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On 15th December 2020 the Westminster Government published its long-awaited Green Paper on public procurement law, “Transforming Public Procurement”, setting out its vision for the UK’s post-Brexit regime. In a number of Working Papers and articles the author has set out her own vision for a post-Brexit regime, which proposed that new legislation should regulate not mainly to ensure open markets, as with the current EU-based rules, but also to secure other objectives, such as value for money and integrity; and set out seven (related) principles which it was suggested should underpin the reforms, namely: an open contracting approach; a single and uniform regime; significant legislative simplification involving a shift from hard to soft law; use of familiar concepts, rules and terminology where appropriate; a rebalancing of interests away from open market objectives towards value for money, sustainability and reduced procedural costs, and a related shift in regulatory strategy to increase flexibility; more effective and balanced enforcement; and a common framework across UK jurisdictions. The present Working Paper provides an assessment of the Green Paper from the perspective of the key themes and recommendations of these proposals. It is explained that the Green Paper proposals follows the above approach to a very large extent. It proposes bold reforms to make the system more flexible, more streamlined and more transparent, including proposals for refocusing objectives, open contracting, a single and uniform regime, significant simplification, enhanced flexibility, including free access to negotiation and substantial improvements to enforcement. However, this positive view does come with some reservations. In particular, there is inadequate treatment of the important issue of mechanisms for recurring purchase in the form of framework agreements, dynamic purchasing systems and qualification systems. Here the proposals have potential for significantly reducing, rather than increasing, flexibility, contrary to a key aim of the reform, but are not sufficiently clear or justified to provide a basis for meaningful consultation. A second reservation is in the area of remedies. While valuable reforms are proposed to speed up court cases and improve pre-contractual remedies, it seems unlikely that these proposals alone will ensure access to justice for smaller companies; and while the prospect of removing some cases from the courts is raised for the longer term, such a future reform is by no means guaranteed. Finally, it is disappointing that the vision of a single and uniform regime has not been extended beyond the four sets of procurement Regulations that derive from EU law, as there are no convincing reasons not to do this.

Friction stir welding (FSW) is the fastest evolving joining technology and the principal prospective technique for implementing an integral fuselage structure in aircraft manufacturing. The viability of FS welds is dependent upon mechanical properties and production turnovers, which are dependent on welding rates and tool design. Hence this review paper border on the effect of welding parameters, tool designs on micro-structure, and mechanical behavior of friction stir welds. The micro-structure and micro-hardnesses which were influenced by the welding rates determined static properties, failure locations, and residual stress minima and maxima. The study reviews the nature and distribution of material flow, grain structure, and precipitates in the aluminum FS welds and their effect on mechanical properties. Advances in the industrial application of Friction Stir Welds and further prospects are critical to this review work.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In August 2017, the Supreme Court of India’s landmark judgment in Puttaswamy v. Union of India affirmed that the right to privacy is a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution. In Puttaswamy v. Union of India, the various opinions have observed that informational privacy is an important aspect of such privacy in this day and age. As arguments were made in this case, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), Government of India also set up a Committee of Experts to identify key data protection issues in India and recommend methods of addressing them. MEITY and the Committee of Experts have now issued a white paper which recognises the need for comprehensive data protection regulations that incorporate established data protection principles. Public comments and consultations have been called for on the basis of this paper, as we gear up to build on the fundamental right to privacy and put in place strong data protection laws to protect personal data. In this paper we analyse the only existing ‘comprehensive’ data protection rules in India, i.e. the Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011 (“Rules”), issued under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“IT Act”). The paper examines the provisions of the IT Act and the Rules that provide for the protection of personal data, the kind of personal data that they apply to, as well as some of the criticisms of these provisions and their enforcement.

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.

This paper provides guidance to authors of European Institute for Food Law working papers. It discusses topics such as the template, style, referencing, lay out, the use of illustrations, and posting a paper online.

CaV6O16·3H2O spong-like and tube-like three-dimensional (3D) structures were constructed by a simple hydrothermal method. The 3D structures composed of superlong CaV6O16·3H2O nanobelts have good tailorability. CaV6O16·3H2O papers with different thickness can be obtained by simply pressing (cutting) and drying the 3D structures. The electrochemical performances of the obtained CaV6O16·3H2O paper as the self-standing cathode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) were investigated for the first time. It delivers an initial discharge capacity of 463.9 mAh g−1 at 50 mA g−1 and maintains at 162.3 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles. This work provide the possibility for designing high-performance cathode for LIBs.

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.

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 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.

