Unmasking Central Asia's neoliberal judges

Despite claims of impartiality, judges in Central Asia often incorporate neoliberal economic and moral values into their judgements on illegal settlements

Economic dystopia in Kyrgyzstan

Hailed as a success story for liberal market reforms, Kyrgyzstan in fact provides an example of how the rentier class have become an integral part of the economy, and how democracy has given way to plutocracy

Public tender

59 ZÁVĚR Ve své práci jsem se zabýval pojetím obchodní veřejné soutěže, především ve vztahu k její právní úpravě. Při svém hodnocení jsem vycházel jak z textů příslušných právních předpisů, tak z odborné literatury i z judikatury soudů. Na základě provedené analýzy mohu konstatovat, že právní úprava obchodní veřejné soutěže náleží výlučně do práva soukromého, neboť jejím prostřednictvím vzniká obchodní závazkový vztah. Představuje zvláštní způsob uzavírání obchodní smlouvy, přičemž jej lze označit též jako předkontraktačním procesem, jehož výsledkem je zpravidla uzavření smlouvy. Ačkoliv celý proces obchodní veřejné soutěže je relativně celistvě upraven obchodním zákoníkem v § 281 až 288, nevyhnou se ani této úpravě, stejně jako je tomu u jiných institutů, jisté spory ať už většího či menšího významu. Jedním z oněch méně významných sporů pro samotné vyhlášení a průběh soutěže je otázka kogentnosti všech ustanovení obchodního zákoníku věnovaných tomuto institutu, která je předepsána na základě § 263 odst. 1. Jedná se spíše o teoretický problém, jímž se zabývá část autorů s tím, že dle jejich mínění ne všechna ustanovení lze označit za plně kogentní. Tito autoři prohlašují některá z nich fakticky za dispozitivní (např. § 283, 284 odst. 3, 285 odst. 2 ObchZák). Jejich argumentace je založena na tvrzení, že...65 Veřejná obchodní soutěž Public tender Summary The purpose of my thesis is to analyse public tender, which represents the best way how the potential contractor could conclude to an optimal agreement. The reason why I choose this particular topic is my aim to increase the knowledge about public tender because its usage in business transaction is very rare. My thesis focuses on its law adjustment in Commercial Code. However, the Code devotes its law adjustment relatively few provisions (Sections 281 - 288), public tender is the complicated institute of the law and therefore it is necessary to analyse it closer. The thesis does not set up the goal to find new ideas, but rather critically reviewed the regulation and the legal position of public tender in the Czech law order. The thesis is composed of three chapters; each of them deals with different aspects of public tender. Chapter one deals with trade agreements, because public tender is the specific form of agreement formation. This chapter mentions the distinction between the adjustment in Commercial and Civil Code. Chapter Two examines public tender. It focuses on each relevant part, in which public tender appears. It contains individual statutory provisions about public tender. As well, it deals with the basic problems which public tender may cause. The...Department of Business LawKatedra obchodního právaFaculty of LawPrávnická fakult

Influence of Synthesis Parameters on Vulnerability to Side-Channel Attacks

Aby byl návrh kryptografického obvodu použitelný, musí být hlavně bezpečný. Útoky postranními kanály jsou čím dál jednodušeji proveditelné a návrháři obvodů musí věnovat velkou část svého času implementaci obran proti těmto útokům. V některých případech ale může jejich práce přijít vniveč kvůli automatickým optimalizacím. Tato práce se zabývá vlivem nastavení syntézních parametrů na odolnost FPGA obvodů vůči útokům postranními kanály. Zaměřuje se na implementaci AES s několika obranami proti útokům a sledování, jaký mají změny vybraných parametrů vliv na bezpečnost obvodu. Nežádoucí úniky informací jsou vyhodnoceny pomocí Welchova t-testu.Every cryptographic design has to be secure to fulfil its function properly. As side-channel attacks are becoming easier and easier to perform, designers of secure circuits must pay attention to implementing various countermeasures against these attacks. However, in some cases, their hard work can be thwarted if automatic optimizations invalidate the defences. This thesis explores the effect of synthesis parameters settings on the vulnerability of the cryptographic designs implemented in FPGAs to side-channel attacks. It focuses on the implementation of AES with multiple countermeasures against attacks and evaluates the effect of parameters settings on security using Test Vector Leakage Assessment based on Welch's t-test

Selling debt: interrogating the moral claims of the financial elites in Central Asia

This article critically examines how banks and microfinance companies morally construed and evaluated their lending practices and income in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Banks occupy a powerful position in a monetary economy, because they do not merely create money ‘out of thin air’, but can charge for it, that is, interest. In doing so, they obtain unearned income and extract wealth. The article examines how banks and microfinance companies used myths, ideals, discourses, norms and emotions to justify and de-politicise their unequal power, unearned income and damaging effects. The study draws on the moral economy perspective and the post-Keynesian theory of money to understand financial institutions’ moral justifications and rationalisations of their position and power. This article contributes to a wider literature on neoliberalism and morality in post- socialist economies

How the free market created rentiers and plutocracy in post-Soviet Central Asian countries

In a reversal of the classical ideal of a ‘free market’ (a market free from land rent, monopoly rent and interest), neoliberalism celebrates and promotes rent extraction, sometimes over wealth creation. Neoliberalism has created and expanded the role of rent and unearned income in post-Soviet economies. The article argues that the top 20 richest individuals in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan extract income based on their ownership and control of scarce assets, and thereby obtain unearned income. They also have considerable political power and influence. Neoliberalism has concentrated wealth and power into the hands of a few, and has emerged economic and political elites into the rentier class

Emotions as evaluative judgements: understanding volunteers’ evaluative feelings about things that matter to them

This article examines people’s emotional experience of volunteering. It offers an account of emotions as first person evaluative judgements about things that are important to people. People’s relation to the world is one of concern, and they continually have to monitor and evaluate how the things they care about are faring, and decide what to do. The article moves away from accounts that either treat emotions as merely subjective, or as only a product of social conventions. It will discuss how volunteers’ emotions are evaluative feelings about the nature of their voluntary tasks and roles, their social relationships with fellow volunteers, and their orientation to the world. It will also explore how social positions can affect emotions

Charitable giving and reflexive individuals: How personal reflexivity mediates between structure and agency

This article examines how individuals are reflexive beings who interpret the world in relation to things that matter to them, and how charitable acts are evaluated and embedded in their lives with different degrees of meaning and importance. Rather than framing the discussion of charitable practices in terms of an altruism/egoism binary or imputing motivations and values to social structures, the article explains how reflexivity is an important and neglected dimension of social practices, and how it interacts with sympathy, sentiments and discourses to shape giving. The study also shows that there are different modes of reflexivity, which have varied effects on charity and volunteering

Contributive injustice and unequal division of labour in the voluntary sector

This article examines how the unequal division of unpaid labour within voluntary organisations can produce contributive injustice. Contributive injustice occurs when people are denied the opportunity to have meaningful work and the recognition associated with it. The unequal social division of labour affects people’s opportunities to access complex and routine tasks, shaping their capacity to develop their own abilities, respect and self-esteem, and hence the meaningfulness of their work. The study uses the moral economy of labour perspective to understand and evaluate how the unequal division of labour can shape people’s capabilities and well-being. While the article is sympathetic to Eliasoph’s symbolic interactionist approach to volunteering, which seeks to focus on the quality of civic engagement and public dialogue, it reveals this framework to have some shortcomings. This empirical study is based upon an analysis of 41 participants’ volunteering activities