Private Law Research Articles

Engaging sexual minority adolescents in nationwide at-home HIV prevention research in the U.S

ObjectivesThis study examined research-related privacy and confidentiality concerns among adolescent sexual minority males (ASMM) and provides lessons learned to inform recruitment and enrollment strategies for this population. MethodsParticipants were a 2017–2018 internet-based U.S. national sample of sexual minority adolescents who responded to self-report measures of privacy and confidentiality concerns. Results: Bivariate chi-square tests were used to identify participants’ mean differences in worry and likelihood of privacy breach occurrences. Many participants reported privacy-related concerns within remote HIV prevention research. ConclusionsStudy protocols were designed to ensure participants felt safe participating in online HIV prevention research. However, there are challenges to enroll participants with rigorous protocols for ensuring safety and privacy.

Dystopian Visions and the Making of Privacy Law

This article explores the role of references to dystopian literature in the context of developing privacy laws. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of a large corpus of legislative and judicial texts from Germany and the United Kingdom, I demonstrate that references to popular dystopian works of fiction like Orwell’s 1984 have animated and shaped the legal recognition of privacy. Specifically, dystopian visions are evoked as reasons that warrant the legal protection of privacy rights. I explore lawmakers’ vision of a technologically empowered totalitarian state and discuss how these connect to historical, contemporary, and hypothetical examples of unjust regimes. I argue that literary imaginations of dystopia are often themselves built on historical experience, suggesting that the aptness for social critique is, as literary critics suggest, built into dystopia as a genre. I furthermore explore how the theme of democracy is employed as a counterpoint to fears of dystopian totalitarianism. Portraying privacy invasions as harmful to democratic ideals discursively amplifies their dangerousness—and thereby works to justify regulatory intervention. My research findings prompt us to view legal norms as a cultural artifact that reflect cultural imagination and literary narratives.

Mobile apps for health surveillance: Balancing public health needs with the privacy of personal data

The privacy of personal information is aimed at protecting human rights both under the international human rights regime and the Saudi Arabian constitution and other statutes and regulations, subject only to some exceptions that include the protection of public health. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought about certain challenges that necessitate strategies to augment the conventional surveillance of infectious diseases, contact tracing, isolation, reporting and vaccination. Several governments institutions, and agencies presently adopt mobile applications for collecting, analyzing, managing, and sharing critical personal data of individuals infected with or exposed to COVID-19. While the benefits of sharing private information for achieving public health needs may not be disputed, the risk of breach of personal privacy is enormous. This had forced the national governments into a dilemma of either succumbing to public health needs, strictly respecting and protecting the privacy of individuals, or alternatively, balancing the two conflicting demands. There is a massive body of literature on the security and privacy of such mobile applications, but none has adequately explored and discussed public interest justifications under Saudi Arabian laws for alleged privacy breaches. We examined the health surveillance mobile app technologies currently in use in Saudi Arabia with the aim of determining the potential risks of data breaches under extant data protection laws. The paper recommends, among others, that any potential risk of breach to right to privacy of personal information under the law must be (justified by) the public health needs to protect society during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rules of the Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and Fundamental Principles of Private Law: pro et contra .

Registration of an international interest under the rules of the Cape Town Convention is aimed at establishing priority for such an interest in relation to all third parties, but it does not constitute the basis for the occurrence of the corresponding security obligation. The purpose of registering an international interest is to notify third parties of title or encumbrance. The debtor is a party to the relevant security agreement. If the creditor does not register his security interest (guarantee), the debtor cannot deny its existence or act without taking into account the creditor’s rights under such a guarantee. Competition on the priority of security rights in relation to the same property cannot arise between the debtor and the creditor. The debtor cannot deny that the creditor has rights under the security agreement. The study states that the rules of the Cape Town Convention on priorities are not subject to unconditional application. When considering a dispute over security rights to property, the court should be guided not only by the provisions of the Cape Town Convention on Priorities, but also by the fundamental principles and norms of national law (applicable law). Fundamental principles of civil law cannot be abrogated by Cape Town Convention rules.

You Still See Me: How Data Protection Supports the Architecture of AI Surveillance

Data forms the backbone of artificial intelligence (AI). Privacy and data protection laws thus have strong bearing on AI systems. Shielded by the rhetoric of compliance with data protection and privacy regulations, privacy-preserving techniques have enabled the extraction of more and new forms of data. We illustrate how the application of privacy-preserving techniques in the development of AI systems--from private set intersection as part of dataset curation to homomorphic encryption and federated learning as part of model computation--can further support surveillance infrastructure under the guise of regulatory permissibility. Finally, we propose technology and policy strategies to evaluate privacy-preserving techniques in light of the protections they actually confer. We conclude by highlighting the role that technologists could play in devising policies that combat surveillance AI technologies.

