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Journal - European Studies by Hana Kovacikova

Nordic Journal of European Law, 2023

The rule of law is the hot topic of these days. Especially Poland and Hungary have been for the p... more The rule of law is the hot topic of these days. Especially Poland and Hungary have been for the past eight years proving that they are not afraid to backslide from the values on which the Union is founded, the rule of law among them. The lengthy process on determining whether there exists a ‘clear risk of serious breach’ of the fundamental values by these two Member States, while having a few judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU, proves that the political sanctions envisaged in Article 7 TEU are not an effective tool in dealing with such Member States. Accordingly, this article intends to show the ineffectiveness of political tools and to inquire whether the financial tools contained in the Conditionality Regulation, Common Provision Regulation, and Resilience and Recovery Regulation could be a more effective solution in this regard.

EJTS European Journal of Transformation Studies, 2019

This article deals with the concept of Rule of Law in the process of public procurement. Authors ... more This article deals with the concept of Rule of Law in the process of public procurement. Authors analyse various aspects of the topic from the various points of view. The research is focused on finding, whether and how the rule of law is applied in the process of public procurement, and what are the consequences for its breach.

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, 2019

The paper analyses the legal challenges brought to the Slovak competition law by Directive (EU) 2... more The paper analyses the legal challenges brought to the Slovak competition law by Directive (EU) 2019/1 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 to empower the competition authorities of the Member States to be more effective enforcers and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market. The author selected particular issues from Slovak competition law and compares the state-of-the-art national situation with corresponding parts of this harmonising act. In the paper, specific attention will be given to compliance with safeguards, to the regulation of conflict of interest, to the examination of the effectiveness of enforcement, and to the possibilities of undertakings to avoid their responsibility for the breach of competition law. As the Member States have time for the transposition until 4 February 2021, this paper may initiate the debate on
what to improve in Slovak legislation to achieve the goals set in this Directive.

ICLR, 2018

The authors confront complexness and rigour of EU directives on public procurement vis-à-vis broa... more The authors confront complexness and rigour of EU directives on public procurement vis-à-vis broad wording of international agreements concluded within EU neighbourhood policy. The firs reason for this comparison is ongoing spread of principles of the EU law to the third countries. The second reason is that both rely on the same goals: access to market ad fair environment via transparency because these principles constitute a subtle legal basis for public procurement legislation at all. Finally, these approaches were compared to the approaches employed in recent FTAs-CETA and EUSFTA.
This paper is an output in a project granted by APVV-17-0641: Improvement of effectiveness of legal regulation of public procurement within EU law context

ICLR, 2019

The EU environmental policy is challenged by current international development (withdrawal of the... more The EU environmental policy is challenged by current international development (withdrawal of the US from the Paris climate accord, melting of the Arctic, changes in climate, extreme weather events), the sustainable development policy agenda and also by public pressure. The interest of the public in the environmental policy is not only reflected in the Eurobarometer polls, the increase of green parties in 2019 EP elections, but it is also present in the very first European Citizens’ Initiative, the environmentally oriented Right2Water initiative, which had been presented to the Commission in 2013. Following the need to reflect upon the current problems and challenges, the scope of European Environmental Policy (EEP) has broadened from traditional direct
environmental challenges, such as access to clean water, clean air, maintaining biodiversity also to other areas connected to current challenges as the climate change and sustainable development and into practical implementation in particular internal and external policies – including trade policy, competition policy or public procurement. Following analysis is focused on the position of the green agenda and EEP transfer to legislation in public procurement on European level.

The 5th volume of scholarly journal published by Czech Association for European Studies.

Books by Hana Kovacikova

Hospodárska súťaž – verejné obstarávanie – etablovanie: Úniové pravidlá versus slovenské, 2021

Paper deals with the claim for damages in public procurement. Analysis was provided to find out, ... more Paper deals with the claim for damages in public procurement. Analysis was provided to find out, whether Slovakia complies with the requirements of Remedies Directive 89/665/EEC relating to the right of effective award of damages.

Harmonizácia pravidiel verejného obstarávania v práve medzinárodného obchodu, 2020

