The Experiences and Challenges for Adjudication on Refugee Law in Slovenia

As a border country within the European Union, Slovenia willprobably need to manage a considerable burden of refugee lawcases in the future. In addition to the goal of managing thosecases promptly, judicial review will continue to play a crucialrole in building the integrity of procedural and material lawon the protection of refugees. The article first focuses, insection 2, on several refugee law issues from national legislation,supported by case law, with special attention to a comparisonof national legislation with the corresponding EU legal sourcesin their respective fields and other international law standards.On the basis of a qualitative assessment of judgements, in section3 the author provides an evaluation of the experiences and effectsof the Administrative Court, the Supreme Court and the ConstitutionalCourt in the construction of (case) law on refugees. Findingsin section 3 lead the author to the basic thesis, in section4, that the major challenge for adjudication on refugee law,which is an example of a very complex legal discipline, establishedwithin the multi-level constitutionalism, is to improve theinstitutional quality of the judiciary. In this regard the authorselects six priorities for building on the managerial capacitiesof the judiciary that are necessary mechanisms for dealing withthe increasing number of important international refugee lawissues in the future, so that the integrity of asylum law, theharmonisation of EU law and the protective character of internationalrefugee law in Slovenia is guaranteed. In the conclusion ofthe paper, the author selects the particular legal challengesfor judges in the future process of adjudication on refugeelaw.     

The Implied Duty of Mutual Trust and Confidence: An Emerging Overarching Principle?

There is an argument in academic circles that the implied dutyof mutual trust and confidence will evolve to form an all-embracingsuper-principle under which each of the more ‘traditional’implied duties will rest, including the employer’s impliedduty to exercise reasonable care for the welfare and well beingof the employee. The theme of this article is that, on balance,there is no evidence for the emergence of the implied duty ofmutual trust and confidence as a super-principle. If anything,the recent trends in the case law emphasise the distinctivenessof the employer’s duties to exercise reasonable care andtrust and confidence. The article’s aim was to demonstratethat both duties are separate, free-standing duties, sittingon an equal plane in terms of importance. To rationalise one,or all of the implied duties (i.e. the duty to exercise reasonablecare and/or all of the other ‘traditional duties’),as one of the means by which the super-principle of trust andconfidence is, or may be expressed, is to a large extent, aspirational.     

The 'final' privacy frontier? Regulating trans-border data flows

This article examines the threat to privacy posed by the transferof personal information from one jurisdiction to another. Despiteinternational trends towards greater protection of personalinformation, significant challenges to personal privacy arisein this context. These include the use of outsourcing by businesses,the encroachment of security laws and the potential ‘spill-over’of technologies developed for combating terrorism into the privatesector. Also significant are technologies enabling the ‘profiling’of individuals and ‘data mining’ across borders.Against this backdrop, the article considers existing jurisdictionalresponses towards regulating personal information flows acrossborders. It considers various actual or proposed solutions including‘safe-harbours’, contractual mechanisms and extra-territorialapplications. The article concludes that many of the existingapproaches to regulating trans-border information flows areto some extent deficient and suggests the need for a new ‘fourthgeneration’ set of data protection protocols. In formulatingthe latter, analogies are drawn from other relevant areas ofthe law in order to furnish creative solutions to the problem.     

VOLATILE SUBSTANCES: COORDINATING PETROL-SNIFFING PROGRAMS FOR ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES IN A FEDERAL SYSTEM

Abstract: This paper considers the problems involved in coordinating policy in a federal system. It examines the programs developed to control petrol-sniffing in South Australian Aboriginal communities and analyses the processes which determined policy outcomes. Both intergovernmental and intragovern-mental factors are identified as contributing to the failure to achieve coordination. The particular characteristics of Aboriginal Affairs as a concurrent constitutional responsibility combined with its position as a client-specific portfolio impede efficiency in matters of funding, definition of administrative jurisdiction and political commitment to cooperative action.