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The White Paper offers an academic perspective to the discussion on the Data Governance Act proposal (“DGA proposal”), as adopted by the European Commission in November 2020. It contains a legal analysis of the DGA proposal and includes recommendations to amend its shortcomings. The White Paper aims to cover the full spectrum of the DGA proposal and therefore offers an in-depth analysis of its main provisions. In conclusion, the authors identify general patterns at work with the DGA proposal, namely, first, the (new) regulation of data as an object and, even more so, as an object of rights. This approach, the authors find, may contribute to exacerbate the risk of contradictions of the DGA proposal with the GDPR on the level of principles. Second, it discusses the relationship of the DGA proposal vis-a-vis the (regulation of) European data spaces and more generally its place in the two-pillars approach of the EC, between horizontal (sector-agnostic) and sectoral regulation of data. Finally, the DGA proposal is identified as a cornerstone of the new EU ‘digital sovereignty’ policy.

The present paper was prepared and submitted as part of the European Commission's public consultation to give stakeholders the opportunity to express their views on the questions raised and policy options proposed in the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence.

On 19th February 2020, the European Commission published the long-awaited and pre-announced White Paper on artificial intelligence. In addition, the Commission published a document shaping Europe's digital future, a document on the European data strategy and a report on the impact of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and robotics on security and liability . Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in her presentation of the new EU digital strategy that the objectives for shaping Europe's digital future cover “everything from cyber-security to critical infrastructures, digital education to skills, democracy to media" . Whether this promise has been fulfilled and to what extent it has been possible to focus on content will be examined below. For this purpose, the following article will discuss individual proposals from selected documents and address newly emerging liability issues arising in connection with the use of AI.

In February 2020 the EU published its white paper on ‘Artificial Intelligence: A European approach to excellence and trust’. This is likely to form the core of future policy and legislation within the EU and as such will have global impact on standards and norms. In this comment piece we survey the five sections of the white paper and then critically examine three themes, namely, i. regulatory signalling, ii. the risk-based approach, and, iii. the auditing styles. The key takeaway is that the white paper, and the EU’s strategy at large, is ambiguous and lacks vision, which, if unchecked, is likely to have a negative impact on EU competitiveness in the development of AI solutions and services.

AI is fast causing a global revolution in almost every area of human endeavor. In a bid to ensure that the existing laws are able to properly regulate AI, the European Commission drafted a white paper highlighting Europe’s policy direction to AI regulation. This commentary identifies salient points from the whitepaper with the author’s comments being made where necessary.

In response to recent calls for major reforms to the American military justice system, which are apparently based on continuing Congressional concerns about sexual assaults in the military, the authors present statistical data on sexual assaults from a number of sources: national crime statistics; military crime statistics; crime statistics from several states, and statistics from a university. The authors also present information on the tremendous strides that have been made in recent years to protect the rights of military victims of sexual assault, noting that some of those rights are not found in federal or state criminal justice systems. Finally, the authors conclude that the rate of sexual assaults in the military is lower than for other civilian jurisdictions. Military victims report offenses at a higher rate than the jurisdictions examined.

In April 2019, the U.K. released a white paper about Online Harms. The White Paper proposes to take Internet censorship to a new height, essentially unmatched by any other Western democracy. It’s a sign of how comprehensive censorship has moved beyond repressive regimes to become trendy even in leading republican democracies. To redress a wide range of anti-social online activity, the White Paper seeks to tightly circumscribe user-generated content — so tightly that only a small number Internet giants will be able to profitably publish user-generated content. Other Internet publishers will be pushed towards licensing professional content and cover those costs by charging subscriber fees to consumers. Thus, the White Paper will produce a reconfigured Internet 3.0 that will resemble the cable TV industry, not the current Internet we know and love. This essay addresses three main points. It first deconstructs the some of the “facts” the White Paper uses to justify its censorious ideas. Then it highlights some of the proposals’ worst policy aspects. The essay concludes by explaining how the White Paper will reshape the Internet and kill off most user-generated content.

This document seeks to respond to the questions raised by the Australian Human Rights Commission and World Economic Forum in their ‘Artificial Intelligence: governance and leadership’ White Paper consultation. It draws upon some of the research conducted at the Allens Hub to make suggestions about if and how systems involving some component of artificial intelligence or automation should be regulated. It also seeks to create further clarity regarding the potential structure and functions of the proposed Responsible Innovation Organisation. We note that our research does not relate to all the questions asked in the White Paper consultation, and so we only set out answers in relation to those matters where our research may be relevant. We are otherwise grateful for the opportunity to present our views and hope this submission will help the Australian Human Rights Commission and World Economic Forum in their consideration.

German Abstract: Dieser Beitrag uber die Zukunft der Europaischen Union zeichnet die historische Entwicklung uber die Frage "Wo kommen wir her?" uber die Frage "Wo stehen wir?" nach. Anschliesend wird die Frage "Wo wollen wir hin?" anhand des Weisbuchprozess der Europaischen Kommission erortert. Der Autor skizziert kurz die verschiedenen Szenarien des Weisbuch, um abschliesend mogliche Bausteine fur die Zukunft der EU im Jahre 2025 zu identifizieren. English Abstract: This paper on the future of the European Union traces the historical development from the question "Where have we come from?" to the question "Where are we?". Then the question "Where do we want to go?" is discussed on the basis of the European Commission's White Paper process. The author briefly outlines the different scenarios of the White Paper to conclude by identifying possible building blocks for the future of the EU in 2025.

