Continental European Countries Research Articles

INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS, FOREIGN LEGISLATIVE EXPERIENCE OF JUDICIAL CONTROL IN THE INVESTIGATION STAGE

One of the important features of the rule of law, the construction of which is proclaimed by the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, is the exercise of judicial control over the preliminary investigation. Most of the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) adhere to this vector of development of criminal procedure legislation. Currently, international standards and principles governing the protection, protection, restoration of human rights and freedoms accumulate the most progressive, successfully tested legal concepts, which were the natural result of the tendency to strengthen guarantees of the rights of participants in criminal proceedings. The article is devoted to the problems of legal regulation of judicial control at the stage of preliminary investigation related to compliance with international standards. A selective analysis of the implementation of judicial control in foreign countries, in particular in the countries of continental Europe (France, Germany, Italy, England, Spain), identified similarities and differences from a similar system in the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as put forward proposals to improve criminal procedure legislation in this direction. The author, examining the control powers of the court at the international level, tried to determine the importance of international standards and principles in ensuring the rights and legitimate interests of participants in criminal proceedings in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The article develops the idea of the need to implement the norms of international legal acts into national legislation, borrowing positive foreign experience in implementing the norms regulating judicial control. At the same time, it is noted that the introduction of positive experience of foreign countries, as well as international standards and principles into national legal mechanisms is possible only taking into account the peculiarities of the legal system and the system of state law. Keywords: international standards, foreign experience, protection of rights and

Poles Apart? Alternative Welfare Trajectories under Finance-Dominated Capitalism

By connecting the post-Keynesian view of financialization with Comparative Political Economy, we suggest some elements for an updated interpretation of the existing models of welfare. As a main element of novelty, we consider how high-income countries are reacting to the pressures of finance-dominated capitalism, namely by extending, keeping, or retrenching their welfare systems. The contribution of the article is threefold. First, we elaborate on the nexus between welfare and financialization. Second, we introduce a multidimensional index aimed at assessing the degree of welfare of 32 OECD countries for the period 1990–2015. Third, we compare our index with the socio-economic models identified in the literature and with the patterns of financialization. Two trajectories emerge from our exploration: on the one side, Scandinavian and Continental European countries moved toward relatively higher levels of welfare; on the other side, lower levels of welfare feature Anglo-Saxon, Asian, Mediterranean, and Central and Eastern European countries. Besides such divergence, we find that the process of financialization was more intense in countries with stronger welfare, which likely opted for a compensation strategy. Our work highlights the relevance of policies and institutions in shaping different welfare systems and coping with the challenges of the current phase of capitalism.

Contract with open terms in Scotland: A comparative legal perspective

The article focuses on contracts with open terms, that is, contracts in which the parties deliberately leave one or more terms open for future negotiations or unilateral supplementation by one of the parties (or a third party). In our paper, we refer to contracts with open terms in which an open term is subject to negotiations. Such contracts are not recognised by most jurisdictions (including as being too vague), but the Scottish legal system is sometimes argued to be an exception. In attempting to confirm this claim, it is found that the device called “a contract with open terms” is unknown to Scottish law, so a special comparative legal method is proposed to find an analogue on the Scottish “legal map”. This approach reveals that contracts with open terms in Scotland are concealed under several different names (most notably “agreement to agree”). It shows that although there is no uniform and consistent approach to such contracts, there are three tests which the courts use to answer the central question about such contracts, namely whether a contract with open terms is enforceable: the test for the essentiality of an open term, the test for whether an open term can be objectively implemented and the test for whether the parties have an intention to create legal relations. This analysis is accompanied by a comparative commentary describing how similar issues are dealt with in the UNIDROIT Principles and in another (besides Scotland) jurisdiction to which recognition of contracts with open terms is attributed, namely Russia. On the basis of the research carried out, a preferred order of application of the tests is proposed. The study of the topic is also preceded by a reference to the history and general characteristics of the Scottish legal system. In the course of this topic, we show that Scotland cannot be defined precisely enough through its generic characteristics as a mixed jurisdiction. In turning to the study of Scotland as an individual jurisdiction, it is noted that this system over time has begun to exhibit fewer and fewer of the attributes of a continental European family country.

Positive Association Between the Immunogenetic Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Profiles of Multiple Sclerosis and Brain Cancer.

