Additional Obligations Research Articles

Enhance the Quality of the University Tutoring Services to Counteract Undergraduate Students’ Educational Failure: A Focus on the Department Of Education of Roma Tre University

Tutoring services are one of the variables which educational research investigates to counteract the educational failure of universities (Topping, 1996; Falchikov & Blythman, 2001; Da Re, 2017). An effective strategy, in order to counteract dropout and delay in achievement of a degree and to promote a positive continuation of studies, is to enhance the quality of the university tutoring services which could support students in their studies with personalized and interactive educational process, providing them with support both on the educational and emotional-motivational levels (Felice, 2005; Álvarez & González, 2008). This paper presents the results of longitudinal research developed at the Department of Education at the Roma Tre University. The research analyzed the academic careers of three cohorts of students (academic years: 2013, 2016 and 2017) with what are defined “Additional Educational Obligations” (OFA) because they had scored an insufficient grade in the admission test and so attended “S.Tu.Di OFA” tutoring service. The objective was to reduce undergraduate students’ educational failure. The results of the research have shown how the innovation of the didactic design has proved to be effective in helping to counter the university students' educational insufficiencies. Both qualitative and quantitative tools were used (Trinchero, 2002; Pellerey, 2011; Semeraro, 2014). Data analysis highlighted the effectiveness of the tutoring actions proposed for students with initial difficulties in studying. Also, the reflections advanced by tutors and students confirmed the importance of continuing to strengthen the university’s offering of formative tutoring.

Complementarity of the Provision of Insurance Services and Services of a Different Kind, i.e. Cross-Selling

This article focuses on discussing the standards laid down in Article 10 of the Insurance Distribution Act. It concerns the so-called packages of insurance services and other services or sale of things. Complementarity of the provision of insurance services poses the threat of misselling. Hence, the legislature desires to limit the freedom of insurance distribution by additional information obligations imposed on insurance intermediaries, to whom the analyzed regulation is primarily addressed.

Blocking Orders: Assessing Tensions with Human Rights

Over the past few years, injunctions against Internet access providers requiring them to block access to copyright-infringing websites have been on the rise in Europe. This type of injunctions is popular because going after direct infringers has proven to be ineffective and disproportionate, whereas targeting the website operators is not an easy task either, as they often run their services from another jurisdiction, easily change location or conceal identity. Despite popularity of website blocking injunctions, the legal standards applicable to them remain to a great extent undefined. This uncertainty might be increased with regard to the additional enforcement obligations that the adopted Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market imposes on online intermediaries. This chapter tries to clarify the legal criteria for website blocking from the perspective of three fundamental rights that play a major role in website blocking cases. The freedom of expression framework for copyright enforcement and the progressive concept of user rights that has being construed under it is analysed first (I). The chapter then proceeds to discuss the limits of intermediaries’ involvement in digital enforcement mandated by the EU-specific freedom to conduct a business (II). The required efficacy of the blocking resulting from the human right to property framework for IP merits a separate examination (III). Finally, potential effects on the website blocking practices of the recent EU copyright reform are discussed (IV). The chapter concludes that despite this new legislation, courts at EU and national level will continue to play a central role in balancing the interests at stake through the principle of proportionality and that further guidance for the judiciary on how to use competing fundamental rights in this context should be developed.

SoS Back-and-Forth? Minimum v. Exhaustive Harmonization of the Right to be Protected Customers in Gas Supply Crises: Eni and Others

The Russian-Ukraine gas supply crisis in January 2009 brought an unprecedented disruption for the gas supply in Europe. As a response, the SoS Regulation put in place an ambitious plan to mitigate not only the risks of another gas supply crisis, but also to protect a defined group of customers in case of unavoidable gas shortage - households, small and medium enterprises, institutions providing essential social services among others. While it was thought the SoS Regulation had pursued exhaustive harmonization standards in the definition of protected costumers, the ECJ's judgment in Eni and Others reopened the question. This article, instead, argues that the Court got it wrong. Neither the judgment nor the opinion of the Advocate General took into sufficient account the legal content Fof the provision that defined protected customers. If the Court had done so, the judgment would have likely taken additional linguistic, systemic, and teleological arguments into account. The analyses and comments on Eni and Others here offered focus on the first referred question about whether Member States could impose additional obligation on gas undertakings by reviewing the definition of protected customer.

