Estonia may lack money, ideas and capacity for engaging in cooperation.
| Siim Kallas | Presentation in the Riigikogu at the 1st Reading of the Draft State Budget Act 2000 |
|
| Kalle Jürgenson | State Budget 2000, What and Why? |
|
| Olev Raju | Commentaries on the State Budget 2000 |
| Madis Võõras | Estonia on the Way to Full Membership of the European Space Agency |
|
| Ene Ergma | Estonia Has Become a Space State |
| Urve Läänemets | A Good Teacher Should Be Ready to Learn Also from the Pupils |
|
| Külli Eichenbaum | Using the Local Peculiarities of Old Võromaa |
Universal human rights. Local governments. Employment relations. Preventive administration. The human development report. The Lisbon Agreement. The Estonian economy. Tibet. Animal protection.
Summaries of articles are in English.
Estonia may lack money, ideas and capacity for engaging in cooperation.
The topic for the conservation circle in this issue of Riigikogu Toimetised is Estonian local governments and problems related to their legal basis, financing, small size and future development.
This essay draws on the author’s academic activities in the field of human rights law and scholarship. A major “ideological” controversy in the field is the question whether human rights are truly universal or culturally conditioned. Another, related question is what the human rights policy of the European states should look like.
*The writing of this essay was supported by the Estonian Research Council Grant No. 7182.
The draft Employment Contracts Act – which had been discussed thoroughly and at length by social partners, with the parties finally reaching consensus on its main points – was presented to the public on the Estonian Television programme “Foorum”.
The biggest flaw with the draft new Employment Contracts Act which was introduced in January lies in that the employer and the employee were treated as equal, even though the employee is the weaker side of the relationship.
The draft employment act prepared in January favoured the employer but was insulting and shocking to employees.
The Riigikogu constitutional committee is of the position that a number of the provisions of the draft Law Enforcement Act, which has passed the first reading in parliament, are in serious conflict with the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia and require correction in the course of further proceedings.
The writer argues that the draft Law Enforcement Act being read in the Riigikogu contains a series of reforms and necessary standards and that the drafting of the act represents an immense amount of work with regard to amassing, cataloguing and codifying Estonia’s experience in this field.
The Estonian Human Development Report 2007, which has become a kind of a yearbook for Estonian social scientists, is the second report published by the Estonian Cooperation Assembly.
The Lisbon Agreement signed in Lisbon on 13 December 2007 does not represent a new Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe – at least not in the formal sense. This agreement only changes, and does not supersede, the current European basic agreements, but on the other hand, the changes are in essence similar to those which would have resulted if the European Constitution had entered into force.
The model of the Estonian Chancellor of Justice is unique. No other country combines the function of constitutional supervision and ombudsman.
Instead of viewing the modern state and the constitutional state from an abstract point of view, the author grounds his approach on legal dogmatics and legal principles.
On the order of the Estonian Development Fund, a work group set up at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration in the second half of 2007 investigated the international competitiveness of the Estonian economy and the prospects for its development in a longer, 5-10-year perspective.
This article, which uses the “Relocation of production in labour-demanding branches of industry” survey conducted within the framework of the EU Framework Programme VI as a source, reflects on the factors which guide international companies in the globalisation process with respect to activities based predominantly on private property and profit-seeking.
The purpose of this article is to pinpoint the central problems faced by the Estonian economy in the medium to long perspective. Since 1999, Estonian companies and the government have considered it their primary goal to reduce public sector expenses as a proportion of the gross domestic output.
The article focuses on the measures for implementation of the EU directives 2004/17EC and 2004/18/EC, the Public Procurement Act of the Republic of Estonia and the Estonian environment-friendly and sustainable public procurement priorities 2007-2009, the implementation of which requires that the state and local government authorities have interdisciplinary knowledge of sustainable consumption, production and public procurement options as well as leadership capability.
According to several institutions, the public procurement area has quite a few problems.
A new draft Employment Contracts Act has been prepared in Estonia.
Encounters between citizens and the police mostly revolve around punishment for misdemeanours.
*The article is based on the report delivered at the meeting of the Estonian Academic Law Society on 16 April 2008 in Tartu.
The structure of the Estonian local government is kept as simple as possible: municipality and city, with municipality district and city district on the lower level.
In many cases, local governments have not been able to act according to the needs and interests of municipal residents and in adherence to the principles of local government.
The main empirical goal of the article is to explain how communication of government authorities and their associated groups in legislative drafting affects legislative process before the bill reaches the Parliament, and achievement of the legitimacy of the draft act.
Foreign policy theory describes and explains the foreign-policy decision-making process – how decisions are reached and carried out. Decision-making mechanisms are ordinarily depicted and analyzed with the help of a rational and bureaucratic model.
Animal protectors who have joined the voluntary Estonian Society for the Protection of Animals worry not only about pets but the welfare of all animals, including wild animals and farm animals.
Although only a few westerners truly explore the depths of the Tibetan culture, its effect on western thinking is remarkable.
The writer of this article was responsible for shaping the content of the newspaper Postimees for many long years. Her current position as information specialist with the Estonian National Library allows her to view the process from the other side – compiling bibliographies of articles and helping library users find the information they need on particular topics.