Previous research has documented elevated risk of brain cancer in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Separately, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) has been implicated in protection or susceptibility for both conditions. The aim of the current study was to assess a possible role of shared immunogenetic influence on risk of MS and brain cancer. We first identified an immunogenetic profile for each condition based on the covariance between the population frequency of 127 high-resolution HLA alleles and the population prevalence of each condition in 14 Continental Western European countries and then evaluated the correspondence between MS and brain cancer immunogenetic profiles. Also, since each individual carries 12 HLA alleles (2 × 6 genes), we estimated HLA protection and susceptibility for MS and brain cancer at the individual level. We found that the immunogenetic profiles of MS and brain cancer were highly correlated overall (P < .001) and across all 6 HLA genes with the strongest association observed for DRB1, followed by DQB1 and HLA-A. These findings of immunogenetic overlap between MS and brain cancer are discussed in light of the role of HLA in the immune system response to viruses and other foreign antigens.

To Barbados or Bofin: the fate of Irish Catholic priests imprisoned in the aftermath of the Cromwellian conquest, 1653 to 1662

The position of Catholic priests in Ireland changed dramatically in the aftermath of the Cromwellian conquest of the country, which was completed in 1653. From a situation where de facto tolerance of the faith was widespread, laws against Roman clergy were now implemented with rigour. Many priests were arrested and executed while many more escaped to the sanctuary of the Catholic countries of continental Europe. As they sought to rid the country of any remnant of a Catholic clerical presence, the Commonwealth authorities undertook a number of schemes that were designed to ensure that the small number of priests who remained in captivity in Ireland would be unable to play any further role in the pastoral care of the Catholic population.

To Barbados or Bofin: The fate of Irish Catholic priests imprisoned in the aftermath of the Cromwellian conquest, 1653 to 1662

Abstract: The position of Catholic priests in Ireland changed dramatically in the aftermath of the Cromwellian conquest of the country, which was completed in 1653. From a situation where de facto tolerance of the faith was widespread, laws against Roman clergy were now implemented with rigour. Many priests were arrested and executed while many more escaped to the sanctuary of the Catholic countries of continental Europe. As they sought to rid the country of any remnant of a Catholic clerical presence, the Commonwealth authorities undertook a number of schemes that were designed to ensure that the small number of priests who remained in captivity in Ireland would be unable to play any further role in the pastoral care of the Catholic population.

European experience of preventive activities performed by law enforcement agencies: administrative aspect and theoretical-legal aspect

The aim of the research was to reveal the peculiarities of preventive activities carried out by law enforcement agencies in the countries of the European Union. Attention is paid to the known methods of preventive work carried out by the police of different countries, which make it possible to prevent crimes and arrest criminals when they are still preparing to commit a crime. In this regard, models of preventive activities used in continental European countries are described. The methodological basis of the research is presented in comparative-legal and systematic analysis, formal-legal method, method of interpretation, hermeneutic method, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis. In the conclusions attention is paid to the peculiarities of prevention applied by individual members of the European Union, in particular, the policy of prevention by the Polish police, in terms of recidivism of persons who have already committed crimes. This policy is developed by borrowing from the European experience, because in some countries the emphasis is on extending the powers of police officers, in others - on maximum interaction with the society involved to help implement some police functions.

Concerning certain features of evidence assessment in different legal systems and in the practice of the European Court of Human Rights

The article examines certain features of the assessment of evidence in criminal proceedings in various legal systems and in the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. Different approaches to understanding the essence of the concept of "standard of criminal procedural evidence" are analyzed and the author's definition of it is proposed. It is illustrated that the rules of evaluation of evidence, which take place in Anglo-Saxon and continental jurisdictions, differ significantly. In the countries of the Anglo-Saxon legal family, objective criteria for the evaluation of evidence have been established - standards of evidence based on the idea of ​​assessing the probability of certain variants of the actual picture of the proceedings and have a guiding nature. Continental European countries, on the other hand, apply a subjective criterion for evaluating evidence, using the category of "internal conviction", which is based on the personal conviction of the subject of evidence in the truth of a certain fact. It was concluded that the effectiveness of evidentiary activity can be increased by introducing objective elements into the assessment rules, which leads to the development and normalization of standards of criminal procedural evidence in the domestic criminal process. This will contribute to the development of the same approach to making procedural decisions and the implementation of procedural actions by all subjects of evidence in various criminal proceedings and stages, who will understand the level of requirements for their adoption or conduct.&#x0D; When analyzing the practice of the European Court, it was determined that the rules for applying the standard of proof "beyond reasonable doubt" by the European Court and national courts (in particular, the Anglo-Saxon legal system) differ. In this regard, the opinion was expressed that domestic criminal proceedings should be guided by the practice of implementing this standard in the legal systems of common law countries.

