Incompatibility of the Digital Economy Act 2010 subscriber appeal process provisions with Article 6 of the ECHR

This is the accepted manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Review of Law, Computers and Technology on 10 January 2014. The version of record [Romero-Moreno, F. (2014) Incompatibility of the Digital Economy Act 2010 subscriber appeal process provisions with Article 6 of the ECHR', International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, 28(1): 81-97, first published on line January 10, 2014] is available online via doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2013.869912Through case-law research, this paper critically assesses the compatibility of the Digital Economy Act 2010 (DEA) subscriber appeal process provisions (Section 13 of the DEA) with Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Drawing on the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case-law, Ofcom's Initial Obligations Code (the Code), and the DEA judicial review decision, namely, BT PLC and Talk Talk PLC v Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills and others, this paper focuses on the three Strasbourg Court principles of equality of arms, admissibility of evidence, and presumption of innocence, in an effort to determine whether Section 13 of the DEA infringes them, and whether this constitutes a breach of a subscriber's right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the ECHR. The paper examines these three ECtHR principles. It contrasts such principles with the Code's provisions, and considers the compatibility of Section 13 of the DEA with Article 6 of the ECHR. It concludes that the DEA subscriber appeal process provisions do indeed infringe these principles, thus constituting a violation of subscribers' right to a fair trial. It also recommends that the UK government start taking seriously human rights in general, and Article 6 of the ECHR in particular.Peer reviewe

Testing of Automated Systems from the Safety Point of View

The Coast Guard NVIC 1–69 has provided guidelines for the design of automated systems so that human surveillance can be reduced without jeopardizing the vessel. An integral part of these guidelines is the preparation of a Test Procedure which periodically tests the vital safety systems to increase the probability that they will function properly when called on. However, the Test Procedure guidelines are general and subject to wide interpretation. This paper attempts to provide some insight into what needs to be periodically tested, why the testing is required, and what techniques are acceptable, at the same time stressing the need for efficient testing. Some examples are also provided of testing procedures that have been found to be efficient and sufficiently comprehensive.</jats:p

The Limits of the European Union’s Transformative Power: Pathologies of Europeanization and Rule of Law Reform in Central and Eastern Europe

This thesis examines the impact of the European Union (EU) on the development of the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe. The topic is addressed through a mixed methods study which consists of a quantitative comparative analysis of three country groups from Central and Eastern Europe (1. Central Europe and the Baltics, CEB; 2. South Eastern Europe, SEE; 3. Commonwealth of Independent States, CIS) and three qualitative case studies on Poland, Romania and Moldova. The empirical analysis is based on an innovative set of indicators and revealing insights from numerous qualitative interviews. The findings of the study suggest that the impact of the EU is differential, both healthy and pathological. While EU-driven judicial reforms increase judicial capacity and align domestic legislation with European and international standards (substantive legality), they do not improve and even lead to a deterioration of judicial impartiality and formal legality, resulting in several reform pathologies, such as instable, incoherent and non-enforced laws and in more politicized and incoherent judicial systems, which undermine the development of the rule of law. These pathological effects occur mostly in weak rule of law countries from SEE (Romania) and CIS (Moldova), in contrast to more healthy effects in advanced, strong rule of law countries from CEB (Poland). The dissimilar development in the rule of law across countries is explained in relation to the conduct of reforms. Successful reformers like Poland, which consolidate the rule of law, have strong and independent horizontal accountability institutions (e.g. Constitutional Court, Ombudsman, judiciary), which mitigate or alleviate reform pathologies and ensure that reforms are conducted in an accountable, gradual and non-politicized way. Unsuccessful reformers, like Romania and Moldova, lack these independent checks on reformers and thus fail to establish the rule of law. Based on the findings from the case studies an original typology of healthy and pathological reform paths is proposed, which draws on the logic of circular and cumulative causation and emphasizes the mutual reinforcement between domestic conditions and the reform approach of transnational coalitions. The proposed typology implies that EU conditionality is not transformative, but rather reinforces existing healthy and pathological reform paths, thus cementing the existing divergence in the rule of law across post-communist countries. This thesis further makes several policy recommendations to remedy the pathological impact of donor-driven reforms