Comparative characteristic between European and Ukrainian legal mechanisms for regulating the discharges of pollutants

The article examines and compares the structures and basic norms of legal mechanisms for controlling the discharge (CD) of polluting substances (PS) from point technogenical sources into surface waters of EU and Ukrainian legislation. To analyze the systemic construction of the European CDPS and a meaningful study of its main elements, a tool has been identified, which is the chain of spreading of restrictive (limiting) legal influence, its legislative links and regulative norms. The structure and composition of this chain of European CDPS are identified, PS flows and information links between restrictive standards are studied. It is noted that the main branches of the structure of the European CDPS are technological and environmental legal influences. The second branch is additional. It complements the first one for some priority substances and it uses to limit the discharge of PS properties of the area of the water body which adjacent to the discharge of PS, the so-called mixing zones (MZ). The place and significance of the CDPS subinstitution in the European water legislation are investigated. The peculiarities of the European regulatory standards of the CDPS are determined. The comparison of the European and Ukrainian CDPSs using the scale of features that characterize the links in the chain of limiting legal influence is fulfilled. The concordance of the features of the Ukrainian CDPS to the European one was assessed by the categories: “fully compliant”, “partially compliant”, “does not contradict”, “does not comply”, “not regulated by EU legislation”. The distribution of concordance assessments testifies to the fundamental difference between the European CDPS and the Ukrainian one. The most important differences of legal discordance are investigated. It is concluded that the main difference between the two CDPS subinstitutions is that Ukrainian regulation is based only on the economic use of the assimilative capacity of the MZ. It is emphasized that the concept of MZ for more than 60 years of its actual use has not received proper legal justification in Ukrainian law. In contrast to the Ukrainian regulation, the main influence of the European CDPS is aimed at directly limiting the sources of PS. The priority changes in the water legislation of Ukraine for the implementation of the requirements of the EU legislation on CDPS, have been proposed.

THE RIGHT OF SELF-DEFENSE AND THE ORGANIC UNITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The article challenges the fashionable but finally unsupportable opinion in political and academic circles that there exists no compelling, unitary, universally resonant moral and legal justification of human rights. The argument is intimated by two overlooked passages in the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that presuppose the right of self-defense against arbitrary force, understood as both a moral and legal concept, and as relevant both to personal and collective life. It shows how the logic of defensive force underlies the three formative human rights instruments: the UDHR, and the two covenants on political, legal, economic, social, and cultural rights. The underlying claim is that good reasons of a particular kind are required to justify any use of force, a claim that makes perfect sense against the backdrop of the atrocities committed by the German fascists and their allies in the mid-twentieth century. The article also refers to compelling, if preliminary, evidence of the widespread cross-cultural acceptance of the moral and legal right of self-defense, suggesting a basis for the worldwide comprehensibility and appeal of human-rights language.

Islamic Law, Slavery, and Feelings

This article studies a fourth/tenth-century notarial model to limit and place conditions on (istirʿāʾ) the manumission of an unruly and bad-tempered female slave. The text is part of al-Wathāʾiq wa-l-sijillāt, a notarial manual compiled by Cordoban scholar Ibn al-ʿAṭṭār (d. 399/1009), the earliest edited Andalusi work of this genre. Although it is part of a chapter on slavery and, more specifically, of a section dedicated to the manumission of slaves, it is not a generic notarial text dealing with the manumission of female slaves. The document is not a manumission form, but one that complements and limits a manumission; in fact, its aim is to impede or overturn the process. The article studies this notarial model in three different contexts: (1) Andalusi kutub al-wathāʾiq, (2) Mālikī legal literature on slavery and (3) notarial model reservation testimonies. Even if, at first glance, it appears to be an unusual legal document, when analysing other Mālikī sources we observe that the text is part of a well-documented tradition with widely accepted legal justification. This model is nevertheless exceptional from a procedural point of view because its legal arguments are based on feelings and refer specifically to the slave’s personality, temperament and behaviour as the factors that motivated the legal act.

Wybrane aspekty prawne dotyczące przetwarzania danych biometrycznych pracowników

<p>Given the growing popularity of biometrics, doubts about the conditions for biometric data processing can be noticed in practice. These inaccuracies take place in various areas of law, including labour law. This article provides a theoretical discussion on the processing of special categories of data. It aims to point to the need for appropriate legal regulations to ensure the security of the processing of biometric data of employees and candidate employees. The article starts with clarifying the concept of biometric data and discusses the practical aspects of the use of biometric tools. Further on, the author analyses the legal regulations concerning the processing of biometric data in the relations between the employer as the personal data controller and the employee as the data subject. As a result of the studies carried out, a position was presented which indicates that the employer who processes biometric data of employees and candidates for employment should always find out whether he has legal justification to process the data in question. This article is one of the few studies on the processing of biometric data in Polish literature on the subject. The main purpose hereof is to present situations under the current legislation, in which the employer can process biometric data of its employees. The article is a form of universal presentation of the problem and may be of interest especially to legal practitioners.</p>

ON IMPROVING THE METHODOLOGY FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF OCCUPATIONAL MEDICAL OFFENCES

В статье приводится юридическое обоснование необходимости государственной защиты здоровья человека. Рассмотрена необходимость разработки и практического применения актуальной криминалистической методики расследования преступлений в сфере оказания медицинской помощи. Выделены основные направления для разработки этой методики. The article provides the legal justification for the need for state protection of human health. The author considers the need for practical application of forensic methodology of investigation of crimes in the field of medical care and identifies the main areas for the development of this methodology.

