ANSWERS TO THE : MOOT TEST OF EUROPEAN UNION POLITICAL HISTORY (March 26, 2020)

Hi to all,

today I send the answers to the Moot test. The idea is that you check it with what you did and try to realize what you did well, and what you did less well. Bear in mind that this moot test is and exercise to prepare you for the final exam, that hopefully would be presential. 

 You will be receiving in the next days an individual email to your URJC account with a resume of how you did and what is your mark. Remember: It is only a reference in order to help you to consider what you did right and what wrong. 

This Test has helped me to know a little more of each one you who have participated and  will help me to give you the fairest grade I can by the end of the course. Remember that the final mark will take into consideration how much you have been involved in class. Making the Moot Test, presenting great personalyzed Book Reports and intervening in class durign the time that was possible. And then... the mark you will have in the final exam, that will correspond to the same structure of the Moot Test.

Here you go: 

A. CHRONOLOGY:

a) What happened in?

1. 590-604 (Italy): Pontificate of Gregory 1st
2. 1661 (France): Beginning of personal Reign of Louis XIV. End of Regency.
3. 962-1806 (Germany): Holy Roman Empire: First Reich.
4. 1648 (Germany): Treaty of Westphalia. End of the Thirty Year War.
5. 1787 (North America): Approval by the Philadelphia Continental Congress of Federal US Constitution.
5. July 14, 1790 (France): Fête de la Fédération. National Brotherhood Celebration.
6. June 18, 1815 (Belgium): Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon’s last defeat.
7. March 14, 1861 (Italy): Creation of the Kingdom of Italy
8. 1861-1890 (Germany): Bismarck governs Prussia.
9. 1871 (France): Paris Commune and creation of Second Reich (Versailles)
10. 1916 (France): Verdun’s Battle (21 February to 18th Deecember)
11. 1919 (Russia):  Creation of the Kommintern by Lenin to expand Communist revolution to the World.
12. August 1942-February 1943 (Russia): Battle of Stalingrad. Beginning of Hitler’s defeat.
13. 1949 (China): October: Mao defeats Chiang Kai Sheck and creates People’s Republic of China.
14. 1953 (Russia): Death of Stalin (5 March)
15. April 26, 1986 (Russia): Chernobyl Nuclear explosion
16. August-September 1990 (Germany): Unification Treaty of DDR and BRD.
17. 1979-1990 (UK): Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister
18. 2010-2012 (Middle East): Arab Spring Movement
19.  1479 (Spain): Union of Castile and Aragon under the Catholic Kings. Ferdinand inherits the Crown of Aragon’s Throne.
20. 1818-1834 (Germany): Zollverein. Customs Union headed by Prussia.

b) In Which date happened:

1. The Fall of the Western Roman Empire: 476
2. First Edition of Machiavelli’s “The Prince”: 1513
3. Foundation of Papal States: 754
4: Napoleonic “Empire”:  1804-1814(1815) 1852-1870 is can be complementary but not the only answer.
5. Hitler’s Third Reich (From beginning to end): 1933-1945
6. American Declaration of Independence: 4 July 1776 (Day and month essential)
7. Federation’s Celebration in Paris: 14 July 1790 (Day and month essential)
8. Lord Grey’s Electoral Reform: 1832
9. First Russian Revolution: 1905
10. Wall Street Crisis: 1929 (You can add October if you want)
11. Night of the Long Knives: 1934 (You can add June-July if you want)
12. Launching of Marshall Plan: 1947
13. Creation of NATO:  1949
14. Triumph of Cuban Revolution: 1959
15. Military Coup against Allende: 1973 (You can add September if you want)
16: Jomeiny’s Islamic Revolution in Iran: 1979
17. The Fall of the Berlin Wall: 9 November 1989 (Day and month essential)
18: Beginning of Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela: 1999
19. The Rutli Oath: 1st August 1291 (Day and month essential)
20: Creation of the United Kingdom (Acts of Union): 1707


B. CONCEPTS:


1. Personal law v. Territorial Law

 When the Germans invade the territory of the West Roman Empire they create new kingdoms, but most of their population are Romans and they respect their “personal” law. Every  “nation” (Romans, Visigoths, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Burgundians, etc) have their own law. In some kingdoms the Roman and the Germans will merge. It is the case of the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo since the Middle of the 7th century. They have the same law for all of them. Law has become “territorial”.