Accountability Without Liability: ‘To Whom’ and ‘With What Consequences’? (Questions for the 2019 OECD Privacy Guidelines Review)

The concept of accountability, though present in international data protection agreements since the 1980s, has gained more prominence since its elaboration in the 2013 revision of the OECD privacy Guidelines and the 2016 EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In the GDPR art. 24 ‘demonstrable accountability’ has become an additional and separate obligation on data controllers. If a controller fails to so demonstrate compliance, the supervisory authority can order it to bring its processing operations into compliance, and/or impose an administrative fine. The GDPR implementation can be described as ‘accountability with liability’. The wording of the 2013 revisions of the OECD Guidelines new Part Three ‘Implementing Accountability’ leaves a number of matters ambiguous that would benefit from clarification in the revision of the Guidelines, so as to move from ‘accountability without liability’, to ‘accountability with liability’. This paper proposes three revisions. APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation)’s Cross-border Privacy Rules system (CBPRs), is regarded as a leading non-legislative implementations of ‘accountability’, including in the 2013 revision of the Guidelines. I argue that it is a very unsuccessful implementation, which should not be followed, nor promoted by the Guidelines. There are three main reasons: • After being in operation for seven years, only two countries – the USA and Japan – participate fully, in that they have nominated an AA and that AA certifies companies. Even the participation of these two countries should be classified as a failure, since on 24 US companies have been certified since 2013, and 3 Japanese companies since 2015. • There are a few aspects of the operation of APEC’s CBPRs (removal of certification, referrals to PEAs, and anonymised case notes) which go directly to the questions of whether either its Accountability Agents (AAs), or the companies they certify, really are ‘accountable’ in the sense of having any liability for failure to comply with CBPRs rules. Despite six years as the USA’s AA, TrustArc’s web pages do not contain any information at all about any of these matters. • The potential for ‘interoperability’ between CBPRs and other international instruments concerning data protection, is mentioned in Background Papers and the Guidelines themselves. The Guidelines are too low a standard to suit this purpose, as the EU has recognized in it adequacy decision concerning Japan. In conclusion, five recommendations are made to address accountability gaps in the OECD Privacy Guidelines, including removal of misleading references to APEC CBPRs.

Addressing the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials: Developments and Challenges within the Canadian Legal Landscape

AbstractWith 2018 marking the twentieth anniversary of Canada’s Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, an opportunity presents itself to take stock of both developments and challenges for the legislative scheme. As demonstrated by a review of the parliamentary record, the desire to enact legislation to criminalize the offering of an inducement to a foreign public official to secure a business advantage was decidedly international in nature, with Canada aiming to bolster the efforts of others to create a level playing field for companies operating abroad. Yet, despite good intentions, as well as amendments to strengthen the Act in 2013 and the passage of additional transparency obligations in 2014, Canada’s legislative scheme has not kept pace with the international and multi-jurisdictional realities of the problem to be addressed. Renewed interest needs to be paid to the demand side of a foreign bribery transaction. In addition, the confiscation or forfeiture of any ill-gotten gains must become a priority, with the touting of success in securing the voluntary payment of sizeable fines failing to provide for a sufficient accounting for the wrongs done, particularly if the victims of corruption, even as a class that needs clearer definition, are to be made a true concern of the Act. The challenges posed by matters of immunity and the need to improve matters of multi-jurisdictional cooperation also need further attention.

