Statutory Bar on the Right to Exercise a Mortgage Under the Conditions Applicable in the Slovak Republic and Comparison with the Legal Regulation of the Czech Republic

Based on the analysis and comparison of legal regulation and existing case law, the authors present in the paper their opinion on the issue of deleting mortgage with statute-barred claim from public records (Land Registry). The Slovak legal regulation, in contrast with the Czech one, does not include an explicit provision enabling the deletion of mortgage with statute-barred claim from Land Registry. Taking into consideration the aspect of justice, the authors reached the conclusion that even without a normative platform, it is necessary to allow the mortgagor to apply to court to determine that the real estate is not mortgaged and subsequently use the court’s decision as a basis for deletion. However, since the courts decide in this case, using judicial activism, knowingly contrary to the purpose and content of the institute of statutory bar, the authors consider it essential that legislation be adopted as soon as possible to regulate this situation.

Acceleration of Labour Cost Along with Deceleration of Productivity: How the Slovak Manufacturing Lost the Advantage of Low Unit Labour Cost

The recent development in the Slovak economy erased a significant competitive advantage of manufacturing – low labour cost. The paper analyses the driving factors of rising unit labour costs in the manufacturing sector. The paper aims to explain why the unexpectedly rapid loss of traditional competitive advantage took place in the group of V4 countries and why this phenomenon was particularly pronounced in Slovakia. The paper identifies the driving factors that caused a strong increase in labour costs in addition to factors that also caused a slowdown in productivity growth. The decomposition of ULC dynamics has shown that the primary problem in the case of Slovakia is a very significant slowdown in labour productivity growth. Especially, from a marginal perspective, the components of gross value added developed strongly in favour of increasing compensations of employees. The decrease in the working-age population represented a significant driving force of increasing labour cost (wages) along with a halt in productivity growth caused by relatively low investment rate and absence of convergence in capital-to-labour ratio. Such development was identified in all V4 countries; however, the least favourable trend took place in Slovakia.

Regional Differences in Revenues from Local Taxes in Comparison to the Socio-Economic Level of the Regions of the Slovak Republic

The aim of the article is to reveal regional differences in revenues from local taxation and to compare the development of local government taxation ratios with selected socio-economic indicators within the NUTS III regions in the Slovak Republic. The paper points out the regional differences in local tax revenues in relation to total tax revenues, own current revenues, and total current expenditures with regard to the socio-economic level of the regions. We measure regional disparities through the coefficient of variation and the socio-economic level of regions through the composite index created from selected socioeconomic indicators of the respective regions. Results indicate that the social and economic performance of regions had an impact on revenues from taxation by local governments. We observe a declining trend of the monitored indicators from west to north-east of the country.

Good Regulation Reflects Words in Action

Given the impossibility of binary “yes” and “no” classical general legal rules to anticipate and address the future path of law, this paper imitates the adaptive human nature and frames future legal actions on it. Given this human trait, this paper presents some predispositions for substance and actions that are based on the systemic/cybernetic approach. The latter prioritises values, goals and their weights, with controllable thresholds that, based on feedback loops between events, facts, and intentions, activate different preestablished (legal) scenarios. The paper develops new responses to changed conditions (responsiveness, adaptability, agility and robustness); the first are needed in the law due to inevitability of dynamic changes to present some adaptive regulatory techniques, which could be implemented in practical systems. The paper concludes that such techniques can be used in the law used as sunset clauses, legal experiments, emergent strategies, negative scenarios, adaptable norms, Henry VII clauses, public opinion within collective intelligence and legal experiments. They all can address changed conditions in the environment.

