‘Letters aren’t good’: the operation of the right to request flexible working post-maternity leave in UK small and medium-sized companies

This article contributes to existing literature on flexible working at an organisational level by presenting the results of a qualitative study of women employees and managers in small firms who have been involved in negotiating part-time hours on return to work post-maternity leave. The study finds that the right to request flexible working has become embedded in the policies of small firms and that the overwhelming experience of women employees was positive: their requests were accepted because they were perceived as valuable and consequently their managers wanted to retain them. However employees who lacked ongoing managerial support had a less positive experience. The study also examines other aspects of the operation of the right to request such as the efficacy of written policies on flexible working and the extent to which the negotiation process was formalised.     

加班控制制度法律问题研究

劳动者休息权是一种宪法权利,我国劳动法对用人单位延长工作时间的限制性规定就是为了保障劳动者休息权的实现。由于我国有关延长工作时间的规定执行不力,导致用人单位违法延长工作时间成为常态,这不仅危害了劳动者的休息权,还给我国经济社会发展造成了不利后果。我们必须依据现有国情,通过立法,完善相关制度,限制用人单位延长工作时间的行为,以确保宪法对劳动者休息权规定的实现。     

Ideological Neutrality in the Workplace

This note assesses the decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Achbita v G4S Secure Solutions NV and Bougnaoui v Micropole SA, the first cases dealing with religious discrimination under the Equal Treatment Directive 2000/43. Both cases concerned Muslim women wishing to express their religious beliefs by wearing an Islamic headscarf while working in a private undertaking. The Court held that the employees’ dismissal could not be justified by reference to clients’ prejudices against the headscarf. However, dismissal could be justified if pursued on the basis of a corporate policy of ideological neutrality which prohibited all visible religious, political and philosophical symbols. This note criticises the latter part of the Court's decision for, inter alia, placing too much weight on an employer's freedom to run its business in spite of the grave effects this has on employees’ fundamental right to manifest their beliefs at work.     

The War of the Booksellers: Natural Law,Equity, and Literary Property in Eighteenth-Century Scotland

This article analyses the case of Hinton v Donaldson (1773) in which the judges of the Scottish Court of Session refused to follow their English brethren in recognizing an author's right of property outside the Statute of Anne (1710). The decision must be understood against the background of distinct notions of common law and equity in Scots law, drawn from the Natural law tradition of the European jus commune. At the same time the decision reveals developing strands of Enlightenment thought and concepts of the judicial role in relation to legislation.     

现代婚姻中的责任制度探讨

婚姻责任制度旨在对婚姻进行全程的调节监控,包括婚约制、亲权责任制、家务劳动补偿制和离婚后的扶助制等。婚姻责任制度的构建是对中国传统文化的弘扬,迎合了大众的心理需要,符合建设和谐社会的要求,同时还需要通过立法、司法和责任意识的文化熏陶等途径保证婚姻责任制的实施。     

Redfearn v UK: Political Association and Dismissal

In Redfearn v UK the European Court of Human Rights examined the question whether dismissal for membership of a political party is compatible with freedom of association under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court endorsed a strong commitment to multi‐party democracy and protection of employees against the domination of the employers. This note discusses the judgment and its implications for UK law, looking at three key issues: first, whether the law of unfair dismissal provides effective protection against action that poses a threat to the enjoyment of Convention rights; second, the grounds under which an employer may justify the lawfulness of a dismissal that interferes with a Convention right; third, the available remedies against the employer when there is a breach of a Convention right.     

‘Delegated’ Legislation in the (new) European Union: A Constitutional Analysis

This article brings classic constitutionalism to an analysis of delegated legislation in the European Union. To facilitate such a constitutional analysis, it starts with a comparative excursion introducing the judicial and political safeguards on executive legislation in American constitutionalism. In the European legal order, similar constitutional safeguards emerged in the last fifty years. First, the Court of Justice developed judicial safeguards in the form of a European non‐delegation doctrine. Second, the European legislator has also insisted on political safeguards within delegated legislation. Under the Rome Treaty, ‘comitology’ was the defining characteristic of executive legislation. The Lisbon Treaty represents a revolutionary restructuring of the regulatory process. The (old) Community regime for delegated legislation is split into two halves. Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) henceforth governs delegations of legislative power, while Article 291 TFEU establishes the constitutional regime for delegations of executive power.     

相对人的行政立法动议权

行政立法动议权 ,是指行政相对人依法向法定有立法权限的行政主体提出有关制定、修改或废除某项立法性文件的请求或建议权。赋予相对人行政立法动议权 ,是现代法的合意性的要求 ,是对相对人主体地位的承认和尊重 ,是行政立法开放性和民主化的表现 ,对于行政主体权力的滥用也有良好的防范作用。应当进一步完善有关法律 ,规定相对人行使动议权必须具备相应的条件或资格 ,并以一定的程序加以保障。     

The Right to Physician–Assisted Suicide On Demand

This article argues for the right to physician–assisted suicide under any circumstance defined by the client or individual making the request. Its perspective is oriented within the field of social welfare. It examines conflicts between values of autonomy and the preservation of life and compares Dutch and United States right–to–die legislation. The article also discusses responsibilities of both the individual and society toward each other within the scope of physician–assisted suicide, socio–economic causes of suicide, suggestions for suicide prevention, and promotes physician–assisted suicide on demand based on the literature and the social work value of self–determination.     