This survey reviews several approaches of HPDM from many research groups world wide. Modern computer hardware supports the development of high-performance applications for data analysis on many different levels. The focus is on modern multi-core processors built into today's commodity computers, which are typically found at university institutes both as small server and workstation computers. So they are deliberately not high-performance computers. Modern multi-core processors consist of several (2 to over 100) computer cores, which work independently of each other according to the principle of "multiple instruction multiple data'' (MIMD). They have a common main memory (shared memory). Each of these computer cores has several (2-16) arithmetic-logic units, which can simultaneously carry out the same arithmetic operation on several data in a vector-like manner (single instruction multiple data, SIMD). HPDM algorithms must use both types of parallelism (SIMD and MIMD), with access to the main memory (centralized component) being the main barrier to increased efficiency.

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

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated was founded on December 4, 1906 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Since its inception, it has directly, through various initiatives, and indirectly, through the work of its members, been critically involved in African American's quest for civil rights and social justice. This paper lays bare that history, contemporary issues that the Fraternity should tackle, social justice partnerships the Fraternity established under General President Mark S. Tillman's administration, and articulated the internal dynamics the Fraternity must address in order to become an effective social justice change agent as well as concrete steps it can take, top to bottom, to be more deeply engaged in social justice.

The fate on the planet replies on implementing sustainable practices in all sectors of life mainly environmental. Lebanon face a shortage of more than 1,300 MW production, so renewable energy can help lessen the load. The country is in need of a new policy to solve the crisis, but it is crippled by political deadlock. As the public became more aware of the environment, they started to demand more eco-friendly energy sources. Renewable energy is a valid option, but storage is a problem for practical reasons. Capacitors or batteries might offer a plausible solution for the threat of inconsistent supply. Real time experiments have proven that renewable energy sources (wind, hydraulic and solar) can generate considerable amounts of clean energy that can supply the needs of Lebanon and compensate the shortage with minimal pollution. It is recommended that the government start to consider these options as viable solutions for the energy crisis.

Since its enactment and ratification, savvy observers have viewed the Fourteenth Amendment as a vindication of the military experience of the Civil War. Bullets and bayonets in wartime led to peacetime citizenship in Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment and to peacetime ballots that were first protected in Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment and then bolstered in the Fifteenth Amendment. But there is another story to tell as well, one in which the Fourteenth Amendment is not the beginning of a new constitutional story, or at least not only the beginning of a new story, but also a betrayal and an ending. In important respects the Fourteenth Amendment helped to close out the righteous form of power that had emerged in the antebellum era as a solution to the glaring injustice of slavery. This crucial authority was the federal government’s war power. Stories of vindication and of new beginnings are not wrong. But they make it all too easy to miss the Fourteenth Amendment’s role as part of a complicated denouement of the wartime experience, one that embodied the war’s triumphs but also blunted their force and pace. The Fourteenth Amendment abandoned a vital chapter of American history even as it occasioned a new one whose results are still unfolding.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has begun a process to review and update the Communications Act of 1934, last revised in any material way in 1996. As the Committee begins the review process, this paper responds to questions posed by the Committee that all relate, in fundamental ways, to the question: "What should a modern Communications Act look like?"The Response advocates a "clean slate" approach under which the regulatory silos that characterize the current statute would be eliminated, along with almost all of the ubiquitous 'public interest' delegation of authority found throughout the Communications Act. The replacement regime would have at its core a new competition-based standard that, except in limited circumstances, would require that the FCC's regulatory activities be tied to findings of consumer harm resulting from lack of sufficient competition. The FCC's authority to adopt broad anticipatory rules on an ex ante basis would be substantially circumscribed, and the agency would be required to rely more heavily than is presently the case on ex post adjudication of individual complaints alleging specific abuses of market power and consumer harm. Some aspects of the FCC's current jurisdiction, such as privacy and data security regulation, might be transferred to the FTC in light of the FTC's institutional competence in these areas.

The office of Director of Public Prosecutions and Public Protector (hereinafter referred to as the DPP and PP‘‘) are public office. They are one of the most profound pillars in the maintenance of Law and order in any society. The offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions and Public Prosecutor are created by the Constitution respectively as one of the Constitutional offices for the benefit of republic‘s interest in carrying out prosecutions of criminal offenders and Defending People‘s rights, rule of law, transparency and accountability in the courts of Law. Articles 180(1) and 243(1) of the Constitution of the republic of Zambia (hereinafter referred to as CAP 1‘) establishes the office of the DPP and The Article provides; There shall be a Director of Public Prosecutions who shall be appointed by the President, subject to ratification by the National Assembly1.In exercise of its duties, it is most certainly clear that the decision of whether or not to prosecute is not an easy one to make. It is very challenging as there is no concise authority for a prosecutor to be guided by in reaching a decision as whether to mount a prosecution or not. The Constitutional Position of the powers of the DPP is such that no authority other than itself can order the office and the office holder to prosecute a person.As per Constitutional provision, the DPP is the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Government of the Republic of Zambia and his role is limited to the Constitutional functions of advising and controlling Criminal prosecutions.This research paper will propound on reviewing the Constitutional powers of the DPP in relation to the entering of a Nolle Prosequi. The paper will achieve this by walking the reader through a series of fundamental topics within and around the office of the DPP in relation to its establishing and regulatory Statues. In the recent past, this public office‘s tenets have come to the media attention of citizenry quite often and this has risen what has somewhat been a dormant eye on what the office is and its significant and in particular, its powers and discretions in relation to a Nolle Prosequi. In effect, after such review, this research paper 1. Article 180(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Zambia 2016, CAP1, p.75 8will provide recommendations how best the sacred office of the DPP can better perform its Constitutional powers in relation to the entering of a Nolle Prosequi