Predložená monografia sa zameriava na zadefinovanie úlohy verejného obstarávania v procese štand... more Predložená monografia sa zameriava na zadefinovanie úlohy verejného
obstarávania v procese štandardizácie medzinárodného obchodného prostredia, zistenie stavu a úrovne liberalizácie trhov verejného obstarávania, posúdenie harmonizácie pravidiel verejného obstarávania medzi vybranými aktérmi medzinárodných obchodných vzťahov a rozsah prenosu pravidiel a/alebo princípov verejného obstarávania zabezpečujúcich najlepšiu prax vo verejnom obstarávaní. V ôsmych kapitolách sú obsiahnuté základné východiská medzinárodného obchodu a postavenie verejného obstarávania v tomto systéme.
Predmetom skúmania sú vybrané aspekty týkajúce sa verejného obstarávania – úroveň liberalizácie, pôsobnosť, princípy, využívanie spoločného obstarávacieho slovníka, mechanizmus riešenia sporov a úroveň harmonizácie v pravidlách Svetovej obchodnej organizácie, Európskej únie, Európskom združení voľného obchodu, Európskom hospodárskom priestore, Eurázijskej ekonomickej únii a v rámci Kanadsko-americko-mexickej dohody. Cieľom práce je poskytnúť odpovede na otázky, či sa aktéri medzinárodných obchodných vzťahov snažia dosiahnuť harmonizáciu svojich pravidiel verejného obstarávania a či verejné obstarávanie predstavuje účinný nástroj na export hodnôt do právnych poriadkov iných aktérov medzinárodného práva.

Papers by Hana Kovacikova

The rule of law is the hot topic of these days. Especially Poland and Hungary have been for the p... more The rule of law is the hot topic of these days. Especially Poland and Hungary have been for the past eight years proving that they are not afraid to backslide from the values on which the Union is founded, the rule of law among them. The lengthy process on determining whether there exists a 'clear risk of serious breach' of the fundamental values by these two Member States, while having a few judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU, proves that the political sanctions envisaged in Article 7 TEU are not an effective tool in dealing with such Member States. Accordingly, this article intends to show the ineffectiveness of political tools and to inquire whether the financial tools contained in the Conditionality Regulation, Common Provision Regulation, and Resilience and Recovery Regulation could be a more effective solution in this regard.

International Scientific Conference EMAN. Economics & Management: How to Cope With Disrupted Times, 2021

To exclude or not to exclude? A question asked by many contracting authorities when assessing bid... more To exclude or not to exclude? A question asked by many contracting authorities when assessing bids submitted by tenderers, whose reliability might be compromised by their previous misbehaviour or even worst-a criminal offence. According to law, contracting authorities can exclude such tenderers. However, at the same time, tenderers should be allowed to adopt compliance measures aimed at remedying the consequences of their action. In this article the author analyses some aspects of discretional exclusion of tenderers with doubted reliability in the public procurement process according to the 2014 European Union´s Public Procurement Directive and the recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused disaster in every area of life, public procurement notwithstanding. ... more The COVID-19 pandemic caused disaster in every area of life, public procurement notwithstanding. This article considers the problem of possible misuse of COVID-19 pandemic as a cover to justify uncompetitive tendering of public contracts. It contains the analysis of general conditions set by the EU law and also by national legislation, which must be met while using the method of direct awarding of contracts by contracting authorities, as well as specific conditions clarified by the European Commission in its 2020 Guidance for emergency situation procurement related to COVID-19. It also deals with the Slovak law applicable in this area, and the real practice of Slovak contracting authorities. In this regard, a quantitative analysis was realised to answer the question, whether Slovakia complies with the Union’s rules in both levels – legislative, as well as in practical.

Institute of International Politics ; Economics eBooks, 2021

The loss of transparency. This appears to be the first and most immediate consequence brought by ... more The loss of transparency. This appears to be the first and most immediate consequence brought by COVID-19 to Slovakia from the legal point of view. At the very same time, the loss of transparency causes the loss of proportionality and leads to the breach of the principles of the rule of law and the excessive limitation of the human rights of the population. Slovakia might be the proof of this opinion. During this pandemic, the Slovak authorities have often used the "COVID cover" for a variety of extraordinary measures. For example, legislators adopted or tried to adopt a lot of acts not related to the crisis without usual public discussion and through shortened legislative procedures; public procurers purchased goods and services without competitive tendering and proper justification for the use of direct awarding; measures restricting fundamental rights were adopted by the Public Health Office without legal authorization, etc. The research in this chapter is focused mainly on (not) respecting the principle of proportionality by the Slovak authorities while adopting anti-pandemic measures. During the research, methods such as doctrinal analysis, deduction, comparison, and synthesis will be applied with the aim of assessing the legal challenges brought by COVID-19 to the Slovak Republic. In this regard, the compliance of adopted measures with the Slovak Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights will be tested to find out answers to the following research question: Have the measures adopted by the Slovak authorities complied with the principles of the rule of law?