‘Green’ obligations regarding new constructions and their impact on the real-estate market

Abstract The fight for reducing green gas emissions and energy dependency requires the application of additional obligations for new constructions. From this perspective, starting from the 31st of December 2020 building permits for new constructions in the private sector shall be issued only if their energy consume is close to zero. Additionally, the recovery level of non-dangerous waste resulting from construction and demolition activities must reach until the 31st of December 2020 a percentage of minimum 70%. Also, with respect to residential and non-residential buildings, new and also buildings undergoing major renovation, the real-estate developers must take into consideration the obligations regarding the instalment of electrical recharging points for electrical vehicles. These additional obligations will have a direct impact upon the construction price and will certainly influence the real-estate market.

The Problem with the Normative Content of Section 24 of the Constitution of South Africa

ABSTRACTThe article critically examines the South African Constitutional Court (ZACC) case law and doctrine on section 24 (right to an environment) of the Constitution of South Africa. It argues that the right has been left normatively impoverished, and especially the interaction and relationship with the cornerstone statute, the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) remains unclear. This issue centres specifically around three core issues. First, it has not been settled whether section 24 encompasses an individual right and an additional positive obligation, or constitutes a composite right. Second, the individual right contained in section 24 requires further definition and clarification. Key terms have not been given distinctive constitutional contours, and it remains uncertain to what extent legislative instruments such as NEMA are legitimately filling these gaps. Finally, it is unclear how the principle of constitutional subsidiarity applies to section 24 of the Constitution. Even assuming that the principle applies in essentially the same way as to other constitutional provisions, one cannot reasonably determine whether ordinary legislation reflects and gives effect to a constitutional right, if one has no clear notion of the latter’s content.

Financing innovation projects: features of application of crowdfunding tools

The research substantiates the scientific and applied approaches to the selection of crowdfunding platforms for financing innovative projects in the context of the development of the institutional structure of the start-up market. The analysis of the main tendencies of the development of tools and mechanisms of crowdfunding, as well as the existing theoretical and methodical approaches to the choice of instruments and mechanisms of the operation of crowdfunding, is carried out. It is established that by choosing between the variety of existing crowdfunding platforms, the following factors need to be taken into account: the essence of the innovation project, the stage of development of the project, the direction of the projects, the mechanism for the remuneration of the investor, the mechanism of accumulation and disposal of the accumulated amount of cash. A comparative analysis of 24 largest crowdfunding platforms functioning allowed to identify and classify the common features and differences in the activities of these platforms, to differentiate them according to the stages of start-ups development, by treating a plurality of platforms in three key groups (A, B and C), which differ in stages of development of startups, which can use this platform, and the platform use mechanism. It is proved that the choice of the crowdfunding platform should be realized based on the crowdfunding model characteristic for the given platform, the type of financing and the possible financial expenses associated with using the platform. The structural-logical mechanism for choosing of the crowdfunding platform in financing innovative projects is scientifically substantiated, which implies expansion of the range of financial instruments, the emergence of additional institutional obligations between the entrepreneur and the investor and support by operational rules. Practically, this mechanism allows to make a reasonable choice of the platform, based on its own institutional and operational requirements and representations about the further development of the project. Directions for further research include the distribution of risks using the mechanism of crowdfunding, distribution of responsibility and financial flows between the participants of the social investment agreements.

