bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The EU’s New Directives on Digital Contracts, and Artificial Intelligence: Really Future Proof?
Authors: Gellert Raphaël 
Published: April 2022

In 2019 the European Union adopted two key Directives on consumer protection with regard to digital contracts: the Directive on the supply of digital content and digital services (2019/770, hereinafter DCD), and the Directive on the online sale of goods (2019/ 771, hereinafter SGD). The European Commission has meant these Directives to be futureproof, which is the reason why the range of digital content under the scope of the DCD is as broad as possible, and the SGD applies to so-called ‘goods with digital elements’.
Yet, and in-spite of this future-proof ambition, no mention is made of what is probably the most pressing current technology: artificial intelligence (AI). This technology presents a number of important challenges as underscored by the European Commission in its recent White Paper on AI. Yet, they do not seem to have been taken into account by the Directives.
This contribution therefore tries to apply the challenges identified by the Commission in the context of product safety and liability to these Directives with a focus on the DCD. It shows that it presents a number of important challenges, in particular as far as provision on conformity, remedies, or liability are concerned. Ultimately, it raises the question as to whether these Directives are able to deal with AI.
Navigating the Maze: Reviewing the Information Disclosure Requirements in the Financial Services Acquis
Authors: Long Jennifer 
Published: April 2022

This paper considers how the Commission should carry out its planned review of the pre–sale mandatory information disclosure requirements in Community legislation relating to purchases of financial services products.
It examines the literature on the communication and validation of legal norms to determine which criteria should be applied in assessing the requirements. It argues that the legislation has an instrumentalist intent which requires an assessment of the aims the legislation was intended to serve, the validity of that selection, the technical specification and communication of the norm and its effectiveness in achieving the objectives. It considers commentators’ emphasis on the importance of coherence and consistency of the legal system and argues that this alone is insufficient to validate the choices made by the legislator or to validate the requirements, which must also demonstrate ‘external coherence’ with the context in which it is applied.
It applies these criteria to test the validity of the objectives and the use of disclosure to meet them. It finds incoherence between the mechanisms through which disclosure is intended to contribute to consumer protection and internal market policy objectives, and between the mechanisms assumed in the legislation and in the ECJ’s judgments.
Examining the requirements themselves, the paper argues that they do not clearly communicate the content of the norm and proposes techniques for specifying the norms more effectively. It considers the systematisation of the requirements, without assistance from adjudication, in the context of the Community legal system and ‘externally’ and identifies problems in both respects.
It considers whether these problems are sufficient to make the case for change and alternative approaches to securing change in the light of the effect of ‘due process’ requirements for the validity of new proposals on their content. It identifies constraints on the type of change likely to succeed, and identifies priorities for change in the light of the criteria for validity considered earlier.
The Dismissal by Way of Redundancy in the United Kingdom as a Possible Legal Concept to Be Transplanted in Italy?: A Meditation on the Odyssey of an Impossible Dismissal (the Economic Dism
Authors: de Gioia-Carabellese Pierre , Grandi Gaetano Zilio 
Published: April 2022

The dismissal by way of redundancy in Britain is analysed in this contribution with regard to both its legislative pillars and the most recent judicial stances. However, the discussion goes beyond the mere revision of secondary sources, as the Authors propose to contrast the British jurisprudence with the Italian one, a jurisdiction that has just recently ushered into its legislative body, under the pressure of the European Union and against the backdrop of an increasingly deteriorated economic scenario, an up-dated, albeit partly flawed, form of redundancy (the redundancy for economic reasons or giustificato motivo oggettivo).
The results of the discussion (a pure comparative analysis in law, within the area of the employment law) are quintessentially groundbreaking, as a theory is corroborated that the British legislation in the matter of the redundancy should be used as a decidedly apt yardstick to which its Italian counterpart should work towards, particularly in respect of the possibility (rectius the necessity) to extend this legislative tool, just recently made tenuously applicable to private sector workers, to the public arena also.
Environmentally Beneficial Agreements and Article 101(3) TFEU: Are Non-Economic Benefits an Option?
Authors: Reynisson Kristinn 
Published: April 2022

