Legislation In Place Research Articles

The European Commission’s Proposal for Strengthening Whistleblower Protection

Recent scandals, such as Dieselgate, Luxleaks, the Panama Papers, and Cambridge Analytica, came to light thanks to whistleblowers who “raised the alarm” over unlawful activities in the organisation for which they worked. From their position as “insiders,” whistleblowers can provide enforcement authorities with key information that can lead to the effective detection, investigation, and prosecution of breaches of law − and they can be crucial sources for investigative journalists − thus contributing to protecting the public from harm. Yet, whistleblowers very often face many different forms of retaliation for their reporting: they may lose their job and their source of income, and they may suffer damage to their reputation and their health. Fear of such consequences discourages people from coming forward with their concerns. Unfortunately, the protection offered in the EU is fragmented and insufficient. Most EU Member States do not have comprehensive legislation in place that provides whistleblowers with the protection they need. Similarly, at the EU level, whistleblower protection is only provided for in specific sectors, e.g., financial services, transport safety, and environmental protection, and only to varying degrees. This article explains how the proposal for a Directive on whistleblower protection adopted by the European Commission on 23 April 2018 aims to radically change this situation. It presents the proposed legal framework to ensure that all Member States adopt high, common standards of protection for whistleblowers who unveil illegal activities relating to a wide range of EU policy areas. It analyses the various protection measures to be put in place in order to guarantee effective protection (internal and external reporting channels, protection of the confidentiality/identity of whistleblowers, broad definition of prohibition of retaliation, remedial actions for whistleblowers who suffer retaliation). Lastly, the article gauges the impact that the proposal is expected to have on workplace culture, in both the private and public sectors, and on good governance and accountability across the EU.

Between Secularism and State Support of Religious Communities: An (In)Equality Dilemma

This paper discusses the concepts of ‘freedom of religion’ and ‘secularism’ in the context of the situation in Macedonia. It argues that State policies to support dominant religion(s) are not in coherence with the Constitution, the principle of equality and secularism, as well as the applicable international human rights standards. Having in mind that R. Macedonia is a secular State and that there is solid non-discrimination legislation in place, it is of interest to investigate whether such policy approaches are discriminatory. Such developments may threaten the principle of secularism, human rights and stability in a fragile multi-ethnic and multi-religious country such as R. of Macedonia.In terms of methodology, this paper primarily focuses on the use of the normative and the empirical method. These methods are especially of use in the part where the existing legal framework in the domestic and international law is analyzed in regard to the various practices challenging the principles of secularism and equality before the law. In addition, this paper also focuses on the various reports in order to discuss and address relevant perceptions to such practices. This article consists of four parts. Introductory remarks are provided in section I. Section II explores the notions of secularism and equality before the law. Section III explores the various institutional practices such as: religious instruction in public schools; building of religious objects with State funding and support; non-registration of religious communities; and practicing religious ceremonies in public institutions. Finally, section IV offers concluding remarks and comments.

Rethinking cyberhate laws

ABSTRACTCyberhate is a growing problem. There is legislation in place that can be used to tackle various aspects of online hate, but in practice, the existing offences are difficult to use. The law is fragmented, and does not capture the true nature of internet hate, or provide adequate protection to victims. This piece evaluates the current provisions, and concludes with a framework for creating new legislation to tackle cyberhate which will be easier for the police and prosecutors to use, which will reflect more clearly the harm caused by hate on the internet, and which is also compatible with freedom of expression.

Biochemical- and neuro-toxicity of silver nanoparticle and silver nitrate in soil to Aporrectodea calginosa earthworms

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are now widely used in many industry applications. Because there are no regulations on discharge limits, improper discharge of waste from these industries can lead to environmental contamination and damage to ecosystem organisms. In this study Aporrectodea caliginosa earthworms were exposed to 0 (control), 0.3, 3, 30, 300 mg/kg Ag as AgNPs and 0, 0.03, 0.3, 3, 10 mg/kg of Ag as AgNO3 in soil for 4 weeks and select biochemical and neurotoxicity studies were conducted weekly. The lipid peroxidation (measured using thiobarbituric acid reactive substances; TBARS) and activities of antioxidant enzymes (catalase, glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione S transferase, lipid peroxidation), and nerve conduction velocity (NCV) of the medial giant fibers (MGF) using a novel non-invasive electrophysiological technique were measured in earthworms weekly. The TBARS and antioxidant enzyme activities were elevated by both AgNO3 and AgNPs and this was most evident in earthworms at 4 weeks >3 > 2 > 1. In neurotoxicity studies, MGF NCV progressively decreased in A. caliginosa exposed to both AgNPs and AgNO3. The findings highlight oxidative stress and neurotoxic effects of Ag compounds on earthworms and the importance of government authorities to have legislations in place to prevent excessive soil contamination by AgNPs produced by the expanding nanotechnology industries.