Legal regulation of statute of limitations on individual requirements

Redemption of claims after a long period of non-realization is expedient from the point of view of the logic of building property relations. However, the law regulates only general situations in their legal mediation. It does not always regulate in detail all specific legal relations arising in society in the exercise of the protective right of the carrier of the violated material right to his judicial protection, through the use of state coercion. Therefore, the redemption of individual claims is regulated at the level of exceptions to the general rules established by law, established judicial practice, which, in turn, are based on doctrinal devel- opments carried out by scientists in this field. The study of these relevant issues is devoted to this work.The beginning of the statute of limitations is related to the moment of the offense. According to Ukrainian legislation, there are moments when the right of a person has been violated, and when the bearer of a subjective right has learned about it. Therefore, the establishment of the initial period of limitation is essential in the consideration of cases by jurisdictional bodies. The paper analyzes the typical errors of the court when calculating the limitation of actions, when it starts from a certain legal fact, which in its essence does not give rise to the right to claim, since it does not violate a subjective right. Under such circumstances, an unjustified omission of an authorized time set by a statutory period for filing a claim may occur, which, of course, deprives him of the possibility of enforcing his protective right in court.Issues concerning the grounds and procedure for repaying the lender’s claims for additional obligations are investigated. For this, a doctrinal interpretation of the essence of the phenomenon of additional requirements has been made. It has been established that regressive claims cannot be qualified as additional, it is an independent right of a person who arises from the duty performed by her, the very appearance of which was caused by inappropriate actions of another subject. In view of the above, a fairly broad judicial discretion in determining certain claims as additional and applying to them the consequences established by Art. 266 GKU, should be considered wrong.For legitimate reasons, the limitation of actions passed must be restored by the law enforcement body. The work clarified the issue of restoring the statute of limitations on additional requirements in the case of restoring limitation on the basic requirements. Restoration of prescription on additional claims does not occur automatically after the restoration of the prescriptive period of time on the basic requirement, but only after the court has taken an appropriate decision regarding this particular period of prescription. If an important circumstance influenced in general the possibility of the creditor to go to court, then it is quite true that the restoration of the statute of limitations on basic requirements means the same consequences for additional ones.Separately analyzed issues on the regulation of repayment of general requirements. They arise from obligations in which several persons act on the side of the debtor. Such obligations may be partial or joint. The legal nature and features of mediation of each of the specified types of relations are studied. The problems of termination of limitation in the presence of specific circumstances of an objective and subjective nature are considered.

Acupuncture in living liver and kidney donors: a feasibility study

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of integrating acupuncture into the routine care of living liver and kidney donors during the process of donation and recovery. MethodsThis is a pilot study on the feasibility of a brief acupuncture intervention for living liver and kidney donors. Participants received acupuncture immediately prior to organ donation surgery, every day as inpatients, while recovering from donation, and at a 2-week follow-up. Prior to surgery, questionnaires were completed on acupuncture outcome expectations and the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory. After participating, those who received acupuncture provided feedback. Following the active intervention, a retrospective chart review was conducted, using donors who did not receive acupuncture as a comparison cohort. ResultsForty donor candidates were approached and recruited, 32 consented and ultimately 25 donors participated in the acupuncture intervention (15 of kidney, 10 of liver), 68% female, and 88% Caucasian; only one had prior experience with acupuncture. Participants received an average of 4 sessions while inpatient (range 2–8). Those who expected acupuncture to be more helpful prior to the intervention reported lower inpatient pain scores (P = 0.04). Qualitative feedback from patients was predominantly positive, indicating acupuncture was helpful for relaxation and pain. However, a few patients reported feeling overburdened during postdonation recovery, and that the study was viewed as additional obligation. ConclusionPreliminary findings suggest it is feasible to integrate acupuncture into inpatient recovery for living organ donation. Tailoring interventions to the specific needs of patients is important to address ongoing concerns. Larger studies are needed to further ascertain benefits of peri-operative acupuncture.

Navigating Evidence Based Practice: A Guide for Nursing Students

For nursing students, EBP may not be an immediate concern. However, their obligation to master the evidence that underlies effective nursing evolves into an responsibility to guide their practice, as they become nurses. Nurses and nurse educators have additional obligations to stay current and to develop a clear understanding of the nature and quality of the evidence that exists.

