Level Of Enforcement Research Articles

Corporate digital transformation and safety production performance: empirical evidence from A-share listed companies

ABSTRACT This paper examines the influence of enterprise digital transformation on safety production performance. Our results indicate that digital transformation significantly improves the safety performance of China’s listed enterprises. Furthermore, a series of cross-sectional analyses confirm that the effect of digital transformation on safety production performance is more prominent not only in regions with higher levels of marketisation and stronger enforcement of safety production systems but also in markets with higher competition and stronger supervision. Moreover, the proposed effect is also more significant in corporations with higher capital intensity and lower financing constraints. The mechanism tests reveal that digital transformation improves the quality of internal control and optimises corporate innovation, thereby improving the safety production performance. Our findings highlight the impact of digital technology application on enterprise production safety performance, serving as a valuable reference for promoting the development and implementation of digital technologies in the field of production safety.

Strategic choices of migrants and smugglers in the Central Mediterranean sea.

The sea crossing from Libya to Italy is one of the world's most dangerous and politically contentious migration routes, and yet over half a million people have attempted the crossing since 2014. Leveraging data on aggregate migration flows and individual migration incidents, we estimate how migrants and smugglers have reacted to changes in the border enforcement regime, namely the rise in interceptions by the Libyan Coast Guard starting in 2017 and the corresponding decrease in the probability of rescue to Europe. We find support for a deterrence effect in which attempted crossings along the Central Mediterranean route declined, and a diversion effect in which some migrants substituted to the Western Mediterranean route. At the same time, smugglers adapted their tactics. Using a strategic model of the smuggler's choice of boat size, we estimate how smugglers trade off between the short-run payoffs to launching overcrowded boats and the long-run costs of making less successful crossing attempts under different levels of enforcement. Taken together, these analyses shed light on how the integration of incident- and flow-level datasets can inform ongoing migration policy debates and identify potential consequences of changing enforcement regimes.

Legal relations in criminal proceedings: controversial issues of structure and content

Theorists of criminal proceedings traditionally view the legal relationship as a two-way legal relationship of subjects of criminal proceedings regulated by the norms of criminal procedural law, where the right of one subject of the legal relationship corresponds to the legal obligation of another subject. This approach not only prevails in educational literature on criminal procedure, but is also taken as the initial approach when conducting special scientific research. However, in this area there are procedural obligations for which it is impossible to find corresponding rights of any of the participants in the criminal process. The purpose of the study is to clarify the legal nature of such criminal procedural legal relations in which the connection between procedural rights and obligations is not obvious. The authors make an attempt to explain such legal relations from the point of view of the theory of general regulatory relations and to justify their criminal procedural nature. They substantiate the fallacy of the approach that assumes the existence of procedural duties corresponding to each other within the framework of the criminal procedural relationship. The methodological basis of the study was the dialectical method. In addition, general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis and a systematic approach were used, as well as special legal methods: legal interpretation and the formal legal method. The results of the study showed that the public legal obligations of subjects of criminal proceedings constitute an element of general regulatory legal relations in which the state is the authorized party. During the transition of a general legal relationship to the law enforcement level, personalization of the subject composition of the legal relationship may occur when a certain participant in the criminal process (for example, a prosecutor) begins to exercise control over the fulfillment of the procedural duties of the authority. On this basis, the authors conclude that criminal procedural legal relations are not only legal relations that develop between participants in criminal proceedings, but also general regulatory relations that consolidate the competence of government bodies and officials in the field of criminal proceedings.

The German Supply Chain Act – A Sustainable Regulatory Framework for Internationally Active Market Players?

On January 1, 2023, the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence in Supply Chains (LkSG) entered into force. It is the most important step taken so far by the German legislature in terms of promoting corporate sustainability and protecting human rights in globalized supply chains. Unfortunately, however, it did not make use of the opportunity to take on a pioneering role in the broader comparative context. The authors conduct a critical analysis of the sustainability concept of the Act, as well as its provisions on scope and enforcement. In both aspects, the Act falls short of expectations; it does not introduce a comprehensive concept of sustainability, small and medium-sized enterprises are excluded from the scope of application, and comprehensive due diligence along the supply chain is not achieved. On the enforcement level, the main weakness of the LkSG lies in its exclusion of civil liability.

