Prospects for Colombia in 2022

Subject Prospects for Colombia in 2022. Significance With vaccine and economic growth figures suggesting Colombia may be emerging from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, legislative and presidential elections in March and May offer the prospect of a symbolic fresh start. Recent social unrest appears to have subsided and economic recovery has unemployment on the wane. Persistent challenges such as poverty and insecurity nevertheless look sure to test the new government from early in its term.

Return Sponsorships in the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum: High Stakes, Low Gains

The concept of ‘return sponsorships’ is central to the European Commission’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum, and its ambition to deliver a “fresh start on migration”. Enabling a system of mandatory yet flexible solidarity, the concept is designed to overcome the opposing viewpoints that have long marked political discussions over responsibility-sharing within Europe. This article critically considers whether return sponsorships can work in practice. It identifies three challenges. First, the proposal’s envisioned solidarity measures lack predictability and tangibility. Second, return sponsorships will create new vulnerabilities for those issued return orders. Third, the mechanism is informed by the improbable assumption that more conditionalities vis-à-vis third countries will substantially increase the EU’s return rate. Overall, the Commission is taking a considerable risk. The return sponsorship concept will likely prolong the polarised discussions among Member States and provide only modest support to countries at the EU’s external border.

Fair income tax with endogenous productivities and a fresh start

This paper considers a model in which agents have heterogeneous preferences over labour and consumption. Additionally, they also differ in their earning skills, which are a function of both an innate ability and an early investment decision. In this framework we axiomatically derive a social ordering function that, besides compensating agents for their unequal productivities, grants a fresh start to those who regret their initial choices. Next, by assuming a second-best context we characterise the income tax scheme that satisfies this social ordering. This analysis permits us to present an explicit criterion for the assessment of social welfare under different tax policies. We obtain that the optimal scheme aims to compensate those endowed with the lowest marginal productivity. More importantly, on account of the forgiveness ideal positive social marginal weights are assigned to those who earn the lowest income levels, something that induces a progressivity tendency at the bottom of the earnings distribution.

Opacity thought through: on the intransparency of computer simulations

Computer simulations are often claimed to be opaque and thus to lack transparency. But what exactly is the opacity of simulations? This paper aims to answer that question by proposing an explication of opacity. Such an explication is needed, I argue, because the pioneering definition of opacity by P. Humphreys and a recent elaboration by Durán and Formanek are too narrow. While it is true that simulations are opaque in that they include too many computations and thus cannot be checked by hand, this doesn’t exhaust what we might want to call the opacity of simulations. I thus make a fresh start with the natural idea that the opacity of a method is its disposition to resist knowledge and understanding. I draw on recent work on understanding and elaborate the idea by a systematic investigation into what type of knowledge and what type of understanding are required if opacity is to be avoided and why the required sort of understanding, in particular, is difficult to achieve. My proposal is that a method is opaque to the degree that it’s difficult for humans to know and to understand why its outcomes arise. This proposal allows for a comparison between different methods regarding opacity. It further refers to a kind of epistemic access that is important in scientific work with simulations.

A fresh start in ambersnail (Gastropoda: Succineidae) taxonomy: finding a foothold using a widespread species of Oxyloma

The ambersnails (Succineidae), found nearly worldwide, are considered a very challenging group to classify and identify with even genus-level identifications requiring dissection. In this study, we use mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers, shell morphometrics, and anatomical dissection to examine fresh material collected from the type localities of two nominal species in Oxyloma (Neoxyloma). We conclude from these evidence that Oxyloma salleanum (L. Pfeiffer, 1850) and Oxyloma effusum (L. Pfeiffer, 1853) are conspecific, and accordingly reduce O. effusum to the status of junior synonymy. We present a redescription of O. salleanum.

Approach towards the right to be forgotten under Turkish law in comparison with EU and US laws: a need for a reform?

This study firstly analyses the general approaches of EU and US laws to the right to be forgotten. Then, basing on the right to be forgotten, a variety of dimensions from comparative law, court practice, doctrinal views and different legal sub-branches are considered from the aspect of Turkish law. Although there is no specific provision on the right to be forgotten in Turkish law, the right has been subject to doctrinal discussions from different perspectives. It is also referred to in court judgments, specifically when an individual wishes to erase certain news, data, etc. from the digital and/or non-digital archive so they can make a fresh start to a new life. Granting that person the right to be forgotten is in terms of protecting personality rights and privacy while acknowledging that these interests may compete with rights to press freedom and freedom of expression. After scrutinising the doctrinal view and court judgments, this study concludes that considering Turkish law, certain provisions should be enacted on the right to be forgotten to ensure uniform interpretation and clarify the definition and conditions of application.