Strani pravni život, 2020

The European Union pursues on the international scene to safeguards its values, support the rule ... more The European Union pursues on the international scene to safeguards its values, support the rule of law, foster the sustainable economic, social and environmental development and support the integration of all countries into the world economy including through the progressive abolition of barriers on international trade. 1 Trade agreements are used as an effective tool to this end. Within its present external action, European Union tries to cover its trade relations regionally homogenously. Through regionally homogenous trade agreements, Union can export its values, principles, and rules easier, which is also a way of strengthening its position geopolitically. This paper analyses trade agreements concluded between the European Union and candidate countries from Western Balkans. All these agreements recognise the accession to the European Union as their final goal. To achieve it, candidate countries need to fulfil various conditions, including the approximation and harmonisation of their legal orders with the EU acquis. Just recently (in November 2020), Western Balkans countries' leaders announced the creation of Regional Common Market which shall serve as a tool for approximation with European Union´s Internal Market Rules. To this regard, author analysed the European Economic Area, where the export of European Union´s Internal Market Rules was successfully realised, and which might therefore serve as an example for pre-accession cooperation between Western Balkans countries and European Union. Author chose the area of public procurement as a model case study.

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, 2020

Digitalisation has brought new legal challenges even to competition law. The traditional SSNIP te... more Digitalisation has brought new legal challenges even to competition law. The traditional SSNIP test used by competition authorities does not work with online markets, where services or products are made available to consumers free of charge. This paper analyses some aspects of zero-price markets and their assessment from the point of view of European competition authority and from the point of view of the Slovak Antimonopoly Office. Resumé La numérisation a apporté de nouveaux défis juridiques, même en matière de droit de la concurrence. Le test SSNIP traditionnel utilisé par les autorités * Assistant professor at Faculty of Law, Comenius University in Bratislava, hana.kovacikova@ flaw.uniba.sk.

Bratislava law review, Oct 1, 2017

Conclusion of the Trade agreements between the European Union and the third countries is one of t... more Conclusion of the Trade agreements between the European Union and the third countries is one of the displays of the EU´s sovereignty. At the same time, it is an e ective tool for enhancement of the EU´s position within a globalised world of trade. e aim of the trade agreements is to create an easier business environment for (European) entrepreneurs, in particular by removing the customs, opening the public procurement, establishing the common technical standards, setting the rules of solving the disputes. At the same time, the trade agreements guarantee the achieved level of rights and interests protected by law of the European subjects. is leads to exterritorial application of the European law. is article is focused on brief analysis of concluded EU´s trade agreements and their application.

Mezinárodní a srovnávací právní revue, Jun 1, 2018

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, 2019

The paper analyses the legal challenges brought to the Slovak competition law by Directive (EU) 2... more The paper analyses the legal challenges brought to the Slovak competition law by Directive (EU) 2019/1 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 to empower the competition authorities of the Member States to be more effective enforcers and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market. The author selected particular issues from Slovak competition law and compares the state-of-the-art national situation with corresponding parts of this harmonising act. In the paper, specific attention will be given to compliance with safeguards, to the regulation of conflict of interest, to the examination of the effectiveness of enforcement, and to the possibilities of undertakings to avoid their responsibility for the breach of competition law. As the Member States have time for the transposition until 4 February 2021, this paper may initiate the debate on what to improve in Slovak legislation to achieve the goals set in this Directive.

Strani pravni život, 2019

Article deals with the conflict of interest occurring in the process of public procurement. Confl... more Article deals with the conflict of interest occurring in the process of public procurement. Conflict of interest is a negative phenomenon, which is generally forbidden. Contracting authorities are obliged to adopt adequate measures to prevent and remedy conflict of interest. If they fail to fulfil this obligation, consequences may appear in the form of cancellation of the procurement process, or even in the form of claim for damages caused by maladministration. Author compares European Union´s and Slovak approach to this topic with regard to recent case law of the courts of the European Union.

Compliance with pre public procurement principles is the basic prerequisite of sound procurement.... more Compliance with pre public procurement principles is the basic prerequisite of sound procurement. Sound procurements as its consequence ensures effective spending of the public finances. The article is focused on analysis of application of public procurement principles in the decisive practice of the Slovak courts and European courts.

Nordic Journal of European Law, 2023

EJTS European Journal of Transformation Studies, 2019

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, 2019

ICLR, 2018

ICLR, 2019

The 5th volume of scholarly journal published by Czech Association for European Studies.

Hospodárska súťaž – verejné obstarávanie – etablovanie: Úniové pravidlá versus slovenské, 2021

Harmonizácia pravidiel verejného obstarávania v práve medzinárodného obchodu, 2020

The rule of law is the hot topic of these days. Especially Poland and Hungary have been for the p... more The rule of law is the hot topic of these days. Especially Poland and Hungary have been for the past eight years proving that they are not afraid to backslide from the values on which the Union is founded, the rule of law among them. The lengthy process on determining whether there exists a 'clear risk of serious breach' of the fundamental values by these two Member States, while having a few judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU, proves that the political sanctions envisaged in Article 7 TEU are not an effective tool in dealing with such Member States. Accordingly, this article intends to show the ineffectiveness of political tools and to inquire whether the financial tools contained in the Conditionality Regulation, Common Provision Regulation, and Resilience and Recovery Regulation could be a more effective solution in this regard.