On Improving the Effectiveness of Probation

The article considers the state of theory and practice of the institution of probation in domestic criminal law: its normative legal basis and practice of application. It is concluded that the reasons of the low effectiveness of this traditional criminal law measure of a criminal nature, with a very stable and significant scale of its application, lie, firstly, in the unjustified imposition of a suspended sentence on persons who have committed a crime, which, according to their socio-legal characteristics, do not deserve it, and, secondly, in the absence of the requirements necessary for such a serious benefit of a criminal law nature for the behavior of a probationer during the probation period. The real situation is that if a probationer does not commit a new crime during the probation period, the court usually does not even remember its existence. As a result, there are no visible criminal consequences of committing a crime for a probationer, except for compensation for the damage caused by the crime (in full or in part), neither actually nor legally occurs. The elimination of these reasons at the law enforcement level is impossible, it is necessary to change the legislative regulation of this measure of a criminal law nature with its orientation towards convicts who can actually justify their trust in the form of conditional non-use of the sentence imposed.

Do air pollution levels influence enforcement by regulators? Evidence from China

This paper examines the relationship between air pollution levels and regulators’ enforcement levels and observes that air pollution levels in firms’ locations reduce enforcement from regulators. Moreover, regulators are more likely to suffer from type II errors when air pollution levels in firms’ locations are higher, verifying the effect of regulators’ unwillingness to travel due to air pollution. The cross-sectional analysis suggests that enforcement from regulatory authorities in areas with lower air pollution levels than in firms’ locations, positioned at great distances from firms’ locations, and with greater workloads is less strict when air pollution levels in firms’ locations are higher. We further test whether air pollution levels reduce the efficiency of regulators and find that firms with lower earnings quality and weaker corporate governance are less likely to be subjected to enforcement by regulators when air pollution levels in the firms’ locations are higher.

Energy disciplines in PTAs between security and sustainability concerns: a comparative perspective

Abstract This article aims at exploring the universe of energy disciplines included in preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and their evolution through the prisms of energy security and energy sustainability. It offers a comparative perspective by classifying relevant provisions according to their scope and coverage, their level of normativity and enforceability, and their innovative potential for driving a structural reorientation of PTAs from a security-driven approach (ie focused on the use of trade rules to promote energy trade in order to foster availability) to a sustainability-driven approach (ie focused on the use of trade rules to promote environmentally sustainable energy trade in order to facilitate the energy transition). It identifies the main tenets underpinning this ongoing shift and offers some reflections on how and to which extent environmental sustainability can be advanced through PTA disciplines on energy.

Cross border of Jurisdiction between Arbitration and District Court in Business Dispute Settlement under the Indonesian Legal System

In principle, the settlement of business disputes in Indonesia can be done amicably either through the court or outside the court. The court proceeding usually takes a long time, impacting overall case costs in comparison to dispute settlement outside the court. Arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution offers advantages compared to mediation, conciliation, and negotiation as it has an identical adjudicative nature to court proceedings. Therefore, arbitration is the preferred method for settling business disputes due to its perceived effectiveness and efficiency, resulting in win-win solutions. In addition, within the Indonesian legal framework, arbitration closely parallels court proceedings for dispute resolution, and its decisions carry the same level of binding authority and enforceability. This article relies on secondary data analyzed using a qualitative-juridical method to examine the jurisdiction of district court and arbitration. The findings reveal that arbitration has absolute jurisdiction when there exists an arbitration clause or an underlying arbitration agreement, thereby excluding the jurisdiction of the district court.

The Relationship Between Lockdowns and Video Game Playtime: Multilevel Time-Series Analysis Using Massive-Scale Data Telemetry.