The New Zealand Law Commission is reviewing Class Actions and Litigation Funding in New Zealand. The NZLC produced Supplementary Issues Paper 48 for consultation with stakeholders. This submission contains Nikki's response to Issues Paper 48. Nikki is an invited member of the expert advisory panel advising the NZLC on the review of Class Actions and Litigation Funding.

This paper is the first to use bookwork, a form of spreadable media, to explore and reflect upon the impact of informal sector tourism on indigenous Namibian craft culture. We seek to convey the manner in which “outsiders” (such as tourists) can permanently influence authentic craft processes by observing and purchasing low cost, easily mass-produced, inauthentic brightly colored objects and generating an artistic installation titled Grey Market Tourism to be used as the centerpiece of an academic discussion in this paper on the outsider’s view of the encroachment on authentic Namibian craft and to the broader society in a public art exhibition. Through the use of bookwork as creative output, we raise questions about tourism, the commodification of art, and the meaning of authenticity in craft culture. We also issue a "call to action" regarding greater integration of art practices in business literature through interdisciplinary collaboration and broader recognition of artistic expressions, such as bookwork, as research output.

Whilst the media freedom and pluralism implications of content moderation, takedowns, privatised censorship and down-ranking have been widely discussed in recent years, content curation practices like prioritisation, prominence, and discoverability started to raise concerns among policy makers only in the past few years. These are however, two sides of the same coin. The question of whether regulators or governments should create regimes of prominence online, or rather step back from the ongoing process of ad-hoc private construction of these regimes, raises complex questions at the intersection of freedom of expression, media freedom and media pluralism that demand our attention. Such questions are currently being addressed through different regulatory instruments in different countries, as we witnessed an acceleration of the institutionalisation of new prominence and discoverability regimes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Such developments are therefore leading towards an extremely fragmented regulatory landscape that is trying to solve shared challenges of platform governance systems. In this context, the objective of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, the research investigates the legislative measures and regulatory proposals used in different countries to regulate prominence and discoverability online; secondly, it questions the potential implications of such measures for media pluralism, understood as a plurality of content and information from sources independent of private and/or state-interference. To do so empirically, the paper applies a qualitative methodological framework with a document analysis of relevant literature and current legislative proposals and measures from a selected sample of countries. Based on this, this work discusses four approaches to prominence regulation, informed by the policy debates and legislative proposals of four countries, namely, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and China. These countries were purposively selected because they present the most mature proposals in this policy area, and they are used as illustrative national cases that are compared on two dimensions: 1) the criteria used to determine which content and services should be granted preferential treatment and 2) the types of services and devices that should comply with new prominence and/or discoverability obligations.

This is a submission by the Australasian Legal Information Institute to the Australian Government's Digital Technology Taskforce on the proposed Australian Data Strategy. The submission is framed around seven questions asked in the Discussion Paper on the Strategy. The submission concentrates on the role of legal information in the Australian Data Strategy, with additional comments on issues which we think are of particular importance, such as data privacy. In answer to Question 4.'What are the top three outcomes from the Australian Data Strategy you would like to see by 2025?' we identify: (i) Undo data monopolies – There are three main impediments to the full realisation of a free access legal data commons in Australia, concerning court decisions, legislation and standards. (ii) Reform data privacy – Australia’s Privacy Act should be reformed to meet the highest international standard, currently that of the EU’s GDPR. (iii) Legislate for ethical AI - Australian AI innovations will pose considerable risks to Australian citizens, and may also find that they are internationally non-competitive as the international environment moves toward regulation. The Discussion Paper often refers to public trust, but we argue that the question is not one of public ‘trust’, but rather whether our public institutions and their systems for handing data are ‘trustworthy’. Examples concerning personal data disasters in Australia are given. AustLII welcomes proposals of substance coming from a more developed Strategy, and will aim to interact with what should be a significant national initiative.

U.S. Supreme Court justices typically donate their working papers to archives upon their retirement, often with lengthy embargoes. Researchers have debated whether the justices should be required to retain and disclose their papers as government records, but there has been little study of how the papers are used in scholarly and journalistic discussions of the Court. This empirical study examines how the papers of Justices William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall, and Harry Blackmun are used via citations in books and academic law journal articles. We find that the vast majority of citations to the papers support discussions of the justices’ deliberations and negotiations when deciding cases, precisely the kinds of uses that show the value of transparency. To address constitutional objections to mandated disclosures, we propose an incentive grant program that benefits the archives that receive justices’ collections. This program would encourage justices to donate their papers with relatively short embargoes, ideally 15 years after retirement from the Court.

This paper looks back at the development of the common law right to remain silent and its eventually being made a constitutional right as an amendment to the United States Constitution via the 5th Amendment. The paper also traces the historical development of the right not to incriminate oneself and the link between the right to remain silent found in the Fifth Amendment but also to the right to have counsel present during interrogation found in the Sixth Amendment.

Gary Becker wrote what may be the first economic analysis of conscription. Less than a decade later, economists played a key role in an important public policy debate during the Vietnam War, which eventually led to abolishment of the military draft. Becker had connections to many of those economists who studied the economics of conscription, and his paper foreshadowed many of the ideas in that literature. Despite this, none cited his paper on conscription. We discuss this history and speculate on this puzzle.