Confronting Religion: Veiled Witnesses,the Right to a Fair Trial and the Supreme Court of Canada's Judgment in R v N.S.

The Supreme Court of Canada's decision in R v N.S. is significant because the majority seems to endorse an understanding of confrontation that assumes a defendant's right to a fair trial is imperilled by a witness who seeks to give evidence while wearing the niqab. The case is of interest because it permits reflection upon the interrelationship between the right to a fair trial and the right to confront witnesses enshrined in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Given that the European Court of Human Rights conceptualises confrontation in epistemic terms, it is argued that it would be unlikely to find that a conviction based upon evidence from a niqab‐wearing witness would infringe the right to a fair trial. This note examines the value of demeanour evidence and whether the majority in R v N.S. was correct that the abrogation of the ability to assess demeanour evidence necessarily undermines trial fairness.     

Open access to public documents – More secrecy,less transparency!

Prospects are grim for greater access to public documents. The recent initiatives of the Council of Europe to enact a new international convention on access to public documents and recent proposal by the European Commission to revise the law on public access would actually narrow the right of access. The proposed laws would allow governments and the EU Commission to increase its discretionary power to control the flow of information. The draft CoE Convention sets an overly-low standard and restricts information held in electronic databases if the information is not “easily retrievable” or does not “logically belong together”. Similarly, the proposed amendments to the EU Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents would exclude access to documents that do not appear on a register. This would give the EU Commission a wide discretion to share documents informally with a limited number of people, such as interest groups. The Commission's proposal would relieve the EU institutions of its current obligation to show concretely the harm that would occur as a result of disclosure when refusing access to documents. The new proposal has been criticised for subordinating transparency rules to data legislation. The proposals initiated under the Swedish leadership would be a step backwards for transparency.     

General practitioners' competence and confidentiality determinations with a minor who requests the oral contraceptive pill

The right of minors to make medical treatment decisions is an issue that is not explicitly addressed in the legislation of most Australian jurisdictions. While recent common law decisions allow competent minors to consent to treatment, current legislation in Victoria does not provide adequate guidelines on how competence is to be measured. It is also unclear whether the duty of confidentiality is extended to competent minors. The current study explored general practitioners' competence and confidentiality decisions with a hypothetical 14-year-old patient who requests the oral contraceptive pill (OCP). Questionnaires were sent to 1,000 Victorian general practitioners, 305 of whom responded. General practitioners were asked to determine whether "Liz" was competent to request the OCP, and whether they would maintain her confidentiality. A total of 81% of respondents found the patient competent, while 91% would have maintained her confidentiality. Results indicate that the majority of general practitioners used rationales that generally did not conform to current legal principles when making competence and confidentiality determinations regarding this patient.     

Constitutional Principle,the Rule of Law and Political Reality: The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018

The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 is the cornerstone of UK legislation designed to accomplish the legal dimension of Brexit. It brings the entire acquis of EU law into UK law in order to avoid regulatory black holes that would otherwise occur. The Act embodies a twofold legislative strategy: EU law brought into UK law thereby is to be made fit for purpose by exit day, with necessary changes being made by statutory instrument; Parliament can then decide at greater leisure thereafter whether it wishes to retain, amend or repeal this legislation. The burden placed on Parliament is unprecedented, all the more so given the exigencies of time in which the changes are to be made. This article explicates the principal provisions of the 2018 Act, and the concerns as to constitutional principle and the rule of law raised by the legislation. The tensions in the drafting process are made apparent, and uncertainties in the resulting text are revealed.     

平台经济从业者社会保险法律制度的构建

为平台经济从业者构建社会保险制度,可以为其提供合理的基本生存保障,促进平台经济和谐健康发展。引入“类雇员”概念可以为网约工提供类似于劳动者的保障,但是需要结合我国的立法和司法实践,通过分项处理劳动福利制度克服劳动关系认定规则较低的可预见性。网约工对平台企业的经济从属性以及基本权利的辐射效力,可以作为这个群体强制参保社会保险以及“拆包”参保各险种的理论依据。工作时长取自我国现行立法,体现了经济从属性的程度,可以作为网约工强制参保职工社会保险的标准。社会保险各险种对应的基本权利类型有别。基本医疗保险保障了作为核心权利的生命权和健康权,网约工应当强制参保职工基本医疗保险,通过该制度的无过错支付设计和商业意外事故险部分地补偿工作伤害导致的损失。基本养老保险和失业保险不应当作为强制网约工参保的险种,但是应当通过重复保险的基本原理解决网约工以不同身份参保基本养老保险和基本医疗保险之后的待遇给付问题。     

The Paradox of Constituent Power.The Ambiguous Self‐Constitution of the European Union

Abstract. The French and Dutch referenda on the adoption of a European Constitutional Treaty highlight a remarkable ambiguity in the self‐constitution of a polity, which can be viewed as both constitution by and of a collective self. This ambiguity is a fundamental feature of polities in general, and the European Union in particular. Rather than suppressing this ambiguity, democracy—and a fortiori a European democracy worth its name—institutionalises it as the guiding principle of political action. As will transpire, the conceptual and normative problems raised by political self‐constitution are linked to self‐attribution, i.e., the conditions under which a collective ascribes legislation to itself.     

