium. Recent conventions and state practice has embraced a duty not to extradite persons that face seriously discriminatory applications of criminal law authority. This limitation on the duty to extradite is incorporated in both the European Terrorism Convention4 and the United Nations Terrorist Financing Convention5: â€Å"Nothing in this Convention shall be interpreted as imposing an obligation to extradite†¦if the requested State Party has substantial grounds for believing that the request for extradition†¦has been made for the purpose of prosecuting or punishing a person on account of that persons race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin or political opinio n or that compliance with the request would cause prejudice to that persons position for any of these reasons.† Thus, an individual does not face fair criminal prosecution where relevant forms of discrimination result in selective prosecution.6 Such emergent exceptions to extradition should also be automatically incorporated in Article 1(F)(b) of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.7 Belgium as well as the Western World has shown a persistent practice of discrimination against Africans and to some extent Latin Americans so far as prosecution for crimes against humanity are concerned. While Belgium has readily prosecuted or initiated investigations against Africans accused of crimes against humanity, in March 2003, when at the behest of family members of civilians killed in the 1991 Gulf War, Belgian prosecutors launched an investigation of former President George H.W. Bush,