The rapid emergence of a multipolar world and the growing political and economic importance of a range of powers including China, India, Brazil and South Africa is increasingly having a significant impact on support for, and repression of, free expression. Many key international issues, from human rights to climate change and free trade, are no longer dominated either by one particular world view or split simply between two rival powers. While China and Russia remain at the repressive end of the spectrum, how widely free speech is defended internationally depends increasingly on the positions of countries like India and Brazil as much as on the values and practices of the US and Europe. In all these democracies, free speech is still in the ascendant but with too many examples of excessive constraints from internet surveillance and takedown requests to criminalisation of offensive speech.

Published in association with the Anglo-German FoundationBritish and German support for eastward enlargement of the EU has been crucial in driving the process forward and giving it momentum; unless this commitment continues, and strengthens, the process could falter. Yet, not only have Britain and Germany had very different views on EU integration for many years, they also have differnt geopolitical interests and very different levels of economic involvement in central and eastern Europe. In this book, leading British and German experts present a new analysis of British and German interests in enlargement and assesses contemporary policy approaches. Based on economic analysis, policy documentation and interviews with key policy-makers, they consider the scope for Britain and Germany to work together on enlargement, as well as highlighting the areas that could drive them apart.

Successful eastward enlargement of the EU will be critical to ensuring stability and prosperity for post-Cold War Europe. But enlargement raises difficult issues for the EU and the applicant countries of central and eastern Europe. Is the EU capable of reforming its institutions and policies to cope with 25 or more members? Which central and east Europeans will join, and when? How can we ensure that enlargement brings the economic and security benefits expected of it?

This comprehensive study examines in detail the political, economic and security implications of eastward enlargement for both East and West. The authors present new analyses of the policy issues including the EU budget and pre-accession strategy and of the economic integration likely before and after accession.

Based on an extensive series of interviews with key ministers, diplomats, policy-makers, academics and journalists across Europe, this study also provides an informed overview of expectations and attitudes towards enlargement within the EU and in the applicant countries.

There is a developing body of legal reasoning in the United Kingdom Supreme Court in which members of the senior judiciary have asserted the primary role of common law constitutional rights and critiqued legal arguments based first and foremost on the Human Rights Act 1998. Their calls for a shift in legal reasoning have created a sense amongst both scholars and the judiciary that something significant is happening. Yet despite renewed academic and judicial interest we have limited insight into what common law constitutional rights we have, how they work and what they offer. This book is the first collection of its kind to systematically explore both the content and role of individual common law constitutional rights alongside the constitutional significance and broader implications of these developments. It therefore contributes not only to our understanding of what the common law might be capable of offering in terms of the protection of rights, but also to our understanding of the nature of the constitutional order of which such rights are an integral part.

There is a developing body of legal reasoning in the United Kingdom Supreme Court in which members of the senior judiciary have asserted the primary role of common law constitutional rights and critiqued legal arguments based first and foremost on the Human Rights Act 1998. Their calls for a shift in legal reasoning have created a sense amongst both scholars and the judiciary that something significant is happening. Yet despite renewed academic and judicial interest we have limited insight into what common law constitutional rights we have, how they work and what they offer. This book is the first collection of its kind to systematically explore both the content and role of individual common law constitutional rights alongside the constitutional significance and broader implications of these developments. It therefore contributes not only to our understanding of what the common law might be capable of offering in terms of the protection of rights, but also to our understanding of the nature of the constitutional order of which such rights are an integral part.