Generative Artificial Intelligence and Legal Frameworks: Identifying Challenges and Proposing Regulatory Reforms

This research paper seeks to understand the deficit arising from the generative AI and its potential in redefying various sectors and suggesting modification on the current laws. Generative AI systems can generate distinctive content which could be used in text, images, or music, among others, by training from the available data. It highlights how generative AI influences the legal profession in terms of work like contract writing, as well as how newer language models like GPT-4 and chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini are evolving. Thus, while generative AI has numerous opportunities, it also raises concerns about ethical issues, authorship and ownership, privacy, and abuses, such as the propagation of deepfakes and fake news. This study focuses attention on the importance of strengthening the legal frameworks to answer the ethical issues and challenges linked to generative AI, such as deepfakes, piracy of contents, discriminative impact, or naked breaches of privacy. It calls for proper and sensitive use of generative AI through regulation, openness, and commonly agreed global guidelines. This paper emphasizes that innovations need to be balanced by a set of effective regulations to unleash the potential of generative AI and minimize potential threats.

PECULIARITIES OF A PUBLIC LICENSE AS A FORM OF DISPOSAL OF PROPERTY RIGHTS TO OBJECTS OF RELATED RIGHTS UNDER THE LEGISLATION OF UKRAINE

This scientific article is devoted to consideration of the features of a public license as a form of disposal of property rights to objects of related rights under the legislation of Ukraine. The examination is carried out by comparing the license and the license agreement, the license and the public license, the public license and the license agreement, as well as considering the features of the public license, taking into account the peculiarities of the legal nature of the objects of related rights, in particular, such an object as the program of the broadcasting organization. Why did it become necessary to investigate the public license as a form of disposal of property rights to objects of related rights precisely by comparing it with a license, a license agreement? This necessity is caused by the need for a correct understanding of the legal nature of this form of order, including how this form of order should be considered - as a unilateral deed or as a bilateral/multilateral deed? So, despite the fairly widespread position in the scientific literature that a public license, just like a license, is a unilateral transaction, we believe that a public license is a form of a license agreement, not a type of license and not a unilateral transaction, because from the analysis of the current legislation of our state (to which we refer in the content of the article), we can see the obligations arising from the licensee, including from the use of the granted object of intellectual property rights, including related rights, in a specified manner, within specified terms, with payment of a fee (if it is stipulated by the terms of the contract) for the use of the specified object. That is, the expression of will, which is characteristic in the case of a unilateral transaction for only one party, as a general rule, in the case of both a public license and a license, meets with the expression of will and obligations of the other party, the licensee. Why, in our opinion, did such an approach arise in the current legislation regarding the fact that a license can be considered as a unilateral transaction? We believe that this approach arose due to the complex nature of legal relations in the field of intellectual property law. Indeed, relations in the field of intellectual property law also contain a public-law element, but does this public-law element extend to relations that arise when concluding a public license as a form of disposal of property rights to objects of related rights? Unlikely, since by its legal nature these relations are private law and are built on the dispositive principles of civil law. Therefore, we believe that the license is an integral part of the license agreement. The license agreement essentially covers both the license and the public license. A public license is a form of license agreement. Why did such a form of license contract as a public license arise? This form arose in connection with the rapid development of information technologies and fully meets the needs of the times and the needs of owners of property rights to increase the turnover of their property rights. This form of license agreement is especially relevant for objects of related rights (performances, phonograms, videograms, broadcasting organization programs). A broadcast organization program is a special object of related rights for which a public license can be concluded. This feature is essentially due to the fact that this object, by its legal nature, depends on the transferred property rights to other objects of copyright and related rights that are part of it, and especially if the property rights to such objects were are also transferred for use, including under a license agreement. Among the tasks of this work, the following should be highlighted: to investigate the legal nature of a public license as a form of disposal of property rights to objects of related rights by comparison with a license, a license agreement, as well as analysis and research of the peculiarities of the legal nature of objects of related rights, in particular, the program of the organization broadcasting in connection with the peculiarities that may arise when concluding a public license for such objects. Such outstanding scientists as A. S. Shtefan, I. V. Kryvosheina, O. M. Starovit and others dealt with questions related to the topic presented in the article.

