The mid-nineteenth century’s leading Conservative and pre-eminent Radical politicians (Disraeli and Cobden) at first glance have little in common save for the year of their birth in 1804, the legacy of major scholarly editions of their letters and both having been the subject of 21st-century exhibitions (Oxford, 2004 and Manchester, 2023). Only one letter between the two survives, an indication of their personal, social, and political distance but in their lifetimes, each acted as a constant symbolic antitype for the other. Disraeli’s ‘Young England’ novels (and celebrated visits to Manchester, in part organized by Cobden) pointedly sought to regenerate the ideal of aristocratic government in the heart of industrial Britain, while his linguistic invention of the ‘Manchester school’ found its personification in the Radical manufacturer and leader of the Anti-Corn Law League, Richard Cobden. Their political confrontation within and outside Parliament neatly encapsulated the rivalry between land and industry, protection and free trade, aristocracy and middle-class identity, the territorial constitution and the ‘commercial principle’, national greatness or cosmopolitan utopianism, rule by the ‘gentlemen of England’ or its subversion by the Manchester-led democratic tide. This study of two preeminent Victorian politicians, rarely if ever paired together, yields therefore unexpected insights into ideological conflict and political practice as well as their artistic representation.
SOMMARIO: 1. La relativizzata preclusione pro iudicato del decreto ingiuntivo
definitivo dopo la sentenza della CGUE Banco di Desio. – 2. La complessiva ragionevolezza delle soluzioni prospettate dalla Corte di cassazione sul rafforzamento dell’istruttoria monitoria e sulla possibilità per il consumatore di far valere, anche oltre il termine per l’opposizione ex art. 645 c.p.c., l’abusività delle clausole presenti nel titolo negoziale posto a fondamento del credito. – 3. La portata eversiva del lento ma inesorabile movimento dei giudici del Kirchberg verso la consapevole fruizione delle nullità di protezione da parte del
consumatore: scenari futuribili.
In the Fiduciary Guarantee Law, there are provisions regarding the execution of fiduciary guarantee objects in article 15. Initially, the Fiduciary Guarantee Law gave executorial power to fiduciary guarantee certificates. This means that creditors can execute fiduciary collateral objects without going to court. However, this provision has been canceled by the Constitutional Court in Decision Number 18/PUU-XVII/2019. The Constitutional Court's decision states that the provisions regarding the executorial power of fiduciary guarantee certificates are contrary to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. This is because these provisions give too broad authority to creditors to execute fiduciary collateral objects without going through court. For this reason, it is necessary to know the legal protection for debtors because in fiduciary guarantees, creditors are superior to debtors. This research method uses a normative method with a statutory approach.
En el artículo se examinan, en general y con especial referencia al derecho chileno, primero, el error-vicio provocado por el incumplimiento de la obligación de informar al consumidor financiero, y segundo, los requisitos de dicho error, consistentes en que debe ser determinante y excusable (con énfasis en el comportamiento del proveedor y la situación del consumidor).
Public Relations (PR), a significant component of the media industry, also represents a management function that helps establish and maintain beneficial connections between the organization and various stakeholders. The evolution of the public relations profession is commonly perceived as a qualitative shift from the unethical practices that dominated several decades since the 1920s to strategically and ethically conducted campaigns in contemporary business. However, when considering the practice of PR in the first decades of the 21st century, numerous concerns arise regarding ethical dilemmas, conflicts, and, consequently, the ethical decisionmaking process. The main objective of this paper is to offer an overview of ethics and its development in PR. The application of ethical principles based on utilitarian, deontological, situational and virtue approaches is discussed. This study also analyzes the most frequently encountered ethical problems in contemporary PR practice. Finally, the paper delves into some models of the ethical decision-making process and discusses the legal consequences of PR.
