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This special issue on Logic and Law consists of four research papers and one interview focusing on epistemological reflections on relationships between logic and law, whether in a reductionist or complementary approach. Logic aims to elucidate through formal frameworks, yet it often grapples with the intricate nuances of everyday legal discourse. While law endeavors to delineate permissible conduct within defined jurisdictions, it often encounters challenges stemming from the ambiguity of terms, leading to frequent judicial interpretations and the perception that proliferating exceptions undermines the efficacy of the rule itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correlation between international regulations and domestic regulations in the field of human rights and freedoms" analyses the relationship and mutual impact between international human rights norms and standards and the domestic legislation of the States. The paper investigates the importance and ways in which international regulations influence and are implemented in the domestic legislation of States to ensure the protection and observance of human rights. First of all, States have to pass appropriate domestic legislation to implement and give practical effect to international human rights norms and standards. This means that domestic regulations must be consistent with States' international obligations and ensure the protection and respect of human rights at a national level. Secondly, international human rights regulations can serve as instruments for interpreting and applying domestic law. States can use international standards as references for interpreting and applying their domestic laws, thereby ensuring that human rights are duly observed and protected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Libertarian punishment theory was initially articulated by Murray N. Rothbard and Walter E. Block. It was broken down into four separate stages. To a great degree, this theory was accepted by Eduardo Blasco and Davie Marcos. However, they maintain it is in need of some slight adjustments and improvements, mainly dealing with the interest rate. The present paper claims their suggestion while valid, is unnecessary, since this theory already incorporates that element, at least implicitly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the conception of Anthony J. Cesario about the philosophy of animal rights is critically reviewed. His approach is a valiant effort to defend the philosophy of animal rights. He is a moderate on this matter, offering all sorts of compromises. He applies an unusual insight to this matter with using the libertarian doctrine of evictionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discloses the situation, specifics, tendencies, and limitations of employers’ adjustment to employee financial participation (sharing shares) in companies in Lithuania. Three main tools are analyzed: the issuance of employee shares (known since 1990); a share granting (effective since 2018); and employee stock options. The empirical part of the paper is based on interviews conducted in 2019 and repeated in 2022–2023 with expert lawyers from Lithuanian law firms, alongside a survey of Lithuanian companies. The following aspects were analyzed: employers’ knowledge of the possibilities of involving employees in company management (activities); instruments used by employers to implement employee financial participation; reasons that prevent successful employee involvement and barriers from the perspective of employees; tax-related issues; and measures that could facilitate greater employee involvement within the company. The research results show that there is a tendency that promotion via shares is becoming more popular and that business culture is slowly evolving. Employee stock options are the most used instrument, surpassing the use of statutory tools to grant shares to employees.

This paper investigates the constitutional adjustments Kosovo should make in the EU accession process. Because European integration may necessitate fundamental changes in the constitutional principles, the paper will address them by offering concrete solutions to issues such as the primacy of EU law and the transfer of sovereignty. Issues related to human rights, such as the right to vote and to stand as a candidate at municipal elections and the right to freedom of movement. The path followed by other countries in the process of adapting their constitutions to EU law represents a very rich constitutional experience; therefore, this article clarifies concrete issues presented by the Kosovo Constitution.

Smart cities are purported to produce vast amounts of data of immense value, both commercially and from a governance perspective. The control and stewardship of this smart city data remains controversial, with concerns for the role of the individual smart citizens and the control they exercise over the data they generate. Elinor Ostrom's Nobel prize winning work on long-lasting and sustainable commons has been suggested as a solution, whereby the commons management principles would be applied to smart city data. This paper seeks to identify the current applications of Ostrom's commons to smart city data in literature, as well as explore their legal implications. Particularly, what legal challenges may arise from the smart city data commons, and how they could be addressed through legislative frameworks. The article aims to identify and highlight these legal challenges and thereby provide a legal perspective on the concept of smart city data commons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research paper is to examine the impact of monetary policy conditions on bank risk-taking in the Western Balkan countries. The paper tries to identify if monetary policy conditions, especially money interest rates, may induce a greater appetite for bank risk-taking in the Western Balkan countries. The impact of macroeconomic and banking indicators on bank risk-taking will be examined, too. For this purpose, we apply pooled OLS techniques, Fixed and Random effects panel, and Hausman-Taylor Instrumental IV model. The econometric results show a negative correlation between the monetary policy rate and bank risk-taking, rejecting the hypothesis that monetary policy rates indicate bank risk increase. However, expansive credit policies or loan portfolio growth have a positive impact on bank risk-taking in the Western Balkans. The study is original, and its findings will be of value to Central Banks and other policymakers in the Western Balkan countries.