COVID-19 led governments worldwide to enact a variety of containment and closure policies. Substantial attention has been directed toward the idea that these public health measures may have unanticipated negative side effects. One proposed effect relates to video games. There is a nascent evidence base suggesting that individuals played video games for longer and in a more disordered manner during lockdowns and school closures specifically. These increases are commonly framed as a potential health concern in relation to disordered gaming. However, the evidence base regarding changes in gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic is based on self-report and, thus, is susceptible to bias. Therefore, it is unclear what the true consequences of lockdowns were for gaming behavior worldwide. The primary objective of this study was to estimate whether any specific lockdown policy led to meaningful increases in the amount of time individuals spent playing video games. Rather than relying on self-report, we used >251 billion hours of raw gameplay telemetry data from 184 separate countries to assess the behavioral correlates of COVID-19-related policy decisions. A multilevel model estimated the impact of varying enforcement levels of 8 containment and closure policies on the amount of time that individual users spent in-game. Similar models estimated the impact of policy on overall playtime and the number of users within a country. No lockdown policy can explain substantial variance in playtime per gamer. School closures were uniquely associated with meaningful increases in total playtime within a country (r2=0.048). However, this was associated with increases in the number of unique individuals playing games (r2=0.057) rather than increases in playtime per gamer (r2<0.001). Previous work using self-report data has suggested that important increases in heavy gaming may occur during pandemics because of containment and closure ("lockdown") procedures. This study contrasts with the previous evidence base and finds no evidence of such a relationship. It suggests that significant further work is needed before increases in disordered or heavy gaming are considered when planning public health policies for pandemic preparedness.

A comparative study on the mandatory variation of COVID-19 vaccination policies

Abstract Background Reflection on COVID-19 vaccine policies is critical to understand their effectiveness. Joint level vaccine mandates encouraged by the EU were not adopted by member states, leading to a multitude of vaccine policies that varied in their mandatory nature. We hypothesised that highly mandatory vaccine policies would result in high vaccine uptake &amp; low mandatory polices would result in the opposite, &amp; that differences between countries would impact policy implementation &amp; effectiveness. Methods The mandatory vaccine framework was used to evaluate the mandatory nature of case study countries’ COVID-19 vaccine policies from 2020-23. France, Italy, Sweden, Poland, &amp; Romania were chosen to represent a cross-section of economies, health systems, political histories, &amp; COVID-19 experiences. Data was sourced from the ECDC's COVID-19 Data Tracker, government documents, media reports, &amp; peer reviewed studies. Results Highly mandatory vaccine policies lead to higher overall vaccine uptake, as found in France 92.3% &amp; Italy 89.8%. However, highly mandatory policies may cause social disruption &amp; increase mistrust in vaccinations &amp; governments, as seen in France. Moderate to low mandatory policies had mixed results. Romania &amp; Poland had low vaccine uptake below the EU average. Additionally, low mandatory policies risk higher death &amp; case rates &amp; did not increase social acceptance of vaccination or avoid vaccine related social disruption, as seen in Poland. Sweden presents contrasting findings, reporting vaccine uptake of 86.2%, 13.1% above EU average despite their low mandatory policies, contradicting the hypothesis. Conclusions The research provides insights into vaccine policy decision making under the pressure of pandemic conditions, &amp; the potential consequences of implementing various severity &amp; enforcement levels within vaccine policies. The study demonstrates the need to develop pandemic vaccine framework to aid policymakers during disease crises. Key messages • The research highlights that it is essential that policy makers adopt cultural and health system appropriate vaccination policies for the populations they are targeting to vaccinate. • The variation of vaccine uptake between member states also stresses the importance for the EU to take a more central role in health policy.

Why do governments subsidize R&D-Intensive foreign direct investment?

Subsidizing research and development (R&D)-intensive foreign direct investments (FDI) of multinational enterprises (MNEs)—such as through the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act of 2022—is becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide. However, little is known about host governments' incentives for offering them and their strategic potential. Using a simple theoretical model, this study investigates the welfare consequences of an R&D-intensive FDI subsidy compared to those of three other widely used policy alternatives: (i) providing a subsidy based on the MNE's output, (ii) setting the level of intellectual property right enforcement, and (iii) mandating technology transfer through licensing. Our results demonstrate that when the domestic firm's absorptive capacity is sufficiently high, subsidizing MNEs' R&D efforts is welfare-superior to the three other policy alternatives, as it generates positive externalities for domestic firms. Additionally, MNEs' innovation outcomes, profitability, and global welfare can be maximized when an R&D subsidy is chosen. Thus, the findings have key implications for policymakers regarding the welfare consequences of such subsidy policies.