BACKPACKER TOURISM CIRCUIT IN KOTA KINABALU, SABAH

Kota Kinabalu is a well-known tourist destination in the Malaysian state of Sabah. This city serves as the beginning point for the majority of the Sabah state's tourism circuits. This research is focused on the backpacker tourist circuit of Kota Kinabalu. Furthermore, this study involves an analysis of backpacker tourist locations that may be promoted into visiting the various destinations in Sabah via tourist circuits. The study design employed is a survey approach with quantitative approaches as research tools. In this study, a total of 228 backpackers in Kota Kinabalu responded to the questionnaire. The study only involved backpackers originating from countries in continental Europe, North and South America and Oceania. ArcMap 10.8 was used to map the circuit that was discovered during the data processing. The study's findings revealed that the backpackers' tourist circuit in Kota Kinabalu is limited and significantly impacted by prominent attractions visited by mass tourists. This research also shows that there are several acceptable tourist locations in Kota Kinabalu's backpacker tourist circuit that may be grouped according to certain themes like cuisine tourism, educational tourism, ecotourism, mountaineering or hill climbing tourism. Overall, Kota Kinabalu's tourist sector offers tremendous growth potential for backpacker tourism, which may become the mainstay of the industry. As a result, the government and other stakeholders must do more to boost backpacker tourism in Kota Kinabalu.

Understanding cognitive decline in older ages: The role of health shocks

Individual cognitive functioning declines over time. We seek to understand how adverse physical health shocks in older ages contribute to this development. By use of event-study methods and data from the USA, England, and several countries in Continental Europe, we find evidence that health shocks lead to an immediate and persistent decline in cognitive functioning. This robust finding holds in all regions representing different health insurance systems and seems to be independent of underlying individual demographic characteristics such as sex and age. We also ask whether variables that are susceptible to policy action can reduce the negative consequences of a health shock. Our results suggest that neither compulsory education nor retirement regulations moderate the effects, thus emphasizing the importance for cognitive functioning of maintaining good physical health in old age.

New Technologies and Law Firms—An Uneasy Relationship: A European Perspective

The digitalization of law has become a mantra. Law firms across the globe have begun to invest in legal-tech solutions to maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly changing market of legal services providers. While for many this foresees a disruption in the dynamics of the legal field, law firms have proved relatively resilient to radical change. With few exceptions, law firms continue to practice law as usual, while adding a few innovative tools to their old work dynamics to increase efficiency and revenue. This paper takes stock of the state of the art of the digitalization of law firms in Denmark and Italy, two Continental European countries often understudied in terms of the sociology of the legal profession. After presenting the scholarship on new technologies and law firms, as well as the specificities of the Danish and Italian legal fields, by relying on qualitative interviews with key players of the legal-tech and law firm environment in both countries, the paper shows that both Danish and Italian law firms are reluctant to embrace technological change. The paper also identifies two factors that contribute to explain such reluctance on the part of law firms to fully digitalize their practices: 1) partnerships as the main organizational form of law firms, and 2) the inherent tension between the market-oriented, capitalistic nature of digital technologies and the professional nature of legal practice. The paper concludes by exploring the few Danish and Italian actors that are taking digital developments more seriously, showing that these are chiefly recently established legal-tech start-ups and medium-sized boutique law firms.

STUDIES ON THE QUALITY OF THE DANUBE IN GIURGIU AREA

The Danube river basin collects water from 19 continental European countries, covering an area of 801,463 km2 (according to ICPDR), and making it the most international river basin in the world. Giurgiu Environmental Protection Agency monitors water quality quarterly and the quality of sediment annually, taken from the sectors corresponding to kilometers 502, 511 and 520. The research in this paper is part of this monitoring program. The present work "Studies on the quality of the Danube in Giurgiu area", aims to achieve the following objectives: Determining the structure of phytoplankton biocenosis; Determining the dynamics of the seasonal variation of the physical-chemical parameters in the studied period; Correlation of the variation dynamics of phytoplankton density with the main physical-chemical parameters; Determining the ecological status of water quality in the studied sector. Both sampling areas are characterized by a good ecological status - the values of biological, hydro-morphological and physical-chemical elements have moderate deviations from the values characteristic of unaltered (reference) areas or minor anthropogenic alterations. In the future, it is recommended to monitor the Danube River in order to prevent possible sources of negative anthropogenic impact and to monitor it with an annual frequency in order to make sure that the ecological quality status is maintained at least at the current level.

