Volume 20, Issue 1 -

The article analyzes Ukraine’s experience of transnational civil society influence on anti-corruption courts. Transnational civil society emergence, anti-corruption courts in the modern world as an element of anti-corruption campaigns and anti-corruption bodies institutional organization in Ukraine and transnational civil society involvement in the selection of judges of High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine are examined. The article concludes that Ukraine has involved civil society institutions, both national and international, in the processes of selection of judges. While national civil society involvement and Public Integrity Council of Ukraine has shown a decent level of success in preventing of candidates who are non-conformant with integrity requirements from being appointed as judges in the system of courts of general jurisdiction, in case of High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine the role of Public Council of International Experts is even more strengthened, with a decisive power on each of the candidate.

In recent years the phenomenon of the illicit trafficking in cultural assets has been addressed by international and European lawmakers as an important phenomenon within the complex criminal networks used for the financing of international terrorism. The factors that contribute most to its development include in particular the availability of advanced technologies for plundering archaeological sites and e-commerce, which has sped up trade by breaking down space-time barriers, along also with armed conflict, political instability and poverty. In order to bring about change and put an end to the phenomenon, some significant legislative choices have recently been implemented in the European Union. The aim is to create a regime that is as uniform as possible along with a network of standardised controls capable of intercepting illicit trafficking. The concerns of art market operators surrounding the introduction of new rules and regulations can be appreciated if it is considered that the vibrant lawful market of artworks operates in accordance with tried and tested arrangements. This article will seek to provide an account of the phenomenon in its full complexity, highlighting the most significant recent developments within the European Union. It will also discuss the role of information and digital technologies in the area of cultural heritage. In particular, the existing European legal framework represented by the main legal instruments adopted by the international community and by the European Union will be sketched out, including both civil law and criminal law responses to the illicit trafficking of cultural heritage. Within this context the importance of the issues of traceability within art transactions, which are mostly paper-based, will be investigated along with other related issues such as digital tracking of artworks (digital passports), art security systems and authentication technologies.

This essay highlights the major global trends and critical issues that emerged so far in climate change litigation, through the analysis of some significant cases in different jurisdictions. Climate cases involve different actors and a wide variety of claims: claims challenging specific projects or activities; lawsuits dealing with damages caused by climate change-related events and seeking compensation and/or injunctions; cases aiming at amending key features of national climate change policy and legislation. Finally, the essay identifies some trends in the very heterogeneous body of arguments that are brought before the courts, including obligations arising from international and human rights law.

The article deals with the forms of government, with particular attention to the relationship of confidence between Parliament and Government. After an introductory paragraph concerning the classification of the forms of Government according to the presence or absence of a relationship of confidence, the author analyses, from a comparative perspective, the rationalization machineries offered to the vote of confidence and the vote of no-confidence. The article outlines some possible future scenarios in the light of the transformation of the form of Government from the classic Cabinet version to new models.

By using a sociolegal analysis, this article shows how the Peruvian State has used administrative mechanisms to prevent the free, prior and informed consultation of indigenous and peasant communities impacted by mining projects throughout the country. Prior consultation – a fundamental right for these communities – is being drained of its content by ad hoc procedures of a mining bureaucracy bent on ignoring it. For this, the main strategy has been to deny the identity of indigenous peoples and, by doing so, divest them of their collective rights. The goal has been to promote the expansion of the mining industry at all costs. In the context of an extractivist economy, indigenous rights loose substance. The state has thus moved from the discursive recognition of indigenous rights to its effective disregard. However, the reaction of other state agencies against the systematic denial of indigenous collective rights offers not only hope but the chance to assess the tension between economic and special human rights.

The externalization of migration management to third countries is becoming a recurrent phenomenon in international migration management. Soft law instruments emerged as an important strategy to externalize migration management to third countries through international migration agreements. In particular, in the last years the European Union and some member states have adopted bilateral and multilateral migration agreements in order to diminish the arrival of migrants in Europe. These agreements in the form of soft law instruments are problematic because do not follow the ordinary process of law making and thus it is difficult to assess their legal effectivity. The memorandum of understanding signed in February 2017 between Libya and Italy represents an illustrative case of the process of externalizing migration management through soft law. From a critical discussion of the memorandum, many problems in relation to its legal and material validity follow. In particular, the protection of migrants’ human rights in Libya is not guaranteed as the many international organization and NGOs reports indicate.

Data Mining (DM) is the analytical activity aimed at revealing new “knowledge” from data useful for further decision-making processes. These techniques have recently acquired enormous importance as they seem to fit perfectly the requests of the so called “Data Driven World”. In this paper, first I give an overview of DM, and of the most relevant criticisms raised so far. Then using a well-known case study and the European General Data Protection Regulation as benchmark, I show that there are some specific ambiguities in this use of “knowledge” which are relevant for the ethical and legal assessment of DM.