With the aim of assessing the relevance of environmental concerns under Article 101(3) TFEU, this article starts out with posing the question whether environmental concerns should be considered as relevant at all. This is answered by addressing the interface between competition law and environmental concerns. Discovering that the latter's influence on EU competition law has gradually increased and that environmental concerns have taken on the form of competitive parameters, the integration principle in article 11 TFEU is rendered relevant to the issue. That again raises the overarching question of how precisely or in what form environmental concerns should be applied under article 101(3) TFEU.
To address that issue, two ways of incorporating environmental concerns into an article 101(3) TFEU assessment are introduced, i.e. an economic value approach - adopted by DG Competition - and the proposed non-economic approach. Problems regarding the former approach are highlighted. Most notable is the question whether the Union Courts could find the economic value approach to constitute a manifest error of appraisal. In an effort to introduce an alternative approach - one capable of accommodating other EU ambitions in the application of EU competition law - the article introduces and explores the benefits of the non-economic approach.
German and International Perspectives of the German Model of Codetermination
Authors: Sandrock Otto 
Published: April 2022

The German model of codetermination by the employees of a company bears two idiosyncrasies: Its extremely complicated nature and its uniqueness in the international setting. In this paper it is pointed out that in a comparative context, no other nation has a statute or statutes allowing for more codetermination by employees than the statutes just referred to.
The German system of codetermination has some definite advantages and disadvantages, not only viewed form a German point of view, but also in an international context. Strikes occur less often in Germany than in other countries where codetermination is less prominent. During the global and European economic financial crisis of 2007-2012, codetermination facilitated cooperation between management and employees to overcome difficulties. On the other hand, employee representatives have abused their powers at times and the management of many companies feels constrained by codetermination when hard decisions which are desperately required for the economic success of their companies have to be taken, but these decisions are blocked by employee representatives.
The paper considers these advantages and disadvantages before turning to the question of whether anything could be changed in the future. The conclusion is that change is hardly to be expected. For many decades, German trade unions have, for example, prevented SEs (Societas Europaea) from coming into existence. Now they flex their muscles to hinder the formation of SPEs (Societies Privata Europaea). They planned their strategy for decades and seem determined not to give away any of their powers. It is predicted that the situation will remain stagnate for the foreseeable future.
G20 Economic Coordination and the Rule of Law: A Case of Taxation
Authors: Blizkovsky Petr 
Published: April 2022

The G20 has emerged as a key informal forum of global economic governance after the economic crisis of 2008. The paper argues that the rule of law aspect of the G20 economic policy coordination is a limited one. It is mainly due to the fact that the economic policy coordination, such as macroeconomic, monetary or financial services, focuses primarily at the target of public good rather than at the rule of law.
Emergence of a tax evasion coordination at G20 level creates a specific case of economic policy coordination. It targets multilateral coordination of taxation – a policy which is subject to national sovereignty. The paper analyses the rule of law impact of the tax policy guidance of G20 for the G20 members and others, through the channels of existing international organisations and beyond.
A Framework for a Nordic Corporate Governance Index
Authors: Ilmonen Klaus R. 
Published: April 2022

The same metrics may not be appropriate for assessing the quality of corporate governance in different institutional environments and for different structures of corporate ownership. For example, it has been argued that the quality of corporate governance models in the Nordic region, with relatively high levels of concentrated ownership but with reportedly low levels of private benefits of control, is not fully reflected in established corporate governance indices that apply uniform metrics to different corporate governance systems.
This paper argues that many established corporate governance indices use metrics that are less relevant in the context of concentrated ownership. This results in inaccurate comparisons of country-level corporate governance regulation. Corporate governance mechanisms should be analyzed and rated in the context of the relevant corporate environment, recognizing functionally equivalent mechanisms. The study identifies relevant attributes for regulation in concentrated ownership environments that can be used to develop more accurate corporate governance indices.
Law and the Market: Private Actors and Self-Regulation Towards a New Role Of Public International Law
Authors: D’Alvia Daniele 
Published: April 2022

This paper re-interprets the new governance of financial markets. Indeed, in the aftermath of the recent financial crisis (2007-2010) the features of risk and uncertainty have presented a new ontological realism, so that the abstract theorisations of Knight and Keynes can be finally superseded. Therefore, a revaluation of uncertainty from a humanist perspective is suggested, taking into account risk and competition as forms of the new economy of financial systems. Treaties are traditionally considered as the preeminent source of law in public international law, but in financial markets their role has been reduced to instances of ‘macro-regulation’ as opposed to ‘private rules’ that are embedded in self-regulation instruments. Indeed, these latter have paved the way to a specific knowledge of the financial industry. In this light, financial systems are studied as venues through which private forms of self-regulation can effectively substitute a Westphalian model of regulation or alternatively coexist with them in a mixed system of financial regulation.
The Country-of-Origin Principle and Balancing Jurisdiction between Home Member States and Host Member States
Authors: Engsig Sørensen Karsten 
Published: April 2022