Two phenomena have been present in multiethnic/multinational Bosnia and Herzegovina since its independence from SFR Yugoslavia: massive depopulation and strong nationalism(s). Although nationalism influences which nation/ethnic group should produce and how, the links connecting these nationalistic ideologies and pronatalist population policies in the country/entity have been, almost paradoxically, left on the margins of the previous studies. This paper asks to what extent nationalist ideologies are present in the pronatalist population policy discourse in the Serb-dominated entity Republic of Srpska and what nationalism it is. After developing Spectrum of Nationalism(s), a framework underlined by Siniša Malešević’s views on nationalism and ethnicity as ideologies, the paper provides an overview of Bosnia’s demographic processes and brief insights into Republic of Srpska pronatalist policies through a semi-structured literature review. Keeping in mind that media profoundly influences public opinion, discursively moulding policy debates, two most recent cases of pronatalist campaigns and programs in the Republic of Srpska: Let Our Children Be Born and National Programme of Demographic Revival, are analysed via critical discourse analysis (CDA). Selected media articles predominantly cover the period from 2018 onwards, concentrating on the commentaries of the ruling SNSD political nomenklatura. The analysis displays the powerful influence of nationalism on the discourse on population policies. However, on the spectrum of nationalism(s), civic nationalism seems only to be pro forma defined, while in RS’s reality, the abovementioned path has continued toward an ethnonationalism direction.

This paper explores some of the basic similarities and differences between fault-based and no-fault systems of automobile accident insurance from the perspective of a U.S. state and the laws of Macedonia. The majorities of U.S. states have adopted an at-fault system of compensation and therefore share more similarities with Macedonia than the laws of a dozen U.S. states that have adopted a no-fault system. Whereas Macedonia employs a system of nearly universal health care, such is not the case in the United States. The respective states have adopted either a fault-based system or a no-fault system, but in either case issues of coverage for automobile accidents is more complicated for the lack of a nationalized health care system that at minimum acts as a safety net for treatment of injuries related to automobile accidents. It is posited that complications relating to the lack of universal health care coverage in the United States has led to significantly heightened regulatory intervention by the several states such that the similarities between the free-market approach of the states and of civil law (code) systems are greater than the differences. The paper is not based on empirical data of the legal systems or the medical systems, nor is the undeniable interrelation between a medical system and the corresponding legal system with regard to insurance coverage of primarily health-based issues considered other than to highlight how both may play a part in regulation of the automobile accident insurance industry in light the involvement of public health, safety and welfare.

This paper explores the “triangulation approach” in social science research methods. Triangulation is an emerging method specifically in qualitative and multi-method studies. Researchers in the social sciences have increased their use of the triangulation approach recently due to the merits of this approach, especially to conduct in-depth studies through multiple inquiries. Simultaneously, this method has criticism and misconceptions among social researchers in terms of what it is, how it can be used, and the credibility of the findings when used. Therefore, this paper analyses in depth what triangulation is, the types of triangulations and how they can be applied in the social sciences.