Valid Requirements for Cessie Under Indonesian Civil Law

Cessie is a fundamental concept in Indonesian civil law that governs the transfer of rights to receivables or intangible assets. Understanding this concept is essential for conducting cassie transactions legally and effectively within the Indonesian civil law system. Cessie plays a crucial role in supporting commercial and financial activities in Indonesia by providing a clear legal framework for transferring rights. Several requirements must be met to ensure the validity of cassie under Indonesian civil law. Firstly, there must be a clear receivable as the subject of the proper transfer, including comprehensive details regarding the amount, the debtor, and the payment terms. Secondly, notification to the debtor or written consent from the debtor is a vital requirement that ensures transparency in the change of creditor status. Without such notification or consent, Jessie will not have legal validity. In addition to these requirements, the process of executing an authentic deed or a private document also impacts the validity of the cessie. Using an authentic deed provides a higher level of enforceability and creates more substantial evidence in legal proceedings. Meanwhile, a private document is a simpler alternative that remains valid under Indonesian civil law. Cessie also plays a significant role in extending credit and other financial transactions. It allows parties involved to manage risks and ensure timely debt repayment. Cessie also creates flexibility in managing receivables and intangible assets. Understanding the requirements of cassie and its pivotal role in Indonesian civil law is crucial in maintaining legal validity and certainty in commercial and financial transactions. Cessie is a legal concept and a vital tool for facilitating economic activities in Indonesia.

Constitutive Features of Administrative Acts: Criticism and Analysis

The relevance of the topic has been determined by the entry into force of the Law of Ukraine «On Administrative Procedure». The article is aimed at analyzing the approaches on understanding the features of an administrative act existing in Ukrainian legal doctrine and formulating recommendations oriented on building their universal system. Various methods of scientific cognition, including comparative and legal, systematic and structural, analysis, synthesis, and others constitute the research methodology. It makes it possible to systematically and consistently solve scientific problems, to study and compare the standpoints of scholars, the provisions of legal acts of the relevant countries, caselaw and to formulate the author’s conclusions. A number of systematic problems related to the incorrect understanding of the essence and features of administrative acts has been revealed in the research process. This situation, according to the author’s opinion, is largely related to the imperfection of legal definition of an administrative act, which was enshrined in the Law of Ukraine «On Administrative Procedure». Further analysis of the works of Ukrainian authors has demonstrated that in order to formulate relevant scientific provisions they in the vast majority use the results of Soviet authors. According to the author, such an approach is wrong; it blocks the development of modern, practically oriented concepts and conclusions. The author of the article has separately emphasized the fact that the features of an administrative act perform very important practical function. They help to solve comprehensive objectives primarily arising at the legal enforcement level. The author provides relevant detailed explanations on this matter. The article’s center of attention is the detailed presentation of the features of an administrative act. While performing this objective, the author has widely used the achievements of Western European authors, as well as refers to certain decisions of the judicial power to demonstrate the validity of the formulated conclusions and recommendations. As a result of the conducted research, the author comes to a sound conclusion that an administrative act should be characterized by the following features: 1) it represents a decision; 2) it is taken by an administrative agency; 3) it is oriented on the application / implementation of the norms of public (administrative) law; 4) it causes legal consequences in the form of establishing the rights or obligations for its addressee (regulatory nature); 5) it has a concrete and individual character; 6) it is characterized by an external orientation of the action. The conducted research allowed to draw the following conclusion:the features of an administrative act play a constitutive role by helping to solve various theoretical and practical problems. The features of an administrative act are universal in nature. It means that they do not depend (should not depend) on the national peculiarities of legal regulation and ideas about it. Ukrainian authors must be extremely responsible while formulating their own conclusions in regard to those categories and provisions having a supranational nature.

Capacity of enforcers and level of enforcement of the Tobacco Control Act 2015 in Kampala, Uganda.

