The Paris Agreement 5 Years Later: The Challenges of Climate Finance and Multilateral Development Banks

In all matters regarding climate change, the modern world presents complex challenges which highlight how investments in infrastructure have as of yet been inconclusive. The emission percentages calculated by relevant studies demonstrate the need for long-term investments in infrastructures, to ultimately reduce the impact on the environment and our health. To this end, in alignment with the principles expressed in the Paris Agreement – reducing global warming and incentivising a zero-emission transportation system – and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), these new infrastructures will require a structural change that can be guaranteed by multilateral development banks (MDBs), given their nature, especially within developing countries. MDBs play an important role in supporting local governments, on the one hand creating a prosperous environment for sustainable infrastructures and, on the other, providing innovative financial instruments that could increase the financial sector’s participation. In this paper, aft er a brief excursus on the Paris Agreement’s role in the global climatic crisis, there will be an evaluation of the relations between MDBs and climate finance, with a focus on green bonds.

Challenges of Customs Law during the Paradigm of “Facility and Security” in International Trade

Changing conditions within international trade as well as the implementation of the facilitation and security paradigm have significantly impacted the structure of customs law. Both the SAFE Framework as well as the Trade Facilitation Agreement had indicated the need to maintain a balance between regulations introducing simplifications and those ensuring safety and security. One example of such a solution is the institution of the authorised economic operator (AEO), which grants those entities opportunities to take advantage of a number of simplifications, such as the filing of the simplified customs declaration, making entries in a registry, or performing self-assessments, but, at the same time, maintains the requirement of safety and security (through a detailed audit of the enterprise before AEO certification). However, by allowing authorised economic operators to perform self-assessment in respect of goods that have entered into the customs territory of the European Union and are to be released for trade, EU legislators have created significant challenges concerning the realm of safety and security, especially concerning the institution that is the most important within that area – that of customs controls. Despite all this, its importance to safety and security remains distinctive and may be seen in the emergence of new types of customs controls which concern only this particular sphere.

Enforcement of the Obligation to Maintain Contact with a Child

A child needs contact with both parents to be able to live normally and develop properly. This contact is ensured when the parents are living together. In the event that the parents are separated, and in the event of disagreement as to maintaining contact with the child, the contact is determined by the courts. Sometimes, however, in order to enforce this contact, it is necessary to threaten or impose a financial sanction. The question arises whether such forced contact with the child fulfils its role and serves the child’s well-being.

The Adoption of International Arbitration as the Preferred ADR Process in the Resolution of International Intellectual Property Disputes

This article, which is intended for arbitration practitioners, demonstrates that international arbitration as a subset of the field of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) offers a useful toolkit for the expeditious resolution of international intellectual property law disputes. The article demonstrates how the theory and practice of international arbitration is particularly well poised to address some of the specific considerations and requirements of paramount concern to the international intellectual property lawyers and their clients. The article will explain how the inherent features of the international arbitration legal landscape combine to indicate that it should be considered as the preferred method of ADR and explain how each of these features can provide both time and cost efficiencies. The article will identify the legal reasoning behind the benefits inherent to choosing international arbitration and will also address those circumstances when international arbitration may be precluded or otherwise considered unsuitable for intellectual property matters. The article examines several distinct benefits that international arbitration uniquely offers to international intellectual property law users and highlights some areas of the field that require additional caution.

The Pandemic and Criminal Law – A Look at Theory and Practice in Germany

This article provides an overview of the topic of the pandemic from the perspective of criminal law theory and practice in Germany. First of all, the major criminal offences of bodily injury and murder are discussed in the context of infecting a person with the Coronavirus and the (possible) consequences of having Covid-19, such as risk of death. The dilemmatic situation of triage, i.e., allocating limited intensive care resources, is illustrated in relation to the same offences. Then, the more specific crimes that came to the fore in the course of the pandemic are addressed. Subsidy fraud due to the state aids intended to compensate for the financial damage in the marketplace because of pandemic-related measures, and issuance or use of incorrect health certificates for exemption from the obligation to wear a face mask fall within this scope. Finally, the administrative offences law of the German Infection Protection Act was discussed, primarily with regard to regulations that violate the principle of legal certainty.