This White Paper identifies shortcomings in the current federal child welfare financing system, and recommends changes for improvement. It calls for a funding system that allows effective implementation of child welfare laws by government at the state and federal levels. It also recommends required longitudinal independent studies of each major program receiving federal funds and a specified appropriation for that purpose. Such empirical testing would include sunset dates terminating each program where data fails to warrant continuation. Such sunset proceedings are commonly used in evaluating regulatory agencies in many states. Based on the studies they compel, programs that do not perform will be discontinued and those that do may be continued, expanded and replicated in analogous settings. The understandable reticence to expend monies on social welfare among many in Congress should be assuaged by that assured accountability. Nelson Mandela was famously quoted as observing, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” But federal child welfare spending is a step above such general humanitarian sentiments. This is not funding for children in general. Rather, it is funding to protect and promote the well-being of those who are more than our children in a metaphorical sense. These children have been removed from their homes and their parents and are in state custody. We delegate their care to our publicly appointed and paid judges who serve as their legal parents. And their seizure by the state and their subsequent fate is largely determined by laws enacted by our elected officials and funded by us through mandatory taxation. For those who politically cite “family values” as a basic moral tenet, the status that these children hold as a direct legal part of our “family” makes their treatment a basic test of the bona fides of that stated value.

In Canada, diverse people face violence and abuse at alarming rates as a result of their gender, perceived gender, or gender expression. This phenomenon is referred to as gender-based violence (GBV). Gender-based violence has many manifestations, including sexual assault, femicide, and intimate partner violence (IPV), as well as dowry-related violence, early or forced marriage and pregnancy, female genital mutilation, elder abuse, human trafficking, sexual harassment, cyber abuse, and many other forms, both visible and invisible. Crucially, GBV does not simply occur in the context of inter-personal relationships or as the result of perpetration by ‘bad men’; rather, GBV is a systemic issue that seizes upon and operates through longstanding pathologies and power dynamics—patriarchy, racism, colonialism, and transphobia to name few—rendering diverse people more vulnerable to victimization on the basis of their identity. Strategies, policies, and programs focused on ensuring victims and survivors can achieve economic security will form a vital component of any serious plan to address GBV. On this point there is notable consensus. Less agreement exists, however, when debate begins on the question of which strategies, policies, and programs ought to be implemented. In this discussion paper, we weigh in on this debate through an evaluation of an economic security tool over which there has been much fanfare in recent years: the basic income model. Two questions guide our analysis: (1) to what extent could a basic income disrupt the material conditions and forms of oppression which drive GBV, and thus reduce both risk and prevalence? and (2) to what extent would basic income be an effective support for those encountering/recovering from various forms of GBV? Our analysis is driven by two definitional assumptions about economic security and basic income. That is, we consider economic security to be a state in which criteria for financial security, stability, and continuity are fulfilled, and conceive of basic income as a class of policies that share principles of simplicity, respect, economic security, and social inclusion.

This study was entitled Catalyst and Transparency; An analysis of the Campus Paper Function as a Watchdog. The study reveals that the publication is inconsistently complying with all standards of journalism because of some major problems like the fear of being personal attacks, lack of funds, and beginner in the field of campus journalism. However, this reveals the improvement of the publication in excelling from the various competitions and also in the releases. Campus publication is realized as citizens’ journalism outside, this plays a vital role in shaping the discipline and awareness need of the students. Ethics and standards of journalism should be part of the training and learning of every students’ journalist. This research study was conducted to analyze the efficiency of the CLSU Collegian in terms of practicing the standards of journalism. This also reviewed the status of the publication in the present situation and the continuation of listing the important accounts of the publication from the year 2011-2015. It also examines the engagement of the staffers of the CLSU Collegian in the elements of journalism, knows the workings of the press. The problems they encountered and solutions they made in practicing the elements of journalism. Key informant interview, focus group discussion, archival research, and library research are the major methods that the researcher do, to validate the data that are being collected the study adapted the triangulation process.

To determine “what works, for whom, and under what conditions,” interventions need to be studied in diverse and heterogeneous samples. At an international scope, this degree of heterogeneity is unlikely in a single study and instead requires conducting multiple studies of the same intervention across the globe. In this paper, we provide an overview of the infrastructure required to coordinate such a series of studies, including the methodological and measurement developments that would be needed. We also discuss implications of this shared focus for the design of individual studies and the analyses of outcomes across studies. Throughout, we situate these needs in the context of developing a teacher mindset intervention that is intended to be implemented broadly in classrooms around the world.

The New Zealand Law Commission is reviewing Class Actions and Litigation Funding in New Zealand from 2020 - 2022. The NZLC produced Issues Paper 45 for consultation with stakeholders.

Sustainability has immensely become a widespread buzzword with a contested meaning in the last century. Different scholars have portrayed the concept from different backgrounds and magnitudes. This paper aims to discuss various standpoints of the concept of sustainability. The notion has been defined as the procedures of maintaining a suitable environment for the growing consciousness, for instance, environmental dilapidation, resource diminution, and socioeconomic discrimination. The concept of sustainability has its root in the ‘Brundtland Report’, which has been encircling social, economic, and environmental dimensions. Thus, sustainability is the ability of prevailing or co-existing of human beings and the biosphere uninterruptedly. In 1978, Thomas Malthus discussed his theory of growing starvation for the barren land to feed a high population. Moreover, sustainability is the concept of economics where the scarcity of resources is the primary concern. In 1987, the Brundtland commission introduced the concept of sustainable development for ensuring improved life within this scarce resource.