Legal translation has acquired ever increasing importance within translation studies. The paper focuses on the complexity of legal translations on account of a series of characteristics such as: lack of equivalent terminology, cultural differences, legal style conventions, etc. It turns out that legal translation is a special type that involves mediating between different languages and different cultures and legal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental law concepts are expressed in conventions, international binding laws, state practice and soft law commitments. They may be applicable to all foreign community members. These are widely recognized and even approved in the practice of the state. A special feature of international environmental law is that many environmental issues are governed by non–binding soft–law instruments that allow faster responses to international environmental issues. Governments tend to resist legally binding treaty regulation for different reasons but are much more likely to adopt a written action plan or resolution, at least voicing a political will to address an issue. The numerous constitutional standards of several countries must be followed when negotiating international agreements: for example, the way the national parliament must approve and enforce a treaty. The paper investigates the regulation system of international environmental law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the legal nature of concessionaire and PPP contract in Albanian Legislation and through the perspective of European legislation analyzing mainly the Italian and French legislation and doctrine in this area. The main hypothesis that this paper aims to address is related to the fact, if it is enough to categorize these kinds of contracts with a hybrid status between public and private law, or the fact that so many countries appellate more and more to the concessionaire and PPP contracts is the momentum to create a separate law discipline as so many universities in France, USA, Japan do. Also, this paper aims to make a comparative study of Albanian legislation in the area of concessionaire and PPP contracts with the European legislation being the fact that for Albania this is a new area, and is a considerable lake of doctrine and legal studies that analyze the specifics and characteristics of such kind of contracts, putting at the last instance not only the Albanian contractual authorities but also the national courts in difficulties of implementation and interpretation.

Education, innovation, the labour force, and new businesses are considered the key important sectors (factors) for developed and emerging economies. The paper analyses are performed by using the Cobb Douglas production function for analysing the impact and correlation of these factors (variables) on the economic growth of Kosova during the period 2013 - 2021. The variables of public expenditures on education as a percentage of GDP and the labour force have shown a negative impact on growth and they have operated under decreasing returns to scale (based on the Cobb-Douglas function), while the variables of information, computer and telecommunication services (which refer to innovation technology) and new business creation have indicated a positive impact on growth and they have operated under increasing returns to scale (based on the Cobb-Douglas function). In addition, this paper summarized a few useful conclusions: first, public expenditure on education should provide an important contribution on growth; second, enhancing the role of education to improve and develop new knowledge for the labour force in Kosova, and at the same time, to adapt with new labour market demand; third, information, computer and telecommunication is one of the leading export sectors and this sector should provide higher potential and contributions on the economic growth of Kosova; fourth, new businesses creation should provide a significant contribution to increase economic growth. These variables in many countries have made a key value contribution to the economy by driving it toward sustainability, development, and growth.

Knowing that language is often used as a classifier of human intelligence and the development of systems that understand human language remains a challenge all the time (Kryeziu & Shehu, 2022). Natural Language Processing is a very active field of study, where transformers have a key role. Transformers function based on neural networks and they are increasingly showing promising results. One of the first major contributions to transfer learning in Natural Language Processing was the use of pre-trained word embeddings in 2010 (Joseph, Lev, & Yoshua, 2010). Pre-trained models like ELMo (Matthew, et al., 2018) and BERT (Delvin, et al., 2019) are trained on large corpora of unlabeled text and as a result learning from text representations has achieved good performance on many of the underlying tasks on datasets from different domains. Pre-training in the language model has proven that there has been an improvement in some aspects of natural language processing, based on the paper (Dai & Le, 2015). In present paper, we will pre-train BERT on the task of Masked Language Modeling (MLM) with the Albanian language dataset (alb_dataset) that we have created for this purpose (Kryeziu et al., 2022). We will compare two approaches: training of BERT using the available OSCAR dataset and using our alb_dataset that we have collected. The paper shows some discrepancies during training, especially while evaluating the performance of the model.

The article aims to provide an overview of the interrelationships between public knowledge, attitudes, and practical behaviours in the context of a global pandemic and the risk management measures used by the government. By reviewing some of the key trends in crisis management in Lithuania, it seeks to explore the response of society. The aim of the paper is to analyse the interrelationship among subjective public informativeness, attitudes, and behaviours according to different socio-demographic aspects. To meet the main objective of the paper, a representative public survey (N-804) on attitudes towards COVID-19 was conducted (at the end of 2020). The survey sought to explore individual self-protection measures, attitudes towards the dangerousness of the virus, the measures used by the government to combat the pandemic, and prevalent stereotypes and their implications on personal behaviour. The paper discusses the indicators, which are divided into separate blocks, on the basis of which the responses of the study participants are summed up and evaluated on a three-level (good, average, poor) rating scale, followed by correlation analyses on various socio-demographic parameters. The survey revealed that a higher proportion of Lithuanian society behaved responsibly, even being moderately informed and characterised by diverse attitudes.

