Regulating and Combating Underground Banking

In combating and regulating underground banking, a choice can be made of roughly two models, the risk model and the assimilation model. The risk model comes down to a complete prohibition of underground banking combined with an active investigation and prosecution policy. In the assimilation model, underground banking is recognised as a form of financial services but at the same time, all rules that generally apply to financial services are declared applicable to underground bankers. An effort is made simultaneously to lower the threshold of the formal banking system. The international recommendations and legislation—in particular of the Financial Action Task Force and the European Union—take the assimilation model as their starting point, albeit that no or hardly any attention is paid to the role of the formal banking system. With that, relatively little account is taken as yet in the international community of the historic and socio-economic backgrounds of informal banking systems, their embedment in different cultures and the advantages of the services offered. Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Law, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology.     

德国法院在公务员惩戒救济制度中的角色

文章探讨德国《联邦惩戒法》制度下行政法院的角色与功能。与中国制度不同,在德国公务员惩戒决定不但不排除在法院受案范围之外,然而有部分处分决定甚至需要经过行政法院审理通过方能作出。为此,德国行政诉讼法设有专门的诉讼类别,即惩戒诉讼(Disziplinarklage)。笔者认为,该制度由于在客观性、中立性上存在较大优势,适合较严厉的惩戒处分,故对中国公务员制度今后的发展完善具有一定的参考价值。     

Taming the real estate boom in the EU: Pathways to macroprudential (in)action

In the fallout of the 2008 crisis, macroprudential policy has been installed as the policy remedy against future financial instability, a primary focus being developments in the real estate sector. With house prices consistently rising in the EU since 2014, causing alarm among macroprudential supervisory bodies, a core question of EU regulatory governance is how far macroprudential bodies have been capable of bringing about countercyclical actions against the build-up of such vulnerabilities. This paper investigates this question using a novel dataset of macroprudential intensity coded for the 17 EU countries that experienced real estate vulnerabilities post-euro crisis. Specifically, it asks which configuration of conditions account for the (in)capacity of countries to impose stringent countercyclical regulations against housing booms? Using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis technics coupled with qualitative analysis of country cases using expert interviews, we find that the absence of political salience of homeownership and the political independence of macroprudential authorities to be crucial conditions that jointly explain countercyclical macroprudential activity. These findings, which show two pathways to action have implications for the capacity of the EU to prevent future crises and future reform of the EU prudential framework.     

Die Empfehlungen zur Änderung des Parteiengesetzes

Zusammenfassung Die Kommission unabh?ngiger Sachverst?ndiger (Kommission) hat am 18.7. 2001 ihren Bericht mit Empfehlungen für ?nderungen des Parteiengesetzes dem Bundespr?sidenten übergeben (Kommission 2001). Aus diesem aktuellen Anlass werden nachfolgend zun?chst die Arbeitsweise der Kommission betrachtet und anschlie?end einige ihrer Empfehlungen einer kritischen Würdigung unterzogen.     

Entomotoxicology, experimental set-up and interpretation for forensic toxicologists

Forensic entomotoxicology studies the usefulness of insects as alternative toxicological samples. Use of insects as alternative matrix for drug detection is well documented and recommended when conventional matrices such as blood, urine or internal organs are no longer available. However, several limitations of entomotoxicology have been highlighted, especially concerning interpretation of the drug concentrations in insects on human forensic cases. In addition, the lack of knowledge in pharmacokinetic of drugs in insects, large variability of experimental set-up and toxicological analysis compromise the utility of this science. This review focuses on the current knowledge of factors influencing drug detection in insects. Reasons for the current limitations, but also recommendations for future research are discussed and proposed in this paper.     

Functioning and Effectiveness of Electronic Control Devices Such as the TASER® M‐ and X‐Series: A Review of the Current Literature

Abstract: Conducted electrical weapons (CEWs) such as the TASER^® M‐ and X‐series deliver short high‐voltage, low‐current energy pulses to temporarily paralyze a person by causing electrical interruption of the body’s normal energy pulses. Despite many scientific publications, which classify the health risks of an appropriate use of the TASER device as minor, there still is a continuous uncertainty about possible side effects with human application. Based on a literature search of the National Library of Medicine’s MEDLINE database’s PubMed system of current publications, the following article describes the mechanisms by which the device operates and discusses possible pathophysiological consequences. The majority of current human literature has not found evidence of clinical relevant pathophysiological effects during and after an exposure of professionally applied CEWs. However, to be able to exclude possible health risks, a medical checkup of people who have been exposed to CEWs is essential.     

Will the European Commission be able to standardise legal technology design without a legal method?

Privacy by Design (PbD) is a kind of precautionary legal technology design. It takes opportunities for fundamental rights without creating risks for them. Now the EU Commission “promised” to implement PbD with Art. 23(4) of its proposal of a General Data Protection Regulation. It suggests setting up a committee that can define technical standards for PbD. However the Commission did not keep its promise. Should it be left to the IT security experts who sit in the committee but do not have the legal expertise, to decide on our privacy or, by using overly detailed specifications, to prevent businesses from marketing innovative products? This paper asserts that the Commission's implementation of PbD is not acceptable as it stands and makes positive contributions for the work of a future PbD committee so that the Commission can keep its promise to introduce precautionary legal technology design.