The GDPR: A game changer for electronic identification schemes? The case study of Gov.UK Verify

This article offers an interdisciplinary analysis of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the context of electronic identification schemes. Gov.UK Verify, the UK Government's electronic identification scheme, and its compatibility with some important aspects of EU data protection law are reviewed. An in-depth examination of Gov.UK Verify's architecture and the most significant constituent elements of both the Data Protection Directive and the imminent GDPR – notably the legitimising grounds for the processing of personal data and the doctrine of joint controllership – highlight several flaws inherent in the Gov.UK Verify's development and mode of operation. This article advances the argument that Gov.UK Verify is incompatible with some major substantive provisions of the EU Data Protection Framework. It also provides some general insight as to how to interpret the requirement of a legitimate legal basis and the doctrine of joint controllership. It ultimately suggests that the choice of the appropriate legal basis should depend upon a holistic approach to the relationship between the actors involved in the processing activities.     

Mainstream Revolutionaries: Sinn Féin as a “Normal” Political Party?

Despite the seismic shift of Sinn Féin from being the “mouthpiece” of the Provisional Irish Republican Army to the largest nationalist force in Northern Ireland, the party continues to project its objectives within the revolutionary politics and tradition of 1916. Whilst various groups across the island of Ireland stress their loyalty to Irish independence and allegiance to their republican forefathers, 2016 also plays host to devolved assembly elections in Northern Ireland. The centenary of the Easter Rising is therefore a poignant moment to reassess republican politics, more specifically, the relationship between the armed revolutionary tradition and constitutionalism. Within the post-peace process era Sinn Féin have been accused of maintaining an autocratic culture and an intra-party framework that is more representative of a clandestine revolutionary organisation than a political party. Yet, simultaneously, Sinn Féin have not been immune to the pressures experienced by other modern political parties, bound by the laws of electoral competition and driven by office-seeking priorities. In order to explore Sinn Féin within the modern political arena, this article firstly examines the broader debate surrounding how armed groups make the transition into constitutional politics. Secondly, public opinion survey data is used to judge the basis of Sinn Féin's electoral appeal. Finally, internal party documents are used to examine party structure, intra-party democracy, and professionalisation in order to judge the extent to which Sinn Féin have completed the transition from being a “mouthpiece” to their armed counterpart, towards being a “normal” political party.     

Preventing Transboundary Harm From Invasive Alien Species

The problem of invasive alien species (IAS) is the second biggest threat to biodiversity after loss of habitat. Although customary international law obliges States to prevent transboundary environmental harm such as IAS, international law does not clearly articulate these obligations in this context. A potentially helpful mechanism lies in the use of transboundary environmental impact assessment and risk analysis. However, the operation of these processes, within international environmental law, international quarantine law and international trade law has generated obligations that largely remain soft, ill-defined and inconsistent. This situation is counter-productive to preventing or minimizing transboundary harm caused by IAS.     

From Non-consensual Pornography to Image-based Sexual Abuse: Charting the Course of a Problem with Many Names

ABSTRACT

Every day, people’s most intimate moments are recorded, uploaded and circulated online without their consent. This gross invasion of privacy – commonly known as ‘revenge pornography’ – has become part of the scenery in cyberspace. But the name ‘revenge pornography’ fails to communicate the scope and severity of this harm. It is a victim blaming term that risks misdirecting government policy and misinforming the public. So, in order to mobilise against ‘revenge porn’, activists have begun renaming it. ‘Non-consensual pornography’, ‘image-based sexual abuse’, and ‘digital rape’ are just a few of their new coinages. This research seeks to understand how ‘revenge pornography’ is being renamed and reframed in different contexts. To do so, it draws on interviews with thirty activists, experts, and scholars from twelve countries and seven professions. The article begins by comparing their alternative terminologies, bringing to light points of similarity and difference. It then looks forward, identifying new developments in activists’ thought and action. Despite their different vocabularies, this research finds among respondents a shared understanding upon which they could build an enduring coalition.     

Is right coronary artery hypoplasia and sudden death an underdiagnosed association?

Determining whether hypoplasia of a coronary artery has caused or contributed to death is often complicated by an absence of histologic evidence of myocardial ischemia in the area of the heart supplied by the affected artery and also by the lack of data for assessing coronary artery size at autopsy. A 45-year-old woman is reported who collapsed and died and who was found at autopsy to have a dominant, small-caliber, right coronary artery, with acute and chronic ischemic changes in the posterior interventricular septum supplied by the diminutive vessel. This case provides evidence that small-caliber coronary arteries may be associated with a lethal outcome. Given the difficulties that may occur in determining whether there is a causal link between small coronary artery caliber and death, it is possible that this may be an underdiagnosed cause of sudden cardiac death, rather than a coincidental finding of minimal significance.     

The modern holy shroud

Testimonies disclosed that a 44-year-old pedestrian was struck head-on by a truck while she was roaming on the motorway; at the time of collision, the truck was travelling at a speed of about 90 km/h. In the second phase of the collision, the pedestrian was projected about 100 m before her body was run over by the truck and then by a car. The autopsy revealed extensive mutilations, making it impossible to verify the testimonies of witnesses to the collision as regards the pedestrian's position at the moment of the first impact. However, the reports produced by the technical expert and the forensic pathologist were able to confirm the testimonies, based on an impact zone on the front panel of the cab of the truck, where part of the pedestrian's face was reproduced like a "modern holy shroud".     

The Burden of White Supremacy: Containing Asian Migration in the British Empire and the United States

The Burden of White Supremacy: Containing Asian Migration in the British Empire and the United States . By David C. Atkinson (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016), pp.334. AU$31.50 (pb). Available in Australia through Footprint Books.