2. Assemblies of Estates

 Feudalism brings a new conception of Authority in European constitutional history. It is not based as in the Roman Empire in a conception of a superior Public Power (Imperium) but in a “contract”: the feudal pact.  The king rule with the agreement of the Feudal lords (nobility), because they are part of a “pact”. As time went by the King consulted also the Church authorities (the Bishops) because of the divine conception of royalty, as they were anointed in their Crowning ceremony. Finally, to get rid of the power and influence of the nobility and the clergy, the kings bring into the Assembly meetings the bourgeoisie from the cities. These are the three “Estates” that are convened by the king in an “Assembly of Estates.” Almost all European kingdoms in the Middle Ages have one, but they are called fifferently. In the Iberian Peninsula they are called “cortes” (plural of “court”, referring to the people that assessed the kings through the “curia regia”). In England they are called the Parliament (because their members “speak” (parler ) in French, with the king). In France they are called The General Estates (États Généraux). The original function of these Assemblies of Estates is to agree on the money the realm is going to give to the king. The principle of “no taxation without representation” comes from this. Later these State Assemblies will discuss the legislation (“Statutes”) with the kings. In June 1789 the General French Estates are transformed in “National Assembly”.

3. Roman Universalism

 With the foundations of the Germanic Kingdoms in the 5th century the unity of the West Roman Empire disappears.  Every kingdom has its own sovereign and its own laws. Nevertheless the Church has inherited the idea that all catholics (since 380) are submitted to the same religious authority. The Pope becomes the top ecclesiastical authority since Gregory I (590-604). As he lives in Rome his idea of an only Christian community is called “Roman Universalism”, insisting on the continuity of the principle of one ruler for all. Things become a little more complicated on December 24 800 when the pope Leon III crowns Charlemagne as emperor. The European empire is born but it is still the same idea of referring to the mythical Roman Universal Empire. 

4. Dictatus papae

Document issued in 1075 by the Pope Gregory VII to assess the superiority and independence of the Papacy over the Feudal kings and lords. It is a sort of “Constitution” that justifies the supreme power of the popes (Papal Theocracy) that they exert through the “excommunication” or the banning from the Church. A sanction that transform a king or an emperor  in an “illegitimate” sovereign. This is why popes are politically so powerful. 

5. Mayflower Compact

When the Puritan Pilgrims missed, because they had a lousy pilot, the coast of Virginia, as they realized they were in a new land they decided to create a new political community under the guidance of God. This is why, before leaving the Mayflower ship, on November 11, 1620, all members of the expedition signed this “Pact” or Compact, meaning that the authority of the new community was given by all of its members. This is why it is considered the first “constitutional” document in US history. 

6. Fête de la Fédération

The French celebrate as their national Hollyday July 14th. But not of 1789 but of one year later 1790. They do not commemorate the bloody event of the Bastille’s Storming, but the meeting of delegations coming from all parts of France to celebrate the fact they belonged to the same “nation”, and that they all together held the “National Sovereignty”.

7. Zollverein

The unification of German kingdoms and states is a very long process that started by initiative of Napoleon and did not end until the foundation of the Weimar Republic in 1919. One of the first steps towards German integration is of an economic nature: the abolition of the customs tariffs for importing and exporting goods. On the initiative of the Kingdom of Prussia was created –officially in 1834- a Customs Union (Zollverein), that is a territory were commercial and economic exchanges were easy and costless. It is a precedent for the European integration process that starts in 1950.