Workplace Monitoring and the Right to Private Life at Work

In Barbulescu v Romania, the European Court of Human Rights clarified the application of the Article 8 right to private life in the workplace, and the extent of the state's positive obligations to protect the right against workplace monitoring. The decision establishes that there is an irreducible core to the right to private life at work that does not depend on an employee's reasonable expectations of privacy, and sets out clear principles for striking a fair balance between Article 8 and the employer's interests in the context of workplace monitoring. This article considers the nature of states’ positive obligation to protect human rights at work, the scope of the right to private life, and the impact of the decision on domestic law of unfair dismissal.     

Exploring the non-absolute nature of the right to data protection

In two recent judgements, the Court of Justice of the European Union stated that ‘The right to the protection of personal data is not, however, an absolute right, but must be considered in relation to its function in society’ (Eifert, para 48). This paper considers the ‘non-absolute’ nature of the right to data protection. Being a relatively new right, the boundaries of this right in the Charter are still somewhat unexplored. This paper considers five aspects that can be seen as setting boundaries to the otherwise absolute nature of the right to data protection: (a) consideration of the function of the right to data protection in society; (b) positive delimitations of the right that come from the formulation of the right (Article 8) in the Charter; (c) limitations on the right provided for in Article 52 of the Charter; (d) close connections with Article 7 of the Charter and Article 8 ECHR; and (e) the detailed provisions in current data protection secondary legislation and the future data protection regulation framework. Based on the reflections on each of these boundary-setting aspects, the paper argues that in spite of occasional vagueness and conflicting approaches of each of the aspects, understanding of the right to data protection has evolved since its first formulation in the Charter. There is a subtle and gradual distancing from the initial understanding of the close relationship with the right to private and family life. This gradual distancing is a positive development as the two have different foundations, scope and purposes. Yet it is only when both are taken together that the shared common objective of providing effective protection to citizens' personal and family life can be achieved.     

The Genesis of the Austrian Model of Constitutional Review of Legislation

Abstract The European model of the constitutional review of legislation, characterized by the concentration of the constitutional review power in a single constitutional court, had its origin in the Austrian Federal Constitution of 1920. This is all the more remarkable when one considers that this Constitution established at the same time a parliamentary system of government in a fairly radical form. As the author explains, this “invention” of a constitutional court is attributable to two factors. One factor is the federal aspect. The Court was conceived by the framers of the Austrian Federal Constitution of 1920 as an umpire between federal legislation and the legislation of the states or Länder. In this respect it was meant as a substitute for the principle of the priority of federal law over state or Land law. This is manifest in the initial draft of the Constitution, where actions on questions of the constitutionality of legislation could only be brought by the Federal government (against the legislation of one or another of the states or Länder) and by the State or Land governments (against federal legislation). Right from the beginning, however, the Court could examine a parliamentary act ex officio when it had to apply such an act in another proceeding. It was this power of the Court that triggered the development of constitutional review. Its exercise gradually transformed the Court into a guardian of the Constitution as a whole, in particular, the fundamental rights of citizens. The author traces this development in the context of the concept of state and law that prevailed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This concept included specific restrictions on constitutional review. On the basis of a different understanding of the functions of a constitution, the Court gave up these restrictions and followed the examples of the European Court of Human Rights, the German Constitutional Court and—indirectly—the American Supreme Court.     

The Legal Situation on Stalking among the European Member States

Stalking became a subject of academic and social concern in Europe in the mid-1990s. Shortly afterwards the issue of legislation became the subject of debate in some countries and in 1997 the United Kingdom was the first European Member State that passed anti-stalking legislation. Denmark constitutes an exception because its Criminal Code of 1933 contains a provision which also deals with stalking. Other States that up to now have passed legislation against stalking in Europe are Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Malta, Ireland, Austria and, last in order of time, Italy. Where an anti-stalking law exists, legislators have introduced a new article into the existing Penal Code or have amended an article still in force for similar conduct, or have introduced a specific Act against Harassment or Domestic Violence which is intended to cover not only such conduct but also stalking. In the remaining European countries where an anti- stalking law does not exist, it is possible to prosecute stalking only when the behaviour amounts to crimes prosecutable under other existing norms. This article analyses legal regulations on stalking across European Member States in civil and criminal justice considering specific laws addressing the phenomenon or, alternatively, other laws under which stalking can be prosecuted. In the conclusions some advantages and disadvantages of European anti-stalking laws are discussed and some suggestions are given for future work in order to improve the protection of the victims of stalking.     

Lack of clarity as a ground in opposition proceedings

This case concerns whether the opponent can raise clarity objectionsunder Article 84 of the European Patent Convention to thoseparts of the claims that were not amended in the new request.In addition, the case considers the admissibility of a new request(that is, new claims) filed for the first time in oral proceedingsbefore the Board.