Towards a Standardized Definition of Medical Nutrition Therapy and Regulatory Reform in Canada

Various definitions have been proposed to describe Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT). Broadly, MNT encompasses the provision of nutrition information and advice aimed to prevent, treat, and/or manage health conditions. In Canada, the provision of such information and advice is unregulated, thus allowing anyone to provide MNT services regardless of their education and training. This inevitably poses risks of harm such as the provision of unsafe and/or ineffective nutrition advice as well as delayed evidence-based treatment. Canadian research has further demonstrated that the general public is unable to properly differentiate between regulated, evidence-based nutrition providers (registered dietitians) and those who are unregulated. Therefore, the public is at risk. To reduce nutrition misinformation and ultimately improve the health and well-being of the public, the objective of this paper is, first, to propose a standardized definition of MNT for use across Canada and, second, to propose province- and territory-specific legislative amendments for the regulation of MNT throughout the country. We also present an opposing perspective to the proposed viewpoint. Ultimately, health care regulation across the country requires an overhaul before we expect that nutrition information and advice communicated to the public may be consistently evidence based.

A Critical Assessment of Pertinent Locus Standi Features of the Derivative Remedy under Zimbabwe's New Companies and Other Business Entities Act

The importance and contribution of derivative litigation to the effectiveness and credibility of a jurisdiction's corporate governance system is indisputable. There is a positive correlation between good corporate governance practices, which include shareholders’ rights, and investors’ return on their investments. On the one hand, an overly pro-shareholder derivative scheme is vulnerable to abuse and results in unnecessary interference with company management. This may, in turn, discourage directors from entrepreneurial risk-taking and undermine enterprise efficiency. On the other hand, a complex and ineffective system of derivative litigation protects errant directors and decreases investor confidence. This article is a critical assessment of Zimbabwe's recently adopted statutory derivative remedy. The analysis focuses on five locus standi-related aspects of the new statutory derivative regime. The article highlights some major weaknesses within Zimbabwe's statutory remedy and proposes pertinent legislative amendments.

Human rights violations by war crimes: Theory and practice

This paper provides a comprehensive study of theoretical and practical issues of violation of human rights by war crimes, protection of legitimate interests of individuals in national and international law as a result of such violation. The purpose of this study is a comprehensive analysis of theoretical and applied issues related to the protection of violated rights and legitimate interests of individuals in public international law as a result of the commission of war crimes, and the formulation of scientifically sound proposals for improving the current legislation of Ukraine and the practice of its application in this area. The paper analyses the current scientific opinions and legislation on the regulation of illegal acts and liability for damage caused to victims as a result of violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms by war crimes. Furthermore, the existing forms, methods, and means of protecting the rights and legitimate interests of such persons in Ukraine and in the international arena were determined. The paper also provides a comprehensive study of the existing concept, legal nature and main features of war crimes and their legal regulation in Ukrainian legislation. Legislative amendments to the regulations governing this issue are proposed and the study justifies the position regarding the existence of an exclusively judicial procedure for resolving issues of human rights violations by war crimes, the result of which should be the adoption of a court decision. As a result of the study, the current scientific statements and achievements are clearly identified, as well as those that have emerged due to the constant development of public relations and substantial changes in international relations of various states, which causes armed conflicts and war crimes. One of the achievements of the scientific study is the proof of the importance of the problem of violated human rights in modern society and the extreme need for its research. After all, modern legislation requires substantial changes and improvement of the existing provisions with the subsequent possibility of their practical application

Thailand’s Law on Criminal Online Falsehoods: A Critical Discussion

This article critically discusses the Thai criminal law applicable to online falsehoods, namely Section 14 para. 1(1) and (2) of the Act on Computer-Related Offences. Linking developments in Thailand to global and Southeast Asian fake news discourses, the article’s main part sheds light on several interpretational and constitutional complexities. Conflicting concepts of falsity and an uncertain ambit of protected interests are found to persist despite legislative amendments. As the right to freedom of expression in principle also protects false factual statements, recent constitutional jurisprudence on the principle of proportionality is applied to evaluate the prescribed level of criminal punishment. The article provides an in-depth analysis that contributes to the evolving scholarship on the challenges of regulatory responses to fake news.

