A Review of Linguistic Qualifications and Training for Legal Professionals and Judicial Officers: A Call for Linguistic Equality in South Africa’s Legal Profession

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - This article is advanced against the backdrop of the 2017 monolingual English language of record...     

An Intertribal Business Court

Few Indian reservations have any semblance of a private sector. Consequently, poverty and unemployment are major problems in much of Indian country. While there are many reasons why private enterprise is scarce in Indian country, one of the foremost reasons is businesses do not trust tribal courts. Businesses' distrust of tribal courts is not unique as outsiders often fear bias in foreign tribunals. Similarly, businesses are often concerned about a court's capacity to adjudicate complex disputes. Federal diversity jurisdiction was developed to allay fear of bias, and many states have developed business courts to address questions about court capacity. Tribes can overcome these issues by creating an intertribal business court (IBC). Tribes will be free to sculpt the IBC as they see fit. However, the IBC's intertribal nature will help reduce fears of bias, and an IBC's focus on business disputes will answer doubts about court capacity. An IBC will also make tribal law more accessible, further increasing confidence in this new tribunal. As businesses gain greater confidence in tribal legal institutions through the IBC, they will be more likely to operate in Indian country. Accordingly, the IBC could help to transform tribal economies.     

RR v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: Empowering Tribunals to Enforce the Human Rights Act 1998

In RR v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions – follow-on litigation from the high-profile bedroom tax cases – the Supreme Court handed down a judgment which has significant implications for social security law, the interpretation of the Human Rights Act, the tribunals system, the judicial control of delegated legislation, and access to justice. Central, however, was the issue of the enforceability of human rights. We argue that the Supreme Court was not only justified in its interpretation of the Human Rights Act but that it has made the protections of the Act more easily enforceable.     

When a ‘Like’ Is Not a ‘Like’: A New Fragmented Approach to Data Controllership

In Fashion ID, the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) held that an operator of a website featuring a Facebook ‘Like’ button is a data controller under EU Directive 95/46 (‘Directive’) jointly with Facebook in respect of the collection and transmission of the personal data of website visitors to Facebook, but Facebook alone is a data controller for any subsequent data processing. While the CJEUs expansive interpretation of joint controllership aims to leave ‘no gaps’ in the protection of individuals, we question whether the proposed solution to ‘fragment’ controllership into different stages of processing helps to achieve that goal. We argue that CJEUs ‘fragmented’ approach is incompatible with the GDPR, as it does not reveal the intended purposes of data processing, and thus negates informed and specific consent. We suggest that such ‘fragmentation’ undermines the consistency, predictability and transparency of EU data protection law by obscuring the pervasiveness of data commodification in the digital economy.     

From gatekeepers to publishers: Liability of internet intermediaries in India for hosting defamatory content

This article aims to analyse the liability of Internet intermediaries in India for hosting defamatory content. In the absence of any statutory law relating to online defamation, the courts in India have had to rely upon comparable developments in the United Kingdom to define the contours of liability of the intermediaries for facilitating the publication of defamatory content on the Internet. However, affixing liability on intermediaries in the absence of similar statutory immunities provided to them under the UK law may prove prejudicial to the intermediaries. Therefore, this article argues that India should enact a comprehensive law to statutorily limit the grounds on which liability may be imposed on Internet intermediaries for hosting online defamatory content. This article further argues that India should adopt and codify the ‘notice and notice plus’ approach to intermediary liability as it ensures that intermediaries are not held liable as publishers for hosting the defamatory content, but in the meantime are also encouraged to take active steps to ensure effective justice to the victims of online defamation.     

Digital evidence in fog computing systems

Fog Computing provides a myriad of potential societal benefits: personalised healthcare, smart cities, automated vehicles, Industry 4.0, to name just a few. The highly dynamic and complex nature of Fog Computing with its low latency communication networks connecting sensors, devices and actuators facilitates ambient computing at scales previously unimaginable. The combination of Machine Learning, Data Mining, and the Internet of Things, supports endless innovation in our data driven society. Fog computing incurs new threats to security and privacy since these become more difficult when there are an increased number of connected devices, and such devices (for example sensors) typically have limited capacity for in-built security. For law enforcement agencies, the existing models for digital forensic investigations are ill suited to the emerging fog paradigm. In this paper we examine the procedural, technical, legal, and geopolitical challenges associated with digital forensic investigations in Fog Computing. We highlight areas that require further development, and posit a framework to stimulate further consideration and discussion around the challenges associated with extracting digital evidence from Fog Computing systems.     

气候变化对青藏高原水资源安全的影响

青藏高原不仅是世界屋脊、亚洲水塔和地球第三极，也是中国重要的生态安全屏障和战略资源储备基地，更是资源政治与地缘政治的结合之处。青藏高原是世界上第三大淡水资源“储存库”，气候变化会加速高原地区的冰川消融，改变跨国界河流径流量的年度和季节性变化，增加水资源分配模式的不稳定性，从而加剧地区性水资源稀缺性危机，使地区性洪涝灾害增多，水治理难度提升。气候变化对青藏高原水资源安全的影响会产生连锁性的政治、经济与安全效应，不仅影响高原地区国家的水力开发计划与基础设施安全，加剧地缘政治博弈的复杂性，而且影响中国的海外水电投资，使中国的“一带一路”倡议和水利“十三五”发展规划的实施面临更多的国际压力与挑战。在气候变化的影响下，青藏高原水资源安全涉及十几亿人口的生存和发展问题，涉及亚洲的稳定与和平。对此，中国应积极实践构建人类命运共同体理念，在青藏高原水资源安全的维护上扮演更重要的角色，一方面在技术层面上加强对青藏高原水资源安全动态的深度调查与持续性跟踪研究，另一方面在政治层面上推动高原地区国家的气候治理合作与区域合作框架构建。