Bibliometric Profile of an Emerging Journal: Participatory Educational Research

“Participatory Educational Research (PER)” journal is one of the journals that contributes to the field of education and indexed in major international databases such as ERIC and Scopus. This study provides the bibliometric characteristic of the total 347 articles published in PER during the period of 2014-2021 using bibliometric analysis. Publish or Perish software to collect citation data from Google Scholar was used as an analysis instrument for the impact of the articles. It was found that short-titled articles received more citations than long-titled articles (over 2 times greater), but not statistically significant (p&amp;gt;0.05). On the other hand, correlation between citation and download numbers was found to be a statistically significant positive (rS=0.289 and rP=0.524; p&amp;lt;0.01). In the analysis of keywords and titles, it was observed that the prominent words overlapped with each other and with the purpose of journal as well. The most cited articles and the institutions contributing to national and international levels were analyzed too. It was concluded that 83.72% of the authors were in Turkey, there was no “institutional localization” among the institutions contributing at the national level and that they had achieved significant success in terms of national recognition. PER has gained significant momentum in academic standards and visibility since it first joined the umbrella organization DergiPark in 2019. It should be noted that amongst the most important points toward being open to development in the point of international recognition is the existence of contributions from Anglo-Saxon and Continental European countries, which have appeared as limited. According to the findings, it is discussed what can be done from this point onward based on basic publishing standards, publication content, national/international visibility, and citation analyses. The results can guide authors during the writing phase of studies and the editors and referees during the selection and evaluation phases.

РАЗМЫШЛЕНИЯ О МОНОГРАФИИ В. И. ЕРМОЛОВИЧА «ОСНОВНЫЕ ИНСТИТУТЫ ГРАЖДАНСКОГО ПРАВА СРЕДНЕВЕКОВОЙ СЕРБИИ И СТРАН КОНТИНЕНТАЛЬНОЙ ЕВРОПЫ (X-XV вв.)». МИНСК: БГЭУ, 2021. 301 с.

The peer-reviewed monograph by V.I. Ermolovich "Basic Civil Law Institutions of Medieval Serbia and the Countries of Continental Europe (X-XV centuries)" examines the process of establishing civil law institutions in medieval Serbia based on the customary law of Slavic peoples, as well as Roman and East Roman private law. This factor allowed the author of the monograph to rank the law of medieval Serbia among one of the most advanced and perfect legal systems of medieval Europe in the X-XV centuries. The subject of research in the peer-reviewed work is the general and special laws of the evolution of civil law of medieval Serbia and other countries of continental Europe. The author chose the norms and institutions of Serbian law as th.

Policing Blackness in Europe

Abstract Last year’s global black uprisings which followed the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade sparked the largest anti-racist movement in the midst of a global pandemic, not only in the US but also in various other parts of the global African diaspora. In Europe, thousands of people protested and mobilized for black lives and against racist policing. The protests demonstrated that racist policing is not limited to the US. Quite the contrary, protesters and vulnerable communities were emphasizing that policing unfolds as a violent and murderous condition in their various respective contexts, too. Engaging with the geographies of policing in three countries in continental Europe, namely Germany, France and Switzerland, and by drawing on ethnographic research on policing blackness and activist interventions in these three contexts, this article discusses modalities of policing blackness in continental Europe and shows that the recent mobilizations for black lives have a history in these respective contexts too. Interventions and forms of resistances put forward by anti-racist initiatives are also discussed.

