Outsourcing the enforcement of modern slavery: Overcoming the limitations of a market-based disclosure model

Recent legislative efforts to address modern slavery emphasise corporate disclosure as the primary regulatory tool. New modern slavery disclosure laws harden the expectation that business will conduct itself responsibly; however, they are founded on a soft approach to enforcement which is essentially outsourced to the market. This paper questions the effectiveness of this disclosure-based enforcement mechanism, which primarily relies on a narrowly defined concept of ‘the market’ as the basis for its regulatory strategy. Drawing on comparisons with alternative legislative enforcement frameworks to counter foreign bribery and illegal logging, this paper highlights the opportunities and limitations of reliance on market forces for regulation and suggests a path forward for enhancing the modern slavery enforcement approach.

Too Small to Matter? On the Copyright Directive’s Bias in Favour of Big Right-Holders

This chapter shows how Art 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive (DSM Directive) contains an inherent bias favouring large right-holders to the prejudice of small creators. It studies the likely trajectories and incentives of the relevant actors and concludes that the licensing model of Art 17 is tailored to the needs of powerful content owners. Only smaller right-holders must monitor the market, review the use of their works by third parties, and approach each online-content sharing service provider separately. The enforcement mechanism of Art 17 has similar effects on amateur creators, who will often have to rely on exceptions to copyright when creating content in distinction to larger units that can typically resort to licensing. Collective licensing could offer a potential solution to alleviate the identified problems in unequal treatment of different types of copyright owners. The chapter discusses these effects from the perspective of the principle of equal treatment, protected under Art 20 of the EU Charter. It argues that, unless Member States resort to legal mechanisms—such as collective licensing—that can better balance competing rights and interests and not discriminate between different actors, the end-result will be unconstitutional.

Texas, Abortion, and State Action

The Texas Legislature recently passed what the Supreme Court describes as an “unprecedented” statutory scheme. Texas’s new law allows private, everyday citizens to sue anyone who assists a woman in obtaining an abortion after her sixth week of pregnancy. It’s clear that Texas chose this unusual enforcement mechanism to try to circumvent the Constitution’s “state action” requirement. Before a plaintiff can challenge a policy or action on constitutional grounds, they must show that the government somehow had a hand in causing their harm. But this Texas law strips the government of its enforcement power and instead gives it to everyday citizens, thereby allowing the law’s defenders to argue that the law does not trigger constitutional protections. This short article argues that the courts should have little trouble concluding that this law and its unusual enforcement mechanism amount to state action, meaning this law is subject to normal constitutional scrutiny. The Supreme Court’s decisions in Shelley v. Kraemer, Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., and Terry v. Adams make clear that private parties can be considered state actors, especially when they are working with the express approval of the government and when the courts are required to hand down rulings that seemingly infringe on well-settled constitutional protections. These decisions, among others, show that the private-citizen plaintiffs deputized under this new Texas law must be treated as state actors who are subject to constitutional limitations.

Labour Rights Protection and Its Enforcement Under the USMCA: Insights From a Comparative Legal Analysis

Chapter 23, exclusively dedicated to labor protection, has been widely described as one of the most distinctive features of the new US–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA). This paper challenges the current narrative surrounding the USMCA by critically analysing Chapter 23 of the agreement, looking at the legal innovative design of its substantive commitments of labour protection and their enforceability. In light of this objective, a comparative analysis will be conducted. The provisions of Chapter 23 USMCA will be compared with labour provisions in previous US Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs), namely, the NAFTA side agreement on labour rights and the TPP. Second, a comparative analysis will be conducted comparing USMCA Chapter 23 with labour provisions in EU Trade Agreements negotiated with USMCA parties. The paper demonstrates that although the USMCA does not radically innovate from the level of substantive labour protection reached in recent US and EU PTAs, the enforcement mechanism in the USMCA is significantly strengthened, with controversial and innovative features.