8. Bolshevik

Marxism was an effective doctrine for fighting the Human exploitation of workers because of its “Internationalism”. The Communist Manifesto of 1848 ended with an invitation to the workers of all nations-sates to fight together. Since the Socialists internationals were created –the First London in 1864 and the Second in Paris 1889- the strategy for fighting capitalism were decided in Congresses. After the Failure of the Paris Commune in 1871 Marx accepted the principle of “Social democracy” meaning that social equality would be achieved conquering power though democratic elections and not through violence. This is why the anarchist Bakunin was expelled in 1872 from the Socialist International. The first Mass Parties and Trade Unions were created in Germany. The Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschland was created from 1863 to 1890. The same type of mass parties were created everywhere, deciding their political strategies in Congresses. In Russia was created the Russian Social Democratic Party. In its Second Congress, celebrated in 1903, the Radicals guided by Lenin rejected the Social democratic way and opted for the revolutionary. As they were the majority in the Congress they were called “Bolsheviks” to differentiate them from the minority: the  Mensheviks of Martov. 

9. TINA v. TATA

When the Berlin wall collapsed in November 9, 1989 and the Soviet Union disappeared in December 25, 1991 some thinkers believed that Humanity had reached the End of history, as the only system left was American Capitalism and the Neoliberal Way represented by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the American President Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s. Both defended “deregulation” and the retreat of the State and Public powers from intervening in the economy, against what FDR had done with the New Deal in the 1930’s to fight the 1929 Crisis. Against neoliberals some anti-system movements want to reinstitute the principle of Public intervention in the economy to fight social inequalities. Two ways of understanding economy, politics and society are confronted here. The two “Acrostics” TINA (“There is no Alternative” and TATA (“There are thousands of alternatives”) coined respectively by Mrs Thatcher and the activist Susan George resume the confrontation between those who think that there is no alternative to an ever-growing economy and the ones that believe in other options “more human” for avoiding social inequalities.

10. Composite Monarchy

 The medieval kings tried to consolidate their power adding more lands to their realms. Either by conquest, either by getting married to the heirs of kingdoms. The result could be a totally unified realm, as was the case  of Castile, or it could be a reunion of kingdoms under the same sovereign. like happened with the Crown of Aragon, the Spanish Catholic Monarchy or the United Kingdom. The principle was that despite these kingdoms had the same sovereign, every kingdom had its own public institutions and its own laws.It was not a unified monarchy but a “Composite” one.

C. CONCRETE QUESTIONS:


1. Why European Medieval Kings consolidate their power initially through the expansion of their royal jurisdiction instead of directly using legislation?

 Because in the Middle Ages people believed that Law was part of the Creation of the World by God. Since the beginning of time. This is why old tradition and uses (customs) were the only legitimate “Law”. The kings could not create Law, because they were not God. Only their representative on Earth. And their obligation was to respect and make respect the Divine order. So they could not give rules (legislation) but they could act as judges to restore the traditional divine order. This is why they tried to expand their power extending their jurisdiction to cases that traditionally were judged by Feudal or Local courts.

2. How did Hobbes justified Absolutism?

Hobbes witnessed the terrible, long and cruel English Civil War, between Charles I and Oliver Cromwell. The first defending Absolute Monarchy and the Second a Parliamentary Monarchy. Hobbes was specially horrified when the King was beheaded, as he saw this act as a violent rupture of the established order, and in his opinion this led to chaos and anarchy. This is why in his Book Leviathan he wrote that all British subjects (The Commonwealth) should get together and resign their liberty in favour of one legal person the Leviathan that will only have the Power, and will impose order and Law. The Leviathan was to have absolute power because "man was a wolf to man" (Homo homini lupus) and only an Absolute power could restore peace and order. 

3. Why according to the British colonist the British Crown could not legally levy taxes upon them?

Because of the principle of old medieval Assemblies of State, that taxes should be accepted by the subjects. “No taxation without representation”. The British subjects that lived in Great Britain they were presented in Parliament. But the “colonists” did not. So when George III decided he wanted back all the money he had spend sending troops for defending British colons from French Colons in the Indian Wars (1756-1763), the English colons rebelled against his taxes, as they defended they had not been consulted.

