The Legal Treatment of Religious Dissent in Western Europe: A Comparative View

This article examines the legal treatment of religious dissent from a comparative perspective, by focusing on the legal evolution from intolerance to toleration, and from toleration to emancipation in France, Italy, Norway and the United Kingdom. Historically, in Europe, only people professing the official religion were regarded as full members of the political community. Those who professed another religion were expelled, persecuted, discriminated or – in the best cases – merely tolerated. Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in different degrees and forms according to the country concerned, European states started separating citizenship from religious belonging – a fundamental step in the process of secularisation of law in Europe. This development led to the emancipation of religious dissenters through the recognition of both the principle of equality of all citizens before the law, regardless of one's religion or belief, and the individual right to freedom of religion and belief.

Acceso a la información pública gubernamental: ¿incentivo para la mejora administrativa? (Evaluación de una política pública transversal, frente a la gobernanza)

El presente artículo presenta un análisis pormenorizado de la evolución administrativa y legal de las políticas públicas del acceso a la información gubernamental en México y la evaluación de su vinculación con la modernización y mejora de la administración pública y el combate a la corrupción. Se sostiene que, si bien la rendición de cuentas ha generado gran cantidad de datos y se considera como un factor indispensable para la democracia, sus resultados están orientados al margen del cambio administrativo y la disminución del desorden y el abuso en la función pública, como lo muestra la persistencia de las tasas de corrupción administrativa y política. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the administrative and legal evolution of public policies on access to government information in Mexico and evaluation of its relationship with the modernization and improvement of public administration and fighting corruption. It is argued that while accountability has generated large amounts of data and is considered as an essential factor for democracy, their results are oriented outside the administrative change and the decline of disorder and abuse in the public service, as show the persistence rates of administrative and political corruption.

Restrictive measures - sanctions compliance, implementation and judicial review challenges in the common foreign and security policy of the European Union

This article provides a comprehensive overview of EU restrictive measures applicable within the EU, the competences and legal evolution which lead to the implementation of Common Foreign and Security Policy restrictive measures (CFSP sanctions), and considers procedural issues, developments in the latest case law, and the challenges of securing compliance with EU sanctions, which reach beyond the territory of the EU.

The limits of Intellectual Property: Exhaustion of rights, international trademarks and digital copyright

Strong Intellectual Property (IP) protection is a fundamental point in the establishment of a market for new products and services. IP can give significant power to the owner of intangible assets in financing, manufacturing or in general commercial transactions. However, as with any sort of power, too much of it can have detrimental effects. This work provides a discussion on the limits of IP by examining the exhaustion of rights doctrine. The paper briefly presents the legal evolution of the doctrine for trademarks and digital copyright. A discussion follows on the controversial concept of international exhaustion and on the most important points of digital exhaustion.