Legal rights in data

It is now apposite to speak of the ‘data centric world’. Businesses are paying ever more attention to their own, and others’ data, as a way of adding value to the organisation and conferring competitive advantage. This in turn is focusing attention on legal rights in data across many business sectors, where we’re starting to see more disputes. Data is funny stuff in and of itself - effectively inert in legal terms. It is more precise to speak of ‘legal rights in relation to data’. Those rights are IP rights - copyright, database right, confidentiality, patents and trade marks - and contract rights. Each IP right has its own rules, and applying those rules to data leads to a complex, multi-layered analysis where the law is unsettled and uncertain. This means that data is an area where contract is very often king, so most businesses regulate access to data by means of a series of agreements. The most commonly contested points in negotiations are around licence scope, derived data, commingled data and post term use.     

Hyperlinks citations, reproducing original works

A hyperlink (or simply a link) is a citation of an electronic address where further information can be found but, additionally, navigates the surfer almost instantaneously to material hosted anywhere on the Internet at a mere click of a mouse. Controversy arises because either the composition or functionality of the hyperlink can potentially infringe property rights of the claimant. Many have written about the hyperlink as a navigation tool authorising or contributing to infringement of copyright by a third party.¹This article concentrates on the composition of an external hyperlink, as a citation. Part 2 outlines the nature of Internet communication and explains why hyperlinks are often controversial. Part 3 asserts when copyright subsists in original literary works, but because a hyperlink may incorporate diverse formats, this part also addresses the protection of other works including the issue of composite works covered under section 1(1) of Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988. Applying copyright principles, it suggests that a hyperlink reproducing an identifiable part of a web page capable of standing apart from its context can infringe copyright in the web page containing the part. That said the claimant might face difficulty in demonstrating that the work is substantive or, where the hyperlink consists of diverse inputs, in categorising the subject matter. Part 4 acknowledges the significance (electronic) collections and therefore defines a database falling within the Databases Directive.² It then highlights challenges presented by copyright and sui generis right relating to databases concluding that reproducing an identifiable part of author compiled work can infringe copyright and/or sui generis right therein but the same is not true of search engine generated returns. Part 5 concedes that, in practice, subsistence of copyright and/or sui generis right is open to challenge because the part reproduced in a hyperlink may not be substantive, may not easily fit into the category of protected subject matter or lacks ‘substantial investment.’ Nevertheless, it argues that proving infringement in an identifiable part of a web page reproduced in a hyperlink remains the most viable option for indirectly controlling access to the target page, which may itself be unprotected by copyright.     

论《海洋法公约》解决南海争端的非适用性

《海洋法公约》虽然确立了人类利用海洋和管理海洋的基本法律框架,但是在历史性权利、岛屿与岩礁制度、专属经济区的军事活动、群岛制度、海岸相向或相邻国家间海域的划界以及海盗问题等方面存在诸多缺陷,不能用来解决南海岛屿主权争端。今后中国政府在坚持《海洋法公约》的宗旨和目的的前提下,可以通过订立专门的补充协定或区域性协定、召开审议会议以及用扩大解释的方法对《海洋法公约》进行事实上的修正等方式来推动《海洋法公约》的进一步发展与完善,并逐步取得海洋法发展的话语权。     

Hearsay and Human Rights: Al‐Khawaja in the Grand Chamber

This note analyses the European Court of Human Rights' Grand Chamber judgment in Al‐Khawaja and Tahery v United Kingdom, and gives it a cautious welcome. The note suggests how English Courts might respond to the judgment and concludes by assessing justifications for strong confrontation rights and the wider political context of the Grand Chamber's decision.     

PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES AND THEIR SEXUAL,REPRODUCTIVE, AND PARENTING RIGHTS: AN INTERNATIONAL AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Despite important gains in human rights, persons with disabilities — and in particular women and girls with disabilities — continue to experience significant inequalities in the areas of sexual, reproductive, and parenting rights. Persons with disabilities are sterilized at alarming rates; have decreased access to reproductive health care services and information; and experience denial of parenthood. Precipitating these inequities are substantial and instantiated stereotypes of persons with disabilities as either asexual or unable to engage in sexual or reproductive activities, and as incapable of performing parental duties. The article begins with an overview of sexual, reproductive, and parenting rights regarding persons with disabilities. Because most formal adjudications of these related rights have centered on the issue of sterilization, the article analyzes commonly presented rationales used to justify these procedures over time and across jurisdictions. Next, the article examines the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the attendant obligations of States Parties regarding rights to personal integrity, access to reproductive health care services and information, parenting, and the exercise of legal capacity. Finally, the article highlights fundamental and complex issues requiring future research and consideration.     

海牙《选择法院协议公约》对国际商事仲裁的影响

历经十多年的艰苦努力,海牙《选择法院协议公约》终于缔结。公约的目的是制定一个公约从而使法院判决可以在全球范围内得到承认与执行,正如《纽约公约》之于国际商事仲裁一样。公约的缔结有利于该目标的实现,与此同时,该公约的缔结与生效,将会对国际商事仲裁造成相当的影响与冲击,因为该公约所产生的判决承认与执行的国际性效果,将使《纽约公约》对国际商事仲裁所形成的优势变得相当不明显。     

国际刑事犯罪公约翻译浅析及意义——以《联合国打击跨国有组织犯罪公约》为例

本论文着眼于国际刑事犯罪公约英译汉官方版本的翻译特色分析、评价,力图在我国法律英语翻译水平相对滞后的学术和实务氛围中,为奋战在跨国犯罪执法、司法第一线的法律工作者,尤其是国际刑侦第一线的公安干警们提供更准确更合理的法条参考文本。文章撷取《联合国打击跨国有组织犯罪公约》这一具有典型代表性的国际刑事犯罪公约的官方文本,作者在该领域进行了初步探索,并给出了理论及现实意义上的必要思考。     

Legal Capacity at a Crossroad: Mental Disability and Family Law

In this introductory essay to the Special Issue, I argue that both family law and disability rights law scholars should examine a key point of intersection across areas: legal capacity or the law's recognition of the rights and responsibilities of an individual. For example, parental termination proceedings center on parental fitness and functional capabilities. I contextualize the articles in the Special Issue by Leslie Francis and Robyn Powell on the role of reasonable accommodations for parents with disabilities in parental termination proceedings. In addition, I call upon legal scholars, family law courts, and practitioners to reimagine governing legal standards in family law according to principles of universal design to shift the baseline capabilities associated with parenting and parental fitness.     

Intersecting Issues Involving Asylum in the United States and Cases Arising Under the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction

The issue of immigration status has become the focal point in some cases arising under the 1980 Hague Convention on Child Abduction. Asylum claims affect both substantive and procedural issues that are presented to state and federal courts. A nexus has developed between undocumented immigrants who are parties to a Hague case, and issues of habitual residence, acclimatization, and grave risk. Asylum claims have forced courts to consider the viability of such claims, requests for stay of Hague cases pending the outcome of asylum claims, the likelihood of deportation, and the effect of grants of asylum on the particular issues in the case. Where asylum has been granted to either a parent or child, substantial consideration has been given to the asylum determination by the court hearing the Hague case.