4. Explain what  was the “Roman Question” in the Italian unification process

Since 754 the Popes were not only the heads of the Catholic Roman Church, but sovereigns of a territorial kingdom The Papal States. When the “Risorgimento” movement started by mid  19th Century Italy the “patriots” wanted t all territories included in the Italian Peninsula integrated in the same State. The Kingdom of Italy was created in March 17, 1861, but if it had not been a problem chasing the Austrians or the Absolute rulers (as the Kings of Sicily and Naples), with tha Papal states it was another story, as the Pope was still the head of the Church. Rome was protected by the French troupes of Napoleon III married to a Spanish fervent Catholic, Eugenia de Montijo. After the Sedan defeat in 1870 against the Prussians the French soldiers left Rome and the Italian troops occupied the Eternal city that became the Capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The popes did not accept this situation until Mussolini in 1929 signed the Lateran Accords recognizing the independence of the Vatican State.

5.  What was the essential principle of F.D. Roosevel New Deal? Why was it somehow “revolutionary” in the US Constitutional tradition?

The US was the paradigmatic example of a Liberal State where the Government could not intervene in economic matters. Only private interests should deal with economy. This was the rule until the Great Depression occurred in October 1929. The Democrat President F. D. R Roosevelt tried to impose the New Deal, meaning that the State should intervene to help people getting out from poverty and to invest in Public works to reboost the economy. This was considered an heresy by businessmen and the members of the right wing Republican Party  that tried to fight the Administrative State in Congress and in the Supreme Court, with the argument that State intervention in the economy was unconstitutional. The long mandate of FDR (1933-1945) consolidated the principle of New Deal.

D. GENERAL QUESTIONS:

1. What are the main political periods of the French Revolution as far as Monarchy and Republic is concerned and also in terms of “constituent” and legislative assemblies? Remembering the three Revolutionary constitutions will help you considerably.

 There are two main periods: the Constitutional Monarchy (June 1789 to September 1792) and the First Republic (September 1792 to November 1799). The first period can be divided in the Constituent Assembly and the Legislative assembly, that starts after the approval of the 1791 Constitution. France have a king during this period but his powers are limited by the Assembly and the Constitution.  With the Storming of  the Royal Palace, of the Tuileries, in Paris, on August 10, 1792 the monarchical period of the Revolution is over. The War and the Elections to the second constituent assembly, the Convention, bring a new regime : The Republic, with two constitutions (1793 and 1795). The Second one corresponding to the Directory. The period ends with the Napoleon’s coup of November 1799. The Republic would last until December 1804, when Napoleon proclaims himself “Emperor of the French”.

2. What was the Metternich System? How did it start, what was its purpose, how did it work, when and why did it collapse?

 After the Waterloo Defeat  (June 18, 1815) the Post-Napoleonic Era is a fact. The Sovereigns get together in the Vienna Congress and establish, on the initiative of the Tsar Alexander I, a Holy Alliance to re-establish the divine order and the Absolute Monarchy. This is a great pretext for the Austrian Chancellor Metternich to impose a system of Congresses (of Sovereigns, not of people) and military interventions every time a Liberal revolution starts. In Spain, Russia, Italy or wherever. All European States directed by their sovereigns are commited to maintain their union and avoid a new "revolution" in the French style with its Napoleonic corollary. The System works reasonably well until the American Spanish colonies rebel against Fernando VII, because the British think they will be better off with independent colons in terms of making business. Then the Greek liberation war brought an end to the system. Metternich had to flee in 1848 with the Liberal Revolutionary Wave and this bringgs to and end the era of Absolute European monarchies, with the exception of Tsarist Russia, that will not become a Constitutional regime until the Russian revolution of 1905.

3.   How did Austrian Jurist Hans Kelsen (1881-1973) defended the Rule of Law through his Pure Law’s Theory? Consider the two periods of its Legal Thinking: before and after the Third Reich.

 Kelsen was Austrian and was born during the Empire of Franz Joseph and Sissy. In this time the priority for German Jurists (Austrian, Prussian, Bavarian and so on) was to consolidate a strong state. This is what is known as the German Unification process. That started in 1818 with the project of the Zollverein and was consolidated by Bismarck when he became the head of the Prussian Government. After defeating Austria in 1866 and France in 1870, he created the Second Reich in 1871. Prussia was the soul of German Unification through the Northern German Confederation. Unification was consolidated after the defeat in World War I with the Republic of Weimar (1919-1833). In all this period the priority for German Jurists was to consolidate a strong state. This is why Kelsen as everyone else thought that Law should be entirely in control of the state.  Statutes and legislation became law because the state government decided so. There was no division between politics and law. As the second was entirely subject to the first.  Then Hitler came to power in 1933, and legally he established a Dictatorship. Law was the will of the “guide” (Führer) and that was it.