Transnational Responses to Cyber Crimes Challenges in the 21st Century: An Appraisal of Existing Treaties, a Call for a General Multi-Lateral Treaty

Cybercrimes as its name suggests are committed in the world of internet and computers. The 21st century has experienced and is experiencing a tremendous geometric growth in the realm of information technology. These measures of development adversely birthed the corresponding measure of increase in cybercrimes. The world is transcending into a dispensation where a tomato seller will transact with a Point of Sale terminal (POS). The enigma posed by the threat to security of personal data and privacy in the online environment whether can be mitigated or eradicated by cyber laws will be duly addressed in this article. The responses of different jurisdictions to this menace are unparalleled and there has been a great development in cyber legislations across the world. The default page of articles, papers and news have been greatly centered on the cyber world and both developed and developing nations are eagle eyed on this catastrophic brouhaha, and have placed certain legislations in place to combat the threat of cyber criminals. It is however important to note that cybercrimes are transnational and ought to be given a transnational response. The upsurge of cybercrimes have not only necessitated national awakening within States but also the international, regional and sub-regional organizations are alert to put up measures in form of multilateral treaties for the purpose of ensuring that cybercrimes are covered within the ambit of the law. The right to privacy is acknowledged in different instruments of international treaties. Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 17 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights both state that, “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.” The concept and idea of rights to data protection and all have been implied in national and international laws. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Nigeria (EFCC) have been empowered by law to try matters that involve cybercrimes. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is the body empowered by government to fight all forms of financial crimes including cybercrimes in Nigeria. The Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015 also expressly provides for the cybercrimes related offences punishable under the Nigerian law but to what extent are the operations of these legislations? The establishment of the e-commerce industry has taken place as the wider digital value chain has expanded with the availability and efficiency of e-payments. E-commerce means the act of offering, buying, or providing goods and services via computer systems and telecommunications networks such as the Internet or any other network using electronic, optical or similar media for distance information exchange. Premised on this, Industry watchers have expressed the fear of electronic fraud thereby preferring a pay-on-delivery (PoD) style to bridge the lack of confidence in the system. Hence, greater security measures must be put in place by service providers and regulators altogether. Laws must also be duly passed to govern these. The introduction of the Bank Verification Number (BVN) idea in Nigeria banking sector has in a moment given rise to a number of internet frauds. Greater security measures are needed as people’s data and privacy can be accessed with ease across the world. This article will however discuss the measures put up by international, regional and sub-regional agreements so far in respect of cybercrimes, the need to update cyber laws and treaties to meet current challenges in the internet world.

ECN Plus Should the New EU Directive Empowering National Competition Authorities Be All About Effectiveness?

In recent years there has been a rapid expansion in the number of jurisdictions with competition laws. In the late 1980s only 20 jurisdictions had adopted competition laws. Two decades later, the number had surpassed 110. With competition legislation in place in many parts of the world, focus is shifting towards enforcement issues and questions on how to ensure an effective application of the competition rules. The EU is no exception. Through the adoption of Regulation 1/2003, a system of parallel enforcement powers was established and the national competition authorities (‘the NCAs’) have since become an essential pillar of the application of the EU competition rules. The reform has resulted in a stronger and more active enforcement of the rules, but it has also revealed that some of the NCAs lack the tools required to ensure effective enforcement in their jurisdictions. With the explicit aim to enhance the effectiveness of the NCAs, the European Commission (‘the Commission’) has now presented a proposal for a directive (‘the Proposal’) which would align the national enforcement rules to their EU equivalent and ensure a level playing field throughout the EU.

The Duty of Mutual Trust in EU Law and the Duty to Secure Human Rights: Can the EU's Accession to the ECHR Ease the Tension?

ABSTRACTThe principle of mutual trust has been a central pillar of the European integration project, first as a tool for market integration, and as the European Economic Community became the European Union, as a mechanism for a more wide ranging integration of the legal orders of the member states. The EU now has legislation in place which imposes obligations on member states to trust each other's civil and criminal justice systems, immigration and asylum law, and family law. But these obligations of trust imposed by EU law may conflict with obligations that member states have to secure the rights under the ECHR. Accession by the EU to the ECHR was supposed to resolve this conflict, but in its Opinion 2/13, the Court of Justice appeared to have dealt a fatal blow to this solution. This article explains the tension between the EU principle of mutual trust and the duty to secure ECHR rights. The article examines the most recent case law of the CJEU and the ECtHR in order to assess whether a resolution of this tension has been found, and whether the EU's accession to the ECHR will be possible.

Should every care home have a registered dietitian?