The Canadian VirusSeq Data Portal and Duotang: open resources for SARS-CoV-2 viral sequences and genomic epidemiology.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a large global effort to sequence SARS-CoV-2 genomes from patient samples to track viral evolution and inform the public health response. Millions of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences have been deposited in global public repositories. The Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network (CanCOGeN - VirusSeq), a consortium tasked with coordinating expanded sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 genomes across Canada early in the pandemic, created the Canadian VirusSeq Data Portal, with associated data pipelines and procedures, to support these efforts. The goal of VirusSeq was to allow open access to Canadian SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences and enhanced, standardized contextual data that were unavailable in other repositories and that meet FAIR standards (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). In addition, the portal data submission pipeline contains data quality checking procedures and appropriate acknowledgement of data generators that encourages collaboration. From inception to execution, the portal was developed with a conscientious focus on strong data governance principles and practices. Extensive efforts ensured a commitment to Canadian privacy laws, data security standards, and organizational processes. This portal has been coupled with other resources, such as Viral AI, and was further leveraged by the Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network (CoVaRR-Net) to produce a suite of continually updated analytical tools and notebooks. Here we highlight this portal (https://virusseq-dataportal.ca/), including its contextual data not available elsewhere, and the Duotang (https://covarr-net.github.io/duotang/duotang.html), a web platform that presents key genomic epidemiology and modelling analyses on circulating and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants in Canada. Duotang presents dynamic changes in variant composition of SARS-CoV-2 in Canada and by province, estimates variant growth, and displays complementary interactive visualizations, with a text overview of the current situation. The VirusSeq Data Portal and Duotang resources, alongside additional analyses and resources computed from the portal (COVID-MVP, CoVizu), are all open source and freely available. Together, they provide an updated picture of SARS-CoV-2 evolution to spur scientific discussions, inform public discourse, and support communication with and within public health authorities. They also serve as a framework for other jurisdictions interested in open, collaborative sequence data sharing and analyses.

The efficient enforcement challenge of secured transactions law reforms in civil law systems—self-help repossession, strict foreclosure, and other methods for the acceleration of enforcement of security interests

Abstract Although the forging of an efficient system for enforcement of security interest is one of the central expectations of secured transaction law reforms in civil law systems, the results hardly give reason for satisfaction. As the reforms tend to be supported and influenced by various international organizations’ projects (especially the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law, and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law), most out-of-court methods of enforcement of security interests have played a central role. Yet due to civil law’s general hostility towards self-help as such, either the introduction of the concept has been rejected or the local limited-reach kin have been merely ‘paper tigers’. Similarly, although security interests on several types of collateral (accounts, investment property) or on the workhorse of the English financial system—the floating charge—have also been enforced extrajudicially (save the exceptions), little attention has been attributed to these enforcement modalities. The same applies to strict foreclosure in civil law systems still being prohibited, or restricted, and thus rarely resorted to, due to the inherited hostility towards the doctrine of lex commissoria. Rethinking local laws on preliminary and temporary court orders to match them with such globally known ex parte preliminary measures as the English Mareva Injunction or the French Saisie Conservatoire, which allow creditors to swiftly freeze debtors’ assets and thus substitute self-help repossession, has also been given short shrift. The enforcement segment, consequently, remains the Achilles’ heel of secured transaction law reforms in civil law systems. This article desires to contribute to reform literature by addressing these deficiencies and by offering tested, fully or partially fitting, functional equivalents of self-help repossession.

Types of legal entities under public law in German doctrine and legislation

This article examines the concepts and types of legal entities under public law in German doctrine and legislation. The legal status of public legal entities is regulated by the provisions of the German Constitution, the German Civil Code, the Law on Administrative Procedures, the Law «On the Procedure for Consideration of Cases Under the Management of Administrative Bodies», the Law «On Administrative Courts». The author examines the issue of determining the criteria for the classification of legal entities, so legal entities under public law are created in an executive order, act to satisfy the public or public interest, have authority, operate in organizational and legal forms of an open type, are responsible for the activities of their officials, legal the regime of property has certain features, in particular, such property can be transferred for use by legal entities under public law. As a rule, legal entities under public law have a special scope of legal capacity, unlike legal entities under private law, in this regard, the article analyzes the doctrine of ultra vires. The author examines the procedure for creating legal entities under public law in Germany, the types of organizational and legal forms of legal entities under public law that carry out their activities in the form of a public corporation, public institution, public fund. The article considers the sources of property formation of legal entities under public law, in particular, it can be income from entrepreneurial activity, budget funds, contributions of members of public corporations, donations (for example, the German State Bank, the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Fund). The article considers four types of public corporations: territorial, united, personal, real. A feature of the activity of public corporations in Germany is the presence of membership, unlike public institutions.

