Opinion 1/15 of the Grand Chamber dated 26 July 2017 about the agreement on Passenger Name Record data between the EU and Canada

On 26 July 2017, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice rendered its seminal Opinion 1/15 about the agreement on Passenger Name Record data between the EU and Canada. The Grand Chamber considered that the decision of the Council about the conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the agreement between the EU and Canada about the transfer and processing of PNR data must be based jointly on Article 16(2) about the protection of personal data and Article 87(2)(a) about police co-operation among member states in criminal matters, but not on Article 82(1)(d) about judicial co-operation in criminal matters in the EU of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. The Grand Chamber also considered that the agreement is incompatible with Article 7 on the right to respect for private life, Article 8 on the right to the protection of personal data, Article 21 on non-discrimination and Article 52(1) on the principle of proportionality of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU since it does not preclude the transfer, use and retention of sensitive data. In addition to the requirement to exclude such data, the Grand Chamber listed seven requirements that the agreement must include, specify, limit or guarantee to be compatible with the Charter.The opinion of the Grand Chamber has far-reaching implications for the agreement on PNR data between the EU and Canada. It has also far-reaching implications for international agreements on PNR data between the EU and other third states. Last, it has far-reaching implications for Directive 681 of 27 April 2016 on PNR data.     

数字政府建设中的政务服务

本文基于新公共管理和新公共服务两大理论的学理分析,剖析了数字政府建设中政务服务效能提升的制约瓶颈并提供了相应的对策建议.分析结果表明:分散的政务服务抑制了服务效能、异向的政务数据影响了业务协同、失衡的供给能力制约了发展水平.研究结论认为,优化政务服务基础平台、完善政务信息共享机制、提高政务服务供给能力是数字政府建设中政...     

Policy visions of big data: views from the Global South

Abstract

Government intentions stand at the heart of debates about how big data can and should be used in the Global South. This paper provides new insights by examining the political and economic visions promoted by emerging power governments in Brazil, India and China (the BICs). Doing so is crucial as these countries not only comprise some of the world’s largest populations, but have also demonstrated their initiative in national and international promotion of big data politics. Drawing on a content analysis of strategic and legal documents discussing the use of big data, we identify potential areas for big data cooperation among the BICs by determining the compatibility of national policy visions. Three visions are apparent: data as a force for political liberation or repression, for improving public services and for facilitating development. Successful BIC cooperation is likely related to the latter two, but less probable for the liberation/repression vision. We conclude by identifying the implications of BIC engagement with big data for the Global South more broadly.     

Generating data with sexual offenders using qualitative material: A paradigm to complement not compete with quantitative methodology

This paper proposes triangulation as a research strategy in which the domain of sexual offending may be assessed using both qualitative and quantitative data. Examples of studies that have employed this approach with sexual offenders are outlined, showing the benefit that can be gained from utilizing multiple methods of assessment. The paper also outlines a range of quality criteria when conducting qualitative research, that Gaskell and Bauer (2000) argue are functional equivalents of reliability and validity.     

The Social Outcomes of Education and Feedbacks on Growth in Africa

Most of the effects of education included in the complete model presented here are shown to be consistent with those found in the mainstream of the research on each outcome using microeconomic data. This, however, is a first effort to estimate net education effects more comprehensively, beyond just growth and health effects on other key measures of development in Africa, and also a new view of indirect feedbacks on economic growth and of externalities. After developing the conceptual framework, the regression estimates are presented together with a discussion of the net direct and indirect effects of education on each outcome. These are shown to improve infant mortality, increase longevity, strengthen civic institutions and democratisation, increase political stability, and increase investment in physical capital, which in turn have positive delayed feedback effects on the economic growth process. The effects also lower fertility rates and population growth rates but the latter occurs only after long delays because of the short-term positive effects of education on health. There are significant net education effects reducing poverty, inequality and crime, the latter after netting out negative externalities from growth and white-collar crime. Education effects reducing poverty and substituting skills for extractive exports also contribute to environmental sustainability. Simulations solve the complete model endogenously and iteratively over time for all of the direct and indirect (largely externality) effects. They reveal that indirect feedback effects including those on non-market outcomes are larger than the direct effects. Some effects are immediate, but many of the lags are long. So policy options for a continent in crisis that consider these lags are considered.     