This White Paper summarises currently available empirical data about attitudes and opinions of citizens and state actors regarding cybersecurity. The data emerges from reports of EU projects, Eurobarometer surveys, policy documents of state actors and additional scientific papers. It describes what these stakeholders generally think, what they feel, and what they do about cyber threats and security (counter)measures. For citizens’ perspectives, three social spheres of particular interest are examined: 1) health, 2) business, 3) police and national security.

This White Paper outlines how the ethical discourse on cybersecurity has developed in the scientific literature, which ethical issues gained interest, which value conflicts are discussed, and where the “blind spots” in the current ethical discourse on cybersecurity are located. The White Paper is based on an extensive literature with a focus on three reference domains with unique types of value conflicts: health, business/finance and national security. For each domain, a systematic literature search has been performed and the identified papers have been analysed using qualitative and quantitative methods. An important observation is that the ethics of cybersecurity not an established subject. In all domains, cybersecurity is recognized as being an instrumental value, not an end in itself, which opens up the possibility of trade-offs with different values in different spheres. The most prominent common theme is the existence of trade-offs and even conflicts between reasonable goals, for example between usability and security, accessibility and security, privacy and convenience. Other prominent common themes are the importance of cybersecurity to sustain trust (in institutions), and the harmful effect of any loss of control over data.

תקציר בעברית: המאמר עוסק בספרו החדש של בועז סנג'רו, "ביקורת דיני העונשין הישראליים" (2020). לאחר תיאור חשיבותו של הספר ותרומתו, המאמר מתמקד בעקרון החוקיות, אחד העקרונות המפורסמים ביותר בדיני העונשין. סנג'רו מתייחס לדרישותיו השונות של העיקרון: הדרישה שאיסורים יהיו רק בחוק או מכוחו, הדרישה לפומביות החוק, הדרישה שהחוק הפלילי יחול מכאן ואילך, הדרישה להגדרה ברורה ומפורטת של האיסור, והדרישה לפרשנות מצמצמת. המאמר דן בכל אחת מהדרישות באופן מפורט וביקורתי, תוך הרחבה על שתי הדרישות האחרונות, שלעתים קרובות אינן מתקיימות במשפט הישראלי. המאמר יסקור איסורים מרכזיים שרחוקים מלהיות בהירים, ופסיקה עליונה בולטת שרחוקה מפרשנות מצמצמת. המאמר מציע שהמשפט הפלילי הישראלי נאמן לעקרון החוקיות כמעט רק במקרים שבהם נאמנות כזו אינה כרוכה בפגיעה באינטרס הציבורי, וקורא לרפורמה מקפת בחלק הספציפי של חוק העונשין. English Abstract: This article revolves around Boaz Sangero's latest book, "Critique of the Israeli Criminal Law" (2020). After describing the book's importance and contribution, this article focuses on the famous principle of legality in the substantive criminal law. Sangero addresses the various requirements of the principle: the requirement that prohibitions will be set only by the legislator, the requirement that all laws are made public, the requirement that new laws apply prospectively, the requirement that prohibitions are elaborate and clear, and the requirement for narrow interpretation of criminal prohibitions. This article discusses each requirement critically, elaborating on the last two, which are often denied by the criminal law in Israel. It illustrates diverse central prohibitions, which are far from clear, alongside famous verdicts by the Israeli Supreme Court, which are far from narrow interpretation. This article suggests that the Israeli criminal law is faithful to the principle of legality only in cases in which such faithfulness does not come at the expense of the public interest in conviction.

[eIn this article prepared by Kobchikova E.V. and Makarov T.G., the connection between private law with educational relations is considered; it is stated that educational relations are characterized by the presence of public and private components in them. The work gives a detailed description to civil relations in the sphere of education, explores the concept of educational service, and considers the place of an agreement for rendering paid educational services among other service agreements. The authors of the article note that this agreement, just like the majority of civil law contracts, is a bilaterally binding one, i.e., both parties (educational institution and student) are bound with mutual obligations. In accordance with the principles of private law regulations, educational relations are regulated by the parties to the agreement for rendering fee-based educational services, based on the legal equality of the partiesnter Abstract Body]

This article examines the research methods and techniques applied on academic papers related to terrorism. This is done through an extensive review and analysis of one thousand five hundred (1,500) papers that were published in twenty different journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Policy Modeling, Economic Modeling, Journal of Economic Literature, Quality and Quantity, Journal of Global History, Journal of Social History, Quarterly Journal of Political Sciences, Journal of Politics, The Sociological Review, Critical Studies on Terrorism, Foreign Affairs, Global Crime, Intelligence and National Security, Politics, Religion & Ideology, Terrorism and Political Violence, Terrorism and Political Violence Security Studies, Journal of Military Ethics, Journal of Conflict Resolution within a 30-years period (1990–2020). It was observed that at different period in time, all these one thousand five hundred (1,500) academic papers always keep a constant transformation of its research methods and techniques that invoked the uses of different and new quantitative and qualitative frameworks of analysis to facilitate the explanation of the complex and dynamic behavior of terrorism. Finally, this research proposes a new research field entitled Terrorismology.