German Abstract: Das Bundesministerium der Justiz und fur Verbraucherschutz (BMJV) hat am 17. April 2018 seinen Referentenwurf zur Umsetzung der Richtlinie (EU) 2016/943 zum Schutz von Geschaftsgeheimnissen vor rechtswidrigem Erwerb sowie rechtswidriger Nutzung und Offenlegung veroffentlicht. Das vorliegende Discussion Paper nimmt eine rechtliche Analyse der Konformitat des Referentenentwurfs mit der Richtlinie vor und macht uber diese rechtstechnische Frage hinaus auch Verbesserungsvorschlage. English Abstract: The German Ministry of Justice releases on the 17th of April 2018 a bill proposal regarding the transposition of the directive (EU) 2016/943 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure. The present Discussion Paper provides for a legal analysis of the conformity of the proposal with the directive and makes above this technical analysis some suggestion for improvement.

The State Con-Con Papers is a collection of J.H. Snider’s 47 short essays on the history, democratic function, and politics of the periodic state constitutional convention referendum, which is mandated by 14 U.S. state constitutions. The essays, organized chronologically, cover four of the most recent referendums: Hawaii (2018), New York (2017), Rhode Island (2014), and Maryland (2010). In each of these four states, the convention referendum is the only constitutional mechanism that allows the people — the sovereign — to bypass the state legislature’s gatekeeping power over constitutional amendment. The title, The State Con-Con Papers, draws an analogy with The Federalist Papers, a famous collection of newspaper commentaries that discuss the proposals generated by America’s 1787 constitutional convention.

Family courts are not likely to disappear, as they currently constitute the largest proportion of trial court filings in most states. It appears as though family courts have become an emergency room for family problems. Thus, we need to enhance our efforts to improve the family justice system. In order to revamp family courts most effectively, there must be a focus on the creation of unified family courts that are grounded in therapeutic jurisprudence and the ecology of human development. This framework allows for a more responsive and holistic approach to families' legal and underlying nonlegal needs. The goal of a unified family court is to aim to improve the lives of families and children through judicial action, informal court proceedings, alternative dispute resolution, and the provision of appropriate social services.Key Points for the family court Community:-The need for family court reform;-An underlying theoretical foundation to guide the Family Court reform process;-Employing therapeutic jurisprudence to ensure an outcome that can positively affect the lives of the families and children involved in each legal proceeding;-Utilizing the ecology of human development to assist with obtaining a holistic view of families' legal and underlying nonlegal issues;-A blueprint to create a unified family court to provide an effective, efficient, comprehensive resolution to each family's dispute.

This paper was prepared in support of the mandate of Working Group III to consider the possible reform of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) for reasons of independence and impartiality. It outlines the deep flaws in the current design of ISDS on this issue and offers ideas about reforms to incorporate essential safeguards.

This contribution represents the comments of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, Munich (Germany), on the DG Competition White Paper of April 2008 on damages actions for breach of the EC antitrust rules. The White Paper forms part of the European Commission’s strategy of enhancing private enforcement of European competition law through damage claims. The White Paper was preceded by several comparative reports and a by Green Paper. It is likely that it will form the basis for future policy instruments in the field of private enforcement. The present contribution discusses some recurring issues of private antitrust enforcement in Europe. It proceeds to analyse eight specific legal issues that the White Paper had put forward for public comment: standing of indirect purchasers and collective redress; access to evidence; binding effect, across Member States’ borders, of decisions adopted by national competition authorities; the fault requirement as a prerequisite to civil liability; definition and quantification of damages; the passing-on defence; limitation periods; costs of damages actions; and, finally, the interaction between leniency programs and actions for damages. The paper advocates excluding the passing-on defence, and instead implementing a separate mechanism for dividing the overcharge between purchasers on different levels of the distribution chain. Overall, we welcome the proposal to give private damage claims a more prominent role as an instrument for enforcing the competition rules in Europe. Nevertheless, the enforcement of the widely harmonised European competition rules by means of national rules on civil procedure might create tensions with traditional legal principles in some Member States.

