Tag Archives: regulation

Breaking the silence: regulating against sexual crimes

The difficulty of regulating against sexual crimes is that it often occurs in private places or where the crime takes place in public, for example in the workplace, it usually involves only two people, which poses problems for detection and eventual prosecution. Usually sexual crimes only become known when the victim breaks the silence, to reveal the sexual crime that has taken place. The purpose of this howtoregulate article is to review the regulations against sexual crimes, particularly around definitions, detection, protection and prevention, and highlight those jurisdictions with novel methods for breaking the silence. Continue reading Breaking the silence: regulating against sexual crimes →

Cybersecurity: Regulating the Virtual World

Smart grids, electronic commerce, digital government, and health services are but a few of the many possibilities offered by the advancement of technology and expansion of cyberspace. We could only agree with the Indonesian legislator that activities in cyberspace are virtual activities that have actual impacts on our lives. Cybersecurity breaches cover – among others – denial of services, physical theft, crime ware, cyberespionage, and web application attacks. Continue reading Cybersecurity: Regulating the Virtual World →

Patented medicines: how to determine and curb prices?

Profit from sales of medicines is incentivizing pharma companies to further invest in research and innovation, which is undoubtedly in the public interest. Profit is evidently linked to prices. Prices of patented medicines are exponentially rising around the world. As a result, there is an increase in public expenditure and the diminution of access to medicines across all income groups of countries. Hence there is a conflict between two public interests: innovation on one hand and affordability on the other.

Continue reading Patented medicines: how to determine and curb prices? →

Whistleblowers: protection, incentives and reporting channels as a safeguard to the public interest

Whistleblowing has become a dynamic regulatory field. Several jurisdictions have recently opened public consultations in this relation. They recognise the need to protect the good faith whistleblower disclosing alleged wrongdoing to ensure, in fine, the respect of the public interest.

This article presents international framework on whistleblowing (Part I.), model laws (Part II.), national reference regulation (Part III.) and national regulation which is commendable for specific aspects (Part IV.). Continue reading Whistleblowers: protection, incentives and reporting channels as a safeguard to the public interest →

Robots: no regulatory race against the machine yet

From autonomous cars, robotised hotel complexes to surgical and companion robots, the technology of robotics have well advanced. However, have the regulatory measures followed with the same pace? We believe that it has not evolved fast enough. At present, only South Korea has adopted a law that specifically governs the sector of robotics whilst other jurisdictions still struggle how to address immense technological advancements and the related challenges from a legal perspective. Continue reading Robots: no regulatory race against the machine yet →

Transplantation of organs and human tissues

The donation and transplantation of human organs, tissues and cells is a complex domain that touches on questions of health, law and ethics. These questions are intrinsically connected. Thus, it demands a stringent regulation by public authorities so as to prevent serious health risks and eventual abuses of the consent given by the donor. Furthermore, the increased demand for organs combined with the globalisation has prompted the phenomena of organ trafficking and “transplant tourism”. These phenomena require additional regulation, ideally at global level. Continue reading Transplantation of organs and human tissues →

Better than bilateral trade agreements: unilateral recognition of approvals / certificates and approval / certification hubs

This article analyses the regulatory tool “unilateral recognition of foreign product or service approvals or certificates”. This tool might in the future play a crucial role in favour of international trade. Furthermore, this article shows how jurisdictions, by applying extremely stringent approval or certification criteria on an optional basis, could become approval / certification hubs, to the benefit of many other jurisdictions and their own. Continue reading Better than bilateral trade agreements: unilateral recognition of approvals / certificates and approval / certification hubs →