The Dutch parliamentary election of May 1986

After a rather uneventful election campaign, the results of the May 1986 Dutch parliamentary election were a surprise to virtually all involved. Since the introduction of regular opinion polling in the 1960s, no election has taken place when the polls were ‘wrong’. However, in 1986 last minute shifts that were stronger than had ever occurred in the Netherlands produced results that differed significantly from the predictions based upon the polls published immediately prior to the election.     

Allocating responsibility among controllers,processors, and “everything in between”: the definition of actors and roles in Directive 95/46/EC

In Opinion 1/2010, the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has provided additional guidance concerning the concepts of ‘controller’ and ‘processor’ contained in Directive 95/46/EC. This guidance aims to assist practitioners in their determination of whether an entity is acting as a controller or as a processor towards a particular data processing operation. Despite the fact that this opinion is informative, the existing framework still appears to leave room for a considerable amount of legal uncertainty. This uncertainty is attributable in part to the nature of the existing concepts, but also (and perhaps to a larger extent) to their apparent misalignment with current processing realities. In this paper, the author seeks to articulate why the existing concepts often remain difficult to apply in practice, in order to enable a constructive reflection on how these issues might be addressed in the future.     

Ein kritischer Blick auf die aktuellen Entwicklungen in der Gemeinsamen Fischereipolitik unter Einbeziehung der neu geschaffenen regionalen Fischereibeiräte

Die europ?ische Fischerei muss sich zur Zeit einer Vielzahl von Problemen wie sinkenden Fangmengen, abnehmenden Ums?tzen sowie einem stetigen Besch?ftigungsabbau stellen. Einer der Hauptgründe für diese Entwicklung ist die bis zum heutigen Tage nicht nachhaltig betriebene Fischerei. Mit einer grundlegenden Reform der Gemeinsamen Fischereipolitik (GFP) im Jahre 2002 und der Abl?sung der alten FischereigrundVO von 1993 sollten diese dr?ngenden Probleme angegangen werden. Darüber hinaus wurde mit den Regionalbeir?ten (RACs) ein gemeinsames Forum für den Fischereisektor sowie Umweltund Verbraucherschützer geschaffen, welches die EU-Kommission in Fischereifragen beraten soll. Leider stimmen die ersten Jahre der neuen GFP wenig zuversichtlich. Eine Erholung der bedrohten Fischbest?nde ist vorerst nicht in Sicht, insbesondere weil die wissenschaftlichen Empfehlungen der Fischereiexperten weiterhin ignoriert werden. Ob die neu geschaffenen RACs mit ihrer Beratungst?tigkeit und ihrem internen Diskurs wichtige Anregungen hin zu einer nachhaltigeren Fischerei leisten k?nnen, ist zweifelhaft.     

Learning to Change: The Production of Contingency in Modern Legal Systems

Modern society is characterized bycomplexity and change. Weber's theory of thesephenomena explained them with changes in basicreligious concepts. Conceptual changes areagain under investigation here, but the theoryis somewhat different. In this paper, it isassumed that law is a system that follows theAshby's systems theoretical law of requisitevariety. Society can respond to growth ofcomplexity in its environment by eitheradaptation or selective indifference. Theexample of the evolution of legal persons inGerman law is used here to show how law hasdeveloped contingent concepts as a cognitivebuffer between itself and the demandingenvironment of modern society. The legal systemcan balance adaptation and selectiveindifference by constructing and observing itsbasic concepts as contingent. The constructionof autonomy is shown to be a continuous processwhere law establishes an increased level ofautonomy.     

On systemic transition: Will China go capitalist?

Transition from nonviable central administrative command planning (socialism) should be toward a full market system (capitalism). The requirements of such transition include: removal of the communist party from monopoly power; patience, determination, explanation, persuasion, and fairness; introduction of new legal, statistical, and accounting infrastructures and procedures; market freedom; demonopolization; privatization; macroeconomic stabilization; and external liberalization of trade and payments. Since 1978 China has taken steps to move its economic system in the capitalist direction, while retaining the communist party’s hold on political power (reduced from totalitarian to authoritarian control) and expanding quasi-private property rights without, however, fully privatizing the large, capital-intensive, state-owned industrial sector. In this sense, unlike many of the countries of central and eastern Europe and Russia, China has deferred the solution of some of the fundamental and potentially highly disruptive reform problems to an indefinite future, a postponement which, despite significant temporal successes, carries with it serious dangers for the entire reform enterprise.