Whistleblowers play an important role in fighting corruption, in protecting the public and the environment from harm, and in providing accountability for the violation of legal norms. When an individual blows the whistle on alleged wrongdoing, she may suffer severe financial consequences. The law recognizes the social good that can come from whistleblowing by providing some protection for them and encouraging such conduct in a variety of ways. This paper provides a definition of whistleblowing, describes five distinct ways that the law encourages it, and identifies some of the key legal concepts found in the law of whistleblowing, including the tension between whistleblowing and other legal norms.

On April 2, 2008 the European Commission published the White Paper on 'Damages actions for breach of the EC antitrust rules proposing to the member-states the adoption of concrete measures as regards a number of issues pertaining to the satisfaction of relevant claims, such as standing, access to evidence, proof of infringement, fault, definition of damages etc. Most notably, however, the Commission included in its list of proposals the rule that an infringement finding by an NCA decision constitutes irrebuttable proof of that infringement. Consequently, it fulfills the requirement of illegality, pre-requisite for liability. Even more interestingly, this rule, about the binding effect of the NCA infringement finding, extends to all member-state national courts deciding subsequent ('follow-on') claims for civil damages of the victims of such infringement. This article aims to define the scope of application of the proposed EU-wide binding effect rule as this is presented in the White Paper and to discuss some of the issues expected to arise following its adoption by national legislators (either on a voluntary basis or, most probably) following an eventual relevant provision in the forthcoming EC Draft Directive for Antitrust Damages.

As 3D printers become increasingly functional and accessible, various areas of the law will be ill equipped to handle the ramifications of such futuristic technology. This technology will sneak up on current federal firearm laws and threaten to render any attempts at gun control obsolete. The lack of regulations to adequately police the 3D printing of weapons will have extreme effects on civil and criminal rights and liabilities. This note gives some background on the 3D printing process, provides an explanation of digitally manufactured firearms and discusses the current federal regulations at issue. In addition, it examines various approaches to and inherent flaws in regulating 3D printed weapons. The note also focuses on the policy implications and the heightened concern created with its application to criminal activity. Finally, it recommends an approach to 3D weapons manufacturing that balances the most critical individual and public policy concerns regarding this advanced technology.

Various reasons explain why Europe lags behind other jurisdictions in Empirical Legal Studies, especially regarding judicial decision-making. One of them is a scarcity of field data, even on the highest tiers of adjudication. Civil law jurisdictions differ markedly from their common law counterparts in the emphasis they place on individual judges. Hence very little empirical data is available on how courts are composed and how that composition changes over time. The present project attempts to change that by easing access to such data and thus lowering the threshold for empirical studies on the composition of the judiciary. It creates a resource for Empirical Legal Scholarship in order to start closing a research gap and to inspire more European scholars to engage with the empirical aspects of civil law adjudication. Several thousand pages of German court documentation were digitized, transcribed into machine-readable tables (ready to be imported into statistics software) and published online. To explore new avenues for sharing public domain data, they were also modeled as linked open data and imported into a prominent data repository.

The ethics of refugee protection is not an ethics of assistance to needy people, but an ethics of the prohibition of tort, namely, in particular, the violation of human rights. This is reflected in the positive refugee law only inadequately, because here is not the damage in the fore-ground, from which people flee, but the reasons why they are mistreated by persecutors. The damage-oriented approach clarifies the reasons why persons in need for protection who have already reached the territory of the country of refuge can rely on a subjective right not to be exposed to the dangers they have fled from, while refugees outside the territory can in principle only appeal to the compassion and humanity of possible helpers. However, the boundary between "inside" and "outside" shifts according to the expansion of the de facto sphere of power of the acting person or state. This may also create a legal position for persons who are rescued by a ship at sea or whose living and travel conditions are essentially determined by the power of a state outside its territory.

The importance of documentary evidence in a legal proceeding cannot be over-emphasized. They serve as the best form of evidence in the proof of a party’s claim before the court. A document will be admissible in evidence only if it is admissible in law and is relevant to the facts in issue. The general position of the law is that a document that fails the test of admissibility becomes inadmissible in evidence and will not be reckoned with in determining any issue for consideration before the court. However, a critical evaluation of case-laws in Nigeria revealed that in some circumstances, exceptions abound to this general position under the law of evidence. Notably, the circumstances before the courts in Akinduro v Alaya and Braimoh Akinola vs. Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin & ors presented workable exceptions to this general position. The paper found that the effects of these exceptions are that documents rendered inadmissible in a particular suit do not become utterly useless and same may still be admissible in prove of a separate purpose in the proceedings. Hence, this paper argued against the “absoluteness” of the general position under the law of evidence that a document rendered inadmissible is totally inadmissible in the same proceeding, the paper presented exceptions to the absoluteness of this general principle of law, and concluded that there is in existence circumstantial exceptions to this general principle.