The use of recurrent neural networks ( $RNN\text{s}$ ) to utilize measurements from commercial microwave links ( $CML\text{s}$ ) has recently gained attention. Whereas previous studies focused on the performance of methods for wet–dry classification, here we propose an RNN algorithm for estimating the rain-rate. We empirically analyzed the proposed algorithm, using real data, and compared it with the traditional power-law (PL)-based algorithm, commonly used for estimating rain from CML attenuation measurements. Our analysis shows that the data-driven RNN algorithm, when properly trained, outperforms the PL algorithm in terms of accuracy. On the other hand, the PL algorithm is simpler and more robust when dealing with a large variety of corruptions and adverse conditions. We then introduced a time normalization (TN) layer for controlling the trade-off between performance and robustness of the RNN methods, and demonstrated its performance.
Receiving contributions from a large number of people is by no means a new method of financing an activity. Popular examples go back to Pullitzer’s campaign to finance the statue of liberty’s pedestal in 1885 and Alexander Pope’s translation of Homer’s Illiad in 1713. With the emergence of the internet and its widespread integration in households it has become possible for fundraisers to reach many more investors. One of the first to harness the power of crowdfunding over the internet was the British rock band Marillion who, in 1996, raised USD 60,000 to finance their tour of the United States using crowdfunding in 1996. Since then, a lot has happened in terms of the number of crowdfunding products, platforms and the amount of money raised. The number of investors engaged in crowdfunding increases, and so too does the number of legislative initiatives and amount of research attention devoted to it.
On 13 April 2021 we established the CLEAR research group at Aalborg University. The group has as its declared mission to undertake the study of legal phenomena in crowdfunding and to communicate relevant, research-based knowledge to actors in the field - investors, entrepreneurs, representatives from crowdfunding platforms, and public authorities.
Collaboration is in the CLEAR group’s DNA. Hence, we asked a number of crowdfunding scholars and practitioners from around the world to provide us with their views on current legal issues pertaining to crowdfunding. We have held talks with numerous crowdfunding enthusiasts and practitioners and in the end, twelve authors decided to join us in our efforts to increase focus on legal research in crowdfunding through the publication of this special issue of Nordic Journal of Commercial Law.
Knowing that the legal aspects of crowdfunding are many, and that crowdfunding and law as a research area is in its infancy, we thought it important to give each author free hands in choosing their topic and perspective in their article. Hence, you will find articles addressing a wide range of issues in crowdfunding in this special issue. I thank all authors for their thought-provoking contributions.
I would also like to mention PhD fellow Cecilie Højvang Christensen, research assistant Stefano Cattelan, student assistant Signe Lyngholm Lindbjerg, and student assistant Anna Risgaard Lindbjerg, and to thank them for their contribution in establishing the CLEAR research group at Aalborg University and their assistance in preparing this special issue of the Nordic Journal of Commercial Law.
Thomas Neumann
Chair of the CLEAR research group on crowdfunding
www.theCLEARproject.dk
This Paper examines the most important innovations in the recently adopted European Directive 2019/2161 on better enforcement and modernisation of Union consumer protection rules. First, by adding the innovative rules, such as the ones on the trustworthiness of online reviews, the Directive aims to adapt the European regulatory framework on consumer protection to the challenges and particularities of the digital age and the digital market. Second, through the sharp rise of the fines for breach of consumer law and through the introduction of a mandatory individual remedy to the consumers who has been a victim of unfair commercial practices, the Directive substantially contributes to strengthening of the general enforcement mechanism of EU consumer law and achievement of high level of consumer protection.
Branchless banking is a new system which is implemented by banks in Indonesia
with aims to provide services to rural communities in order to access banking
services such as lending or deposit money in the bank through an intermediary
agent. At first the rural communities are hard to obtain banking facilities such as
micro-credit whereas economic activities are largely actuated by lower-class
sector therefore the Financial Services Authority or Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK)
issued the regulation number. 19/POJK.03/2014 about the financial services
without office in the framework of financial inclusion on November 18, 2014 to
face it. In this regulation, there are several things that need to be reviewed such
assessment accountability arrangements of agent as a third party who is not
clearly regulated whereas according to some research there are some risk in the
mechanism of implementation like as potential of fraud due to the using of agent
in this system. Though basically branchless banking is one of the strategic
national strategies to provide financing to small businesses in rural areas in order
to increase the competitiveness of products to compete in the ASEAN economic
community. Therefore, a legal instrument that can ensure and provide legal
certainty in branchless banking system is a very important thing, more over
branchless banking is the strategic of government to develop the quality of the
rural economy to face the ASEAN economic community.