Of course the horrors of Nazism forced Hans Kelsen to flee Europe and take refuge finally in the United States. The consequence was that his vision of the relationship between Law and Politics changed radically. He now understood that the priority was to affirm the “Rule of Law”, that is the submission of the power of the state to the legal rules. He conceived the “Pure Theory of Law”. Law was pure because was not contaminated by politics. People agreed on a Constitutional pact and the created a basic norm (Grundnorm) and the whole legal system derived from the constitution that was the apex of normative Pyramid. The State should respect the hierarchy of the Legal Pyramid. Power was subject to the Law.

E. MIDDLE ENGLAND QUESTION:


What part have the media played in Brexit Success? Explain using characters from the book.

Media are manipulated by the Lobbys in favour of Brexit using populists topics that worry a great part of British population. Lets see some examples. This is just a draft. A brainstorming of ideas. Everyone of you can treat the subject in a different way. here you go with some scaterred ideas you can use....

- Strong nationalism.

Olympic Games. Every character in the book is watching  them. Olympic Games mean something different for every character. Intellectual side for Sophie Trotter and Sohan, music for Philip Chase, Union Jack for Ian Coleman. Doug Anderton admits he is proud to be British.

- Social discontent due to growing inequalities

London and Birmingham riots.  Coriander Anderton participates in London's riots although only as audience but we can see racism and inequalities at the very root. Ian Coleman is badly hurt during Birmingham's riots when he tries to prevent rioters to vandalize a shop. Charlie Chappell who has followed State education puts in evidence that students from private schools have an easier access to University.

- Resentment towards inmigrants.

Naheed promoted in detriment of Ian Coleman. Grete who works as maid in Helena Coleman's house is Lithuanian. She is the victim of a terrible racist agression, Helena refuses to testify in her favour. Helena urges Grete to leave UK.

Passengers in the cruise, especially Mr. Wilcox, consider that BBC has lost his Britishness, it does not gather people around television as it used to. It is defined as elitist, arrogant, metropolitan and far from British real life.

 Benjamin Potter is of the same opinion but not for the same reasons. He senses BBC is not one of British symbols any more because times have changed.

- Nostalgia for the  past (especially colonial).

Helena Coleman at the golf restaurant. The picture on the wall portrays a fox hunt, now forbidden.

Philip Chase owns a little publishing house where all the books published are about England in the past.

Garden centre Woodlands. The garden as a strong English feature i.e. English Gardens.

- Manipulation of the population by the media.

Benjamin Potter's interview where all his words are twisted for a sensationalist purpose.

Gails Ransom appears with her picture on a newspaper front page qualified as a traitor to "the will of the people" for being Bremain.

- Country managed by an irresponsible political and financial elite.

Dialogues between Nigel Ives and Doug Alderton. Members of the Government belong to upper class and have convinced population they are the only ones ready to rule the country. When asked about the riots and the social breach, Nigel's answer is that there is no that breach and solution is having more policemen.

Nigel does not know the word is "Brexit". He thinks is "Brixit", showing total disconnection with British reality.

English fascination for upper class. Doug Anderton has had this fascination, he married a super rich heiress and lives in the best area of London.

Foundation Imperium who is behind Brexit, funded by Ronald Culpepper, a successful businessman only interested in Asian and United States market. He is a strong influence in the Conservative Party. Roland Culpepper owns or have contacts in the newspapers that allow him to spread his ideas and especially his EU hatred and contempt.

- EU perceived as a coercitive organization going against Bristish interests.

Mr. Bishop, father of Ian's best friend considers the EU bureaucracy as a real nightmare.

Political correctness also associated with the EU.

Gail Ransom, conservative member of parliament but very Bremain, visits her chairman, Dennis who considers EU regulations for pigs feeding as utterly wrong.