International Scientific Conference EMAN. Economics & Management: How to Cope With Disrupted Times, 2021

Institute of International Politics ; Economics eBooks, 2021

Strani pravni život, 2020

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, 2020

Bratislava law review, Oct 1, 2017

Mezinárodní a srovnávací právní revue, Jun 1, 2018

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, 2019

The paper analyses the legal challenges brought to the Slovak competition law by Directive (EU) 2... more The paper analyses the legal challenges brought to the Slovak competition law by Directive (EU) 2019/1 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 to empower the competition authorities of the Member States to be more effective enforcers and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market. The author selected particular issues from Slovak competition law and compares the state-of-the-art national situation with corresponding parts of this harmonising act. In the paper, specific attention will be given to compliance with safeguards, to the regulation of conflict of interest, to the examination of the effectiveness of enforcement, and to the possibilities of undertakings to avoid their responsibility for the breach of competition law. As the Member States have time for the transposition until 4 February 2021, this paper may initiate the debate on what to improve in Slovak legislation to achieve the goals set in this Directive.

Strani pravni život, 2019

Mezinárodní a srovnávací právní revue, Dec 1, 2018

The authors confront complexness and rigour of EU directives on public procurement vis-à-vis broa... more The authors confront complexness and rigour of EU directives on public procurement vis-à-vis broad wording of international agreements concluded within EU neighbourhood policy. The firs reason for this comparison is ongoing spread of principles of the EU law to the third countries. The second reason is that both rely on the same goals: access to market ad fair environment via transparency because these principles constitute a subtle legal basis for public procurement legislation at all. Finally, these approaches were compared to the approaches employed in recent FTAs-CETA and EUSFTA. This paper is an output in a project granted by APVV-17-0641: Improvement of effectiveness of legal regulation of public procurement within EU law context

Strani pravni zivot

International and Comparative Law Review

Summary Research in this article is focused on the analysis of the character of the European Econ... more Summary Research in this article is focused on the analysis of the character of the European Economic Area. It presents a common market for thirty states from European Union (27) and European Free Trade Association (3) established by the Agreement on the European Economic Area. When regarding the size, EU is the bigger player in this relationship compared to EFTA States. On the other side, regarding the principles of international law, parties are equal to each other. These initial thoughts raised author´s interest to find out, whether this economic integration model is symmetric or asymmetric in its nature, regarding its contracting parties. Article provides an answer to this question as well as an insight on the consequences of such regime.

In the current globalised business world, a trade is often used as a tool to export Human Rights ... more In the current globalised business world, a trade is often used as a tool to export Human Rights Protection concept (or the part of it) even to the countries, which do not recognise them. Comprehensive trade agreements between states or transnational corporations, which are relevant global players at the international business world, always contain some requirements for Human rights, labour rights, rule of law, environmental conditions or poverty alleviation. This approach follows the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (hereinafter only “UDHR”), which (in its Preamble) stipulates, that every individual and every organ of society should promote respect for these rights and freedoms and to secure their universal and effective recognition. Current trends in international law abandoned the classical concept of application of international principles only to governments towards wider concept to governments and companies. In this new trend, transnational company is understood to be an ...

International Organizations and States’ Response to COVID-19, 2021

Bratislava Law Review, 2017

Conclusion of the Trade agreements between the European Union and the third countries is one of t... more Conclusion of the Trade agreements between the European Union and the third countries is one of the displays of the EU´'s sovereignty. At the same time, it is an effective tool for enhancement of the EU´'s position within a globalised world of trade. The aim of the trade agreements is to create an easier business environment for (European) entrepreneurs, in particular by removing the customs, opening the public procurement, establishing the common technical standards, setting the rules of solving the disputes. At the same time, the trade agreements guarantee the achieved level of rights and interests protected by law of the European subjects. This leads to exterritorial application of the European law. This article is focused on brief analysis of concluded EU´'s trade agreements and their application.

Bratislava Law Review, 2017

This paper deals with recent actions of the Commission with respect to EU State Aid rules. The Co... more This paper deals with recent actions of the Commission with respect to EU State Aid rules. The Commission is looking at the compliance with EU State Aid rules of certain tax practices in some Member States in the context of aggressive tax planning by multinationals, with a view to ensure a level playing field. A number of multinational companies are using tax planning strategies to reduce their global tax burden, by taking advantage of the technicalities of tax systems, and substantially reducing their tax liabilities. This aggressive tax planning practice erodes the tax bases of Member States, which are already financially constrained.

International and Comparative Law Review, 2018

Strani pravni zivot, 2019