Tobacco use is a leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide. Uganda enacted the Tobacco Control Act (TCA) 2015 to domesticate implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) regulations. This study assessed the capacity to enforce the TCA and associated factors, as well as the level and barriers to its enforcement in Kampala, Uganda. A cross-sectional study using both quantitative and qualitative methods was employed. A structured questionnaire was used for quantitative data collection, and a WHO adapted capacity assessment open-ended guide was used for key informant interviews. Multivariable logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the independent predictors for capacity to enforce the TCA. A total of 162 respondents from 5 institutions and six key informants were involved in the study. Findings established that only 23% (37/162) of the enforcers had the capacity to enforce the TCA. Male enforcers [OR = 0.16, 95% CI (0.05-0.55)], those who did not know when the law was enacted [OR = 0.19, 95% CI (0.07-0.52)], those with no plans to enforce the law [OR = 0.22, 95% CI (0.05-0.93)], and older enforcers (aged 31-40 years) [OR = 0.27, 95% CI (0.09-0.81)] were less likely to have the capacity to enforce the TCA. The level of enforcement of the TCA was mainly low to moderate for most of the institutions mandated to enforce it. Lack of knowledge about the law amongst the enforcers and general public, and inadequate funds were reported as major barriers to enforcement of the TCA. The capacity to enforce the TCA in Kampala was low. There is potential to enhance the capacity of enforcers through further dissemination of the Act, as well as sensitization of enforcers, institutional managers, and the general public about the legislation.

Demystifying China’s trade secrets law in action: a statistical analysis

This article attempts to conduct a detailed empirical study on trade secrets litigation in China. In a nutshell, using 33 coding criteria, this article studied 2810 judicial documents published between 2013 and 2021 related to trade secrets litigation. Of the 2810 documents, 745 concerned substantive trade secret issues, with 885 trade secret claims addressed by Chinese courts. The article mainly aims to fill two research gaps in the current literature. First, it is unclear whether, during the past two decades, China indeed provided inadequate trade secrets protection in practice because of its ‘defective’ statutes, as alleged by the US government. Empirical evidence is needed to test whether the previous US criticisms conformed with the working situation of China’s trade secrets litigation. Second, the enforcement level of trade secrets law in books in China remains a myth. The argument that China has adopted a strict trade secret law in books similar to the US has little practical value if China did not enforce the trade secrets law in practice. Empirical evidence is required to demystify the enforcement situation of trade secrets law. This article, thus, fills these two gaps by presenting empirical findings on trade secrets litigation from 2013 to 2021 in China.

Business Rules Driven Automated Quality Assurance Governance System for Higher Education

Although higher education institutes have paid serious attention to quality assurance, implementation issues have been reported frequently. Since the existing information systems do not adequately support automatic verification, manual verification of quality assurance compliances has become a challenge. Therefore, this study first analysed the prevailing higher education quality assurance context to identify the prevailing issues. Secondly, Quality Assurance Governance System integrated with a quality assurance rule manipulation mechanism was designed based on the business rules concept to address the identified issues. Thirdly, the key modules of the proposed Quality Assurance Governance System were developed as a proof-of-concept. Finally, the proposed quality assurance rules manipulation mechanism and modules of the Quality Assurance Governance System were evaluated. The study found that one of the main issues in the existing systems is the lack of integration among various modules and a rule manipulation mechanism. Therefore, the study concludes that quality assurance requirements could be better captured as rules using the proposed rule templates, while rule manipulations and compliance could be verified in real-time through the proposed Quality Assurance Governance System. Nevertheless, the results of the evaluation suggest that rigid rule implementations may make the system inflexible and create stakeholder resistance. Thus, this can be mitigated by implementing the proposed rule enforcement levels.

