This study explores the spread of disinformation relating to the Covid-19 pandemic on the internet, dubbed by some as the pandemic’s accompanying “infodemic”, and the societal reactions to this development across different countries and platforms. The study’s focus is on the role of states and platforms in combatting online disinformation. |
Search result: 305 articles
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Journal | East European Yearbook on Human Rights, Issue 1 2021 |
Authors | Matthias C. Kettemann and Martin Fertmann |
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Journal | East European Yearbook on Human Rights, Issue 1 2021 |
Authors | Martin Fertmann and Matthias C. Kettemann |
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Terms-of-service based actions against political and state actors as both key subjects and objects of political opinion formation have become a focal point of the ongoing debates over who should set and enforce the rules for speech on online platforms. |
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Journal | East European Yearbook on Human Rights, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | judicial independence, selection of judges, appointment of judges, rule of law, mutual trust |
Authors | Vygantė Milašiūtė and Skirgailė Žalimienė |
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The article examines the procedure for selection and appointment of judges in Lithuania in the light of the European standards of judicial independence. Both the Council of Europe and the European Union (EU) legal materials are relied on. The procedural role of different actors, the criteria for assessment of candidates, the question of judicial review of selection and appointment decisions as well as the problem of delays of judicial appointments are also examined. Even though the Lithuanian system for the selection and appointment of judges has been assessed favourably by European institutions, certain elements of the system are questionable. However, as long as these deficiencies are not systemic and do not raise issues of the rule of law in the sense of EU law, they would not negatively affect the operation of the EU law-based mutual trust instruments with respect to Lithuania. A suggestion is made that paying more attention to non-systemic deficiencies of judicial independence and the rule of law in EU member states could be beneficial for improving the protection of individual rights. |
Rulings |
ECtHR 7 December 2021, app. no. 29582/09 (Yakut Republican Trade-Union Federation – v – Russia), UnionsYakut Republican Trade-Union Federation – v – Russia, Russian case |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2021 |
Keywords | Unions |
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A court’s order to a trade-union federation to expel a grassroots union of working prisoners because of a statutory ban on their unionization did not violate article 11-1 of the Charter. |
Rulings |
ECtHR 9 November 2021, app. no. 31549/18 (Špadijer v. Montenegro), Privacy, WhistleblowingMs. Špadijer – v – Montenegro, Montenegro case |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 4 2021 |
Keywords | Privacy, Whistleblowing |
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States must protect the physical and psychological integrity of individuals from others, including setting up a legal framework with that aim in an adequate way. |
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Journal | Erasmus Law Review, Issue 3 2021 |
Keywords | needs for safety, victim impact statements, legislation, Empirical Legal Studies, privacy protection |
Authors | Marijke Malsch |
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Various laws, guidelines and other types of regulation have been created that introduced new rights worldwide for victims of crime. Many of these rights focus on active victims who wish to step into the open and to orally express their views and experiences in court. Rights and wishes to remain in the background and to preserve one’s privacy received less attention. This article focuses primarily on the wishes of victims that reveal their intention to not play an active role in the criminal process, and on victims who fear an invasion of their safety and privacy. According to the literature, such wishes and needs can be considered to be fundamental. The article questions the empirical basis for the present victim legislation: are the new laws that have been created over the decades founded on empirically established victim needs, or on presumed victim needs? The article concludes with a plea for a more extensive use of empirical findings that shed light on victim wishes in the legislation and the criminal process. |
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Journal | Erasmus Law Review, Issue 3 2021 |
Keywords | victim-offender contact, resocialisation, victim acknowledgement, forensic psychiatry, mentally disordered offenders |
Authors | Lydia Dalhuisen and Alice Kirsten Bosma |
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Crime victims have gained a stronger position in all phases of the criminal procedure, including the post-sentencing phase. It is in this phase specifically that victims’ needs and interests relating to acknowledgement interplay with the offenders’ needs and interests relating to resocialisation. In the Netherlands, offenders who suffer from a mental disorder at the time of the offence limiting their criminal accountability and pose a significant safety threat, can be given a TBS order. This means that they are placed in a forensic psychiatric hospital to prevent further crimes and receive treatment aimed at resocialisation. As resocialisation requires the offender to return to society, contact with the victim might be a necessary step. This article focuses on victim-offender contact during the execution of this TBS order, and looks at risks and opportunities of victim-offender contact in this context, given the particular offender population. Offenders are divided into three groups: those with primarily psychotic disorders, those suffering from personality disorders and those with comorbidity, especially substance abuse disorders. The TBS population is atypical compared to offenders without a mental disorder. Their disorders can heighten the risks of unsuccessful or even counterproductive victim-offender contact. Yet, carefully executed victim-offender contact which includes thorough preparation, managing expectations and choosing the right type of contact can contribute to both successful resocialisation as well as victim acknowledgement. |
Developments in International Law |
The Evolution of Content-Related Offences and Their Investigation During the First 20 Years of the Cybercrime Convention |
Journal | Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | cybercrime, content-related offence, cyberbullying, privacy, wiretapping |