Some Remarks on the Changes in the Polish Penal Code During the Pandemic

The study indicates the solutions introduced by the amendment to the Penal Code during the pandemic. These are the so-called anti-crisis shields - shield 1.0, shield 3.0 and shield 4.0. The primary role of these laws was to respond to the crises related to the COVID-19 epidemic. Amendments to the Penal Code were introduced in a manner inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the Regulations of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. The mere legislative change and increasing punitiveness of the criminal law system and penal policy will not significantly reduce crime. The work is of a presentative and systematising character. The assumed hypothesis boils down to the assertion that the changes to the penal code made pursuant to the so-called anti-Covid laws are irrational and introduced without the required legislative procedure. The study mainly used the formal-dogmatic method.

The Impact of the Pandemic on Economic Crime

This paper aims to outline possible directions of criminal activity that are part of both state and global economic crime. It is not a novelty that periods of economic crises carry particular criminogenic potential, affecting the scale and dynamics of specific crime categories. The ongoing pandemic makes precise data collection or statistical calculations, in the context of the problems described in this paper, difficult. Nevertheless, at this stage, it is possible to indicate certain areas which, from the perspective of criminal law, should be of interest for criminal law specialists, but also criminologists aiming to develop tools to combat the most serious pathologies in business trading.

The Juvenile Reentry Mentoring Project: Adaptations During COVID-19

Delinquent youths often do not receive the opportunity to be mentored. This is especially true for youths who have committed serious law violations or are detained for multiple law violations. In the United States, youths with the most serious offenses are often committed to detention, or rehabilitation, or treatment centers. Since 2011, the Juvenile Reentry Mentoring Project (JRMP) has matched mentors to youths detained in Nebraska Detention, and Treatment Facilities. The Nebraska Youth Rehabilitation, and Treatment Centers (YRTCs), specifically, are for youths with the highest level of needs and who have exhausted all other programs available in the community. From 2011 through February 2020, the JRMP developed as an evidence informed model for mentoring juveniles with the highest level of need and the most serious law violations. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted youths in detention and treatment centers, and mentoring programs such as the JRMP adapted to continue to meet existing and emerging needs of youths. The aim of this article is to report on the evidence-based development of the JRMP and the adaptations that were necessary for it to continue to operate during COVID-19. We close with recommendations and lessons learned from the pandemic and ways that programs can resist a return to the status quo.

Introduction of Art. 276a of the CCP as a Result of the Impact of the SARS-CoV–2 Pandemic on the Criminal Trial

One of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic (SARS-CoV–2) in the context of the impact on the Polish criminal trial was the introduction to the Code of Criminal Procedure of a new preventive measure related to the protection of medical personnel, specified in the new editorial unit – Art. 276a of the CCP. This measure was introduced by the Act of March 31, 2020, amending the Act on special solutions related to the prevention, counteraction, and combating of COVID-19, other infectious diseases and the crisis situations caused by them, and some other acts, and is a novelty in the Polish criminal procedure. The purpose of this article is to investigate a new preventive measure defined in Art. 276a of the Code of Criminal Procedure in terms of the legitimacy of its introduction to the Polish Code of Criminal Procedure. Three research problems will be analysed. The first concerns the extent to which the introduction of the new preventive measure under Art. 276a of the Code of Criminal Procedure was necessary in terms of the need to provide special protection to medical personnel in Poland. The second research problem concerns the extent to which the application of the new preventive measure under Art. 276a of the Code of Criminal Procedure corresponds to the assumptions of the Polish legislator and what is the ratio legis of the analysed regulation. The third research problem boils down to the extent to which the amendment to Art. 276a of the Code of Criminal Procedure corresponds to the rules of legislative technique.

Human Rights in the Light of the Process of Financialisation

The article deals with the challenges resulting from financialisation, in which we observe an increasing impact of the financial sphere in man’s everyday life. It also considers the effect of this process on the functioning of societies and concludes that the process of creating and applying financial market law must be redefined and human rights issues taken into account. In addition to the activity of the UN and the European Union in promoting the concept of business and human rights, the experiences of recent years show that combining human rights with financial market regulation is possible. To achieve this, however, many actors must be involved and a specific understanding of human rights and values must be adopted, and their protection should constitute the core of the legislator’s activity.