Towards a New Global Development Paradigm and Restructuring the Economy Into a Sustainable

The current economy transcends the boundaries of sustainability, threatens the quality of life on Earth and, ultimately, of the man himself, which requires its restructuring to a sustainable one. The unsustainability of the development of society, which causes the development of the economy in a global environment, is revealed by theoretical research based on qualitative analysis of texts and documents. Subsequently, the need to change the paradigmatic basis of economic theory is explained and a new model of economy – sustainable economy – is outlined. Using logical methods and comparison of basic axioms, postulates and based on the prediction of further development, the study emphasizes that moving towards a more sustainable future presupposes the replacement of neoclassical paradigm by a new paradigm – the paradigm of sustainable development. Restructuring the economy into a sustainable one will be based on this paradigm, as confirmed by some of the outlined new economic theories and initiatives.

Parental Leave in the Czech Republic and Slovakia – Where Is It More Favourable to Become a Father?

The article deals with the position of the child’s father in labour relations. The comparative analysis of legislation in the Czech Republic and Slovakia is based not only on labour law, but also on social security law and anti-discrimination law. The authors aim to point out the difference in treatment and answer the fundamental research question – In which country is it easier for a man to reconcile work and family responsibilities?

Interest Limitation Rule Under ATAD: Case of the Czech Republic

The anti-tax avoidance directive (ATAD) implemented in the EU countries in 2019 has brought, among other things, a common rule for tax-deductibility of exceeding borrowing costs of corporate taxpayers – the interest limitation rule. For interest limitation, the Czech Republic had so far used the so-called safe haven thin capitalisation rule. With the implementation of ATAD, companies need to test not only the thin capitalisation rule but also the new interest limitation rule according to ATAD. This paper aims to review the impact of the new interest limitation rule on the 200 largest Czech companies by their 2017 revenue as recorded in the Albertina database. Results covering the new rules, i.e. following the ATAD implementation, are being compared to the situation before the implementation. Most of the analysed companies seem unaffected by the new interest limitation rule. The analysis also showed that most of the analysed companies do not imply exceeding borrowing costs, either before or following the ATAD implementation.

National Security Review of Foreign Investments in Hungary

Screening mechanisms as investment policy measures keep gaining importance worldwide. In October 2018, the Hungarian Parliament also adopted rules on the national security review of foreign investments. This paper intends to present the newly introduced Hungarian screening mechanism which is applicable from 1st January 2019. The goal of this article is to determine how the established Hungarian FDI system can be typified, integrated into an existing regulatory model, or whether it carries elements of a multi-layered system, possibly providing a completely new approach to FDI. We conclude that Hungarian new rules on foreign investment control have become more transparent and coherent than in the past. Nonetheless the review process suffers from a number of shortcomings that may hinder the full accomplishment of the predictability and the effectiveness.

Does Monetary Union Membership Affect Convergence in the European Union?

The objective of the article is to investigate the effects of the stage of integration on convergence in the European Union. The relationships between the selected macro-economic variables and per capita GDP growth rate are econometrically tested for the period 2004–2018 and three sub-periods: the pre-crisis period 2004–2008, the crisis period 2009–2013, and the post-crisis period 2014–2018. Convergence is estimated using ordinary least squares (OLS) semi-log regression based on cross-sectional data. The findings show that convergence rates range between 1.9 percent and 4.8 percent. The positive effects of deeper integration are identified, as well as the negative effects of the 2008/2009 crisis. The empirical results suggest that the selected variables have an impact on the per capita GDP growth rate in at least one analyzed period.

Effect of Gender Differences and Other Factors on Remuneration of Employees in EU Countries

The aim of the paper is to verify gender income differences and to reveal factors influencing differences in remuneration. Gender income differences across the EU range from 6% in Romania to 27% in the Czech Republic. Data from 178,878 employees filtered from the EU-SILC database were used for calculations. Stepwise regression analysis was used to identify factors that affect gender income differences. The greatest effect was shown in the “Absolute Income”, then the “Job Change in the Last Year” factor, but the “Education” and “Age” showed a strongly negative tendency. Extraordinary attention is devoted to the effect of the “Job sector” factor, which also significantly contributes to the difference in income. Different representation of gender appears in different industries, which can be caused by preferences and be a consequence of persisting society-wide stereotypes. Social policies are not in line with changes in society and lag behind the development of society.