Volume 11 (2015): Issue 2 (December 2015)

Economic theory and practice of developed countries have shown that the good functioning of market economies requires the existence of stable institutions that are effective in the application of legal rules as a precondition for the proper functioning of the economic and fiscal system.

In the process of building a market economy in Southeast European countries, along with the sector of legal economy there coexists a large sector of shadow economy, tax evasion and high levels of corruption.

Analyses made by many authors and relevant national and international institutions estimate that the amount of the shadow economy, tax evasion and corruption in the analyzed countries despite a declining trend in the last decade continues to be at the level of 25-50% compared with the legal sector of the economy.

The author aims through a comparative approach to analyze the level of the shadow economy, tax evasion and corruption in the economies of Southeast Europe and provides some recommendations for governments to overcome these negative phenomena.

The paper analyzes the impact of massive capital flows and possible sudden stops on current account reversals. The aim of this paper is to consider the relationship between sudden stops and current account reversals in the eurozone and to explain the possibility of a balance-of-payment crisis within a monetary union.

Peripheral eurozone countries experienced significant private-capital inflows from the core countries, followed by unambiguously massive outflows. Due to this, peripheral countries ran sustained current account deficits while core countries ran surpluses.

At the end we analyze the evolution of current-account balances in the non-euro area EU countries and the peripheral euro-area countries, and we find out that current account deficits could be maintained over a longer period of time in the peripheral euro-area countries.

This article aims to present the main findings of a small scale project developed with third year students of the Faculty of Law at South East European University regarding assessment of advocacy skills. The author who works as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Law has developed a pilot project aiming to create a new methodology on assessment. Advocacy skills represent the main learning outcome for law students in different universities. Oral assessment in faculties of law has evolved in interesting ways thoroughly described in this article. The aim of this pilot project was to establish an objective and comprehensive methodology of assessment that includes oral presentations of case studies as well as oral assessment in the final exam. The author explains the challenges faced during the development of this pilot project and the creation of assessment rubrics. The author discusses the results of the project and gives an explanation of the way the project was developed and conducted. The conclusions and the recommendations given at the end discuss the importance of development of oral assessment techniques and provide certain insight information regarding the experience of teaching in the Faculty of Law. The author argues that oral assessment should be regarded as a very important asset which needs to be developed further with the aim of providing students the possibility to gain effective advocacy skills during their education.

Many governments in the world have created e-government initiatives including developed and developing countries. In order to better understand e-government evolution, different maturity models have been developed by many authors. In this paper the most cited e-government maturity models are analyzed using the meta-synthesis approach. As a result, five stages of e-government maturity are identified. The comparative results show the supported stages by each e-government initiative as important elements in the decision making process. This paper is attempting to show that although there are many models for measuring e-government maturity, they all converge on one common model. The contribution of this paper is in simplifying work for researchers when choosing the right maturity model.

The end of the Cold War resulted in a diffusion of the level of threat worldwide and concluded the system of bipolarity in the world. Beside the European continent, where the rivalries were at the highest level, the consequences of the end of the Cold War were especially visible in North-East Asia. A decrease of military activities of Russia and China, and the retreat of the USA from the region, give way for improvement of political and economical relations between the countries of the region. The end of hostilities produced by the Cold War no doubt have relaxed relations between countries in the region and opened ways for a new more peaceful co-existence. However, this does not mean that the region is not vulnerable to some of the hot spots such as North Korea, Spratly Parcels and especially Taiwan Strait. The latter is considered to be the most dangerous potential Asian zone of crisis in the twenty-first century.

The East Asian countries such as China, Japan and other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries are the world’s most growing economies and, at the same time, leaders in military acquisition; therefore, the potential for conflict and crises is current and real. This article examines one of these hot spots, namely the Taiwan Strait dispute, and assesses the possibility of this issue leading to a war between China, the USA and Japan. In order to have a clear view of the dispute the author will reveal some data in the introduction and then will explore relations, conflicts and interests between China, the USA and Japan vis-à-vis Taiwan and assess the risk that these countries might be drawn in potential war over the Taiwan Strait.

This research article analyzes the right of disposal of marital property in relation to the undertaking of those legal actions that imply the highest authorizations that legal subjects can have over things.