This paper responds to the government’s proposals for redressing the “intelligence-to-evidence” (I2E) dilemma in national security judicial proceedings, discussed in its targeted consultation document distributed in August 2017. The paper urges the need for not just law reform, but also operational reform in terms of how police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) manage their "parallel" national security investigations. We renew our doubts about the parallel investigation and the dangers it poses for national security. The paper supports the government's proposed changes to the Canada Evidence Act, s.38 national security confidentiality procedures for criminal trials. In particular, it agrees that trial court judges should be able to make and modify s.38 non-disclosure orders. It urges, however, that Parliament codify the Stinchcombe disclosure rules, and their application to national security proceedings, and not simply double-down by codifying the O'Connor "third party" rule - something that may reinforce parallel police/CSIS investigations. The paper expresses considerable skepticism for the "closed material proceeding" (CMP) proposal in civil trials implicating national security proceedings. These would produce, in essence, secret civil trials. We suspect secret civil trials would be challenged on division of power grounds, under s.96 of the Constitution Act 1867 and even under the Charter and the open court principle and, if it remains applicable, the Canadian Bill of Rights. More immediately, the CMP proposal seems likely to make a bill responding to neglected criminal law I2E issues much more controversial than it needs to be.

This White Paper reports on two years' work by a group convened by the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois, following an invitational, national, interdisciplinary conference Human Subject Policy Conference: An Examination of the Interaction Between Human Subject Protection Regulations and Research Outside the Biomedical Sphere. We describe the pernicious effects of mission creep on the work of Institutional Review Boards, which is diverting the attention of some IRBs from critical ethical oversight in favor of often-meaningless paperwork. We make recommendations to help the IRB system focus its efforts on those research projects most in need of careful ethical review to protect human subjects of and participants in research. The recommendations include the idea that some methodologies do not need advance review and approval by IRBs and that there are procedural changes that can strengthen the core missions of IRBs. We hope that this paper will further the discussion about what reasonable procedures can be instituted to provide improved ethical protection for people who participate in research projects.

English translation of the Policy Paper "Integration of Mediation into Ukrainian Court System" is available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=3054519. Ukrainian Abstract: Звіт підготовлено Тетяною Кисельовою у рамках проекту Ради Європи «Підтримка впровадженню судової реформи в Україні» з метою розробити комплексні рекомендації, які слугуватимуть основою для подальших дій щодо інтеграції медіації в судову систему України відповідно до стандартів Ради Європи. Цей звіт базується на результатах наукового дослідження про перешкоди розвитку медіації в Україні, яке автор здійснював у межах пост-докторської програми ім. Марії Кюрі впродовж 2016-2017 років на базі Туринського університету, Італія. Звіт складається з аналізу поточної ситуації в сфері медіації в Україні, інформації щодо основних дієвців (стейкхолдерів) процесу впровадження медіації, аналізу досягнень пілотних проектів з медіації в судах України, аналізу можливих сценаріїв інтеграції медіації в судову систему та рекомендацій для подальших дій. English Abstract: This study is prepared by Dr. Tatiana Kyselova and aims at comprehensive policy guidelines for planning further actions with regards to integration of mediation into the Ukrainian court system in line with the Council of Europe mediation recommendations. This report is based on the findings of the empirical case-study of mediation in Ukraine which was conducted by the author as a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow in 2016-2017. The report offers analysis of the current situation, main stakeholders of mediation, piloted court mediation schemes, possible scenarios of mediation integration into the court system, and recommendations for further actions. The main findings of the study are as follows. Given the specific socio-political context in Ukraine and relative cost- and time-efficiency of Ukrainian courts, integration of mediation into the court system will achieve better results if it is soft, gradual but quick - beginning from the voluntary schemes of court mediation and decentralized professional self-regulation with minimum state involvement. Soft integration of mediation within the courts should be reflected in the law on mediation and procedural codes expected to be adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament in 2017. All the models of court mediation piloted in 1997-2016 have potential for further development and mediation regulation should leave doors open to any of these models. The prospective law on mediation should encourage an experimental approach based on pilot court mediation schemes that are continuously monitored and may lead to the possible introduction of mandatory and more centralized elements in the future. It is suggested that the Ukrainian mediation community should primarily be responsible for coordinating and promoting the integration of mediation within the court system. It should be supported by the international community in such a development including projects to gain the support of the judiciary and the political elite; joint projects with the courts to test court mediation schemes; strategy development and coordination of efforts with lawyers and other stakeholders; drafting of mediation legislation; development of quality control, professional training and ethical standards for mediators.