Integracija poslova ureda državne uprave u županijsku upravu: dosadašnji rezultati

In January 2020, the county state administration offices, as former first-instance state administration bodies, ceased to operate. By legislative amendments of October 2019, most of their tasks were transferred to the counties’ delegated scope of affairs. The paper presents the peculiarities of the legal regime of delegated scope of affairs and it introduces the organizational forms that the counties are using in order to perform the delegated tasks. The first results of the abolition of county administrative offices are evaluated on the basis of semi-structured interviews conducted with the heads of county administration bodies responsible for general administration affairs. The results obtained so far are classified into three categories. The first category consists of the positive results of this organizational change: better material rights of employees, better working conditions and unchanged or slightly improved position of citizens. The second category consists of the negative results: weaker control exercised by the central government and the loss of control over general acts of units of local self-government. The third category consists of open questions: whether there will be a new increase in the number of employees, or whether their current reduction will affect the quality of work; what is the position of the county governor and whether politicization will increase; what is the future role of counties and whether there can be inequality in the performance of delegated state tasks between counties. The paper represents the basis for further evaluation studies on the abolition of county state administration offices and opens the doors for further research.

Do no harm in due process – a historical analysis of social determinates of institutionalization in the USA

Involuntary hospitalization has been a fundamental function of psychiatric care for mentally ill persons in the USA for centuries. Procedural and judicial practices of inpatient psychiatric treatment and civil commitment in the USA have served as a by-product of socio-political pressures that demanded constant reform throughout history. The origin of modern commitment laws can best be understood through the lens of cultural paradigms that led to their creation and these suggest caution for future legislative amendments.

The Struggle for Class Ranks and Prosecutor’s Dress during Ukrainian Independence: Historical, Legal, and Cultural Perspectives

This article is devoted to the problem of confrontation between researchers about the dress of Ukrainian prosecutors and whether prosecutors should have class ranks (special ranks, equated to military ranks and providing bonuses to salaries). This confrontation has lasted for more than 10 years. Ukrainian MPs have proposed legislative amendments to solve this problem, but the approaches of the proposals are in opposition to each other. According to the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Prosecutor’s Office’ of 19 September 2019, the Ukrainian Parliament, at the ninth convocation, completely abolished the class ranks and military-like dress of prosecutors. At the same time, a Draft Law on their restoration is being considered by the current session of the same parliament, and the initiators call their abolishment a ‘premature mistake’. Regardless of the consequences of the consideration of this Draft Law, this issue may not be resolved in the near future in Ukraine, as it is an integral part of the worldview and culture of the pro-Western or Eurasian vector of the prosecutor’s office. The aim of the present piece of legal scholarship is to provide a report that is as informative as possible on the consistency between class ranks, prosecutor’s dress, and the principles of justice, the functions of the prosecutor, and his/her role in the justice system in comparison with the approaches of other states. Moreover, it is important to advise the legislative initiatives, and the voice of parliamentarians since this issue has gained traction in the professional environment and in society. The author analysed the issue of prosecutor’s dress and class ranks in relation to various aspects – constitutional functions and roles of prosecutors, procedural law, comparative law, international law, incentive, as well as psychological, value-philosophical, cultural, and deontological aspects, etc. The prosecutor’s dress code of the Council of Europe’s 47 member states has been clarified; it was found that only prosecutors from Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia have the military dress; in other countries, prosecutors wore a robe or business suit. Periods of transformation of the prosecutor’s office had taken place in all the post-Soviet republics as a part of their European integration processes – Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as Georgia and Moldova, abandoned the military dress of prosecutors as associate members of the EU. The remuneration system of prosecutors in Poland and Germany is analysed in detail, where seniority, experience, qualifications, and position are taken into account in the ‘rates’ (Poland) or ‘R levels’ (Germany) of the basic salary of prosecutors. ‘Rates’ and ‘R levels’ are important only for calculating wages and are not analogous to class ranks.