Having in consideration the fact that according to the legislation in the Republic of Macedonia, marital property is joint as are the authorizations of spouses over their joint items, it is important to determine the extent of the disposal, i.e. who disposes of the items of the joint property and to what extent. Referring to the normative framework, which regulates disposal relations of spouses, the article emphasizes the concept and importance of the authorization of disposal of things (alienation or assignment of things from joint ownership), through legal activities (sale, donation, exchange, etc.). In this context, the article tends to draw a divisive line between the administration with the joint item, referring to continuative actions and measures and the disposal of the thing, which is not continuative but, due to legal consequences it causes, has great importance in practice, and as a result, enjoys greater attention in legislators in terms of its limitation compared to the acts of administration with joint items in marriage.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the importance of soft skills in the context of higher education and in the context of the foreign language learning classroom. The article aims to define the notion of soft skills and to offer possible ways of grouping soft skills. It also provides ways of including soft skills instruction in the context of higher education. In addition, the article aims to propose models of implementing soft skills in foreign language learning and teaching situations and to suggest teaching procedures and activities which will facilitate the introduction of soft skills in the EFL (English as a foreign language) classroom at South East European University. The article also aims to discuss the need of including soft skills in undergraduate studies curricula and to provide arguments in favour of including soft skills. The article will also present participants’ views and perceptions, collected via survey, of the importance and necessity of soft skills for their future careers and workplaces. The conclusion will offer some practical suggestions regarding soft skill inclusion in the EFL classroom.

This paper gives a retrospective of the events in the Balkans in the last 20 years. Hence, it indicates the problems, the progress and the challenges in terms of respecting and promoting diversity. The Western Balkans has always been a very interesting region with many challenges during different historical periods. If we take into consideration all the differences and diversities in this region, then this shouldn’t strike us as surprising. During history the Balkan region has always been a crossroads of many events, conflicts, changes and destructive occurrences. In order to understand the connection between ethnic and the religious diversity, as well as the future of the Western Balkan countries in terms of Euro-Atlantic integration, we need to provide some information about the political, economic and social changes in these countries during the past, especially in the last two decades.

To get a better understanding of all the processes and events we need to take a look at the 90s of the last century. This period was one of the most important turning points in international relations. By the end of the Cold War there were two blocks within the societies – The Western (capitalist) and the Eastern (communist), and an agreement for the Balkans to be a balance between these two blocks. This fact was important for the promotion of the concept of the nation-state, which refers generally to both of the blocks. However, changes such as the dissolution and breakdown of the USSR and Yugoslavia, as well as the official Eastern bloc fiasco, brought an increase in the individual identity of the citizens living in these countries.

This was the beginning of a new era to be characterized by conflicts, wars, refugees, humanitarian crises, a large number of casualties and injured people, because of the idea that the emerging countries, especially from the Balkan region, should be nation-state countries, i.e. composed of a nation thereby ignoring the ethnic and religious differences or the unrecognized diversity of the citizens of different ethnic groups living in these countries.

The establishment of the Euro-Atlantic integration concept as a key national and state priority of almost every country in this region led to the understanding of differences as an asset, and not as an obstacle for the faster integration to the EU and NATO. This fact undoubtedly contributed to the establishment of the criteria for membership, and in particular to the promotion of the rights and freedoms of minorities as most important for the integration process.

Population aging is becoming an inevitable phenomenon in Albanian post-socialist society, posing multi-faceted challenges to its individuals, families and society as a whole. Since 1991, the Albanian population has been exposed to intensive demographic changes caused by unintended aspects of socio-economic transition from a planned socialist economy to a market-oriented capitalist one (Hoff, 2008). Ongoing processes of re-organization of social institutions increased its socio-economic insecurity leading to the application of various coping mechanisms. While adjusting themselves to other aspects of life, people changed their decisions of having children and leaving the country (Hoff, 2008). On the other hand, replacement of former traditional extended family forms with diverse living arrangements and family structures has been the outcome of the combination of three factors: falling fertility, increasing life expectancy and increasing migration (INSTAT, 2014).

However, family remains the basic social unit that provides support, care and protection for its old members even though its capacities are diminishing. Family Life Cycle Theory views family development as a series of stages where family members deal with various developmental tasks and play different roles as they move from one stage to another.

This paper examines population aging in Albanian post-socialist society (after 1990). Based on Family Life Cycle Theory and Family Development Theory, it reviews literature and uses secondary data to discuss its implications for elderly care and family life. It concludes that population aging requires better understanding of this process in order to facilitate a series of family adaptations to respond to the changing needs of its elderly members.

In the Medieval period, Roman law and canon law formed ius commune or the common European law. The similarity between Roman and canon law was that they used the same methods and the difference was that they relied on different authoritative texts. In their works canonists and civilists combined the ancient Greek achievements in philosophy with the Roman achievements in the field of law. Canonists were the first who carried out research on the distinctions between various legal sources and systematized them according to a hierarchical order. The Medieval civilists sought solutions in canon law for a large number of problems that Justinian’s Codification did not hinge on or did it only superficially. Solutions offered by canon law were accepted not only in the civil law of Continental Europe, but also in the English law.