Features of the regulation of the legal status of public law legal entities in France

In the article, the author considers issues related to the legal status of legal entities under public law in France. The legal status of legal entities under public law is regulated by the Constitution of France, special legislation in the field of administrative law. The article analyzes the criteria for distinguishing legal entities into legal entities of private and public law, developed by the judicial practice of French courts. In the article, the author examines the types of legal entities of French public law, in particular, the latter include: the state, territorial entities, public institutions. The article examines the legal nature and types of public service, which is carried out in the field of defense, transport, and industry management. The article defines a public service, as a rule, the specified services do not have the status of a legal entity, the specified status belongs to the state that creates these services. The author researches public institutions of France that belong to legal entities under public law. The article defines the concept of a public institution, classifies public institutions according to various criteria, and defines the organizational structure of these institutions. A variety of public institutions is industrial and commercial in nature. The author examines the historical aspects of the emergence and development of this type of institution. The article examines the characteristics of a public institution, in particular, the following characteristics are distinguished: 1) it is a legal entity under public law; 2) has a socially beneficial purpose; 3) is under the supervision (guardianship) of the state can be fully applied to the legal regulation of public benefit institutions, which also have the status of a legal entity, pursue a socially beneficial goal, and are under the supervision (guardianship) of the state. The article examines the legal nature of associations of persons of liberal professions (lawyers, attorneys, notaries, doctors, pharmacists, veterinarians, and others). The article examines the judicial practice of French courts on issues of compensation for damage caused by the activities of a state institution. The author examines and investigates issues of the legal regime of property of legal entities under public law.

The Impact of Machine Learning Algorithms and Big Data on Privacy in Data Collection and Analysis

In the era of rapid technological advancements, machine learning (ML) and big data analytics have become pivotal in harnessing vast amounts of data for insights, efficiency, and innovation across various sectors. However, the widespread collection and analysis of data raise significant privacy concerns, highlighting the delicate balance between leveraging technology for societal benefits and safeguarding individual privacy. This article delves into the complexities of data collection and analysis practices, emphasizing the potential for privacy breaches through methods such as location tracking, browsing habits analysis, and the creation of detailed personal profiles. It discusses the implications of ML algorithms capable of de-anonymizing data, despite measures like data anonymization and encryption aimed at protecting privacy. The article also examines the existing legal frameworks, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), designed to enhance privacy protection, alongside the ethical considerations for developers and companies in using ML and big data. Furthermore, it explores future outlooks, including developments in technologies like federated learning and differential privacy, that promise enhanced privacy protection. The conclusion calls for a concerted effort among policymakers, technologists, and the public to engage in ongoing dialogue and develop solutions that ensure the ethical use of ML and big data while upholding privacy rights.

Role of Court in Formation Evidential Matter in Economic Disputes in Russia and England as an Actual Problem in International Private Law

Introduction. The article unravels the role of court in formation evidential matter in economic disputes in Russia and England. It studies the distinctive features of formation evidential matter in economic disputes in Russia and England, addresses the role of court in the court’s formation of information on facts and (or) digital footprints of facts through providing instructions for formation evidential matter based on the example of electronic documents, evidence of witnesses, and expert evidence in Russia and England.Materials and methods. In the course of writing the work, a set of general scientific, formal-logical methods (including methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, systematization) and special methods (formal-legal, historical, comparative-legal, structural-legal methods, etc.) were used.Research results. The author demonstrates that fact finding of objective truth in economic disputes can be carried out by the court when the following condition are fulfilled: evidentiary materials are formed in the course to the directions of the court. In economic disputes in Russia and England, the court formation evidential matter both for the case as a whole and to provide for expertise.Discussion and conclusion. A conclusion on the similar role of court in formation evidential matter in economic disputes in Russia and England is made. The article formulates suggestions on the improvement of the Arbitration Procedural Code of the Russian Federation.