German Abstract: Das Max-Planck-Institut fur Innovation und Wettbewerb nimmt hiermit zum Diskussionsentwurf eines Zweiten Gesetzes zur Vereinfachung und Modernisierung des Patentrechts Stellung, der vom Bundesministerium der Justiz und fur Verbraucherschutz im Januar 2020 vorgelegt wurde. Das Institut begrust die Initiative des Ministeriums, empfiehlt im Hinblick auf die Beschrankung des patentrechtlichen Unterlassungsanspruchs und die Starkung des Schutzes von Geschaftsgeheimnissen in Patentstreitsachen jedoch gewisse Prazisierungen. Mit Blick auf die Beschrankung des Unterlassungsanspruchs nach Masgabe des Grundsatzes der Verhaltnismasigkeit wird vorgeschlagen, die Verhaltnismasigkeitsprufung nicht auf einen Anwendungsfall der Gebote von Treu und Glauben zu reduzieren, sondern im Sinne der ratio legis des Patentrechts zu verstehen; insoweit als Masnahme zur Verhinderung dysfunktionaler Effekte des Ausschlieslichkeitsrecht bzw. des damit verbundenen Unterlassungsanspruchs. Zur Veranschaulichung des Ansatzes wird auf die Fallgruppen der komplexen Produkte, der Patentverwerter und der standardessenziellen Patente Bezug genommen, ohne sie jedoch im Detail durchzuprufen. Mit Blick auf die im Rahmen der Verhaltnismasigkeitsprufung vorzunehmende Interessenabwagung wird darauf hingewiesen, dass die Interessen des Patentinhabers gegenuber jenen des Verletzers keinen grundsatzlichen Vorrang geniesen. Daruber hinaus sind bei der Abwagung nicht nur die Interessen der Streitparteien, sondern auch jene Dritter, insbesondere das offentliche Interesse, zu berucksichtigen. Mit Blick auf den Schutz von Geschaftsgeheimnissen in Patentstreitsachen verweist die Stellungnahme auf Unzulanglichkeiten des Verfahrens in Geschaftsgeheimnisstreitsachen, die durch die angedachte Anwendung der entsprechenden Vorschriften auf das Patentstreitverfahren ubertragen werden. Hingewiesen wird auch auf eine mogliche Regelungslucke in Bezug auf das “Dusseldorfer Verfahren”, die von Patentinhabern fur sog. “fishing expeditions” ausgenutzt werden konnte. English Abstract: This position paper of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition provides comments on the amendments proposed by the German Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection in its discussion draft of January 2020 on the modernization and simplification of the German Patent Act. While the Institute generally welcomes the initiative, the paper offers some suggestions aimed at increasing precision in the areas of first, the concept and the implementation of the proportionality test for granting injunctive relief, and, second, the need for enhanced protection of trade secrets in patent disputes. With regard to the proportionality assessment, the Institute suggests that, rather than reducing it to an application of the principle of good faith, the concept of proportionality should be interpreted and applied in light of the ratio legis of patent protection with a view to preventing dysfunctional effects potentially resulting from the exercise of the exclusive right and the associated claim to an injunction. Scenarios involving complex products, non-practicing entities and standard-essential patents are used to illustrate the approach. As regards the weighing and balancing of interests when assessing proportionality, the position paper argues that it is neither desirable nor appropriate to prioritize the interests of the patentee over those of the infringer as a matter of principle. In addition, it is not only the interests of parties to the dispute, but also those of third parties, in particular the public interest, that should be taken into account. With regard to the protection of trade secrets in patent disputes, the position paper refers to certain procedural insufficiencies of the Trade Secrets Act to adequately protect the defendant’s secrecy interests. It also points out a potential loophole in relation to the ‘Dusseldorf proceedings’ that may facilitate ‘fishing expeditions’. Note: Downloadable document is in German.

The paper is examining the U.S Foreign policy toward the Middle East, in particular toward Iran and Saudi Arabia, in the light of the Iranian attack on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in September 2019. The paper is providing a historical evaluation for the bilateral relationship between the United States and Iran and between the United States and Saudi. Then, the paper is analyzing the tremendous shift in U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East and U.S. allies, explaining the possible reasons behind the alteration. Besides, the paper analyzes from the political theory standpoint the different approaches used by U.S. administrations to contain Iran nuclear program. The paper used the comparative-analysis methodology to build a conclusion on the transformation in the foreign policy of Washington, D.C, toward the Middle East, mainly toward Saudi Arabia.

The WTO Panel Report in Australia – Anti-Dumping Measures on A4 Copy Paper marks a significant development of the multilateral rules on anti-dumping. The Report is the first to examine in detail when an anti-dumping authority may determine that a “particular market situation” exists in the country of exportation under Article 2.2 of the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement, potentially justifying the imposition of elevated remedial duties. The Report also develops the jurisprudence on how such remedies may be calculated, expounding the use of benchmark costs for the calculation of a constructed normal value (‘CNV’) under Article 2.2.1.1. These doctrinal questions are central to the longstanding debate over how far the Anti-Dumping Agreement allows anti-dumping measures against state intervention and market distortions. On both fronts, the Australia – A4 Copy Paper panel created flexibilities for WTO members to respond to government-induced distortions. In doing so, the Report deviates considerably from the course set by the Appellate Body in the landmark EU – Biodiesel decision – which seemed to confine anti-dumping measures to responding to private action. At the same time, the panel left open several important issues relating to the adoption of CNVs and the use of benchmarks for their calculation, leaving wide latitude for investigating authorities to inflate dumping margins in practice.