This paper analyses the concept of accessibility of legal aid for children in conflict with the law, searching for its essential elements in international standards and national practices. By analysing the comparative empirical data on legal regulation in different European jurisdictions, the authors of the paper discuss what it means for legal aid to be accessible to children and what could be done to strengthen it. The paper argues that the goal of improving access to legal aid for children in conflict with the law should be approached from various directions, including the provision of information on legal aid in a child-friendly and age-appropriate manner, the strengthening of children’s legal education, the dissemination of child-friendly materials, and the training and specialisation of legal aid lawyers and other professionals.

Authorship Analysis (AA) is a natural language processing field that examines the previous works of writers to identify the author of a text based on its features. Studies in authorship analysis include authorship identification, authorship profiling, and authorship verification. Due to its relevance, to many applications in this field attention has been paid. It is widely used in the attribution of historical literature. Other applications include legal linguistics, criminal law, forensic investigations, and computer forensics. This paper aims to provide an overview of the work done and the techniques applied in the authorship analysis domain. The examination of recent developments in this field is the principal focus. Many different criteria can be used to define a writer’s style. This paper investigates stylometric features in different author-related tasks, including lexical, syntactic, semantic, structural, and content-specific ones. A lot of classification methods have been applied to authorship analysis tasks. We examine many research studies that use different machine learning and deep learning techniques. As a means of pointing the direction for future studies, we present the most relevant methods recently proposed. The reviewed studies include documents of different types and different languages. In summary, due to the fact that each natural language has its own set of features, there is no standard technique generically applicable for solving the AA problem.

The aim of the paper is to explore the discourse strategies of the Party of Labor of Albania to eliminate its enemies in the early years of establishing communism in the country. The contention is that PLA and its leaders made possible the elimination of thousands of people by normalizing the process. The enemies of the party were declared enemies of the people and as such, they had to disappear in one way or another, so that the integrity of the body politics could be preserved. The class enemy was considered a parasite that should be eliminated in the name of social prophylaxis. By using discourse analyses the paper will investigate the discursive strategies followed by the communist party and its leader when addressing the class enemy. Speeches of Enver Hoxha in Party Congresses, Plenums, and gatherings with people will be analyzed. Only by normalizing the process of elimination of everyone who was depicted as an enemy, did the communist party make possible the elimination of thousands of people. Normalization is understood as the standardization of the procedure so that everyone knew in advance what would happen if someone had to be declared an enemy of the people. The paper will analyze the vocabulary used to portray the class enemy and his/her destiny in specific cases. The study has analyzed the speeches given to justify the elimination of Patër Anton Harapi, Lef Nosi, Maliq Bej Bushat, dom Lazër Shantoja, dom Ndre Zadeja, and the sabotage group of the Maliqi swamp. The analysis covers the period immediately after the end of the IIWW when communists seized the power.

This paper aims at looking at Shakespeare’s character Falstaff through the prism of some of the seven deadly sins. The paper doesn’t claim that it explores all the sins present in Falstaff’s personality. The main sins that this paper examines in Falstaff’s personality are the sins of gluttony, lust, avarice, sloth, and pride. The presence of so many sins in the personality of one character that are interconnected is known as concatenation of sins. As Bernard Spivack (1958) and David Wiles (1987) have explained, in many ways Falstaff serves as the Vice figure from the morality plays tempting Prince Hal. Since in the morality plays the Vice figure stems and is associated mainly to the seven deadly sins, this paper will try to show that the fact that Falstaff possesses so many sins can facilitate the possibility of him being identified as stemming from the Vice figure from the morality plays. I will try to find each of the afore-mentioned sins by analyzing Falstaff actions and inactions and by trying to find characteristics of the sins present in Falstaff’s behavior. This paper will also look at Falstaff’s fate and whether there is any similarity between the fate of the Vice figure in the morality plays and the fate of Falstaff in the second part.