The aim of this paper is to determine the re-characterization risk inherent in a classic securitization project. The paper highlights the importance of making a more thorough investigation of the true-sale doctrine providing principal tools for minimization of such a risk. The author examines the legal consequences of re-characterization for a securitization project and outlines the basic factors which may lead to re-characterization. He explores the classic true-sale doctrine and suggests its better understanding within the securitization context. The existing literature provides no common approach which would help to distinguish between a sale and a secured loan in this context. This article fills a gap in the doctrine by establishing an efficient ‘purpose-oriented approach’, under which a court shall focus on the purpose of the principal transaction in securitization. We suggest the exhaustive list of criteria for characterization of such a deal which should include only adequacy of consideration paid for the receivables and adequacy of the subject-matter of the deal.

Natural and technological disasters have the potential to severely undermine the capacity of States to comply with their human rights obligations. Among the most vital rights of disaster victims are the rights to food and water, encapsulated in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In this article, the scope of State obligations under international human rights law to secure sufficient amounts of adequate food and water in disaster settings is explored. After assessing if and to what extent the exercise of such rights can be restricted in the wake of a major disaster, the focus of the analysis shifts to the core content of State obligations, which are explored in the light of commonly accepted humanitarian standards. Lastly, the relationship between the obligation to ensure access to a minimum essential amount of food and water and the non-derogable right to life is examined.

The possibility for private entities interested in international trials but without the legal requirements to participate as a party was precluded, in a classical vision of international law made for states and addressed to states . At present, however, with some notable exceptions, several international jurisdictions allow for the submission of amicus curiae briefs. These briefs were introduced to international courts by common law lawyers. Legal literature generally identifies it as an institution of classical Roman law. This paper will show that this assumption is, however, doubtful. An examination of the sources cited by an important dictionary and other decades-old legal scholarship relied upon today as establishing the Roman origins of amicus curiae , and a fresh study of Roman and later continental European primary sources reveal a different picture: in reality, there is neither a basis for grounding the amicus curiae in Roman law, nor is there a basis for grounding it in the medieval continental ius commune . The primary source is most likely English common law and, not surprisingly, it was common law lawyers who introduced the briefs into international litigation.

The paper focuses on how computational models and methods impact on current legal systems, and in particular, on criminal justice. While the discussion about the suitabilty of the exploitation of learning machines and Artificial Intelligence (AI) either as surveillance means and human substitutes in the judicial decision-making process is arising, the authors reflect upon the risk of using AI and algorithm-based evidence in criminal proceedings. The claim of the paper is twofold: on the one hand, we should reinterpret todays legal frameworks, e. g. the European Convention of Human Rights, shifting the attention from possible violations of the right to privacy to potential infringements on a basic fair trial feature, the Equality of Arms. On the other hand, we should aknowledge that main legal issues, triggered by the breathtaking advancements in AI, can properly be addressed mainly through technical solutions (e. g. methods for assessing the completeness and correctness of digital evidence related to mobile devices and conversations). No legal theory, which overlooks the crossover of juridical and computational expertise, will survive the present time.

Restrictions recently imposed by law on the application of felony murder in California Senate Bill n. 1437 amending Sections 188 and 189 of, and adding Section 1170.95 to, the Penal Code. and a judgment of a split California Court of Appeal rejecting the claim that the second-degree felony murder provision is unconstitutionally vague Cal. 4th App. Dist. April 30, 2019, see note 74. offer the occasion to analyze the Californian second degree murder. Second degree Felony murder in California, which is not spelled out by statute, relies on the jurisprudential construction of an “inherently dangerous felony”. According to the California Supreme Court, this criterion was conceived to accompany its overall aim of deterrence as well as function as a limitation on the application of felony murder itself. The purpose of this article is to highlight how the jurisprudential reconstruction of “inherently dangerous felonies” does not present a suitable criterion for determining whether second degree murder has taken place. While calling into play the goal of deterrence may bring forth paradoxical results, the “inherently dangerous felony,” upon which second degree felony murder relies, represents a double-edged sword. In fact, this article argues that it expands, rather than restricts, the application of felony murder, also posing several constitutional concerns. It follows that, since the “inherently dangerous” category acts as the essential base upon which second degree felony murder stands, the “crumbling” of the one should lead to the fall of the other.

This essay analyses several elements of food labelling regulation by comparing European and US models. In particular, food labelling is examined as an outcome of the interaction between legal culture and food culture as well as of the competition between public and private regulators. Indeed, the different functions of labelling (both as an informative and as a marketing tool) and the cultural divergences between the two models compel us to consider the cultural environment in which labelling is regulated and applied. These intricate phenomena are tackled by analysing the most heavily debated issues, such as health claims, Genetically Modified Organisms and Country of Origin Labelling. For each issue, different cultural drivers, as they relate to consumers, businesses and institutions, are compared. Concluding remarks stress divergences and convergences between the two models and propose some insights regarding the use of the notion of culture in global and comparative food law research.