REVIEW OF COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

This article introduces and applies the innovative Systematic Ongoing Direct Civil Society Engagement (ODCSE) methodology developed under the Horizon Europe HRJust project to examine how states justify their actions through human rights discourse, with a focus on climate litigation. The ODCSE approach emphasizes participatory, iterative engagement with civil society to evaluate the legitimacy and accountability of human rights justifications (HRJs). Drawing on qualitative and quantitative findings, the article shows how the ODCSE methodology has been used to map common state strategies in climate-related HRJs, comparing general and context-specific practices, and identifying the influence of geopolitical dynamics. A key contribution of this process is the integration of gender and intersectionality within the ODCSE framework. Recognising that climate impacts – and connected human rights narratives – are shaped by gender, race, and other intersecting factors, the methodology actively includes feminist and marginalised civil society voices in the co-production of knowledge. The article concludes with proposals for strengthening the role of the EU and global actors in promoting transparent, gender-responsive human rights justifications in climate policy.
Key-words: human rights justifications; climate litigation; civil society engagement; gender; intersectionality; European Union.
JEL Classification: K33

This paper explores the concept of the Global Administrative Space (GAS) as an integral element of Global Administrative Law, a framework that emerges from the need to address the complexities of governance in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world. The research examines how GAS redefines traditional boundaries between national and international legal orders, dissolves distinctions between public and private regulatory functions, and accommodates the diverse, fragmented, and polycentric nature of global governance. Through a comparative legal approach, the study evaluates the structural evolution of GAS, contrasting it with European Administrative Space and traditional administrative law models. The findings contribute to doctrinal developments in administrative law and emphasize some key characteristics of GAS and offer an original definition for Global Administrative Space.
Key-words: global administrative space, global administrative law, global governance, global law, European administrative space, transnational regulation.
JEL Classification: K23, K33

The EU energy policy is an important EU policy whose measures can contribute to the goals of the Green Deal and Sustainable Development Goals. The key measure of the energy policy is the use of renewable sources of energy. One of them is also biomass cultivated on the agricultural and forestland. However, the biomass brings not only the benefits, such as replacement for fossil fuels, mitigation of climate change, reduction of air pollution, development of green infrastructure in municipalities, improving physical and mental human health, improvement of degraded soils and new role for abandoned lands but there is also fear of competition for land and water with crops for food and feed, increasing the market prices of food and land and threat to food security, destruction of forests and biodiversity in order to obtain additional land for growing biomass and releasing carbon from carbon-rich soil into the atmosphere. Therefore, if this biomass should contribute to the sustainable development, it should be grown and used sustainably. These requirements can only be achieved by legal regulation of their growing, processing and use based on sustainable criteria verified by scientific research. The aim of the paper is to examine whether the sustainable criteria for cultivating energy biomass on agricultural and forest land under EU legal regulations are sufficient to prevent threats to biomass cultivation for energy purposes, while also preserving the land and its biodiversity for future generations. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to explore the legislative framework of renewable sources and its development in the EU law. Moreover, it requires an interdisciplinary approach, i.e. knowledge of law and other scientific fields, such as agriculture, forestry, landscape engineering, environment, sustainable development, social science and energy industry. In conclusions, we endeavour to summarize the main problems of sustainability criteria defined in the EU legislation.
Key-words: EU energy law, renewable energy sources, biomass, sustainable criteria, land use.
JEL Classification: K42

Artificial intelligence is remapping the foundations of the interaction between technology, corporations and human rights, through a profound rethinking of the ethical-legal contract that links them. The article is based on an inter-, multi-, even transdisciplinary and critical reading of the transformations brought by AI in the sphere of corporate responsibility, starting from the premises of a governance that integrates moral lucidity and normative rigour. Instead of fragmented or purely reactive regulation, a shared collective responsibility is taking shape. Algorithmic technologies, while appearing to be neutral instruments, must be treated as expressions of institutional wills that effectively shape social reality. In this system, due diligence becomes a practice of continual vigilance, and legal liability extends to hitherto ignored areas, such as system design, data selection and the impact on individual autonomy. A vision in which corporations actively contribute to upholding human dignity, ecological balance and democratic pluralism by assuming a moral contract that precedes and underpins positive regulation is brought to the fore. The approach is academic and critical, linking legal doctrine, regulatory analysis, relevant case law and technological impact. The conclusions emphasise the emergence of a new legal-ethical system in which companies developing or using AI are legally and morally bound to prevent and remedy adverse effects on human rights.
Key-words: artificial intelligence, corporate accountability, human rights, legal-ethical contracts, digital governance, global justice, due diligence, anticipatory liability, the United Nations Treaty on Business and Human Rights.
JEL Classification: K24, K33, K38