Chancellors as civil lawyers—and the equitable notion of “fraud”

Abstract Professor Lupoi traces equity’s origins back to Rome’s ius commune. He explains that Chancellors were doctors in civil law. Until Henry VIII’s breach with Rome, Chancellors were also Bishops. Their cultural and spiritual anchors were very distinct from those dispensing justice in common law courts. In the course of the fourteenth century common law courts surrendered their discretionary powers and disavowed any reliance on conscience and opted for rigor juris. Equitable doctrines, enacted by Chancellors and Masters who knew only Roman and canon law, prevented unconscientious exercise of a plaintiff’s rights at law. Professor Lupoi explains the similarity between “fraus” in Roman law and “fraud” in English equity and that whilst France, Germany and other countries of continental Europe squandered the Roman law inheritance, English equity holds the torch for Roman principles.

Global Good Open Source Software Development in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic - Perspectives from SORMAS Implementation in Europe.

In recent years, software has evolved from being static, closed source, proprietary products to being dynamic, open source, ecosystems contributing to the global good. To this end, the open source software (OSS) solution and global good, Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS), rapidly adjusted to the demands of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak by introducing a COVID-19 module. This allowed countries that were already making use of the software as part of their public health surveillance infrastructure to make use of the new module in order to respond to the pandemic. New countries in continental Europe, most notably Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and France subsequently chose to adopt the software for public health surveillance purposes for the first time during 2020, requiring additional adaptations to meet local needs. As a result, in this paper, we aim to gain a better understanding of how rapidly SORMAS was adapted to meet global needs by analyzing the SORMAS COVID-19 module introduction timeline, as well as the overall development activity of the software during 2020 and 2021 in response to the pandemic. Favorable initial feature response times in combination with development scale-up possibilities speak to some of the potential advantages of implementing global good OSS tools such as SORMAS for public health surveillance, in response to an emergency. Overall, SORMAS serves as proof of concept for developing a global good OSS solution on an international scale.

The influence of financial literacy on financial resilience – New evidence from Europe during the COVID-19 crisis

PurposeThis study examines the importance of financial literacy in explaining financial resilience in four continental European countries during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis while controlling for a wide set of additional determinants.Design/methodology/approachVariable importance may vary with the technique applied. Therefore, different classification techniques, such as logistic regression, partial proportional odds regression, and conditional random forest, have been employed. The analysis relies on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe in the context of COVID-19, collecting 4,781 observations from France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.FindingsIn line with previous studies, financial resilience is found to increase with financial literacy that consistently ranks in the midfield in terms of variable importance among all explanatory variables.Practical implicationsThe findings reveal the most important features that improve financial resilience. Financial literacy is one of the few determinants of financial resilience that can be actively shaped. To increase preparedness for future crises, a policy mix of financial education, regulation, and nudging may help increase financial literacy and, subsequently, financial resilience.Originality/valueThe better the financial literacy, the more protected individuals are from macroeconomic shocks. However, most previous studies do not rely on data samples that cover such crises. Moreover, most of the previous studies rely on single classification techniques, while this study applied traditional and data-mining techniques to assess feature importance.

PLEA BARGAINING IN THE FUNCTION OF EFFICIENCY OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE - STANDARDS AND PRACTICE IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

The efficiency of criminal proceedings in conjunction with economy is an integral component of the principle of procedural economics. Its realization was first noticed in the law of the USA, then in the countries of continental Europe, through certain instruments that were implemented in our criminal procedure in due time. The need for more efficient criminal proceedings is a consequence of the longer duration of criminal proceedings or some of its stages, costs that sometimes exceeded the damage caused by crime, and the accumulation of cases before the courts, which did not affect any of the parties. Although he was criticized primarily for annulling the upper limit of the threatened sentence, and providing space to conclude on a crime of any gravity, the paper recognizes the plea bargaining as a kind of instrument for effective state response to crime. By comparing it with other consensual forms of criminal procedure, the efficiency of the judicial bodies of the Republic of Serbia, whose results were obtained by statistical analysis, is brought to the fore.

Immunogenetic Association of 127 Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Alleles with 30 Cancers in Continental Western European Countries

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes have been associated with susceptibility and protection against a number of cancers. Here we used an immunogenetic epidemiological approach to evaluate the overall influence of 127 HLA Class I and II alleles on 30 types of cancer. We found a preponderance of protective alleles (negatively correlated with cancer prevalences), especially for HLA Class I. Of the 30 cancers investigated, 13 were associated with mostly protective HLA effects whereas only 2 were associated with mostly susceptibility HLA alleles. Taken together, these findings highlight the broad influence of HLA on cancer and the complexity of HLA-cancer associations.­­