The country-of-origin principle is frequently used as the foundation for secondary legislation aiming to realise the internal market. Even if it does promote free movement, the principle also has the consequence that host Member States to some extent lose the ability to regulate and supervise activities occurring in their territories. In some situations, such a loss of regulatory and supervisory sovereignty may seem particularly unacceptable. When looking at how the country-of-origin principle is implemented, it becomes clear that there are different mechanisms in place to ensure that the host and/or the home Member State may prevent some of these unacceptable effects. Consequently, through the interaction of the legislator and the Court of Justice of the European Union the host Member States are not without protection.

The country-of-origin principle is used in many different areas of secondary law, but nevertheless, the solutions to the problem of balancing jurisdiction between the home Member State and the host Member State are more or less the same, and an overall model seems to be developing. To describe this model, the article examines how the interests of the host Member States are taken into account when issuing an authorisation, licence etc. Next, it examines the extent to which the host Member State has the duty to recognise the authorisation, licence etc., and the extent to which the host Member State may still regulate the activities of the holder of an authorisation, licence etc. These aspects are evaluated in the light of different areas applying the country-of-origin principle, and it is contrasting the solutions found in these areas with the solutions found in company law, where a very different version of the principle has emerged.
Consumer Credit Advertising in the United Kingdom and Italy: the Shortcomings of the Consumer Credit Directive and Scope for Review
Authors: Ferretti Federico , Bertarini Beatrice 
Published: April 2022

This contribution examines comparatively the national laws of the United Kingdom and Italy transposing the provisions of consumer credit advertising as set by the Consumer Credit Directive on account of its review. The Consumer Credit Directive is a full harmonization measure that aims to create a single market in the area of consumer credit with a high level of consumer protection. At the same time, the provision on consumer credit advertising offers a legal choice to Member States as regards its transposition into domestic law. The United Kingdom and Italy have opted for different legal choices. The ultimate question is the extent to which the Directive achieves its goal of creating an internal market and an adequate standard of consumer protection in advertising credit services to consumers.
A comparison of the two jurisdictions suggests otherwise. This is due to a combination of the limited scope of the Consumer Credit Directive, its full harmonisation character, and the transposition of the legal choice explicitly left to Member States by the law.
Consumer credit, advertising, EU Law, national transposition, legal choice, comparative law, full harmonization, review
Audit Reports – Balancing Harmonisation, Standardisation, and Customisation
Authors: Seehausen Jesper 
Published: April 2022

The purpose of this article is to discuss the increased harmonisation of the rules on audit reports across Member States caused both by EU legislation, i.e. the Auditing Directive and the PIE Regulation, and the International Standards on Auditing (ISAs). All things being equal, this harmonisation of the rules on audit reports across Member States, of course, entails increased standardisation of audit reports across companies but, interestingly, for PIEs both the PIE Regulation and the new and revised audit report ISAs also entail increased customisation of audit reports between companies. At first sight, this customisation of PIE audit reports between companies seems incompatible or inconsistent with the general standardisation of audit reports across companies. However, the article shows that this, in fact, is not the case. Pursuing this purpose, the article identifies and discusses three overall audit report trends: (1) increased harmonisation of the rules on audit reports across Member States; (2) increased standardisation of audit reports across companies; and, for PIEs, (3) increased customisation of audit reports between companies.
Auditing, Audit Reports, Audit Legislation, Auditing Directive, PIE Regulation, Public-Interest Entities (PIEs), International Standards on Auditing (ISAs), Key Audit Matters (KAMs)
Fueling the European Digital Economy: A Regulatory Assessment of B2B Data Sharing
Authors: Zoboli Laura 
Published: April 2022

Data sharing activities among private players are an important drive for digitaldriven innovation, but they are still rare in the European Union. In its general effort to promote a European data economy, the Commission developed a policy aimed at incentivizing B2B data sharing. The article intends to unpack this policy and to verify whether its corresponding framework effectively enables B2B data sharing. To address this issue, the article identifies and discusses those factors that favor or hinder B2B data sharing practices in the European Union, including current practices, guidelines and regulation (or lack thereof). To complete the analysis, the article also investigates the conditions under which competition law can affect B2B data sharing. Finally, the author weighs all the issues and factors that have been raised, and discusses the measures to be adopted in order to properly incentivize B2B data sharing.
Data sharing, B2B, EU data economy, digital single market, free flow of data, data access, GDPR, Regulation 2018/1807, portability, interoperability
Facebook, the Attention Economy and EU Competition Law: Established Standards Reconsidered?
Authors: Spence William 
Published: April 2022