SoS Back-and-Forth? Minimum v. Exhaustive Harmonization of Entitled Protected Customers In Gas Supply Crises: Eni and Others

The Russian-Ukraine gas supply crisis in January 2009 brought an unprecedented disruption for the gas supply in Europe. As a response, the SoS Regulation put in place an ambitious plan to mitigate not only the risks of another gas supply crisis, but also to protect a defined group of customers in case of unavoidable gas shortage – households, small and medium enterprises, institutions providing essential social services among others. While it was thought the SoS Regulation had pursued exhaustive harmonization standards in the definition of protected costumers, the ECJ’s judgement in Eni and Others reopened the question. This article, instead, argues that the Court got it wrong. Neither the judgment nor the opinion of the Advocate General paid attention to the legal content of the provision that defined protected customers. If the Court had done so, the judgement would have likely taken additional linguistic, systemic, and teleological arguments into account. The analyses and comments on Eni and Others here offered focus on the first referred question about whether Member States could impose additional obligation on gas undertakings by reviewing the definition of protected customer. Case C-226/16, Eni and Others v Premier Ministre and Ministre de l’Environnement, de l’Energie et de la Mer, Judgement of the Court (First Chamber) of 20 December 2017, EU:C:2017:1005

Un hito en el derecho parlamentario de la Unión Europea: la reforma del Reglamento del Parlamento Europeo de 13 de diciembre de 2016

In the context of the absence of change in the constitutional order of the European Union since the Treaty of Lisbon, it has a particular interest to look at the changes in other instruments affecting the European institutions. The recast of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament of December 2016, in view of its large scope and the importance of some of the changes, sets the focus on the still emerging parliamentary law of the Union. It also shows some of the developments in the institutional setup that may go unnoticed to those paying attention only at the changes in primary law. The new Rules of procedure clarify and simplify the role of Parliament as a legislator, but also reflect its aspirations for more influence vis-a-vis the executive, and incorporate some new elements. These aim at making parliamentary life of the Union more dynamic, at improving its image by setting additional obligations to its Members, and at strengthening the institutional position and internal balance of Parliament.

Financing a mega LNG project and ‘raising the bar' in securing a social licence to operate

A significant part of the development funds for the INPEX-operated Ichthys liquefied natural gas (LNG) Project comes from a record-breaking US$20 billion project financing package, which involves commitments from eight export credit agencies and over 24 global banks. Due to the scale and complexity of the project and the size of the investment, there is a high level of ongoing scrutiny by the project’s lenders with a particular focus on social and environmental performance. Financing from lenders demanded extra requirements to obtain and maintain the project’s social licence. This included a commitment to ensure the project’s plans for managing environmental and social issues met additional obligations, including International Finance Corporation’s Environmental and Social Performance Standards. While these extra commitments posed some challenges, they have also supported INPEX and the project to improve its approach in engaging and working with local communities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, in the areas in which the project operates. The auditing of these requirements also provided independent and objective performance reviews that have supported INPEX and the project to continuously improve performance. The requirements have also encouraged INPEX to engage effectively and more openly with stakeholders to further develop and deepen positive and trusted relationships with key stakeholders. Through delivering on commitments to lenders, INPEX has raised the bar, to deliver higher standards of social performance. This has reaffirmed the Company’s commitment to community and social engagement and strengthened our performance within Australia, by adopting best practice approaches.

Towards Deeper Integration Among China, Japan and Korea

In this paper, we analyze the contents of all preferential trade agreements (PTAs) of China, Japan, and Korea whose date of entry into force is prior to February 2015, on the basis of sectoral coverage and legal enforceability. Based on the methodology of Horn et al. (2010), the 52 policy areas covered by the three countries' agreements are classified into two groups, WTO (provisions reconfirming the existing commitments in the WTO agreements and providing for additional obligations) and WTO-X (provisions in areas outside the mandate of WTO). We find that the three countries' coverage of WTO provisions is extensive, while less so for WTO-X. Among the three countries, Korea has the most extensive coverage of WTO provisions, followed by Japan, then China. The legal inflation rate is also low for these provisions. On the other hand, WTO-X provisions show higher legal inflation, implying that these provisions tend to be less legally enforced. Among the three countries, Korea displays the highest coverage of WTO-X areas, followed by Japan, and then China. Overall, the three countries' legal inflation rate is below the world and the EU PTAs average, but higher than the average of US PTAs. Interestingly, Korea and Japan show a broader sectoral coverage and contain higher number of legally enforceable provisions in recent PTAs. While China's PTAs have shown low coverage of deep provisions in the past, more recent PTAs are converging to the depth of Korea's and Japan's PTAs as China began negotiating PTAs with developed countries.