There is no legislation or guidance in place demanding that every care home in the UK has a registered dietitian. In this article, Katrina Brown discusses whether this should be the case, or if this is an area that should be revisited by policymakers

HIA Industrial Hemp Conference: Science, Industry, and Policy

HIA Industrial Hemp Conference: Science, Industry, and Policy

Captions and the Cooking Show

While the television cooking genre has evolved in numerous ways to withstand competition and become a constant feature in television programming (Collins and College), it has been argued that audience demand for televisual cooking has always been high because of the daily importance of cooking (Hamada, “Multimedia Integration”). Early cooking shows were characterised by an instructional discourse, before quickly embracing an entertainment focus; modern cooking shows take on a more competitive, out of the kitchen focus (Collins and College). The genre has continued to evolve, with celebrity chefs and ordinary people embracing transmedia affordances to return to the instructional focus of the early cooking shows. While the television cooking show is recognised for its broad cultural impacts related to gender (Ouellette and Hay), cultural capital (Ibrahim; Oren), television formatting (Oren), and even communication itself (Matwick and Matwick), its role in the widespread adoption of television captions is significantly underexplored. Even the fact that a cooking show was the first ever program captioned on American television is almost completely unremarked within cooking show histories and literature.

Age discrimination in the workplace: The more things change ….

Age discrimination in the workplace: The more things change ….

Evolving Digital and E-Commerce Trade Rules for Northeast Asia

Evolving Digital and E-Commerce Trade Rules for Northeast Asia

Comparing non-safety with safety device sharps injury incidence data from two different occupational surveillance systems

The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Bloodborne Pathogens Standard as amended by the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act requiring the use of safety-engineered medical devices to prevent needlesticks and sharps injuries has been in place since 2001. Injury changes over time include differences between those from non-safety compared with safety-engineered medical devices. This research compares two US occupational incident surveillance systems to determine whether these data can be generalized to other facilities and other countries either with legislation in place or considering developing national policies for the prevention of sharps injuries among healthcare personnel.

Microorganisms: Good or Evil, MIRRI Provides Biosecurity Awareness

The life-science community is a key stakeholder in the effort to ensure that the advances in biotechnology are not misused. Unfortunately, to date, the engagement of life scientists with issues of biosecurity has been limited. Microorganisms have been harnessed for the benefit of humankind but in the wrong hands could be used in direct or indirect acts against humans, livestock, crops, food, water infrastructure and other economically valuable entities. The Microbial Resources Research Infrastructure in its preparatory phase has addressed the topic implementing a code of conduct as part of its programme of prevention of malicious use and continues to work with the international community to raise awareness of best practice to avoid misuse of microorganisms. Biosecurity has become a major concern for several countries creating numerous activities to put in place counter measures, risk assessment, legislation and emergency response. The goal is to implement measures to protect us against malicious use of microorganisms, their products, information and technology transfer. Through this paper, we wish to discuss some of the activities that are underway, mention key educational tools and provide scientists with information on addressing biosecurity issues.

Whistleblowers Under the Spotlight

The contemporary prevalence of complex business structures, and the limited resources and time of regulatory authorities charged with policing business organisations has increased the importance of whistleblowers for modern corporate governance. This article aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion in relation to the effectiveness of the existing regulatory regime, a regime that is intended to encourage whistleblowing in general and to provide sufficient safeguards to whistleblowers from dismissal or retaliation. The countries of the uk and Japan have been selected for this comparative study because they exhibit contrasting business and employment practices and because the relevant authorities have adopted distinct regulatory approaches. The comparative analysis intends to support the claim that, irrespective of the primary and secondary legislation in place in these two jurisdictions and the disparate corporate cultures existing in each, whistleblowers all too frequently end up as victims even when they have complied with the requirements and the procedures stipulated by the law, followed their conscience and reported wrongdoing.

Fundamental Scope of the Right to Privacy in Pakistan Need for a New Data Protection Law

The statute books in Pakistan have not properly defined the right to privacy, and it is only the Constitution that has asserted importance of right to privacy by declaring a universal guarantee for the same, and has coupled it with the concept of human dignity.Therefore, in any discussion about the right to privacy in Pakistan, one must refer to Article 14 of its Constitution, which mandates that the dignity of man and (subject to law) the privacy of the home, shall be inviolable.Pakistan’s Courts did not have any statutory guidance as to the scope for a right to privacy and its varieties, therefore, Pakistan's Courts have attempted to define and explain such scope by relying on the Islamic Shariah law.The select international standards, that Pakistan has committed to, impress upon providing minimal assurances as to the protection of bodily privacy, territorial privacy, and privacy of communications. Pakistan’s Courts have not been able to lay down any scope for the right of one’s information privacy (which involves the establishment of rules governing the collection and handling of personal data such as credit information and medical records).The author urges that there should be legislation in place to preempt breach of one’s information privacy (or unauthorized use of a Pakistani citizen’s personal data). The new data protection law will fill significant gaps…that are relevant to public interest, business interest, and government interest!