Why Defend Something I Don’t Agree with? Conflicts within the Commission and Legislative Amendments in Trilogues

This article aims to examine the effect of intra-institutional conflicts in the European Commission on the extent of changes made to legislative proposals in trilogue negotiations. We develop and test three hypotheses related to how conflicts within the Commission, namely that intra-institutional disagreements during policy formulation (h1), and potential conflicts with previous (h2) or subsequent (h3) colleges of commissioners, increase the number of amendments to the Commission’s proposal adopted in trilogues. To test our hypotheses, we use a new dataset measuring the number of changes between Commission proposals and adopted legislation for 216 legislative acts negotiated between 2012 and 2019 by means of text-mining techniques. It is important to note that we control for differences between the Commission’s proposals and the co-legislators’ positions in order to distinguish between an effect on preferences anticipation and on the negotiations proper. Our results indicate that intra-institutional conflicts affect the Commission’s anticipation of the co-legislators’ positions. The effect on its behaviour in trilogues, that is, after the legislative proposal has been tabled, is less clear. Regarding the latter, only the number of Directorates-General involved is significantly linked with the number of amendments tabled. These findings suggest that while intra-institutional disagreements affect the Commission’s role in trilogues, the range of preferences is more important than the intensity of conflicts.

The Doctrine and Legal Positions Developed by the Courts in Theft of Someone’s Property Cases

The paper considers the legal positions developed by the courts in cases of theft of someone’s property. The author is critical of the concept of "judicial doctrine", believing that the courts in essence cannot create a doctrine (theory, science), but notes the significant role of the legal positions of the courts in the formation and development of the doctrine (theory) of theft. The purpose of the work is to find an answer to the question of whether the legal positions of the courts on the application of the legal definition of theft in practice remain relevant (note 1 to Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), as well as the doctrine about this crime and its elements. Having studied various points of view contained in the scientific literature, as well as the positions of the courts, including those expressed in individual decisions of the highest judicial instance of the country, the author concludes that neither the legal definition of theft nor the doctrine of it has lost its relevance. We should not be talking about the "revision" of legal and scientific structures or the "collapse of the system", but about the crisis of practice and doctrine due to the uncertainty associated with the emergence of new property goods and objects (virtual assets, digital rights, etc.) and forms of encroachment on property that are not covered by any of the features of theft. For this reason, in the absence of answers to the challenges that have arisen, controversial decisions are made in judicial and investigative practice, and contradictory recommendations are proposed in the scientific literature. According to the author, the crisis that has arisen can be solved by introducing legislative amendments to Chapter 21 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation aimed at forming norms on new property crimes against property that do not contain elements of theft of someone’s property.

THE CHALLENGES OF HIGNER EDUCATION IN THE CONTEXT OF REMOTE STUDIES: LEGAL REGULATION AND PRACTICE

Technologies are becoming an integral component of study process. Opportunities brought by digitalisation in the field of education are not at variance with the right to education and conform to the right to exploit the achieved scientific and technical progress for enhancing human life and welfare; moreover, there no grounds for asserting that knowledge and skills acquired remotely are at a lower level than the results of face-to-face learning. However, to develop a uniform understanding and create a stable legal basis for the evolution of remote studying, legislative amendments that would define remote studying and set forth related requirements are needed.The aim of the research is the analysis of remote studies as a form and practice of education, evaluating the provisions of regulatory enactments in order to find out its admissibility and compliance with the right to education.The research uses document analysis, as well as methods of interpretation of legal norms and induction-deduction method, drawing conclusions and making proposals for improving regulatory enactments and practice of higher education establishments.However, there exist various interpretations of the content of remote studies. The management of higher education establishments are also discussing the construction of the term ‘contact hour’ provided in the Law on Higher Education Institutions, including remote studying that at least partially duplicates distance and open learning and additional requirements concerning the organisation of the remote study process.