The time has come to think again. Ushered into an era of innovation, with massive implications and complications, we are forced to re-evaluate all we once knew. With particular focus on emerging business models, competition authorities are faced with a new paradigm where applying the erstwhile economic principles and legal rationalisations are like hunting down an invisible target through a complex labyrinth with paper darts. In this digital age such concepts as “what is a market?”, “which type of behavior is considered anti-competitive?” have had to be re-examined vis-a-vis new concepts such as data partnerships, personalised pricing, tying and bundling strategies, hybridized platform and pipeline business models and structuralist approaches like the Blue Ocean Strategy. It is against the backdrop of this labyrinthine new reality that the following discussion sheds a nuanced light on how competition authorities have tried to balance the interconnected web of competing interests.

In this paper, we discuss advantages of commercial litigation funding and methods for its regulation. We also examine conflicts of interest which can occur in class actions between funders, lawyers and members of the class, and the difficulties of managing those conflicts through self-regulation.

The Panama Papers are eleven million leaked electronic documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than two hundred thousand offshore entities. The documents were leaked in April 2016 by an anonymous whistle-blower from the database of Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca. In this case study, we discuss how a team of international network of journalists collaborated using data mining tools to unearth vital financial fraud information from this large chunk of unstructured data. The case study begins with a prologue of dialogue between the whistle-blower and protagonist. The case is divided into nine mini chapters where we start with how a data team were formed followed by the tools used to clean and annotate the unstructured data into a graph-based database and finally using expert network of journalists to generate financial insights from the various nodes and links of the graph. We conclude the case by providing word clouds that highlights Indian connections.

In this paper, we provide qualitative data on the class actions regime and commercial litigation funding in Australia, based on interviews with experienced legal practitioners from the Federal Court Class Action Users’ Committee and the Law Council Class Actions Sub-Committee. Participants discussed their views on the current operation of the class actions regime; the way in which commercial litigation funding is working; transaction costs and delays associated with class actions; the merits of claims and defences; and ethical issues arising out of the conduct of plaintiff and defence firms, funders and counsel. Practitioners identified various problems associated with class actions and litigation funding and outlined their thoughts on possible solutions to those problems.

The revival of the non-delegation doctrine, foreshadowed last term in Gundy v. United States, signals the end of a distinctive style of legal and political thought. The doctrine’s apparent demise after the 1930s facilitated the development of a methodological approach that embodied what Lon Fuller once called “the spirit of the Federalist Papers”: an open-ended engagement with the problem of designing democracy and controlling public power. At its best, this discourse was critical and propulsive, with each purported solution generating more questions than it answered. The turn against congressional delegations will likely bring to a close this period of open and self-critical experimentation. In its place, we are likely to see the emergence of warring visions of the administrative state, each claiming legitimacy — neither credibly — according to its own comprehensive normative doctrine.

In July 2015, China’s national legislature brought in prosecutor-led civil environmental public interest litigations (“EPILs”) for thirteen selected provincial areas of the country. After a two-year legal experiment, this prosecutor-led civil EPIL system was then established nationwide in July 2017. Yet, can it be said that prosecutorial regulators in China are in fact a paper tiger? Drawing upon content analysis of the 655 prosecutor-led civil EPILs and in-depth interviews with twelve frontline prosecutors and judges, this article examines the dynamics of regulatory practice and the motivation of the Chinese prosecutorial organs to engage in environmental regulation through litigation. Based upon the above two legislative landmarks in the law reform of this area, the regulatory practice of prosecutorial organs can be viewed as having occurred in three stages, with each stage featuring a distinct regulatory model: ad hoc regulation through local innovation before July 2015, forced regulation during the legal experiment from July 2015 to July 2017, and perfunctory regulation after the nationwide establishment of the prosecutor-led civil EPIL system in July 2017. The data show that the Chinese prosecutorial organs have engaged in a larger number of such lawsuits since the second stage, but they have shown a strong preference for cases with less complicated facts, weak and small defendants, and minor environmental violations. Three factors that influence regulatory motivation are employed to analyse the change in regulatory models: the ambiguity of the law, the top-down political pressure for regulation, and the cost of regulation. This study highlights the very limited effectiveness of vertical political pressure in boosting prosecutorial regulation and the strong impacts of the cost of regulation and the ambiguity of the law. In particular, the high cost of regulation that takes weak regulatory capacity, lack of regulatory autonomy, and the winning rate-oriented performance appraisal system into account have significantly weakened the motivation of prosecutorial organs to pursue civil EPILs. The findings of this study echo the conditions present in the successful prosecutorial regulations in Brazil and contribute to the scholarship about prosecutorial regulations in the field of environmental protection in the Global South.

Wealth declaration by public officials has been globally embraced as an accountability tool in public service. The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) requires member states to establish structures and frameworks for assets disclosure by public officials. This is an accountability mechanism geared towards enhancing good governance and the fight against corruption across the continent and within the African states. Globally, African countries have maintained a conspicuous lead in the ratification of UNCAC and subsequent establishment of wealth declaration systems. Despite continued implementation of these frameworks in the pursuit of public sector accountability, corruption and low levels accountability in the public sector remain a dominant challenge in most African countries. This raises the question of the effectiveness of the wealth declaration systems including their design and mode of application. This paper establishes why wealth declaration systems have largely failed in Africa and recommends reform measures to enhance their accountability objectives, drawing best practice from jurisdictions that have registered notable success in assets disclosures.