Structural Convergence in Manufacturing Industries between Leaders and Latecomers

This article uses cross-country panel data on three-digit manufacturing to test for progressive structural convergence in industrial output mix between industrialising and industrialised economies. Regressions based on Logistic and Almost-Ideal models show that industrial deepening entails share losses for light and selected heavy manufacturing, and share gains for engineering and consumer durables. While semi-industrial economies manage to shift into petrochemical and engineering industries, the least industrialised nurture a broad spectrum of non-traditional manufacturing. Diversity in factor endowments and policy notwithstanding, growing similarity in demand and technological diffusion appear to produce weak convergence of industrial structures between developing and developed countries.     

Income and Wealth Inequality in Nepal, 1996 and 2004: Changes and Socio-demographic,Spatial and Economic Determinants

Micro-data from national surveys indicate that economic inequality remained high and relatively unchanged in Nepal during the middle 1990s and early 2000s. Using household income and wealth as indicators, this study finds that many of the demographic characteristics, such as age, caste, ethnicity and widowhood, determined mostly along traditional social hierarchies, play influential roles in determining inequality in much of Nepal. In urban areas and especially in Kathmandu, however, these factors have proved increasingly less influential, replacing them with such factors as migration, education and labour market participation. These changes highlight the mechanisms through which different social groups are experiencing inequality, with important implications for the much needed economic, social and political stability of the country.     

El libre acceso a la información,las innovaciones tecnológicas y la publicidad de los actos Procesales

This paper raises questions about the Brazilian legal system, which takes to an extreme the constitutional principle (the Publicity Principle) requiring publication of legal cases, and is unable to properly distinguish between the need to publish judicial decisions, and the publication of documents and texts produced by the parties, thus endangering the protection of personal data, and representing a possible security risk to the State and society as a whole.     

关于财经类专业统计学创新教学改革的思考

统计学课程是高等院校财经类专业的基础核心课程,其主要目的是培养和提高学生的统计思维能力和统计基本技能。近年来统计教学改革在突出实践性和应用性上取得了一定的成效,但仍存在着例如对统计学学科性质和目标的认知偏差、教学方法单一及实践能力的训练不足等问题。需要做好确立财经类专业统计学课程的教学目标,不断改进教学方法和教学手段,充分运用多媒体教学,加强计算机教学的应用,真正落实实践教学环节,并正确处理好教学与教材、多媒体与板书以及基础课与专业课之间的关系。     

Do 90 Percent of Terrorist Groups Last Less than a Year? Updating the Conventional Wisdom

ABSTRACT

Prominent scholars criticize terrorism research for lacking sufficient empirical testing of arguments. Interestingly, one of the most widely cited estimates in terrorism studies has not been evaluated using the many data sources now available. Rapoport’s 1992 claim, that perhaps 90 percent of terrorist groups last less than one year, has been described as part of the conventional wisdom. This estimate is frequently used to justify studies of terrorist group longevity, a substantial line of research in recent years. Is the estimate accurate? Scholars increasingly publish data sets of terrorist organizations, but no one has analyzed them collectively to see if the 90 percent claim holds up. This article examines the eight largest global data sets of terrorist group longevity, covering 1968–2013. The samples vary considerably, but the percentage of groups that do not survive beyond their first year in these relevant data sets is between 25–74 percent. Across all data sets, on average about 50 percent of terrorist organizations do not make it past their first year. There is some variation depending on group motivations, consistent with Rapoport’s “wave” theory. However, overall, terrorist organizations appear to be more durable than the conventional wisdom suggests.