Authors | Kinga Sorbán |
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The Convention on Cybercrime otherwise known as the Budapest Convention was a complex, pioneering instrument addressing cross-border computer crimes in the wake of the 21st century. As the first international treaty aiming to tackle new threats emerging from the cyberspace, the Convention signed in 2001 certainly influenced national regulators and law enforcement over many years. Two decades have passed since 2001 and the Internet era has undergone previously unpredictable changes, as web 2.0 services started to thrive. Even though the Convention can be considered a landmark in international legislation, after 20 years one must eventually assess how well it stood the test of time and whether it still has relevance. This article has no smaller goal but to evaluate the evolution of content-related cybercrimes and try to the question whether the Convention is still fit to tackle contemporary issues or rather, is outdated and ready to retire. |
Developments in International Law |
The Sudita Keita Versus Hungary Ruling of the ECtHR and the Right to Private Life of Stateless PersonsA Long Saga Comes to an End |
Journal | Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | EctHR, stateless persons, right to private and family life, positive obligations of States, 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons |
Authors | Tamás Molnár |
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In the case of Sudita Keita v Hungary, the ECtHR handed down a key judgment relating to statelessness. In the ruling of 12 May 2020, the ECtHR unanimously found that Hungary’s failure to ensure stability of residence for the stateless applicant for roughly 15 years amounted to a violation of his right to respect for private and family life (Article 8 ECHR). This ruling follows in the footsteps of an earlier and similar Strasbourg judgment (Hoti v Croatia), and substantiates the jurisprudential line which provides protection to stateless individuals with unsettled status using the forcefield of Article 8 ECHR. The Sudita Keita case before the ECtHR was the final chapter in a long-lasting saga that had commenced before domestic authorities and courts in Hungary, at various instances, also with the involvement of the Constitutional Court. |
Case Notes |
The Afterlife of the Relocation of Judicial Cases |
Journal | Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | right to a lawful judge, National Judicial Council, relocation of judicial cases, reasonable time, length of proceedings |
Authors | Ágnes Czine |
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The requirement of an independent and impartial tribunal established by law is set out in Article 6(1) ECHR and Article XXVIII(1) of the Fundamental Law of Hungary. The elements of the definition of the right to a fair trial are closely tied to the requirement of judicial independence, impartiality and a court established by law. These guarantees’ purpose is to ensure that the applicant receive a judgment that is not prejudged by other branches of power, such as the influence of the executive, or the arbitrariness of the judiciary. This important human and fundamental rights requirement is monitored by bodies dedicated to the protection of democratic institutions. According to the laws of Hungary, lawsuits may be transferred to another court by the National Office for the Judiciary in order to reduce the workload. This solution has received strong international attention and scrutiny. Although these are actually not in force, they still have repercussions, which must be dealt with by the Constitutional Court. This article seeks to provide insight into the constitutional afterlife of this system of reallocation. |
Review of Hungarian Scholarly Literature |
Tamás Molnár, The Interplay Between the EU’s Return Acquis and International Law (Book Review)Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2021, 272 p, ISBN 978-1-83910-522-7 |
Journal | Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, Issue 1 2021 |
Authors | Izabella Majcher |
Author's information |
Case Notes |
Can a Two-Tailed Dog Be Allowed Into the Polling Booth?The Case of Magyar Kétfarkú Kutya Párt Versus Hungary Before the ECtHR |
Journal | Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | freedom of speech, elections, ECtHR, democracy, secrecy of votes |
Authors | János Tamás Papp |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Hungarian satirical Two-Tailed Dog Party (Magyar Kétfarkú Kutya Párt – MKKP) applied to the ECtHR as a result of the decisions rendered by the Hungarian National Electoral Commission, the Curia of Hungary and the Constitutional Court, who ruled that a mobile application developed by the party allowing anonymous users to share their invalid votes violated Hungarian election law. By 16 votes to 1, the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR ruled that the Hungarian authorities had violated the Article of the ECHR on freedom of expression. According to the ECtHR’s reasoning, the severe uncertainties about the possible consequences of the legal provisions applied by the domestic authorities went beyond what is permissible under Article 10(2) ECHR. The ECtHR has ruled that a judicial interpretation of a law’s rules does not inherently violate the requirement that laws be written in such a way that the legal implications are predictable. However, since the national law in this case provided for a case-by-case limitation on the expression of an opinion on voting, electoral bodies and national courts that interpreted and enforced these rules enjoyed an excessive amount of discretion. In conclusion, the ECtHR found that legislation restricting freedom of expression must be treated more strictly in connection with electoral procedures: it must not be in any way misleading or inconsistent. |
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Journal | Erasmus Law Review, Issue 2 2021 |
Keywords | European Convention on Human Rights, European Court of Human Rights, techniques of interpretation, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties |
Authors | Eszter Polgári |
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The interpretive techniques applied by the European Court of Human Rights are instrumental in filling the vaguely formulated rights-provisions with progressive content, and their use provoked widespread criticism. The article argues that despite the scarcity of explicit references to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, all the ECtHR’s methods and doctrines of interpretation have basis in the VCLT, and the ECtHR has not developed a competing framework. The Vienna rules are flexible enough to accommodate the interpretive rules developed in the ECHR jurisprudence, although effectiveness and evolutive interpretation is favoured – due to the unique nature of Convention – over the more traditional means of interpretation, such as textualism. Applying the VCLT as a normative framework offers unique ways of reconceptualising some of the much-contested means of interpretation in order to increase the legitimacy of the ECtHR. |