In this paper, we examine delays in the resolution of class actions in the Federal Court and the New South Wales, Victorian and Queensland Supreme Courts. 592 proceedings were reviewed and publicly-accessible data on the duration of those actions, from their commencement to finalisation and the approval of settlement or handing down of judgment, is analysed. The data shows that time taken to resolve class action litigation in Australia falls a long way short of meeting benchmarks for the resolution of civil litigation generally. However, because of their unique characteristics, and given their complexity and scale, class actions cannot be expected to be resolved within the same timeframes considered appropriate for individual civil proceedings. Notwithstanding allowance for their unique characteristics, instances of actions which have taken several years to resolve, as well as the very protracted time taken to date in numerous as yet unresolved cases, are matters of considerable concern.

In this paper, we revisit the recommendation of the Victorian Law Reform Commission in 2008 that the courts be given an express power to grant cy-pres remedies. We discuss the use of cy-pres remedies in class actions in the United States of America and Canada is reviewed and the existing practice of granting cy-pres distributions in limited circumstances. It is suggested that the courts should have an express statutory power to grant cy-pres remedies.

In light of the upcoming opportunity for Cyprus and other Member States to appoint by rotation an Advocate General (‘AG’) to the Court of Justice (‘ECJ’) in 2020-21, the objective of the present report taking the form of a discussion paper is to clarify the law and practice related to such appointments and set out recommendations accordingly. It does so by looking in particular into the relevant provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’), namely the Article 253 TFEU requirements themselves, the reports of the Article 255 TFEU Panel, and the selection processes carried out at the national levels. Article 253 TFEU requires only that such nominees are persons whose independence is beyond doubt and who either meet the requirements for highest national judicial office or who are jurisconsults of recognised competence. An Article 255 TFEU Panel was established with the Treaty of Lisbon and is responsible for advising the Council of the EU on the suitability of candidates appointed to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The Panel has elaborated upon the Article 253 TFEU requirements, taking six considerations into account in their assessment: i. legal capabilities; ii. professional experience; iii. ability to perform duties of a judge (or Advocate General); iv. language skills; v. ability to work in a team in an international environment in which several legal systems are represented; and vi. whether their independence, impartiality, probity and integrity are beyond doubt.1 In a 2018 report, the Panel stated that ‘[i]t considers all professional paths in the field of law to be equally legitimate to apply for the office of Judge or [AG]’, ‘in particular, those of judge, university professor, jurisconsult, lawyer or senior official specialised in the field of law.’2 The Panel is further elaborated upon in Part I, including through its latest report published in January 2020. To further assist in understanding the nature of Advocate General appointments in the EU, a study was undergone into the law and practice at the national level related to ECJ appointments (Part II and the Tables in the Annex), and also into the characteristics of the profiles of the AGs that have been successfully appointed to date (Part III).

Part of this paper will be a general analysis of the concept of euthanasia and how the current legal situation on euthanasia is presented in Albania. The selected methodology for this paper refers to theoretical analysis method, which attains the definition and the analysis of national and international legal framework regarding to this subject and the reflection of the scientific and academic opinion. I judge that the theme presents a special interest in the development of academic thought in this field.

The White Paper on the Reform of the Federation promised an inclusive and effective pathway to a strengthened federal system. It offered a path to increasing efficiency, reduction in cyclical policy fluctuations, better balancing of fiscal equalisation and fiscal responsibility, clarification and untangling of responsibilities, and simplification of the administration of federal grants. But after less than two years effort, the project was shelved. When compared to federalism reform processes adopted in other countries, serious questions arise about the Australian White Paper process. These include whether the time horizon was adequate, whether the process was genuinely collaborative, whether Australian governments would be able to overcome barriers to reform caused by oppositional politics, and whether principle or pragmatic self-interest would, ultimately, determine the outcome. The failure of the White Paper process offers an opportunity to ask whether Australian federalism can ever be reformed, and what would need to happen for this to occur.

TraffLab’s Alternative Anti-Trafficking Action Plan (the “Alternative Plan”) provides a labor-based alternative approach to the new Israeli national plan to address human trafficking 2019-2024, published by the Ministry of Justice in January 2019. The Alternative Plan outlines the directions we believe need to be taken in order to address the structural problems that underlie serious phenomena that we are witnessing in the Israeli labor market today, and that we do not believe the accepted approach to combating human trafficking addresses. The Alternative Plan as a whole reflects a vision, an ambitious action plan for a possible future, which on the one hand is firmly rooted in the legal situation in Israel, and on the other seeks to offer new thinking in the field to locate and identify human trafficking engines. The program has three parts: prevention, enforcement, and partnership, all of which reflect the need to address the root causes of severe forms of labor market exploitation. Each section contains a number of short chapters which focus on different aspects of the immigration regime and labor market regulation in Israel, that create structural vulnerability to human trafficking, and offers concrete policy proposals for change. Along with more familiar elements for practitioners in the field -such as aspects of tied visas, debt and recruitment fees, and bilateral agreements - the Alternative Plan includes a discussion of many other aspects including, among others, discussions on how employment structures - private bureaus, manpower agencies, and construction agencies – and exclusion from protective legislation and lack of workers’ rights enforcement create vulnerability to exploitation and human trafficking, as well on the need for a comprehensive reform of the victim identification system in Israel. The program also addresses the potential role of labor unions in representing and supporting workers in sectors prone to trafficking, and the responsibilities of corporations for human trafficking down their supply chains. The Alternative Plan is a collaboration by TraffLab researchers: Post-Doctoral Fellows Yahel Kurlander and Assaf S. Bondy, Doctoral Fellow Hanny Ben-Israel, Research Fellows Tamar Barkay, Avinoam Cohen, Yuval Livnat and Tamar Megiddo, Visiting Researchers Maayan Niezna and Shahar Shoham, and PI Hila Shamir. Editors: Hila Shamir and Maayan Niezna. The Alternative Plan is currently available in Hebrew. An English version is planned to be released by July of 2021.