This paper aims to assess selected municipalities’ performance of citizen-centric investment planning, governance and transparency, financial management, and support for youth programming in Kosovo. In completing this assessment, the Municipal Performance Management System of the Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA) in Kosovo was utilized. Selected municipalities are based on the Municipal Performance Report of 2019. Eight from Albanian majority municipalities in the top ranking, and two municipalities with higher scores from minority municipalities. The paper aims to highlight three critical local government issues in ten selected municipalities: 1) The way of governing municipalities assessed according to the applicable legislation and 2) The provision of services in terms of quantity and quality, when possible and 3) Youth-oriented capacity building for municipal staff for better youth services (Ministry of Local Government Administration, 2019). The paper will produce findings on capacity building needs and support needed on youth and citizen-centric investment and capacity building needs. A non-exhaustive list of needed capacities is produced, while the findings from the evaluation will be used to develop a capacity-building manual for municipal staff on youth-oriented municipal services.

The article analyses the prospects for the application of artificial intelligence in the delivery of justice by courts. The application of artificial intelligence is increasingly spreading in various different areas of life - both in the daily life of individuals and in the public sector. One of the main areas where artificial intelligence is already being applied is in the area of justice. However, given the complexity and importance of this field, the question arises whether artificial intelligence could really replace the person of the judge. In order to answer this question, the authors first assess what constitutes the delivery of justice. Secondly, the authors analyse the concept of artificial intelligence and the possibilities of its use. Thirdly, the authors assess the potential and risks of artificial intelligence in the delivery of justice. The paper reviews various artificial intelligence models already in use around the world and assesses the application of various technologies (large language models such as ChatGPT) in the court. Finally, conclusions are drawn as to whether artificial intelligence can replace the person of the judge.

The articles discusses the application of the concept of retorsion in relation to defensive measures against hostile cyber operations. Retorsion is a concept not regulated by international law, which gives the victim state a high degree of flexibility in its use. However, its limits are formed by the rules of international law (retorsion is an unfriendly act not prohibited by international law). The paper is divided into three main parts. The first part discusses the concept of retorsion in general terms and its relation to cyber operations, the second part defines the relationship between retorsion, countermeasures, plea of necessity and the right of self-defence, and the third part consists of in-depth analysis of states’ practice. The analysis of states’ practices includes both the actual measures that states have taken in response to cyber operations (e.g. expulsion of diplomats, economic sanctions, travel bans) and official statements on the issue that have been published, particularly in the period 2019–2022. Attention is also paid to the possibilities of using retorsion against cyber operations carried out by non-state actors.

Although remote criminal proceedings have existed in Lithuania for some time, they have never been used as extensively as during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic demonstrated that remote criminal proceedings could help prevent the spread of infectious diseases and at the same time facilitate the criminal justice process by eliminating, for example, the need to spend time travelling to the location of the proceedings or wasting other resources. For this reason, even after the COVID-19 pandemic, remote criminal proceedings remained popular. However, the remote criminal process is not a neutral substitute for the in-person criminal proceedings. It has an impact on the traditional paradigm of criminal proceedings that is not always positive. This article discusses the regulation of remote criminal proceedings in Lithuania by presenting the findings of an empirical study of Lithuanian lawyers’ perspectives on the remote criminal process which surveyed more than 100 Lithuanian lawyers (judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and pre-trial investigation officers). The article discusses the main advantages and disadvantages of remote criminal proceedings noted by the professionals and identifies legal problems caused by such mode of proceedings. The paper seeks to demonstrate that the development of remote criminal proceedings should be carried out with caution, taking into account its impact on the quality of criminal proceedings and the rights of the participants.

The present paper aims to investigate prisoners’ rights to use and access the Internet, focusing on the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The study’s principal objective is to assess the fundamental rights aspects of Internet access, particularly within the context of relevant EU legislation, and to interpret how the digital divide impacts prisoners. The study primarily relies on a thorough review of pertinent literature and legal materials, and it incorporates case studies from Estonia, Lithuania and Türkiye to contextualize the literature findings within specific legal jurisdictions. The research findings suggest that prisoners’ Internet access should be evaluated in accordance with fundamental rights, including Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Regarding the digital divide, the study concludes that limiting prisoners’ access to the Internet could exacerbate the already existing societal gap, potentially hindering their reintegration into society. The particular focus on the above three countries stems from the fact that as per the precedent of the ECtHR, only four countries are involved in cases concerning restriction of access to the Internet (Estonia, Lithuania, Türkiye and Russia); however, Russia ceased to be a party of the European Convention on Human Rights, so analyzing the future of the issue of Internet acces there is highly limited. Our research contributes significantly to the literature on the digital divide, particularly in terms of its legal implications. The study’s comprehensive approach, which integrates both theoretical and practical aspects, is beneficial for domestic legal professionals and researchers engaged in interdisciplinary investigations of EU law and fundamental rights.