Case Reports |
2021/30 ‘Gender critical’ beliefs are protected philosophical beliefs (UK) |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 3 2021 |
Keywords | Other Forms of Discrimination |
Authors | Bethan Carney |
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The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled that ‘gender critical’ beliefs are protected philosophical beliefs for equality law purposes, while confirming that a belief in ‘gender identity’ is also a protected characteristic. This means that it is unlawful to discriminate against someone because they do or do not hold either of those beliefs. |
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Journal | Erasmus Law Review, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | text mining, machine learning, law, natural language processing |
Authors | Arthur Dyevre |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Many questions facing legal scholars and practitioners can be answered only by analysing and interrogating large collections of legal documents: statutes, treaties, judicial decisions and law review articles. I survey a range of novel techniques in machine learning and natural language processing – including topic modelling, word embeddings and transfer learning – that can be applied to the large-scale investigation of legal texts |
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Journal | Family & Law, September 2021 |
Keywords | Family life, Best interest of the child, Contact rights, Grandchildren, Grandparents |
Authors | prof. M. Holdgaard |
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Grandparents hand down their experiences, knowledge, traditions and values to their grandchildren. As a high level of grandparental involvement may play an important role in a child’s well-being, legal protection of that family relation may be in the best interest of a given child. There is a continuing interaction between family law, cultural and social norms of what constitutes a family and how family life should be, and actual family practices and structures. Due to changing family patterns combined with an increasing number of divorces and cohabiting couples with children splitting up grandparents now play an increasing role in their grandchildren’s lives. Children become members within other types of family structures, e.g. single parents (raising half-siblings), families with yours and/or mine (and joint) children etc. When a child’s family includes a step-parent with children and step-grandparents – as well as the biological parents and grandparents – a potential risk of conflict among the family members is high. Grandparents, therefore, risk losing contact or having less contact than they had previously. At first glance, there might appear to be little reason for society to regulate the practices of grandparents as providers of non-formalized childcare or to protect the rights of children in these relationships. However, due to the changing family practices and social norms, one could argue that the legal protection of contact between grandparents and grandchildren is an important legal topic in domestic law and in academic discussions in the coming years. This article articulates these issues by framing three articles that together create a thematic map in this journal on Spanish and Catalan law, and Scandinavian law as well as the grandparents’ right to maintain contact with their grandchildren under the European Convention on Human Rights seen in a context of the best interest of the child. |
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Journal | Family & Law, September 2021 |
Keywords | Contact with grandchildren, Best interest of the child, Parental responsibilities |
Authors | prof. dr. J. Ribot Igualada |
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This article examines how Spanish and Catalan laws deal with claims of grandparents who seek contact with their grandchildren against the will of one or both parents, and the scope given to their rights. It starts by explaining the content and the goals of the legal reforms enacted in Spain at the beginning of the 21st century to promote grandparents’ interests. Then, it presents the case law developed in the interpretation of the relevant legal rules. The resulting state of the law is assessed, taking into account the interests of all the parties involved (parents, grandparents, and grandchildren). The experience of more than twenty years of application of the specific provisions concerning grandparents’ contact rights sheds light on the impact of giving grandparents stronger legal rights. However, it also prompts the question of whether this legislative choice might have brought about useless and potentially harmful litigation. |
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Journal | Family & Law, September 2021 |
Keywords | Grandparents, Grandchildren, Family life, Contact, Best interests of the child, Child's views |
Authors | Prof. K. Sandberg |
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The article explores the extent of the right to family life under Article 8 ECHR with regard to contact between grandparents and grandchildren. An analysis of decisions from the European Court of Human Rights shows that although such a right may exist, it is not strong and depends heavily on the circumstances of the specific case. The article points to what seems to be an inconsistency in the Courts approach to these cases and questions the position of the children and their views and best interests. |
Rulings |
ECtHR 10 June 2021, application no. 45487/17 (Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and Norwegian Transport Workers’ Union (NTF) v. Norway), Collective Agreements, Unions, Free Movement, Other Fundamental RightsNorwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and Norwegian Transport Workers’ Union (NTF) – v – Norway |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2021 |
Keywords | Collective Agreements, Unions, Free Movement, Other Fundamental Rights |
Abstract |
Well-founded decision to declare unlawful an announced trade union boycott to pressure foreign company into collective agreement in breach of EEA freedom of establishment. |
Rulings |
ECtHR 8 April 2021, application no. 47621/13 and 5 others (Vavřička and Others v. the Czech Republic), Privacy, MiscellaneousMr. Vavřička and Others – v – the Czech Republic |
Journal | European Employment Law Cases, Issue 2 2021 |
Abstract |
Mandatory vaccination policies may not be contrary to art. 8 ECHR. |