The Handbook on Sentencing Policies and Practices in the 21st Century is the fourth in a series of publications by the American Society of Criminology’s Division on Corrections and Sentencing. The book is a compendium of research on related issues with both direct and subtle nexuses. A major contribution of the book is its interdisciplinary approach analyzing sentencing and plea bargaining from both a focal-concerns perspective and legal perspectives — including in capital cases. Although this review provides an overview of the entire informative treatise, it primarily focuses on Chapters 6, 11, and 12 because these three chapters, all of which focus on juveniles either facing life sentences or the death penalty, deeply explore the problems attendant to sentencing disparities. These chapters illustrate how the punishment pendulum swung from rehabilitation to retribution and back, as illustrated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s jurisprudence concerning juvenile offenders. Another insight is the parallel themes of the “liberation hypothesis” discussed in the book’s analysis of sentencing guidelines and the death penalty: jurors and judges consider extra-legal factors as the opportunity for subjective discretion increases. The book illustrates that sentencing is a collaborative process involving legislators, prosecutors, corrections officials, judges and juries, and that plea bargaining plays a central role in the process.

Submission to Law Commission's Simplification of the Immigration Rules public consultation.

Italian Abstract: La legge sul diritto d’autore collide frontalmente con il progresso scientifico. Mentre l’evoluzione della scienza si basa sul dialogo pubblico tra uomini, la legge sul diritto d’autore restringe sempre di piu gli spazi di libera discussione e lo fa paradossalmente nel momento in cui l’umanita dispone della piu potente tecnologia (il Web) utile a rafforzare ed estendere la comunicazione tra esseri pensanti. La politica legislativa europea sul diritto d’autore e sempre piu plasmata su (alcuni) interessi commerciali e sempre meno incline a propiziare il progresso della conoscenza. La direttiva UE 2019/790 sul diritto d’autore nel mercato unico digitale aggiunge un altro tassello al puzzle della legislazione che minaccia l’evoluzione della scienza. Cio non dovrebbe preoccupare solo gli scienziati ma tutti i cittadini e anche le imprese che si dedicano all’innovazione tecnologica. Senza una scienza autonoma, libera e pubblica, senza una scienza aperta, non ci puo essere ne democrazia, ne progresso culturale, ne innovazione tecnologica. Da questa prospettiva la disciplina delle c.d. eccezioni e limitazioni (al diritto di esclusiva) concernenti la ricerca scientifica che adopera tecniche di text and data mining non risolve il conflitto tra scienza e legge sul diritto d’autore. La politica dell’UE appare sempre piu contraddittoria, da una parte rafforza la proprieta intellettuale, dall’altra promuove (o dice di voler promuovere) la scienza aperta. Si tratta di obiettivi inconciliabili. English Abstract: Copyright law collides with scientific progress. While the evolution of science is based on the public dialogue among human beings, copyright law has increasingly reduced space for free discussion paradoxically when humanity can count on the most powerful technology - the Web - to strength-en and extend human communication. European Union copyright policy appears to be shaped by strong commercial interests and less inclined to foster the progress of knowledge. The EU Copyright Digital Single Market Directive adds another complicated piece to the legislative puzzle that is threatening the evolution of science. This policy should be of concern not only to scientists but also to citizens and companies that are dedicated to technological innovation. Without an autonomous, free and public (open) science there will not be democracy, neither cultural progress, nor techno-logical innovation. From this perspective, the discipline of the exceptions and limitations concerning scientific research based on Text and Data Mining does not resolve, but on the contrary aggravates the conflict between science and copyright law. EU policy appears more and more contradictory, on the one hand it strengthens intellectual property, on the other it declares to promote open science. These are irreconcilable goals.

This Working Group focuses on the economic recovery of businesses and economies from the COVID-19 pandemic. With communities around the world experiencing severe economic impacts, we anticipate a proliferation of efforts to track, assess, explain, and improve economic recovery. We have discussed key concepts, resources, and priority research topics to enable comparable data collection and mutual learning in this pandemic, as summarized below.

The relationship between religion as a source of meaning and the violent or compassionate behavior of the human beings is one of the vital ingredients of a Society of Conscience. While organized religions are viewed with suspicion, and accused to be the main sources of aggression, intolerance and divisiveness, the conscience of religious faith, as a devotional behavior, offers the key to a renewed spirituality; the cornerstone to a Society of Conscience. Therefore, this white paper focuses on the contributions of the founder of the Institute for Peace Studies in Eastern Christianity, in exploring the resources of Orthodox Christianity in order to advance compassion, and peaceful coexistence.