One of the themes which resonate throughout the new treatise, Correctional Health Care: Practice, Administration, and Law. Cohen, Fred, Ed. 2017, is the rich legacy of the landmark 1976 Supreme Court Prisoner Rights case, Estelle v. Gamble. A contributing authority in this compilation on prisoners’ health care, David L. Thomas, MD, JD, EdD, describes the case’s legal and ethical game changing significance. Estelle led to a “paradigm shift” in prisoners’ constitutional rights which guaranteed under the 8th amendment that prison officials provide inmates access to medical care in accordance with professional medical opinions. Before Estelle, Dr. Thomas, who writes on chronic care, describes the delivery of prisoner’s health care as a function of and the primary prerogative of security services which offered mostly “acute episodic care.” This was a unique constitutional protection, not even available to the general public, and it required prison and medical authorities to examine the quality and delivery of inmate healthcare in this growing field. In light of this paradigm shift, Correctional Health Care: Practice, Administration, and Law systematically discusses the many ethical, administrative, legal and clinical issues which health providers require to meet the standard of care. One of the book’s important contributions is its emphasis on the deep interrelationship or “semipermeable membrane” which connects community health and prisoner health. While prisoners have a guaranteed constitutional right unmatched in the general population, the coordination of health services in correctional facilities and the community, and the importance of the ACA in the community are stressed. Despite the fact that states may not use federal funds for incarcerated persons, apart from long hospitalizations, the book emphasizes the significance of the health care coordination in the community. According to Professor Cohen, this has strong implications for attempts to reduce recidivism.

Like the literary device of Shakespeare’s play within a play, the book by James R. Acker, Lawlemmas; In Search of Principled Choices in Law, Justice, 2016, uses the very same literary device to show a class lecture and debate within a class lecture and debate. The medium allows readers and students to see how other students debate and think about practical legal and ethical controversies like race, insanity, juries, free speech, college privacy rights, euthanasia, confessions, and the death penalty. In the play within a play device, the audience watches an audience watch a play and sees how they respond. This forces them to think about themselves as participants as well as observers. It increases the power of the narrative because the reader observes others engaged in the same multi-faceted debates, that they themselves are pondering. The students have a vicarious choice between varying viewpoints not quite fixed in law and subject to intense debate, before analyzing their own position. While the approach of the book is pedagogical, to stimulate debate while reading others’ opinions, any reader of this volume and its accompanying references will benefit from the legal and ethical debates on ethical legal dilemmas. The book will refresh the scholars’ and practitioners’ grasp of how new and how unresolved these issues continue to be.

Legal outsourcing, which is a practice increasingly used by law firms in the United Kingdom and the United States to transfer work to foreign companies or firms in countries such as India or the Philippines, is still not very common among Italian companies and law firms. This is primarily due to the restrictions and limitations set forth by the law for the practice of the legal profession, which is strictly regulated. Another contributing factor is that Italian is the official language spoken and used in Italy, and it is therefore unlikely that any legal services could be effectively performed by workers whose native language is not Italian. The outsourcing of legal services is not specifically regulated by Italian law; instead, reference must be made to the general principles set forth in the Civil Code for the execution of service contracts, autonomous work, and intellectual professionals. It also is necessary to take into account the rules set forth by the National Bar Association in the Deontological Code, which applies to lawyers and law firms.

An examination of the scope of the relevant provisions of the Maldives Defamation Act, Law on the Protection of Reputation and Freedom of Expression 2016 (Maldives), in providing protection (or otherwise) to journalists when exercising their right to freedom of expression.

The Panama Papers refers to a massive leak of information encompassing more than 11 million documents involving more than 200,000 offshore entities. The leak originated in Panama. Some of the documents involve transactions as far back as the 1970s. Numerous wealthy individuals, including top government officials from many countries, have been implicated. The release of information and documents has led to several resignations and numerous lawsuits. The end of litigation is not in sight, as lawyers and government agencies in several countries continue to read and digest the information. Although there is nothing illegal per se about having offshore entities, some such entities have been used to hide assets, evade income taxes, launder money and evade sanctions. The whistleblower who leaked the information to Süddeutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper, called himself John Doe to maintain anonymity. He leaked the information because of his strong distaste for income inequality and because of his view that there were many injustices being perpetrated by some of the entities and individuals who were availing themselves of the entities. This paper discusses some of the underlying ethical issues that lurk beneath the surface of most discussions about hiding assets and income offshore. The discussion will focus on the ethics of parking profits (or hiding assets) offshore, tax evasion, bribery, and whistle blowers. This paper also includes links to more than 80 studies on tax evasion and 11 studies on bribery.