In this paper, the effects of the recent global financial crisis on efficiency and profitability of financial institutions were analyzed. In a comparative study, the impacts of the global financial crisis on the performance of Islamic and commercial banks were examined. The fundamental difference between Islamic and conventional banking is that Islamic banking is founded upon the ethical principles of Islamic tradition and law (Sharia). By utilizing a sample of eight Islamic banks and eleven commercial banks, the impact of the global financial crisis on efficiency and profitability of the banking sector was evaluated. This study covered the period from 2006 to 2013. The results of this research were obtained from the Altman Z-score model, ratio analysis, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method, and the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model. The results show that during the study period, Islamic banks (IBs) managed to maintain their efficiency while most commercial banks (CBs) suffered a loss in their efficiency. Furthermore, this study found that the financial crisis did not have a significant impact on the profitability of Islamic banks.
Actualmente, el sistema pensional en Colombia se encuentra en un déficit financiero, ya que, solo para el año 2017, se necesitaron 33,2 billones de pesos para pensiones del Presupuesto de Gastos, de un estimado de 224,4 billones para el Presupuesto General de la Nación (PGN). Es decir, casi el 15% del PGN es destinado a sufragar el rubro de pensiones. La Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE) ha reportado en su evaluación económica sobre Colombia que, a pesar de los avances en las políticas macroeconómicas del sistema fiscal, el país todavía se enfrenta al reto de reducir la desigualdad de los ingresos que reciben las personas. Por lo tanto, la OCDE considera que Colombia debe diseñar una política económica que permita reestructurar su sistema fiscal, gravando todo tipo de ingresos exorbitantes recibidos por cada persona natural para que haya más justicia redistributiva y se materialice verdaderamente el principio de equidad, empezando a gravar, por ejemplo, todas las mesadas altas que reciben los adultos mayores por concepto de pensiones. Sin embargo, con la Ley 1819 de 2016, por medio de la cual se pretende adoptar una reforma tributaria estructural, las pensiones no fueron afectadas y siguen siendo un ingreso exento hasta un monto equivalente a 1.000 UVT ($31.859.000 COP), ya que no se modificó el numeral 5 del artículo 206 del Estatuto Tributario. En Chile, país miembro de la OCDE, por ejemplo, las pensiones tienen un techo de 13,5 UTM, que equivalen a $535.261,5 pesos chilenos. Es decir, un adulto mayor chileno en edad de jubilación que cada mes reciba más de $535.261,5 pesos chilenos, equivalentes a $2.481.522.9 COP, deberá declarar renta y pagar mensualmente el impuesto único de los trabajadores, causado por medio de la retención que realizan las Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones en ese país5. En Colombia, ese techo está muy por encima de lo regulado en otras jurisdicciones. Por ende, contar con un sistema tributario inequitativo y regresivo son amenazas latentes al desarrollo económico y social. Si se aplicara un régimen fiscal diferente a las pensiones, que permitiera la optimización financiera de los recursos que se destinan a este sistema, esto es, gravar el ingreso por pensión de mesadas altas, disminuir progresivamente el monto exento de impuesto o aplicar una tasa de contribución a todas las pensiones como sucede en Canadá, el sistema pensional sería económicamente sostenible y permitiría la inclusión al sistema de adultos mayores que se encuentran en extrema pobreza. El Gobierno colombiano, en un intento por solucionar el problema de extrema pobreza de los adultos mayores en el país y permitir la inclusión de más personas al sistema pensional, ha desarrollado programas como los Beneficios Periódicos Económicos (BEP). Los BEP son un sistema de ahorro flexible, diseñado para los trabajadores independientes que no alcanzan a obtener suficientes ingresos debido a la informalidad de la actividad económica a la que se dedican o porque ganan menos de un salario mínimo mensual, y todas aquellas personas que, por diferentes circunstancias, no cumplieron los requisitos para recibir la pensión. Este tipo de ayudas solo le proporcionará una pensión básica a un adulto mayor en Colombia dentro de 30 años, y no inmediatamente. Por ende, se identifica una falta de política económica que permee todo plan de gobierno presente y futuro con respecto a la sostenibilidad del sistema pensional, con el fin de afrontar los retos que trae el crecimiento de la población de adultos mayores y el decrecimiento de nuevos empleos para las generaciones venideras. El impuesto a las pensiones es una realidad plasmada en todos los países de la OCDE, donde las pensiones son tratadas tributariamente como un ingreso, o en otros casos, existen tasas de contribución que se aplican a las mesadas de todos los adultos mayores que se benefician del sistema pensional, lo que ayuda al sostenimiento del sistema y hacen posible la redistribución justa no solo de los recursos, sino también de las cargas.