This paper examines the fundamental features of attentional markets in which online platforms attract users’ time and sell access to that time to advertisers. Using Facebook as an extended case-study, it shows how the “free at the point of use” business model adopted by social media platforms raises significant challenges for established standards of competition law regarding market definition, evaluation of market power and assessment of mergers. It then advances two proposals for how existing EU rules could be reformed in order to facilitate greater competition in the market for social networking. Finally, the paper responds to potential counterarguments.
Competition policy, attention economy, network effects, switching costs, data privacy, merger control, interoperability
The Impact of the OECD BEPs Project on Tax Treaties: Access, Entitlement and Investment Protection
Authors: Garbarino Carlo 
Published: April 2022

In recent years aggressive tax strategies lead to a new phenomenon denominated by the OECD as ‘base erosion and profit shifting’ (Beps). The OECD and G20 countries adopted in 2013-15 a 15-point Action Plan to address Beps (the ‘Beps Project’). In respect to tax treaties the OECD adopted in 2016 a Multilateral Instrument and in 2017 issued a new release the Commentary to the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital. These changes were approved as part of the Beps Project in Actions 2, 6, 7 and 14. The article describes the Model/Commentary 2017 and looks at the impact of the OECD Beps Pproject on tax treaties in terms of PE access, entitlement and investment protection The article focuses on three main dimensions for a resident of a Contracting State of doing business in the other Contracting State: first, the tests required for doing business through PE (section 2); second, the new set of requirements that need to be met to have full entitlement to the tax treaty (section 3); third, the basic rules for doing business through a corporate vehicle, once the entitlement requirements have been met (section 4). The article concludes with the discussion of tax treaty dispute settlement and enforcement by looking at the mutual agreement procedure, transfer price allocations in tax treaties, and tax treaties and information (section 5).
Base erosion, profit shifting, tax avoidance, multilateral tax treaties, OECD Model Tax Convention, BEP s
Product Governance: Paternalism Outsourced to Financial Institutions?
Authors: Colaert Veerle 
Published: April 2022

The MiFID II product governance regime requires financial institutions to identify a target market of investors for all products they design or offer to clients, and to sell those products, as a rule, within the target market only.
Although the aim of the regime – reducing mis-selling – is commendable, it has been implemented in a less than perfect way. After briefly describing the MiFID II product governance rules, this contribution discusses four major shortcomings, which have a detrimental effect on investor protection and the level playing field between financial institutions. The author proposes small amendments, which not only deal with those shortcomings, but also alleviate the compliance burden for the sector and lessen the regime’s paternalistic edge.
Product governance, target market, financial regulation, MiFID II, investor protection, conduct of business rules, product manufacturer, product distributor, PRIIPs Regulation, ESMA
The Crisis of Democracy in East Central Europe: The New Constitutionalism in Hungary
Authors: Pogány István 
Published: April 2022

'Above all, being a democrat means not being afraid; not being afraid of people with different opinions, different mother tongues, or people from different races…not being afraid of all those imaginary fears which are only made real by our fear of them.' István Bibó, The Misery of the Small States of Eastern Europe (1946) Drawing on the work of the twentieth century Hungarian political scientist, István Bibó, this article offers a critical examination of Hungary's new Constitution, or Fundamental Law, which entered into force in January 2012. Hungary's Fundamental Law and various associated legal texts have been heavily criticized by the European Union (EU) Parliament, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe's Venice Commission, the US State Department, major human rights NGOs and foreign as well as Hungarian scholars. This article argues that the constitutional regime that operated in Hungary from the end of communist rule until January 2012 represented a broadly satisfactory framework for the consolidation of liberal democracy, the rule of law and the protection of human and minority rights. By contrast, the Fundamental Law, related legal instruments and various policies of the present government have diluted or threatened essential democratic freedoms and have resulted in the removal of many of the checks and balances that previously operated within the Hungarian constitutional system. These regressive measures suggest that elements of what István Bibó described as the 'deformed' political culture of pre-World War II Hungary have reasserted themselves.