The previous two papers in this volume identified and commented upon a turn in case law towards narrowing down social rights for EU citizens while giving more attention to (nationalist) protective reflexes of Member States. Both papers criticize the type of solidarity that results from this case law; it marginalizes the weakest members of society, and excludes them from free movement rights. The case law raises doubts on the relevance of the citizenship provisions in the EU Treaties and the fundamental nature of the status of EU citizenship, and accordingly on the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the debate on welfare tourism. This paper concentrates on the latter. It will rely on and refer to the previous two papers where relevant. The questions underlying this paper are: Is the Court sensitive to the political context of fear for benefit tourism?1 Is the Court giving up its role as an engine for further integration by following the lead of the EU legislator?2 The paper will take a closer look at the arguments of the Court in the cases Brey, Dano and Alimanovic3 with the purpose of finding out whether it is possible to detect arguments underscoring the Court’s sensitivity to the political climate.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are critical mechanisms for corporate growth and potentially for increased shareholder returns. The reality, however, often does not live up to the promise, as is borne out by empirical data on the high incidence rates of M&A under-performance. At present in Australia, directors and executive management, particularly of the acquiring company, have considerable latitude to put at-risk shareholder value via M&A without any meaningful pre-event restraints or post-event sanctions (and with the benefit of the Business Judgment Rule defence). The old adage caveat emptor (‘let the buyer beware’) still holds true for buyers, but when it comes to ensuring that their own shareholders’ interests and capital are properly protected, there are few formally imposed ‘checks and balances’. Additionally, in terms of voluntary controls, there is little clarity on what are the acceptable, key activities and behaviours of the directors of the acquiring company, that represent responsible standards of conduct. The initial question to be considered is whether there is a discernible set of ‘right practices’ that provide a reference set of benchmarks for non-executive directors to know whether they are exercising the necessary care, diligence and skill in selecting and overseeing transactions. Looking from the ‘outside in’, the corollary is ‘How do shareholders in the acquiring company have some visibility and assurance that their executive management team and board are exercising (or have exercised) sufficient due diligence (in the broadest sense of the word)?’ The challenge thus arises as to how to describe the ‘right practice’ stewardship that should be exercised by ‘reasonable directors’ of the acquiring entity to manage the risks and performance of transactions – before, during and after acquisition. This article is the first of a series of four that focus on identifying and describing ‘right governance’ i.e. the required level and mix of actions and responsibilities of directors of the acquiring company, necessary for protecting the interests of their shareholders. To carry out this research, and to shed light on these gaps in knowledge and required practices, the extant commercial, governance and legal literature relating to M&A practice has been studied to understand what level of clarity it provides to non-executive directors. (This has been described in shorthand form as the t-ought for ‘theoretical ought’). Subsequently, opinions and experiences have been elicited from a cross-section of non-executive directors and Chairmen, via targeted interviews (‘grounded research’) to capture their views on good board oversight of M&A practice. (This has been described in shorthand form as the d-ought for ‘directors’ ought’). What has emerged as the board-level themes from seasoned directors have been compared to the extant literature to examine how these align and whether there are any key gaps or contradictions. In most cases, there is alignment, although the interviewed directors’ views have crystallised what in the literature could best be described as ‘un-consolidated ideas’ based on ‘an extrapolation of managerial practices’, as the body of documented knowledge is generally not targeted at board members. From these comparison has arisen an emergent theory regarding ‘right practice’. The emergent theory points to six key themes that those directors interviewed believe make a difference to deal performance: (1) the Board’s degree of strategic thinking (‘Clear strategy upfront’); (2) planning and preparation (‘Early preparation and planning’); (3) the extent of board members’ cultural due-diligence (‘Proper understanding of culture’); (4) robust business-case scrutiny and investment assessment (‘Rigorous testing of the investment business case and funding strategy’); (5) their focus on tracking the delivery of the targeted benefits (‘Effective monitoring post transaction’); and (6) the quality of their mutual challenge and critical debate (‘Well-chaired board with constructive challenge’). This process of comparison of ‘t-ought’ versus ‘d-ought’ has indicated that these initial findings have merit and should be regarded as an emergent theory. The paper that follows is the first of a four-part series: • Paper 1 covers the commercial or practitioner M&A literature to seek what guidance this provides directors involved in transactions and to uncover any material gaps • Paper 2 in similar fashion covers governance literature, again to seek guidance and to uncover any material gaps • Paper 3 covers the findings of director interviews flowing from PhD research, regarding right M&A governance • Paper 4 covers conclusions. Paper 2 available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=2880427