This study analyses the legal status and control function of the chief municipal controller in the Slovak Republic as a unique element of internal control in local government, which does not occur in other EU Member States. Its specificity is the existence of the function of the chief municipal controller as an independent individual control body of the municipality ensuring objectivity in examining the legality of the municipality's actions, as well as the efficiency of the municipality's financial management. Despite the independent nature of the function, the chief controller has the status of an employee in relation to the municipality. The main objective is to determine whether the Slovak model represents a functional and transferable best practice, despite its legal and systemic shortcomings. The secondary objective is to compare it with internal control systems in selected EU countries due to its differences from the models introduced in other EU Member States. The study applies doctrinal and comparative legal methods with a focus on the interpretation of national legislation and EU standards. Classical methods such as analysis, synthesis, abstraction, deduction, historical interpretation were also used. The hypothesis tested is: “Despite legislative ambiguities, the Slovak model of the Chief Municipal Controller – if legally clarified and strengthened – has the potential to serve as an example of effective internal control at the local level.” The findings confirm that while the model offers structural advantages – such as proximity to local government and built-in independence – its effectiveness is weakened by unclear legal status, insufficient qualification criteria and inconsistent application in practice. The study recommends targeted legislative reforms to increase clarity, competence and credibility. Based on the proposed changes, the Slovak model could inspire reforms in other countries with overly centralised or fragmented municipal internal control systems.
Key-words: comparative legal aspects, employment status, chief controller, internal control, municipality.
JEL Classification: K19, K23, K31

The analysis of the interaction between the land policies of the Member States and the fundamental economic freedoms would be incomplete without a critical assessment of how the case law of the Luxembourg Court contributes to the articulation between the protection of property rights and the restriction of the free movement of capital. Through the SEGRO ruling, the Court (sitting in the Grand Chamber) had the opportunity to refine its interpretation of the provisions of Article 63 TFEU concerning the free movement of capital, considering that they must be interpreted in the sense that they oppose the Hungarian regulation that provided for the automatic extinction of usufruct rights previously established on agricultural land if the holders were not close relatives of the owner of the land. Later, in Commission v. Hungary, the CJEU upheld the European Commission's action for failure to fulfil obligations considering that the action for failure to fulfill obligations filed by the European Commission was admitted, considering that the measure (disproportionate anyway compared to the pursued objective – agricultural land exploitation) also violated Article 17 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union concerning the right to property in the absence of a proper compensation system. Moreover, the ruling Commission v. Hungary is innovative in terms of the autonomous examination of the Charter to establish the incompatibility of the national measure with Article 17 concerning the right to property.
Key-words: fundamental rights; free movement of capital; rights of usufruct over agricultural land; deletion from the property register.
JEL Classification: K32, K33

The activity of the European Union manifests itself not only in the political, economic and social spheres, but also in the legal sphere, in which numerous harmonisations of the legislation of the individual Member States of the European Union are taking place, especially in the field of taxation. The study examines the historical development of tax regimes on the territory of the Slovak Republic, with the hypothesis of this study being that these reforms have been shaped not only by internal economic, political and social factors, but also by the extensive activities of the European Union. The aim of this study is to present a cross-sectional analysis of the key stages of tax reforms, to evaluate their compliance with the needs of the tax system in Slovak republic and to assess the extent of the impact of European legislation, in the form of regulations, directives and recommendations, on the national tax policy. The research used a comparative method to compare the development of tax principles in the Slovak Republic and the European Union, a method of analysis to analyse the individual phases of reforms and identify their objectives, as well as a synthesis method to formulate overall conclusions on the impact of these reforms on the current tax environment. The historical-descriptive method in mapping the developments and the normative method in assessing the appropriateness of the applied regulatory instruments were also used. The results confirm that the development of tax policy in Slovak Republic represents a hybrid model - responding to internal needs, but at the same time influenced by harmonisation trends within the European Union.
Key-words: tax, tax reforms, tax laws, tax system, tax relations.
JEL Classification: K10, K34

Mandatory mediation is a practice that obliges the parties to apply for mediation before filing a lawsuit in order to resolve the dispute. Mandatory mediation can be applied in three different forms: court-related, semi-compulsory and as a cause of action. In Turkish law, applying to mediation is one of the causes of action in certain disputes such as labour disputes, commercial disputes, consumer disputes and lease disputes, disputes arising from neighbourhood law, and dissolution of partnership. In this type of mediation, the Parties can terminate the mediation process at any time after attending the first meeting. Mandatory mediation reduces the cost of disputes by reducing the workload of the courts. It also allows faster resolution of disputes and encourages the public to apply for voluntary mediation by increasing the recognition of mediation. However, in order to achieve these objectives, it is important that a culture of reconciliation is sufficiently developed in a society.
Key-words: civil disputes, mediation, voluntary mediation, principle of voluntariness, mandatory mediation, cause of action.
JEL Classification: K41, K49

Our goal is to propose methodological elements for adapting common health to local realities, considered in their interdependence with the global, taking into account the indisputable fact that resources are limited on Earth, while ensuring the articulation of a multitude of competing yet highly complementary needs: those of the Oikos (the home, in other words, the Earth in the broad sense and, in a more restricted sense, our place – s – of life), the Bios (the living in all its diversity), and the Anthropos (humans regardless of origin). How can we meet such a challenge? We propose to reason from a logical perspective in a mesocentric manner by adopting an approach that intersects all the needs addressed by the major currents of environmental ethics, whose stakeholders all depend on the health of natural environments. This approach is very well illustrated by the concept of ‘common health,’ according to which human health depends on the health of societies, which, in turn, depends on the health of natural environments. Environmental rights and the rights of nature address the health of natural environments in different ways. Since we believe it is useful and desirable to connect these two normative approaches, it is important to first establish this need for connection before proposing a method of connection in complexity inspired by certain founding values.
Key-words: common health, human health, societal health, natural environment health, interdependence, resources, limits, mesocentric approaches, environmental law, rights of nature, method of reliance in complexity, value of existence, value of memory, value for the future, consideration, tolerance and robustness.
JEL Classification: K32, K33