Regulating Planned Obsolescence: A Review of Legal Approaches to Increase Product Durability and Reparability in Europe

Improving product durability and reparability can save natural resources and money for consumers but may not always be in the best interest of all manufacturers. With the emergence of the circular economy as an important policy objective in the European Union (EU), there is renewed interest in policies to promote durability and address planned obsolescence. Different legislative approaches are currently used to provide incentives for design for durability and reparability at the EU and Member State levels. The EU has started to regulate durability through the Ecodesign Directive, whereas Member States have made use of other legal approaches such as longer consumer warranties, the criminalization of planned obsolescence and measures to incentivize the availability of spare parts. In this contribution, we review some of the legislation in place and discuss benefits and disadvantages of different legal approaches.

Video on Demand for People with Disability: Traversing Terrestrial Borders

Within Australia, the approach taken to the ways in which disabled people access television is heavily influenced by legislation and activism from abroad. This is increasingly the case as television moves to online modes of distribution where physical and legislative boundaries are more fluid. While early investigations of the intersections between television and the concept of abroad focused on the impacts of representation and national reputation (Boddy), the introduction of new media technologies saw a shifting focus towards the impact and introduction of new media technologies. Drawing on Chan’s definition of media internationalisation as “the process by which the ownership, structure, production, distribution, or content of a country’s media is influenced by foreign media interests, culture and markets” (Chan 71), this article considers the impacts of legislative and advocacy efforts abroad on Australian television audiences with disabilities accessing subscription Video on Demand (VOD)...

Transfer Mispricing As an Argument for Corporate Social Responsibility

This article presents a case for transfer mispricing as an argument for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The argument builds on the position that in order to compensate for potential loss of brand image and reputation, Multinational Companies (MNCs) would be more socially responsible when they are operating in countries where the legislation and laws in place are not effective at identifying and sanctioning transfer mispricing. We first discuss the dark side of transfer pricing (TP), next we present the nexus between TP and poverty and finally we advance arguments for CSR in transfer mispricing. While acknowledging that TP is a legal accounting practice, we argue that in view of its poverty and underdevelopment externalities, the practice per se should be a solid justification for CSR because it is also associated with schemes that deprive developing countries of capital essential for investments in health, education and development programmes. Therefore CSR owing to TP cannot be limited to a strategic management approach, but should also be considered as some kind of social justice because of associated transfer mispricing practices. We further argue that, CSR by multinational corporations could incite domestic companies to comply more willingly with their tax obligations and/or engage in similar activities. Whereas, traditional advocates of CSR have employed concepts such as reputation, licence-to-operate, sustainability, moral obligation and innovation to make the case for CSR, the present inquiry extends this stream of literature by arguing that TP and its externalities are genuine justifications for CSR. We consolidate our arguments with a case study of Glencore and the mining industry in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Assessing the small-scale shark fishery of Madagascar through community-based monitoring and knowledge

Over 90% of those employed in commercial capture fisheries work in the small-scale fisheries (SSF) sector and an estimated 97% of small scale fishers are found in least developed countries. However, the capacity for monitoring SSF globally is low and there is a paucity of data, in particular for remote areas within developing nations. The methods presented here demonstrate a low cost participatory approach for gathering data on small-scale fisheries, in particular for those that take place across remote areas. Community-based data collectors were trained to record biological and socioeconomic data on the traditional (non-motorised) shark fishery in the Toliara region of Madagascar over a six year period (2007–2012). An estimated 20 species of shark were recorded, of which 31% (n=3505) were Sphyrna lewini (scalloped hammerhead), a species listed by the IUCN as Endangered (IUCN, 2016). Although the number of sharks landed annually has not decreased during our survey period, there was a significant decrease in the average size of sharks caught. Despite multiple anecdotal reports of shark population declines, interviews and focus groups highlight the possibility that shark landings appear to have been maintained through changes in gear and increases in effort (eg. number of fishers, time spent fishing), which may mask a decline in shark populations. The numbers of sharks taken by the traditional fishery in our study region was estimated to be between 65,000 and 104,000year−1, whilst estimates using national export and import of dried shark fin from Madagascar, and shark length data in this study, put total landings between 78,000 and 471,851year−1. Reliable data on the total volume of sharks landed in Madagascar’s waters is scarce, in particular from foreign industrial boats both directly targeting shark species and as bycatch in fisheries targeting other species. There is currently no legislation in place to protect sharks from overexploitation in Madagascar and an urgent need to address the lack of shark fishery management across the traditional, artisanal and industrial fisheries.