Implementation of the recommendations of the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights in the Brazilian constitutionalism: proposals and perspectives

Based on the study of some Brazilian cases submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, this article aims to identify proposals to overcome common Latin- American challenges in the implementation of international recommendations. In the first part, in a retrospective analysis, several emblematic Brazilian cases and their domestic impacts and changes are addressed. In a second part, with a prospective view guided by the domestic contributions to which the Inter-American System is oriented, highlights the current system’s challenges. At this stage, proposals to overcome challenges are outlined, especially regarding the obstacles to implement the Commission’s recommendations, where the main results of the article arise. The reason for this study stands on the conviction that the compliance with international recommendations is the element that guarantees the exercise of the transformative potential of Human-Rights Systems. With the methodological research based on a bibliographical research and case law, the role of the Inter-American Commission is redesigned in the light of a dialogical triad composed by the organs of the International System, the States constitutionalism and organised civil society.

Instant democracy: a look forward to the EU’s digital future

Democracy’s resilience is being put to the test by the 21st century. The impactof globalisation and digitalisation has disenfranchised many but so have traditional democratic practices. In an era of constant and immediate communication, with society embracing technological advances while struggling to cope with its inadvertent effects, democracy is still tethered to traditional practices that limit citizens’ roles to casting their ballots every few years. However, theory is now being put to the test and experiments with digital democracy are popping up across the globe. In this article, we cover three participative democracy instruments, namely the European Citizens Initiative, e-Voting and e-Participatory Budgeting, delving into their potential and identifying their limitations, in the context of the European Union. We also cover the unforeseen threats to democracy posed by information security issues and social media.

Personal data protection and access to information: interfaces of Civil Society role in Brazilian legislative process

The relationship between access to information and personal data protection leads to the relativization of transparency under the argument of a false tradeoff between these two concepts. Based on that, this study’s objective is to understand the role of civil society movements in maintaining the rights of access to information and personal data protection. This research made a qualitative analysis, with a documentary survey and bibliographic review of the main categories presented in the Executive-Legislative relationship and in the theme of advocacy. We observe the role of civil society lobby groups in the Brazilian Access to Information Law legislative process, between 2003 and 2011, and the Brazilian Data Protection Act, between 2012 and 2018, perceive the change of these groups with the foundation of Rights in Network Coalition, in 2016. As a result, the active participation of Civil Society in public hearings has intensified increasingly in public hearings since 2018, specifically on the LGPD, while LAI had participation of civil society in the body’s scope institutionalized.

Health and Artificial Intelligence in the context of COVID-19 and beyond

This article introduces the main relevant aspects of ehealth or “digital health.” In this regard, by way of an introduction, the concept of health is addressed. In the second section, the core of this article, different aspects regarding the relationship between health and technology (HealthTech) are highlighted. Next, the importance of technology in order to deliver a preventive and personalized medicine, tailor-made to each patient, is addressed. Then, in the fourth section, some discriminatory situations that may arise due to not being able to access technology are discussed. Finally, I make some remarks regarding the so-called “Internet of Bodies".

Local and regional power: its role in European Integration and the protection of the rule of law

A failure in administrative approximation, as established by the EU Treaties, tends towards the perpetuation of systems that keep an organisational statu quo favorable to the stagnation of European integration by limiting its spread beyond urban areas to rural areas. The phenomena of asymmetric economic development within Member States, in turn, allows for the maintenance of this organisational and integrative inertia in highly centralised Member States, serving as a one of the engines for the development of anti-EU sentiment and vote. In this sense the reasoning behind the establishment of local and regional power as a constitutional bulwark against the development of an illiberal or authoritarian list, especially in young democracies, becomes especially important when framed in context with the growth of authoritarian anti-EU movements throughout Europe. This growth, finding an eager bulwark in rural areas, is not coincidental and might be attributed to the distance from the decision-making process that local and regional government struggle with, combined with economic stagnation and difficulties in the use of resources and opportunities that are theoretically afforded by EU membership, leads to the development of anti-EU sentiment, offering political support and democratic legitimacy to projects which oppose the EU and prove detrimental to democratic systems. This paper therefore posits that to safeguard the development of the greater European project and democracy within Member States, there must be an expansion of the very same principles that govern the interactions between Member States and the EU to the subnational level, with a special focus on subsidiarity.

A consensus solution for the taxation of the digital economy

The taxation of the digital economy is not a new subject but its fast development demands a solid solution for this new way of doing business and generating profit and growth. The solution for this problem should be achieved at a global level, which has turned out to be a complex task. Therefore, the work we aim to do here is to identify and expose the path that has been followed by the international community (in general), and by the European Union, in particular, for the taxation of profits of companies with a significant digital presence and to what extent the lack of an unambiguous solution, within the Union, may condition its own objectives. But achieving a consensual solution comes with a bigger problem: is the unanimity rule established for tax policies, where decisions are taken by a special legislative procedure, suited for the European Union’s goal for a strong and dynamic single market, capable of competing with the world’s leading economies?

European Climate Law – real changes or postponed future?

One cannot question the scientific evidence of the deterioration of the planet’s environmental quality and the global climate emergency. The apparent growth of denialism in the climate debate does not bring anything positive. The European Green Deal (“EGD”) appeared as a consolidated strategy to fight climate change, but the world is not the same as it was in December 2019. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, there were doubts about the viability of such a powerful political and financial investment. As we try to deal with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and guide our economies to recovery, risks of diversion or misuse of these environmental funds seemed possible. Fortunately, environmental common sense seems to have prevailed. In an unforeseen but potentially happy marriage, the Recovery Plan for Europe and the EGD were united in their purposes and in their concrete action. The European Climate Law (“ECL”) is the first binding legal instrument born of the EGD. With a non-mishap-free preparation process, the final version provokes contradictory feelings. First, the perception that one could have gone further is inescapable. On the other hand, what is already acquired is relevant and Europe is unlikely to go back on this essential matter. There are innovations in the ECL that significantly altered the Commission’s original proposal, introducing new elements. But while some of these changes appear to have been forced by the new circumstances, others may be proof that Member States do not have the same predisposition to deal with the objectives of the EGD and the fight against climate change. The safest way to contradict this inclination is to strengthen the ECL as a key tool in the implementation of the European Union’s environmental and policy strategy.

The European response to the COVID-19 crisis at the regional level and its effects on the shaping of the new European Cohesion Policy

This paper focuses on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions on the EU’s Cohesion Policy. We will analyse the regional and territorial problems created by the COVID-19 crisis and the influences it had on the new developments of the Cohesion Policy. The evolution of the Cohesion Policy will be addressed, particularly the development of conditionality. The developments on the European Multiannual Financial Framework and the regional policy following the recent developments of the European response to the COVID-19 crisis and the new role of Regions will also be examined. The aim of the paper is to identify and characterise the effects of the pandemic on the European Regions and its repercussions for the development of the new Cohesion Policy and its governance model. The need for a more flexible Cohesion Policy and the opportunities afforded to the Regions and the evolution of the European Union Multilevel Governance Framework, that come from the recent developments on the proposed European Recovery Plan are also reflected

Digitalisation, pandemics and current world (2019-2021)

The new millennium saw the collapse of the real estate bubble in the United States and, together with other variables such as the high price of raw materials, a major global economic crisis began in October 2008. In 2011, as a result of the confluence of technologies and connected objects (Internet of Things) sparked thoughts that, we began to speak the Fourth Industrial Revolution. On 31 December 2019, pneumonia of unknown origin was discovered in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, P.R. China. This unexpected event is being a driver of the great digital transformation of the world that began after the 2008 crisis.