Comments to the CoE Convention 108 draft proposal on data protection

One year after the public consultation on the modernisation of the Convention 108, the Council of Europe issued the latest modernization proposal in March 2012 reviewed on the basis of the 27th Plenary meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Convention (from 29 November to 2 December 2012) and the 26th meeting of its Bureau (from 6 to 8 February 2012). Professor Graham Greenleaf and Mr. Nigel Waters on behalf of the Australian Privacy Foundation International Committee and a consortium headed by CLSR Editorial Board member Professor Sylvia Kierkegaard together with Dr. Elisabeth Thole, Professor Dr. Willem Grosheide and CLSR Professional Board Member Joseph V. DeMarco submitted separately their comments to the proposed text. Plenary meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Convention 108 will take place in Strasbourg from 19 to 22 June 2012, during when the draft text will be approved.     

Unthawed: post-Cold War economic ties between Kaliningrad and Europe

ABSTRACT

Kaliningrad’s post-Soviet economic interconnection with Europe is encountering obstacles due to specific Russian governmental idiosyncrasies as well as its particular regional challenges. In essence, the Kremlin’s direct control from afar and European misgivings have influenced the territory’s economic development in relation to Europe. The distance of the region from Russia, exclave status, large size for an exclave, and conflicted history subject the area to contradictory forces. On the one hand, it links Kaliningrad to Europe because of a shared history and geography. On the other, it promotes a sense of political instability and geographical isolation that discourages economic integration with Europe.     

试析帕麦斯顿的强硬外交

帕麦斯顿是一位可与丘吉尔比肩的重要历史人物,支配当时世界上最强大国家的外交政策20余年.他的外交政策明显地具有强硬的特征,主要表现在:"支持"比利时独立、推动克里木战争和发动两次鸦片战争.其目的有三:保持欧洲均势、开拓海外市场和满足公众舆论.而英国的工业霸权和海上霸权则是其经济后盾和军事后盾.帕麦斯顿奉行非常现实的实力外交与强硬外交,以武力、战争来为英国资产者获取利益,为此不惜与法国对抗、与俄国兵戎相见、远涉重洋侵略中国.     

Citizenship,Migration and the Reassertion of National Identity

Faced with increasing and diverse migratory pressures in the post Cold War period, European states have created an increasingly complex system of civic stratifications with differential access to civil, economic and social rights depending on mode of entry, residence and employment. Now at the beginning of the twenty-first century, expansion and contraction of rights have occurred within a managerialist approach which, though recognising the need for immigration, applies an economic and political calculus not only to labour migration but also to forms of migration more closely aligned to normative principles and human rights, such as family formation and reunification and asylum. At the same time, states are demanding affirmation of belonging and loyalty, leading to greater emphasis on obligations in the practice of citizenship. The first part of the paper traces the evolution of a managerialist regime and its consequences for the reconfiguration of spaces of citizenship. The second section examines the development of new contracts of settlement and the management of diversity as the state reasserts its national identity and sovereignty.     

城市文明:中世纪西欧法治文明的基石

对于欧洲的法治文明的研究是理论法学界蔚然成风的研究路径.当视角集中在西欧而时间定格在中世纪时,我们会发现最早的法治文明因时因地的在中世纪西欧出现了.并且,考察多元因素可以得出一个结论,西欧城市文明发展模式和法治文明出现有着割舍不断的关系.     

Svalbard Global Seed Vault: a ‘Noah's Ark’ for the world's seeds

News about Norway's plans to establish a ‘doomsday vault’ for seeds in the permafrost of the Artic archipelago of Svalbard as a back-up for conventional gene banks reached the world press in 2006. The idea of a Global Seed Vault, which today is considered a ‘Noah's Ark’ for seeds, was previously regarded with suspicion and considered to be unrealistic. In 1989 the Norwegian government offered to construct an international depository for seeds in permafrost, but the initiative was sidelined in the agitated debates between developed and developing countries over access to and control of plant genetic resources. The realisation of the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (2004) resolved some of the most difficult issues and made possible the launching of a new Norwegian initiative to safeguard some of the world's most important plant genetic resources for the future.     

European national news

The regular article tracking developments at the national level in key European countries in the area of IT and communications – co-ordinated by Herbert Smith LLP and contributed to by firms across Europe. This column provides a concise alerting service of important national developments in key European countries. Part of its purpose is to compliment the Journal's feature articles and Briefing Notes by keeping readers abreast of what is currently happening “on the ground” at a national level in implementing EU level legislation and international conventions and treaties. Where an item of European National News is of particular significance, CLSR may also cover it in more detail in the current or a subsequent edition.     

21世纪西欧国家养老金改革述评

近些年来，西欧各国纷纷进行养老金改革以缓解人口老龄化所可能带来的公共养老金体系的可持续性危机。中国与西欧国家在人口老龄化趋势上面临着类似的压力，本文从老龄经济的视角，以德国、法国、英国三个拥有不同模式养老金体系的国家为研究对象，详细介绍上述三国新世纪养老金体系改革的具体措施，分析改革的共同趋势；并展望中国未来养老金体系的发展方向，认为，以税收优惠和灵活制度安排鼓励第二和第三养老保障支柱的发展是德法英三国改革的共同趋势，也是中国未来养老金体系发展的重要方向。     

西欧警务考察与思考

欧洲是现代警察制度的发源地,它的警察管理体制与现代警务模式影响遍及世界许多国家。按照警察组织管理的集中与分散程度划分类型,西欧国家警务大体可以分为三个类型,各国警务各有其特点,值得我们学习借鉴。     

The nocturnal oviposition behaviour of blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in Central Europe and its forensic implications

Numerous factors may cause delayed colonisation of a corpse by blowflies, leading to a discrepancy between the entomologically determined post-mortem interval (PMI) and the time of death. Blowflies, for example, are considered to be inactive at night, however, published observations are contradictory. In the present study, several field experiments and one type of indoor experiment were conducted in summer of 2004 and 2005 in order to investigate the nocturnal ovipositional behaviour of blowflies. In the field, two types of bait, dead hedgehogs and fresh beef liver, were placed at night in different urban and rural locations in Frankfurt and in Munich, Germany. For the indoor-experiments beef liver was placed in small plastic boxes containing caged Lucilia sericata females in the evening and left overnight. At night, no ovipositon was observed in the field (n=51, T=10-24 degrees C). Nocturnal oviposition in complete darkness occurred in the plastic boxes in two of six cases (T=25 degrees C). Considering the behavioural and physiological characteristics of flies we suggest that nocturnal oviposition of blowflies appears to be unlikely under natural conditions in Central Europe but may occur under certain circumstances, such as unusual high nightly temperatures and the presence of gravid flies with an appropriate arousal threshold.