This white paper takes the unknown and the vague and movement towards/in those realms – as frames for a discussion of present practice and emergent potentiality of anthropological engagement with peace (building) studies. Arguably, embracing the unknown or vague as generative constants as well as fundamental elements of non-linear peacebuilding further open collaborative, communicative spaces of possibility. Aspects of this discussion are drawn from broader conceptual/methodological considerations in both peacebuilding and social anthropology so as to contribute to an interdisciplinary alignment. Furthermore, the positions and persuasions in this work are (in)formed by extensive, on-going examinations of research and narratives active in Southeast Europe today. By looking to emergent concepts in peace studies via anthropology while moving with regional-specific ethnographies that speak back against North Atlantic hegemonies, there is offered a discussion that brings local realities into transnational (socio-academic) deliberations.

This paper examines the factors influencing Kosovo's economic growth from 2009 to 2022, specifically investigating the relationship between export, capital formation, consumption, and economic growth using co-integration analysis and the Vector Autoregressive Model (VAR). The findings indicate that exports of goods and services, as well as household consumption, negatively affect economic growth. Conversely, gross capital formation positively impacts economic growth. The study underscores the complexity of economic growth, highlighting the varied significance of different determinants in different contexts. Key findings reveal that while export and gross capital formation are significant contributors to economic growth, household consumption shows an insignificant relationship to GDP. This research contributes to the ongoing debate on the critical factors influencing economic growth, providing empirical evidence from the context of Kosovo and enhancing our understanding of these dynamics, thus offering new insights for policymakers.

This research paper explores the awareness, perceptions, and beliefs of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students at the South East European University regarding Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory. Focusing on the dynamic landscape of contemporary education, the study aims to understand the extent to which students acknowledge and identify with different intelligences and the potential implications for language learning strategies and overall educational experiences. The research employs an exploratory mixed-methods approach, including a case study design, surveys, and qualitative analysis, to gather insights from bachelor's and master's-level students. Findings indicate a moderate level of familiarity with MI theory among the participants, with significant agreement on the utility of the theory in understanding learning abilities. The study underscores the importance of recognizing linguistic intelligence and suggests implications for pedagogical practices, curriculum development, and the creation of inclusive learning environments. Recommendations include fostering collaboration among educators to share best practices and seeking institutional support for initiatives related to MI theory integration in teaching. The research contributes to the ongoing discourse on effective language education and its alignment with theories of cognitive diversity, providing actionable insights for educators and institutions.

The problem of child labor in cocoa-producing countries like Ghana and Ivory Coast has been projected into the international limelight due to coverage by notable international media organizations like CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera. The incidence of child labor in the cocoa industry raises legal and ethical issues in the production and manufacturing processes that feed into international trade. This paper explores the international legal framework on child labor under the Minimum Age Convention and the consistency of Ghanaian domestic law with the Convention. It further discusses empirical data collected from Anyinam, a cocoa farming community in the Eastern Region of Ghana and the sustainability programme of Federated Commodities Ltd. (FEDCO), as a private sector responsible business initiative aimed at addressing the problem of child labor from a holistic approach.

The legislative changes implemented in the Labor Code of Georgia fundamentally changed the regulations governing the prohibition of discrimination. In order to bring them closer to the law of the European Union, a number of important issues were identified that require scientific processing and comparative legal research. One of the current and problematic types of discrimination in Georgian reality is not hiring a person and/or dismissing him/her due to political or other opinions. Case law regarding these topics practically does not exist. The present article deals with the existing regulation related to discrimination due to political or other opinions in pre-contractual relationships. The present paper examines whether Georgian legislation complies with acts of ILO and European law.

