In its judgment in Case C-78/18 Commission v Hungary, delivered on 18 June 2020, the European Court of Justice condemned Hungary for its 2017 adoption of the “Transparency Law” which imposed an obligation on civil organisations to register as “organisations in receipt of support from abroad” if the yearly sum of the donations they received from abroad exceeded a certain threshold and to publicly disclose the donations received, including the name, the country and the city of residence of the donors whose donations reached HUF 500,000 (around €1400). The Court found that, by adopting these provisions, Hungary has introduced discriminatory and…
It is doubtless that counterfeiting is historically coeval with the existence of money, as Karl Binding, a German legal scholar stated at the beginning of the 20th century, that: „invention of the money leads to the invention of counterfeiting.” To the commission of a crime like this, mostly competent specialists, technicians and experts of computer systems are needed. But the build-up network cannot be neglected beside the suitable technical infrastructure, since organised criminal networks diffuse counterfeit currency in the whole world and we can say that, by now – apart from unique cases – it is a global and organised crime. Read more……
The European Court of Justice recently published its judgment in Case C‑456/18 P Hungary v European Commission, bringing an end to a five-year legal dispute. According to the judgment, the Commission failed to provide proper reasons as to why it regarded as necessary to order that Hungary suspend the application of the progressive tax rates of the health contribution to be paid by tobacco manufacturers and the food chain inspection fee imposed on certain food business operators until the conclusion of the Commission’s investigation. The Court of Justice has also set aside the judgment of the General Court at first instance which…
The idea of restorative justice has been much talked about in the last decades. Distinguishing between a retributive and a restorative model, it has sometimes been argued that the idea of restorative justice stands for a 'paradigm shift' in the criminal law system. Mediation has become an integral part of many European criminal justice systems: although there were many unsolved problems at the beginning. As it was pointed out in the Handbook of Criminology, these problems covered a wide variety of details, ranging from the unclear role of reparation and compensation within the context of the criminal justice system to…
To a certain degree, owing to informational asymmetry, a difference in negotiating power and a relative lack of transparency, and due to the ever-present risk of falling victim to unfair commercial practices, all consumers can be considered vulnerable or disadvantaged when it comes to business-to-consumer transactions. This is especially the case in those consumer markets that involve particularly complex transactions, such as the financial products and services market. In the light of these issues, this article focuses on the European Union's concept of the ‘average consumer’ and its interpretation by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), particularly in cases concerning…
Hungary became part of the European Union (EU) during the 2004 ’big bang’ enlargement together with nine other, predominantly Central and Eastern European countries. The accession of new Member States brought crucial legal, economic, and social changes in the acceding countries, including Hungary. EU accession triggered remarkable interactions between EU law and the domestic law of the acceding countries. Read more… (Petra Ágnes Kanyuk)
This article sets out to present the competent forums for setting aside an arbitral award within the legislation of Kosovo and in accordance with the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, New York 1958 and United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Commercial Arbitration 1985 with amendments as adopted in 2006. The article aims to show the importance of the systematic interpretation of Law No. 02/L-75 on Arbitration of the Republic of Kosovo, the Convention and the Model Law to find the final meaning of provisions that can serve as grounds to establish…
Over the past decade the use of drones, robots, and other remotely controlled weaponry has surged in the area of modern warfare, raising questions on the challenges these new technologies bring to human rights and the application of international law as a whole. States and non-governmental organizations have done very little to change existing laws, and remain unmoved at large by the challenges this new technology brings, leaving lawyers, human rights activists and organizations stuck with old laws that no longer apply to new wars. This article looks at some of the challenges contemporary wars bring to international law, and…