Ars æqui

The Minimum Wage and Transparent Wages in the EU: Means to Address Multidimensional Inequalities

2025-11-23T10:32:50+02:00

This paper explores the role of minimum wage policies and transparent wage practices in the European Union as instruments to mitigate multidimensional inequalities. It situates wage regulation within the broader framework of social justice and solidarity, emphasizing its potential to reduce disparities not only in income but also in gender, sectoral, and regional dimensions. By examining EU directives and national implementations, the study highlights how minimum wage standards contribute to safeguarding workers against in-work poverty, while transparency mechanisms foster accountability and narrow wage gaps. The analysis underscores the interplay between legal frameworks, institutional capacity, and cultural attitudes toward fairness, revealing both opportunities and limitations in current approaches. Ultimately, the paper argues that strengthening minimum and transparent wage policies is essential for advancing equitable labour markets and reinforcing the EU’s commitment to social cohesion.

The (Lack of) Responsibility of the Islamic State for the Destruction of Humanity's Intangible Heritage

2025-12-21T15:14:39+02:00

The intentional destruction of cultural heritage undermines human dignity, identity, and intergenerational continuity and, when committed in armed conflict, constitutes a serious violation of international law. Between 2013 and 2019, the so-called Islamic State (Daesh) conducted a systematic campaign of cultural destruction in Iraq and Syria, targeting monuments, religious sites, museums, and archaeological remains while simultaneously exploiting antiquities trafficking to finance its operations. This article examines how international law responds to such acts when perpetrated by a non-state armed group lacking international legal personality. Drawing on the doctrine of the Common Heritage of Humanity, UNESCO’s prohibition of intentional destruction, and developments in international criminal law, the paper analyses the allocation of responsibility between states and individuals for heritage crimes committed by Daesh. Using a doctrinal and case-law-based methodology, it assesses state obligations to prevent, protect, and repair cultural damage, alongside the emergence of individual criminal responsibility under the Rome Statute and domestic jurisdictions. The article argues that, notwithstanding Daesh’s non-state character, contemporary international law provides a coherent accountability framework that integrates state responsibility, individual criminal liability, and post-conflict restorative measures, reaffirming cultural heritage as a collective interest of humanity and a core component of international legal protection.

Intergovernmental Coordination in Crisis Governance

2025-12-21T15:36:14+02:00

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has reshaped the security environment of Eastern Europe and highlighted the importance of civil-military cooperation. This paper aims to identify how the Lithuanian government coordinates actions with pro-defence organizations with particular attention to the efficiency and effectiveness of such collaboration. The Lithuanian case will be compared with Polish regulations and practices in order to highlight similarities, differences, and potential gaps. The analysis then extends to the sphere of Polish-Lithuanian cooperation in defending the eastern border of the European Union and NATO, a frontline region of strategic importance. The ultimate goal is to find examples of good practices and patterns that can serve as models for effective functioning of state-civil society cooperation in crisis conditions. By combining Lithuanian and Polish experiences, the study contributes to a broader understanding of resilience-building in the face of hybrid threats and conventional military aggression.

Where Soft Law is the Only Law: Digital Goods in Comparative Perspective

2025-12-23T22:24:00+02:00

In the rapidly evolving digital economy, the legal qualification and regulation of digital goods remain ambiguous and fragmented. Despite their growing economic and societal relevance, digital goods are often governed not by binding legal norms (hard law), but by non-binding guidelines, private contracts, and platform-specific terms of service - the so-called soft law. This article explores the legal vacuum surrounding digital goods, analysing the challenges posed by the absence of uniform definitions, the reliance on private ordering, and the inconsistent application of existing legal categories across jurisdictions. Through a comparative and interdisciplinary lens, the study examines how current legal systems struggle to keep pace with technological innovation, resulting in legal uncertainty regarding ownership rights, consumer protection, taxation, and the cross-border transfer of digital goods. The paper argues for the development of a coherent national and European Union regulatory framework that transcends soft law approaches and provides clear, enforceable, and future-proof norms for the classification, use, and transfer of digital goods in a globalised environment.

Multi-level Elections in the European Union

2025-12-24T14:01:51+02:00

Periodically, individuals entitled to participate in elections are invited to vote; in some jurisdictions, electoral participation is regarded as a right, while in others it is considered a civic duty. Although all elections are formally important, their political weight and legal significance vary, as do the legal and political challenges associated with organising elections at different levels of governance. Electoral processes at the local, national, and European levels differ in terms of regulatory frameworks, institutional responsibilities, and democratic expectations. This article deliberately limits its scope to three levels of elections (i.e., local, national, and European) while acknowledging the existence of additional levels of governance that may also involve electoral processes. By focusing on these three levels, the article aims to explore the distinct challenges and interactions that characterise multi-level electoral governance.

The Social Order as a Normative Order. Reflections on the Plurality of Rules of Conduct

2025-12-23T15:34:25+02:00

This article explores the idea of social order as a fundamentally normative construction. Drawing on philosophy, legal theory, and sociology, it argues that order cannot be reduced to mere coexistence or to the coercive force of the state but must be understood as the fragile balance between values, norms, and institutions. Legal norms occupy a central role due to their institutionalization and state guarantee, yet their legitimacy and effectiveness depend on their consonance with moral, religious, customary, deontological, and technical rules. The study emphasizes that plurality is both the richness and the vulnerability of social order: while diverse systems of regulation complement and enrich one another, they also generate conflicts and contestations. Historical examples and contemporary crises, from the persistence of custom to debates on fundamental rights, from the COVID-19 pandemic to challenges posed by artificial intelligence, illustrate the permanent negotiation between letter and spirit, between coercion and consensus. The conclusion is that social order should be understood not as a fixed state, but as a regulative ideal, constantly reconstructed and reshaped by cultural, political, and technological transformations.

Pluralism in Research Methodologies

2025-12-23T15:38:59+02:00

Intergovernmental coordination remains a multidimensional and ever-contested concept, involving complex interactions across multiple levels of governance. In spite of the rich tradition of federalist scholarship, existing research often relies on descriptive, country-centric approaches and remains largely at a meta-theoretical level, offering limited insight into the mechanisms shaping coordination. This research note argues that the prevailing institutionalist bias overlooks the crucial role of individual political actors. It advocates methodological pluralism to capture both formal and informal processes. By examining the incentives of executives, ministries, political parties, lobbyists, and civil society, it disentangles the “unified actor” premise and provides a roadmap for advancing theory and empirical rigor in multilevel governance.

Erroneous Declaration of Judicial Unworthiness in a Case of Homicide Committed with Indirect Intent

2025-12-29T13:08:35+02:00

In a case decided by the Cluj-Napoca District Court, the civil panel incorrectly applied judicial unworthiness under Article 959(1)(a) of the Romanian Civil Code, rather than unworthiness by operation of law under Article 958(1)(a), after a criminal conviction for homicide committed with indirect intent. This note argues that the court misinterpreted the form of intent, confusing indirect intent with praeterintentional conduct, and thus misapplied unworthiness to inherit. Drawing upon the distinctions between direct intent, indirect intent, and praeterintention under Romanian law, the note shows that homicide with indirect intent should trigger absolute unworthiness. The analysis situates the rule in a comparative context, stressing its Québec origins and Romanian adaptation. Finally, it considers the practical consequences of the error, including temporal effects on succession claims and the risk of establishing misleading jurisprudential patterns.