Peter Drahos is a Professor in the Regulatory Institutions Network, College of Asia Pacific, Australian National University and holds a Chair in Intellectual Property in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, London University.
We can freely say that a question of a recompense of a non-material damage is one of everlasting questions in the Law of Contract. When we are talking about a recompense of a non-material damage, the main source of legal relationships in this segment is the Statute of contractual relationships which was brought in 1978. It referred to the solutions being given by a court practice in the lack of positive regulations in this field. Opinions being connected with a recompense of a non-material damage in a legal doctrine were divided. As far as a court practice was concerned, it was quite restrictive. Today, the existence of the right to a recompense of a non-material damage is not a controversial matter either in a theory of law or a court practice. But, the question of determination of its amount as well as criteria which should be applied in the process of defining the fair amount for particular kinds of non-material damage is still disputable either in a legal doctrine or a court practice. Besides this one there have appeared some new disputable questions such as: the number of subjects having the right to a recompense, the forms of a recompense of a non-material damage, the matter of the limitation period for instituting legal proceedings and adjudging a legal interest on arrears as well as the matter of an inherited right according to a recompense of a non-material damage. In this work paper, the author contemplates all these questions not only from the aspect of “de lege lata”, but also from the aspect of “de lege ferenda”.
Maintaining and developing the area of freedom, security and justice is a major objective of theEuropean Community, which guarantees the free movement of persons. As a result of litigations regardingthe applications with a reduced value arising among physical or legal persons, it was felt the need for acommunity legislation that would guarantee identical conditions, both for creditors and debtors throughoutthe entire European Union territory. The European procedure regarding the debts recovery of reducedvalue facilitates the access to justice and it is characterized by simplifying and expediting the settling of thetransboundary litigations, reducing costs, the recognition and execution of the court order in a MemberState given in another Member State. This procedure is available to litigants as an alternative to theprocedures provided by the laws of Member States. The Regulation (EC) no. 861/2007 establishing aEuropean procedure regarding the applications with reduced value applies in civil and commercial matters inthe transboundary cases, regardless the nature of the court when the application value, without taking intoaccount the interest, expenditures and other costs, does not exceed 2000 Euro at the time of receiving theapplication form by the competent court. This procedure does not apply to revenue, customs oradministrative matters or in regard to state responsibility for acts or omissions in exercising the publicauthority, and other matters specifically referred to in the Regulation. A cause is transboundary in naturewhen one of the parties has its habitual residence in a Member State, other than the one where the courtreceives such application. The proper procedure of application resolution for the recovery of debts withreduced value is governed by the rules of procedural law of the Member State in which the proceedings areconducted, and the execution of court of law is made by state legislation in which it takes place. TheRegulation expressly provides that the court order in this matter can not be, in any form, the subject ofreexamination, in the State member in which its execution is requested. As regards the linguistic regime,the application will be written in the language or in one of the procedure languages of the court; the costsare incurred by the losing party in the application. But the court will not grant the party that won thelawsuit the expenses that were not necessary or the ones that have a disproportionate value in relation tothe application.