VAT Adoption and Corporate Income Tax Avoidance

ABSTRACT This study provides evidence of the relationship between adopting a value-added tax (VAT) and corporate income tax avoidance. Our analysis exploits the staggered replacement of retail sales tax with VAT in China between 2012 and 2019. Based on a sample of 6,948 firm-years, we find that firms affected by the VAT reform are associated with an increase in their book (cash) effective income tax rates by 1.4 (2.2) percentage points. Such an effect is more pronounced among firms that make the most of their sales to businesses than individuals and among those that are located in regions with low social trust and tax enforcement levels. Additional test results show that changes in ETRs are not mechanically driven by changes in sales and costs and consumption taxes brought about by the reform. While aiming to eliminate double taxation, the VAT reform generates a positive externality for income tax collection. JEL Classifications: H25; H26; K42.

Selective Rule Enforcement on Prison Units and Individual Misconduct: A Multilevel Study

This study examined how selective rule enforcement on prison units is related to individual misconduct. Selective rule enforcement was operationalized as the unit-level discrepancy between self- and officially reported misconduct. Both survey and administrative data were used from 4,123 individuals incarcerated in 197 units in the Netherlands. Findings showed that the level of selective rule enforcement varied greatly across units, irrespective of regime, with averages above zero. Multilevel regression analyses indicated that, after controlling for important covariates, selective rule enforcement on units was consistently related to the odds of displaying misconduct including verbal, physical, property, and contrabands misconduct. These findings demonstrate the importance of contextual differences and the use of discretion by correctional officers for individual behavior in prison.

REHABILITATION SERVICES FOR CHILDREN IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW IN BAGUIO CITY

The primary purpose of the study was to determine the services of the Bahay Pag-Asa (BPA) in Barangay Irisan, Baguio City, in terms of the available programs and activities, the challenges encountered during implementation, and the strategies that were employed to counter these challenges. The study made use of a qualitative descriptive design. An interview guide was utilized to collect the data. As part of the Juvenile Justice System, the selected participants were the members of the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children(BCPC), the social workers working as house parents in the Bahay Pag-Asa, and the law enforcers in the Women and Children Protection Desk (WCPD)in Baguio City Police Station 9. The members of the BCPC and the WCPD police officers were selected because they are the primary stakeholders in the handling of the cases of Children in Conflict with the Law (CICL) at the barangay level and the law enforcement level. In addition, the house parents working inside the BPA are the best source of information as they are immersed in implementing the intervention and rehabilitation programs.The challenges faced by the three duty bearers share three common themes regarding CICL: broken homes, uncooperative parents, and implementers experiencing work-related stress with the respondent coming from the WCPD experiencing mental stress. At the same time, the respondents from the BCPC experienced problems in the monitoring of repeat offenders. Lastly, the respondents from BPA experienced challenges, including handling tantrums and violations of the residents.As to the strategies used by the three duty bearers in handling the challenges and combating stress, they have commonalities. Specifically, the law enforcer from the WCPD identified support of the family as a helping factor in law enforcement involving CICL while the members of the BCPC identified maximum tolerance and continuous monitoring of the CICL as their strategy. On the other hand, the house parent from the BPA takes care of the residents like his or her own children as well as being flexible in the implementing consequences.

Social capital is associated with cooperation and indirect norm enforcement in the field: behavioural evidence from Switzerland

Abstract Social capital, comprising networks, generalized trust, and cooperation norms, is often considered a key factor in promoting prosperity and cooperation. Informal norm enforcement also drives cooperation. While early theories of social capital and norm enforcement propose that networks encourage sanctions, strong reciprocity theory argues that sanctioning non-cooperation is a universal preference. In the lab, people uphold cooperation through sanctions without networks, but this occurs only in regions characterized by high trust levels and strong cooperation norms outside the laboratory. Are trust, cooperation, and enforcement linked in the field, and if so, what are the generative mechanisms? In two neighbourhoods of Bern, one high in social capital and one low, we linked indicators of social capital and expected norm compliance from resident surveys (N = 466) with cooperation, measured with the lost-letter technique (N = 240), and norm enforcement, measured with reactions to transgressions of the antilittering norm (N = 123). Cooperation and indirect enforcement were more prevalent in the high social capital neighbourhood. Direct enforcement was rare in both neighbourhoods. The less optimistic expectations of cooperation and norm compliance prevalent in the low social capital neighbourhood can potentially explain the lower levels of cooperation and norm enforcement.