SEC proposes rules on adviser business continuity and transition plans

Purpose To discuss the requirements and implications of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) proposed new Rule 206(4)-4, which would require all SEC-registered investment advisers to adopt and implement written business continuity and transition plans (BCPs) reasonably designed to address operational and other risks related to a significant disruption in the investment adviser’s operations. Design/methodology/approach Explains the proposed rules’ definition of and specific requirements of BCPs, other requirements relating to annual reviews and record-keeping, practical considerations including advisers’ need to update and revise their BCPs, and the SEC’s request for comment on issues including possible additional obligations for certain types of clients, reporting of incidents to the SEC, and filing of BCPs with the SEC. Findings By arguably broadening its approach to the universe of risks that should be addressed in a BCP, the SEC potentially places a higher burden on the advisers to design their BCPs to anticipate all material risks that may become applicable or be responsible for a violation of their fiduciary duties to clients. Practical implications Given the detailed requirements of the Proposed Rules, including as interpreted by the Proposing Release, it is likely that most registered advisers would have to revisit and revise their BCPs if the rules are adopted. Originality/value Practical guidance from experienced securities, fund management, regulatory and compliance lawyer.

Implications of Children’s Rights for Military Justice in the Context of Members of the Armed Forces Younger than the Age of Eighteen

A number of States lawfully enlist persons younger than eighteen (but at least sixteen) into their national armed forces. While such enlistment is consistent with the relevant States’ international law obligations, a number of additional obligations are triggered that the State owes towards the child enlistee by virtue of international children’s rights. This article engages with these additional obligations as they apply to child members of the armed forces who are in conflict with the law. In particular, focus is placed on States that maintain a separate and distinct military justice system, and the examples of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom are relied upon for illustrative purposes. In order to properly engage with State obligations, in this regard, the article also endeavors to address the nature of the duty of care owed by the armed forces in respect of child members.

Refining autonomous agents with declarative beliefs and desires

Abstract An autonomous agent is one that is not only directed by its environment, but is also driven by internal motivation to achieve certain goals based on beliefs about the environmental behaviour. Design paradigms for autonomous agents such as belief-desire-intention take into account the agent’s “mental” features when presenting its patterns of behaviour. In this paper we present an approach to modelling autonomous agents by introducing mental features to conventional transition system specifications. Mental features such as belief and desire are represented by declarative linear temporal logic formulas. Refinement is then proposed to define the correctness of the agent design and development. It turns out, however, that the introduction of these mental features is not monotonic with respect to refinement. We therefore introduce additional refinement proof obligations to enable the use of simulation rules when checking refinement.

Telepressure and College Student Employment: The Costs of Staying Connected Across Social Contexts.

Telepressure is a psychological state consisting of the preoccupation and urge to respond quickly to message-based communications from others. Telepressure has been linked with negative stress and health outcomes, but the existing measure focuses on experiences specific to the workplace. The current study explores whether an adapted version of the workplace telepressure measure is relevant to general social interactions that rely on information and communication technologies. We validated a general telepressure measure in a sample of college students and found psychometric properties similar to the original workplace measure. Also, general telepressure was related to, but distinct from, the fear of missing out, self-control and technology use. Using a predictive validity design, we also found that telepressure at the beginning of the semester was related to student reports of burnout, perceived stress and poor sleep hygiene 1 month later (but not work-life balance or general life satisfaction). Moreover, telepressure was more strongly related to more negative outcomes (burnout, stress and poor sleep hygiene) and less positive outcomes (work-life balance and life satisfaction) among employed compared with non-employed students. Thus, the costs of staying connected to one's social network may be more detrimental to college students with additional employment obligations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.