The subject of this study is the criminal law issue of exploiting prostitution practised by humanoid robots. Interest in this issue stems from two main reasons. Firstly, the development of new technologies, including artificial intelligence capable of self-education, analysis of the surrounding reality, and decision-making necessitates the consideration of its legal subjectivity. Secondly, the emergence of brothels employing humanoid robots prompts reflection on the criminal responsibility of those who benefit from the prostitution facilitated by them. This article aims to highlight the phenomenon of using humanoid robots in prostitution, offer a criminal law assessment of such behaviour from the perspective of Polish criminal law, and suggest the direction for the development of domestic criminal law to accommodate this phenomenon in the future. Additionally, it addresses the issue of criminal liability for harm caused by a humanoid robot equipped with artificial intelligence while providing sexual services. The article predominantly employs the dogmatic-legal method, performing an exegesis of the provisions of Article 204 of the Criminal Code in the context of the issue signalled. The analyses have concluded that this norm does not encompass in which the perpetrator facilitates, induces prostitution of a humanoid robot or derives financial benefits from such activities, despite such behaviour being detrimental to morality, the fundamental good protected under Article 204 of the Criminal Code. De lege lata, a humanoid robot may also not be subject to criminal liability if it harms a person using its sexual services, as such an 'essence' does not align with the current structure of crime and the concept of criminal punishment. However, the liability of manufacturers or users of such devices is not ruled out. It should be noted that as humanoid robots become more autonomous, holding producers or users criminally liable for damages they cause becomes less justifiable, and the applicability of artificial intelligence liability similar to the criminal liability of legal persons becomes more relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to reveal the nature, specifics and limits of application of one of the legal grounds for termination of employment relationships established in the labour law of the Republic of Lithu ania – termination of the employment contract at the employer’s will. The analysis tests the hypothesis that the goal of increasing flexibility by simplifying the termination of employment relations, which was set at the initiation of the reform of the legal regulation, was not achieved. The presumption is put forward that this ground for terminating the employment contract is neither new nor safely applicable, and the benefits of relatively simplified procedural requirements do not outweigh increased financial burden. To reveal the impact of statutory amendments in question on the regulation of termination of employment relations in Lithuania, the historical background and the impact of obligations established in international documents on it are assessed, key indicators (such as legal grounds, procedural requirements, burden of proof and order of its distribution, etc.) are identified, and the relevant case law is examined.

This research paper emphasizes the importance of NATO’s adaptation to non-traditional threats in maintaining stability and security in the changing security environment. It highlights the need for NATO allies to prioritize the development of strategies and action plans that address emerging issues such as new technologies, energy security, climate change, hybrid threats, and cyber threats.

The aim of this research is to find out the effect of green Human Resources Management and employee performance on work-life balance, in small and medium enterprises operating in transition economies, specifically in Kosovo. Additionally, this paper presents a comprehensive conceptual framework for green human resources management and work-life balance.

This research explores the nuanced realm of verbal violence, investigating its manifestations, consequences, and broader societal impact. Inspired by Albanian proverbs like “Words kill more than bullets” and “The tongue has no bones but can break them,” the study employs a multidimensional approach, integrating linguistic, sociological, and psychological perspectives. Analyzing various cultural definitions, the research unveils the complex nature of verbal violence, extending beyond simple exchanges to acts that seek to control, coerce, and inflict emotional pain. Emphasizing the urgent need for awareness, understanding, and mitigation in today’s communication-centric world, the study navigates linguistic landscapes, revealing nuances reflective of the universal struggle to communicate without causing harm. Drawing on works by different authors, the research highlights verbal violence’s multifaceted nature, encompassing acts of force, contempt, and challenges to honesty. The paper concludes by underlining the hidden, yet potent wounds caused by verbal violence, advocating for collective efforts to foster communication promoting understanding, empathy, and positive change.

This research paper aims to investigate. the impact of inflation. on financial sector performance in Western. Balkan. countries. The topic was chosen considering the financial sector’s fundamental role and its. impact on sustainable economic growth. This impact is measured through the effect that macroeconomic determinants of financial. performance such. as inflation, GDP. growth, general government final consumption expenditure, trade, and the lending interest rate have on credit to private sector as a share of GDP and broad definition of money as a ratio of GDP, which were used to proxy financial sector development. The data are provided by the World Bank as well as the Central. Banks. of the respective countries, for the period 2002–2021. The research methodology consists of different panel regression models such as OLS, OLS robust, Fixed effects, Random effects, and Generalized method of moments (GMM). Findings indicate that domestic credit to the private sector and inflation are positively correlated, whereas broad money and inflation are negatively correlated.