Changes of Paradigm in Private International Law of Contracts – A high-level comparison between 1989 and 2024, with tribute to the Unidroit Principles, the development of arbitration law and to Simplified Global Contracting

The article on German private law of contracts compares the state of private international law in Germany in 1989 with its state today, in 2024. It demonstrates a change of paradigm by looking at six selected parameters of relevance: (i) the respect of constitutional rights and European fundamental freedoms, (ii) the unitarian European character of private international law of contracts, subject to treaties, (iii) the dissemination of the CISG, (iv) the emergence of the the Unidroit Principles as a sound system of general principles and rules of international commercial contracts, (v) the development of international arbitration, and (vi) the emergence of internet and data platform based comparative legal research. Regarding the traditional private international law of contracts, as applied by European courts (of member states of the European Union), the author observes that more European uniformity has come at the cost of complexity. At the same time, the emergence and dissemination of the Unidroit Principles – described as “the biggest achievement of the international legal society since the year 534” – has enabled Simplified Global Contracting (i.e. the choice of the Unidroit Principles in combination with an arbitration clause) and thereby more freedom on a global level.

Secure Blockchain Assisted Attribute-Based Keyword Search for Collaborative E-Healthcare

In the age of technological advancement, collaborative E-healthcare emerges as a transformative system eliminating traditional location and accessibility barriers in healthcare services. Here, Searchable Encryption (SE) plays a key role in enabling healthcare providers to outsource encrypted medical data and search services to third parties like cloud servers, thereby reducing storage and management expenses. This intermediary approach poses challenges of single-point failure, privacy breaches, and potentially untrustworthy results. State-of-the-art public key-based SE methods use a cloud-assisted architecture that doesn’t support reliable and practical searches with fine-grained permissions. Also, such systems require additional support to address potential privacy leakages and ensure data availability at the storage server. To address these concerns, we propose a B lockchain-assisted E fficient and S ecure K eyword S earch (BESKS) scheme to enforce fine-grained keyword search privilege control while achieving practical search complexity. Our scheme employs a ciphertext policy attribute-based keyword search mechanism where keywords are encrypted using expressive access policies to build an inverted index structure. The encrypted indexes are stored on the blockchain while encrypted medical documents are stored on InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) nodes to enhance availability and ensure the reliability and scalability of our approach. Our scheme utilizes blockchain-based smart contract for efficient, secure search operations and ensures financial fairness in fine-grained searches. Search tokens are generated based on user attributes and query keywords to facilitate private searches on-chain. To enhance the search process, our secure index enables exact match for a query keyword in constant time to ensure expensive authorization operations are performed only once. Theoretical analysis suggests that our BESKS is more efficient and secure than state-of-the-art schemes. Prototype implementation results on the Ethereum blockchain network further validate its feasibility for real-world applications, demonstrating the scheme's practical applicability in collaborative E-Healthcare systems.

Analysis and Research on Intelligent Logistics Data under Internet of Things and Blockchain

ABSTRACT To explore the security performance of logistics data transmission in an Intelligent Logistics System (ILS) under the Internet of Things (IoT) and Blockchain (BC), IoT is introduced to optimize the logistics transportation process. First, BC is adopted to improve the ILS under IoT, and ILS under IoT combined with BC is established. Next, an analysis of the relationship between the information service provider and the transportation provider in the logistics transaction process is conducted to perform data analysis and to establish an incentive mechanism for logistics transportation under BC. Finally, the simulation analysis of the constructed model is implemented. The results reveal that the constructed model is highly efficient. It can effectively solve the traceability problem of logistics transaction information, and the calculation cost is stable within 1,000 ms. In the comparative analysis of system transmission performance, the model exhibits outstanding results in transmission latency, consistently maintaining an average delay of approximately 350 ms. This stability is primarily attributed to the seamless integration of BC technology, which optimizes data packet transmission paths and mitigates waiting time. Furthermore, the system efficiently manages high data volumes while upholding robust data processing capabilities, owing to the optimization of smart contracts and decentralized storage mechanisms. As for energy consumption, the model notably reduces overall energy usage within the logistics network by curtailing unnecessary data transmission and computation, particularly in mobile nodes and wireless communication channels. The proposed algorithm excels across various transmission metrics, including transmission delay, data successful acceptance rate, network throughput, and energy consumption are all shown to be the best transmission performance of the proposed algorithm, in which the data successful acceptance rate is close to 1. As a result, the developed ILS model not only guarantees low latency performance but also demonstrates high data transmission security, facilitating more efficient and precise real-time information transmission. In this study, within the ILS framework, the relationship between information service providers and transportation service providers is established through BC, and an incentive mechanism is constructed. However, some shortcomings in this incentive mechanism are recognized. For instance, during the initial stages of BC integration, there are issues of information asymmetry concerning factors such as credit, transportation capacity, and effort level. Moreover, the open access policy of couriers in the model raises concerns, as the access policy itself constitutes sensitive information, which may result in privacy breaches. Hence, as part of future work, the introduction of attribute encryption schemes is planned to obfuscate access policies, thereby safeguarding the privacy of logistics personnel’s access policies.