Personality Rights – A Universal Tool for the Recovery of Non-Pecuniary Loss

As society develops, the concept of personality rights and their legal protection gain significance over the years. Naturally, this concept is evolving as society changes, and it should protect new personal interests against infringement. At the same time, there are reported instances of granting legal protection with doubtful legal justification. In Poland, many commentators and scholars point out that the courts, in some cases, seem to use the concept of personality rights as a universal tool in order to compensate for nearly any mental distress. In this paper, I wish to present interesting examples of this "search" for new personality rights as tools to compensate the plaintiffs for non-pecuniary damages, along with some controversial cases of granting non-pecuniary damages based on questionable legal justification. Following, I will attempt to clarify the notion of non-pecuniary loss and examine whether the courts try to expand its meaning to grant legal protection to plaintiffs. My analysis will be based on Polish law, with some comparative remarks. As the problem is complex and varies according to the jurisdiction, this paper provides a general illustration of the issue at hand. Keywords: Tort law; Personality rights; Non-pecuniary damage; Non-pecuniary loss; Compensation

Legal justification and genesis of the creation of the World Trade Organization

The article reveals the regulatory, legal and political rationale for the creation of the World Trade Organization. The authors study the regulatory and legal foundations of the functioning of the World Trade Organization. The article substantiates the implementation of one of the basic principles of international law (the principle of state cooperation) within the framework of the activities of the World Trade Organization. The authors reveal the genesis of the creation of the foundations and development of the World Trade Organization, as well as the institutional transformation of the Customs Cooperation Council into the World Trade Organization.

Political Theology in Nineteenth-Century West Africa: Al-Ḥājj ʿUmar, the Bayān mā waqaʿa, and the Conquest of the Caliphate of Ḥamdallāhi

In 1862, al-Ḥājj ʿUmar Fūtī Tall (d. 1864) conquered a prominent Muslim polity of the Middle Niger valley, the Caliphate of Ḥamdallāhi. Several months earlier, he had penned a long polemical work, Bayān mā waqaʿa, where he outlined his conflict with Ḥamdallāhi's ruler, Aḥmad III (d. 1862), and presented a legal justification for his eventual conquest. Al-Ḥājj ʿUmar was one of several West African Muslim intellectuals who articulated a new vision of power in the region. These intellectuals linked legitimate political rule with mastery over Islamic knowledge that they claimed only they had. Yet these linkages between religious authority and political power remain understudied. Al-Ḥājj ʿUmar's Bayān offers one example of political theology in nineteenth-century West Africa. In this article, I trace his arguments and explain how he constructs his authority and claims to sovereignty in this work. In the process, I conceptualize two theoretical frameworks — the ‘political geography of belief’ and the ‘political theology of knowledge’ — to demonstrate how a careful engagement with Arabic sources can help develop new approaches to the study of Muslim communities in African history and beyond.

Auditors’ Duty to Respond to “Red Flags” Indicative of Overvaluation of Inventory: A Case Study of Sanchez v. Deloitte & Touche

This is a legal case study of Sanchez v. Deloitte & Touche. It covers: (a) legal elements of a securities fraud claim; (b) the effect of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act upon the pleading of an auditor’s complicity in securities fraud; (c) how SEC Rule 10b-5 affects auditors; (d) potential red flags pertaining to an audit client’s deficient inventory control system; (e) the failure of a client’s internal controls to detect a gross overvaluation of inventory; (f) the failure of an auditor to ensure that the client’s inventory is valued at the lower of cost or market, as required under General Accepted Accounting Principles; (g) the court’s decision as to whether the auditor in this case was liable for complicity in securities fraud, the court’s legal justification for the decision, and the impact of the red flags on the court’s decision.

On what Authority? In Search of a Legal Authority for Government Facilitation of "Media Ride-Along" Programmes and the Privacy Harm they Cause

Whether it be through the tort of privacy or the Broadcasting Standards Authority, involuntary subjects of reality journalism have suffered sufficient harm at their inclusion to take legal action against the media. Utilising the TV series Border Patrol as a case study, this article looks at the role that government agencies play in facilitating this harm, rather than the media which produce and broadcast these programmes. The tort of privacy is adopted in this article as a framework to examine and establish the significant risk of privacy-related harm in this area. Following the proposition that the state must act under legal authority, it is argued that government agencies must have a clear legal basis for permitting production companies to enter and film passengers in the controlled border space, particularly given the high risk of privacy breaches. There does not appear to be any legal justification or authority for facilitating access to this space. Given these agencies' public assurances regarding transparency and privacy, they should identify and publicise this legal basis, alongside documentation of their interaction and co-operation with the media production company.