Blockchain and law: Incompatible codes?

Blockchain has recently joined a long line of technological innovations that have been characterised as disruptive to, and possibly even subversive of, fundamental legal principles. This article looks behind the hype to examine how blockchain might – or might not – be compatible with established legal and regulatory models. Data protection is discussed as an example of an area of law that some have claimed cannot be reconciled with blockchain. Various other conflicts are also identified and concerns about blockchain are placed in the context of wider historical debates about new technologies vs law.     

Banking in the cloud: Part 1 – banks' use of cloud services

This paper looks at EU banks' use of public cloud computing services. It is based primarily on anonymised interviews with banks, cloud providers, advisers, and financial services regulators. The findings are presented in three parts. Part 1 explores the extent to which banks operating in the EU, including global banks, use public cloud computing services. It describes how banks are using cloud computing and the key drivers for doing so (such as time to market), as well as real and perceived barriers (such as misconceptions about cloud and financial services regulation), including cultural and technical/commercial aspects. It summarises how banks have approached the cloud and how cloud providers have approached the banking sector.Part 2 of this paper will cover the main legal and regulatory issues that may affect banks' use of cloud services, including how the regulation of outsourcing applies to banks' use of cloud services. Part 3 will look at the key contractual issues that arise between banks and cloud service providers, including data protection requirements, termination, service changes, and liability.All three parts of the paper can be accessed via Computer Law and Security Review's page on ScienceDirect at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02673649?sdc=2. The full list of sources is available via the same link and will be printed alongside the third part of the paper.     

The Child in European Human Rights Law

This article examines the category of ‘the child’ in European human rights law, based on an analysis of the child‐related jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. It argues that a full account of legal selfhood is constructed through the notion of ‘the child’ in this jurisprudence. The two notions – of ‘the child’ and ‘the self’ – are, from the outset, mutually dependent. The conceptualisation of ‘the child’ in human rights law is underpinned by an account of the self as originating in another and childhood is cast as enabling self‐understanding by making possible the formation of a narrative about the self. The vision of ‘the self’ that emerges is one of ‘the narrative self’, and I assess the implications of this both for the idea of childhood in which this narrative originates and for the vision of the human condition that is expressed in European human rights law more broadly.     

Judicial Review in the European Community: The Environment, Subsidiarity and the Question of Intensity

This paper examines the manner in which the EuropeanCourt of Justice has developed certain principles enunciated inthe Treaty into judicial review standards. It focuses on thelimited intensity of that review in relation to subsidiarity andthe environmental principles. The paper contends that reviewcould be intensified by use of institutional declarations on theprinciples as aids to interpretation.     

Sexual Orientation Discrimination after Grant v South-West Trains

In Grant v South-West Trains [1998] ECR I-621, the European Court of Justice implied that, as a general matter, discrimination against an employee on the ground of sexual orientation did not violate Article 141 EC. This article argues that Grant rests on shaky foundations, in that it is conceptually inconsistent with the Court's earlier decision in P v S and Cornwall County Council [1996] ECR I-2143. Furthermore, the scope of Grant has since been qualified by decisions of the European Court of Human Rights – decisions which may well have undermined the status of the case more broadly. However these difficulties are ultimately resolved, the Court of Justice's treatment of sexual orientation discrimination exposes flaws in its approach as a self-proclaimed constitutional court.     

Police Powers and Accountability in a Democratic Society: Introductory Report

This article by general rapporteur Joachim Kersten introduces the reports which were presented at the Twelfth Criminological Colloquium, organised by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, from 24-26 November 1999. Europe is undergoing a phase of rapid change. This affects the conditions of policing in each country and on the European continent as a whole. It is actually the legal, political and cultural context of policing that is undergoing rapid change. This colloquium and earlier ones carried out by the Council of Europe served a crucial purpose: they are an assessment in the European context of what is happening in relation to the police, police ethics and human rights in democratic societies.     

Governance reforms and public acceptance of regulatory decisions: Cross-national evidence from linked survey experiments on pesticides authorization in the European Union

Do governance reforms affect public acceptance of regulatory decisions, and if so, how? We tackled this critical but under-studied question through a pair of linked survey experiments on public attitudes toward the reform of European Union (EU) pesticides regulation among a representative sample of the adult population in six EU member states. We tested the expectation that citizens are more likely to accept a regulatory decision that runs counter to their prior policy preferences if it is taken under a procedure they support. We first conducted a conjoint experiment to study whether the specific design of decision-making procedures impacts public support for EU pesticide regulation. In a second linked experiment, we asked respondents whether farmers should be allowed to use glyphosate, the best known and most controversial pesticide. We then asked respondents if they would accept an authorization decision on glyphosate contrary to their prior expressed preference if it were taken under a decision-making procedure they supported. The results demonstrate that a regulatory decision-making procedure respondents support increases their willingness to accept a hypothetical authorization decision contrary to their prior expressed preference. Contrary to the findings of previous research, our study thus provides strong evidence that governance reforms supported by citizens can enhance acceptance of controversial regulatory decisions, even on politicized issues such as pesticides authorization.     

Coordination for traceability in the food chain. A critical appraisal of European regulation

Risk management has become a central issue in sanitary crises. Agro food firms have devised organizational responses to sanitary risks, usually implying better traceability. European Regulation 178/2002 established mandatory traceability. This paper provides a critical appraisal of the European Regulation on traceability. The analysis characterizes the mandatory traceability established and evaluates whether the information provided facilitates the withdrawal of targeted products promised by the European Regulation. It demonstrates the importance of traceability practices and sets out the responsibilities of food business operators as defined in the regulation. This regulation is seen as creating economic incentives for more stringent traceability. The problem of private operators’ coordination in relation to traceability practices is explained and the question of whether this problem can be solved by the strict application of European Regulation 178/2002 is addressed. The limits of the European Regulation in this context are demonstrated and solutions are proposed.

民主政治、民众心理与两次世界大战间欧洲国际秩序的解体

民主政治的核心原则是主权在民,即人民有权定期地、公开地投票决定重大事务或选举国家官员。在这一制度原则下,多数民众所持有的一致性的心理认识对民主国家的对内及对外政策具有极强的形塑作用。两次世界大战间的欧洲主要大国均是实行民主政治制度。在这段时期,英、法两国民众的和平主义情绪通过民主政治过程的作用,使两国的对德政策表现出”绥靖”的特征。而德国民众的复仇主义情绪则使希特勒在民主选举中成功当选,并使德国的对外政策向改变既有秩序的方向彻底转变。和平主义情绪和复仇主义情绪经过民主政治过程的相互作用,最终导致了两次世界大战间欧洲国际秩序的解体。     

Reshaping EU Attitudes? The Case of Social Democratic and Radical Left Parties in Spain and Italy

Since the beginning of the Great Recession, the issue of European integration has become increasingly salient in many European polities. The European left has adopted a different stance toward European integration, both in terms of economic and welfare‐state integration. On the one hand, radical left parties (RLPs) have always opposed a process of integration dominated by neoliberal logic; on the other hand, the social democratic parties (SDPs) have appeared as one of the main pro‐EU party families, identifying the EU as a privileged space in which to promote the building of a European social model. In this paper, we propose a binary comparison between RLPs and SDPs in Italy and Spain with a qualitative content analysis methodology. Our results show that albeit the crisis brought SDPs closer to a Eurocritical stance vis‐à‐vis the social‐Europe, this dimension along with the political integration are still dividing issues for the RLPs and SDPs families.