Admissibility of ILA Principles on Intellectual Property and Private International Law in Vietnam

Abstract Private law on intellectual property (IP) has achieved significant international harmonization, but international jurisdiction is subject to national regulations. As a result, enforcement of IP rights is carried out on a country-by-country basis. This approach leads to multiple concurrent legal proceedings, increasing the risk of conflicting judgments and escalating litigation costs. These costs create a disparity between multinational corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises. As a potential model for future international agreements on intellectual property and private international law, the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on ‘Intellectual Property and Private International Law’ seeks to address cross-border IP disputes. This paper will explore whether the ILA principles can be utilized as models for legislators, judges, arbitrators and other competent authorities in Vietnam, a legal system characterized by a lack of case law on the topic.

Reparation for non-recent institutional child sexual abuse in England and Wales and Australia: a matter for private law or the state?

AbstractThis paper examines the question of reparation for non-recent institutional child sexual abuse in England and Wales and Australia in the light of independent inquiries which reported in 2022 (England and Wales) and 2017 (Australia). Both inquiries recommended the introduction of state-based redress schemes that would exist alongside private law. While the new UK government considers how to proceed, Australia has established a national redress scheme, there have been changes to private law and new legislation reforming tort law and removing procedural obstacles such as limitation. In evaluating the Australian reforms and the case for change in English law, this paper examines the different roles state-based redress and private law compensation play in responding to the harm suffered by victims and survivors of sexual abuse. It argues that there are urgent lessons that the UK government should learn from the Australian experience in establishing a redress scheme and that while legislative change to substantive private law has proven less than successfull in Australia, legislation on limitation periods and suing unincorporated associations has assisted plaintiffs. Finally there are lessons that private law can learn from state-based redress schemes in seeking to provide remedies that meet the distinctive needs of victims and survivors of child sexual abuse.

Принцип конфиденциальности в системе принципов гражданского и арбитражного процессов

The article deals with the problem of implementing the principle of confidentiality in the system of fundamental principles of civil and arbitration proceedings. The author proceeds from the universal nature of the principles of the civil process, according to which they must be embodied at each stage and stage of legal proceedings. The principle of publicity of the civil and arbitration process is analyzed, it is given the utmost importance to ensure the “transparency” of justice, the implementation of the request of civil society to participate in the administration of justice. The principle of confidentiality is considered as one of the beginnings of the private law sphere (for example, arbitration), is understood as the antithesis of publicity. The inclusion of the principle of confidentiality in the area of the civil process is associated with the introduction of the institute of judicial conciliation procedure into the procedural area. It is shown that the judicial conciliation procedure is a part of the civil procedural and arbitration procedural forms, due to which the principle of publicity cannot but apply to it. Proposals are made to improve the institution of judicial conciliation in terms of limiting its confidentiality and expanding the legal status of a judicial conciliator.

Bridging the gap(s): The importance of private law theory in the EU context

This article advocates for applying private law theories originating in the common law to EU private law. It argues that those theories can enhance the coherence and workability of EU private law, which currently lacks a comprehensive doctrinal structure. They can also help EU private law overcome the prevailing but flawed functionalist approach that suggests that EU private law primarily serves as a policy tool to achieve specific goals.The article unfolds in three parts: first, it compares the development of civil and common law private law theory, highlighting why thick private law theory only developed in common law jurisdictions and arguing that the same reasons apply to EU private law. Second, it contends that common law theories can enrich the discourse on EU private law, emphasising the need to consider both EU and national private law norms together. Lastly, it proposes that the common law-derived New Private Law theory offers a promising approach to interpreting EU private law, reconciling interpersonal aspects with instrumental objectives. This integration could foster a common language for discussing EU private law, akin to Roman law’s historical role. The paper encourages scholarly debate and adaptation of these theories to local conditions, aiming to bridge the gap between private law theory in common and civil law jurisdictions.