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are critical mechanisms for corporate growth and potentially for increased shareholder returns. The reality, however, often does not live up to the promise, as is borne out by empirical data on the high incidence rates of M&A under-performance. At present in Australia, directors and executive management, particularly of the acquiring company, have considerable latitude to put at-risk shareholder value via M&A without any meaningful pre-event restraints or post-event sanctions (and with the benefit of the Business Judgment Rule defence). The old adage caveat emptor (‘let the buyer beware’) still holds true for buyers, but when it comes to ensuring that their shareholders’ interests and capital are properly protected, there are few formally imposed ‘checks and balances’. Additionally, in terms of voluntary controls, there is little clarity on what are the acceptable, key activities and behaviours of the directors of the acquiring company, that represent responsible standards of conduct. The initial question to be considered is whether there is a discernible set of ‘right practices’ that provide a reference set of benchmarks for non-executive directors to know whether they are exercising the necessary care, diligence and skill in selecting and overseeing transactions. Looking from the ‘outside in’, the corollary is ‘How do shareholders in the acquiring company have some visibility and assurance that their executive management team and board are exercising (or have exercised) sufficient due diligence (in the broadest sense of the word) over transactions?’ The challenge thus arises as to how to describe the ‘right practice’ stewardship that should be exercised by ‘reasonable directors’ of the acquiring entity to manage the risks and performance of transactions – before, during and after acquisition. This paper is the third in a series of four that focus on identifying and describing ‘right governance’ i.e. the required level and mix of actions and responsibilities of directors of the acquiring company, necessary for protecting the interests of their shareholders. To carry out this research, and to shed light on these gaps in knowledge and required practices, three extant sources of knowledge – commercial, governance and legal literature – relating to M&A practice have been studied to understand what level of clarity it provides to non-executive directors. (This has been described in shorthand form as the t-ought for ‘theoretical ought’). It was hoped that this triangulation exercise would provide clear answers and an evidence based view as to what is right governance over M&A. it turned out that this triangulation exercise indicated a sizeable kludge gap at the intersection points. Subsequently the opinions and experiences have been elicited from a cross-section of non-executive directors and Chairmen, via targeted interviews (‘grounded research’) to capture their views on good board oversight of M&A practice. (This has been described in shorthand form as the d-ought for ‘directors’ ought’). What has emerged as the board-level themes from seasoned directors have been compared to the extant literature to examine how these align and whether there are any key gaps or contradictions. In most cases, there is alignment, although the interviewed directors’ views have crystallised what in the literature could best be described as ‘un-consolidated ideas’ based on ‘an extrapolation of managerial practices’, as the body of documented knowledge is generally not targeted at board members. From these comparisons, has arisen an emergent theory regarding ‘right practice’. The emergent theory points to six key themes that those directors interviewed believe make a difference to deal performance: (1) the Board’s degree of strategic thinking (‘Clear strategy upfront’); (2) planning and preparation (‘Early preparation and planning’); (3) the extent of board members’ cultural due-diligence (‘Proper understanding of culture’); (4) robust business-case scrutiny and investment assessment (‘Rigorous testing of the investment business case and funding strategy’); (5) their focus on tracking the delivery of the targeted benefits (‘Effective monitoring post transaction’); and (6) the quality of their mutual challenge and critical debate (‘Well-chaired board with constructive challenge’). This process of comparison of ‘t-ought’ versus ‘d-ought’ has indicated that these initial findings have merit and should be regarded as an emergent theory. The paper that follows is the third of a four-part series: • Paper 1 covered the commercial or practitioner M&A literature to see what guidance it provides directors involved in transactions • Paper 2 in similar fashion covered governance literature, again to seek guidance • Paper 3 covers the research findings flowing from director interviews into what is right governance (this paper is delivered in two parts, 3A and 3B, which are explained further below) • Paper 4 covers conclusions. Part A of the third paper follows below and covers directors' views of the need for board involvement in a range of M&A activities.

Law and popular culture is an exciting topic at the intersection of law and humanities. This booklet, the result of a Maastricht Research Based Learning project, contains five papers that reflect upon alternative perceptions of justice in popular culture. The papers deal with the law of surrogacy in soap operas, law and musicals, rights for robots in science fiction, the portrayal of law in Erin Brockovich and an inquiry into the principles of contract law in children’s cinema.

Developments in the law are making the corporate form more opaque and allowing the agents who animate it to escape individual accountability for their actions. The law now provides protection for agents to engage in widespread frauds that inflict massive harm on the public. This article challenges the academic orthodoxy that shareholder and director liability are enough to control agent behavior by developing a paper dragon analogy to focus on the importance of agents in corporate animation. Lack of agent accountability encourages the patterns of fraud that caused the financial crisis in which forty-five percent of the world’s wealth disappeared, and which continue to be repeated. The article reveals how making the corporate form more opaque has led to the destruction of corporate conspiracy charges for individuals and now the implosion of securities law as a method of disciplining agents. The article concludes with a call for both watching the paper dragon and the need to track the dancers who move its feet.

This comment is submitted in response to the India Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion’s Discussion Paper on Standard Essential Patents and Their Availability on FRAND Terms.

The Public Procurement Act (PPA) 2011 and the Public Procurement Regulations (PPR) 2013 make up the current main legal framework and the latest outputs of the procurement reforms that Tanzania has undertaken since 1990s. More or less like its predecessors, the PPA 2011 has not enabled the government (the procuring entities) to achieve value for money in terms of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Based on an intensive scholarly research work (draft paper), the author submits that there is a major systemic weakness of the law which require policy and legislative actions to unlock the potential of public procurement to delivery of the best value for the limited public monetary resources. The author recommends major reforms to the law centered on redefining the policy goal of public procurement along with setting up a coherent legal system consistent with the policy goal.