The Emerging Contribution of Director Disqualification in UK Competition Law

Peter Whelan assesses a developing and increasingly significant enforcement tool in the UK competition authority’s armoury in Chapter 11. In it, Whelan notes that the enforcement of UK competition law is deterrence-focused and comprises both criminal and non-criminal (i.e. civil/administrative) elements. The chapter concentrates on the non-criminal enforcement apparatus that has been developed over the last twenty years. More specifically, it critically evaluates a particular enforcement mechanism that has been gaining increasing importance throughout the recent development of UK competition enforcement practice: the use of director disqualification. It first establishes the normative role of director disqualification in the UK’s armoury of non-criminal antitrust sanctions (i.e. its complementing of the deterrent function of corporate antitrust fines), following which it highlights their potential for performing this role effectively. It then outlines the legal basis for the use of director disqualification within the UK and evaluates the policy and enforcement practice to date with respect to such orders, before proceeding to outline some of the insights that the UK director disqualification regime can provide to other jurisdictions. Ultimately it concludes that, on the basis of the promising, albeit nascent, UK experience to date, director disqualification should be seriously considered by jurisdictions that wish to operate a robust competition law enforcement regime.

Effectivity Of Law Number 21 Of 2007 In Esnaring Pimps As Sex Commercial Services Procuress

In the modern era, prostitution metamorphose into the branch of industry which in line with the pornography or striptease. For Indonesian people, prostitution have been understood as work, in which exchange intercourse with money or prizes, the same with services purchase or trade. Yogyakarta which known as education city is not spared either with prostitution. Cited by Tribun Jogja, revealed that cases of human trafficking that covered by prostitution in Sleman, Yogyakarta. It was occurred in three different locations, are Pasar Kembang, Bong Suwun and Giwangan. This work aims were to know and to analyze how criminal law in Indonesia regulated pimp as procuress of sex commercial agent in Yogyakarta and its law enforcement mechanism. Laws related of pimp regulated in the Article 290 and 560 Indonesia Criminal Code. Meanwhile, in Yogyakarta there is a regulation which prohibit the public prohibition i.e. Local Regulation Number 18 of 1954. Law enforcement mechanism towards prostitution by implement the Law Number 21 of 2007 in punishing pimps in Yogyakarta, with strong commitment to eradicate this crime. This work is empirical legal research which applied juridical and empirical approaches in Yogyakarta by taking data in Local Police Office of Yogyakarta.

The Non Bis In Idem Principle in the Mechanism of Ensuring Legal Certainty of Civil Proceedings in the Russian Federation

Based on the analysis of procedural rules and national jurisprudence, the article explores the specifics of the application of the non bis in idem rule in the formation of legal certainty in civil proceedings of the Russian Federation. Emphasis is placed on the need to legislate the non bis in idem design in procedural codes and to expand the application of the non bis in idem enforcement mechanism.

Control and Accountability: Administrative Courts and Courts of Audit

The control of the administration by administrative courts follows very particular rules. Two elements of the German system stand out: first, the intensive type of control which makes the scope for independent administrative decision-making an exception. Second, the quite strict restrictions on locus standi. The development of administrative law by the courts and its application by the administration are an elementary part of the German legalistic tradition. The courts of audit at all levels of government also play an independent role. They can control the proper as well as the efficient use of funds from the respective budgets. While there is no enforcement mechanism, the publication of the findings certainly leads to pressure to comply.

Enforcing Commercial Judgments between China and South Africa in the Context of BRICS and BRI

The frequent business transactions between China and South Africa in the context of BRICS and the Belt and Road Initiative have resulted in many commercial disputes. The ultimate resolution of such disputes requires a feasible enforcement mechanism for commercial judgments, but some obstacles remain when enforcing commercial judgments from each side. Both countries have adopted different approaches and principles to ascertain the jurisdiction of the adjudicating court, the application of reciprocity and an understanding of public policy. This article examines these obstacles by comparing the two enforcement regimes, and explores ways to overcome these obstacles and to realize the free flow of commercial judgments between both sides.

The paradox of legal entropy

The article deals with the law enforcement mechanism, which includes the assignment of actual rights, infra-legal phenomena, non-legal law providing undermining authority of legal rights laws, reducing the ability of legal norms to protect ordinary members of society from the hardship of life and deprivation, deployment of chaos laws in legal life.