The provision of services by companies in specific domains requires continuous commitment and a constructive approach to meet customer requirements, however, it is often challenging to determine the level of customer satisfaction without their feedback. Therefore, this paper attempts to provide a solution to this problem by using comments from social networks and evaluating their sentiment using the VADER model.

There are multiple positive effects of internationalization of Higher Education (HE) on enriching students’ experiences in general and providing opportunities for exchange and development of all segments of university functioning. This paper aims to contribute to determining the role of institutional QA in promotion of the international cooperation in HE by analysing undergraduate students’ perceptions on their international experience and comparing them to their home University.

The paper goes on to discuss the prevalence of issues in pre-trial detention practices in both Sweden and Ukraine, as noted by international and national organizations. Sweden has witnessed a growing trend in pre-trial detention statistics, while Ukraine, despite a decreasing trend in remand, faces a substantial number of cases brought against it at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) pertaining to pre-trial detention. The historical context reveals that these two countries have responded differently to criticism and challenges, reflecting variations in their legal systems and corresponding regulations on pre-trial detention. Nonetheless, both nations have pursued reforms with a shared objective: to improve the pre-trial detention system. Given these divergent experiences, statistical data, and overall context, it is evident that a comparative analysis of pre-trial detention policies in Sweden and Ukraine is warranted. Such a comparison can offer valuable insights into the existing problems in both countries and suggest pertinent solutions, taking into consideration their distinctive experiences and circumstances.

The subject of the research refers to the aspect of digital forensics and computer crime and the latter is one of the reasons for the evolution of crime in general. Based on the growing trend of technology development and the increase in the number of digital crimes, a special emphasis is given to the statistical aspect of computer crime as well as measures to reduce the impact of computer crime, including the ethical and legal aspects in the Republic of North Macedonia (RNM). To conduct this research, statistical data on computer crime in RNM from 2011 to 2020 were used, based on historical data of analysis, as well as comparison, correlation, and the ANOVA-test. The highest number of crimes were registered in 2020 and a special feature is that a positive linear trend can be observed during the last decade. "Damage and unauthorized access to a computer system" took the first place in computer crimes according to the Criminal Procedure Law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to evaluate the CDSM Directive and DSA regulation effectiveness in protecting the EU copyright exception for parody, caricature, and pastiche set in Article 5 (3)(k) of the InfoSoc Directive and capture quintessential issues of the regulation that make the conditions for potentially reduced ability to disseminate creative parody content in the online content-sharing service platforms in the EU. The subject of this paper is the complex relationship between algorithmic content recognition tools and creative parody content qualification. Based on EU copyright law doctrinal consensus, a legislative move to introduce liability for copyright-infringing content to online content-sharing service providers induces algorithmic content moderation on digital platforms. The triangular challenge to balance EU copyright and exception protection without disrupting the online content-sharing service leads to algorithmic recognition-based parody recognition solutions.

The educational process undergoes continuous evolution each year. These methods and tools have yielded positive outcomes, complementing the modern teaching practices being implemented in post-war Kosovo. It is noteworthy that our country has dedicated special attention to the field of education, actively seeking the best teaching methods that effectively bridge theory and practice. Consequently, the purpose of this research is to analyze the influence of auditory tools on the recognition of new vocabulary during English language classes. Additionally, this paper sheds light on the impact of auditory tools in motivating students to enhance their English vocabulary. This small-scale research employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative approach involved ten English language teachers, while the quantitative method encompassed one hundred students. The Likert scale was utilized, consisting of ten questions, to gather responses from fifth-grade students. The researcher aimed to include both high and low English proficiency students to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the results regarding the use of auditory tools for English vocabulary acquisition. In conclusion, the final results indicate that English teachers utilize auditory tools to teach English vocabulary to a certain extent, highlighting the need for increased investment in supplying the targeted schools with such tools.

The research paper elaborates on the main concepts and terminology of strategic planning in education, including all the steps of building a strategic plan with mission and vision statements. Furthermore, it analyses and compares some successful strategic planning case studies in education by identifying the strengths and some weaknesses. The final results of this inquiry serve as recommendations for positive changes and reforms in North Macedonian education.