Author: Eoin

Dr Eoin O'Dell is a Fellow and Associate Professor of Law at Trinity College Dublin.

The Rule of Law and Asset-Grabbing (Reiderstvo) in Russia

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| Conferences, Lectures, Papers and Workshops

Reiderstvo

There will be a public lecture on the Rule of Law and Asset-Grabbing (Reiderstvo) in Russia in the Neill Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, on Tuesday 15 November 2016, at 3:00pm.

Booking is now open.



Reiderstvo Report coverReiderstvo (asset-grabbing) is the illicit acquisition of a business or part of a business in Russia. A recent report on The Rise of Reiderstvo: Implications for Russia and the West (pdf) by Dr Louise Shelley and Ms Judy Deane analyzes this corrosive phenomenon. The report will be presented by Prof Louise Shelley (George Mason University); there will be a reply by Prof Neil Robinson (University of Limerick); and there will be ample opportunity for questions and answers. The event will be haired by Dr Ann Power-Forde SC (former judge of the European Court of Human Rights).

The first comprehensive examination of its kind, the report on The Rise of Reiderstvo: Implications for Russia and the West analyzes the evolution of business raiding and asset grabbing in Russia. It identifies the methodical tools and tactics used by business raiders and provides concrete examples of heretofore unexamined cases inside Russia, documenting the “playbook” for systematizing asset grabbing.

Louise I ShelleyProf Louise Shelley is the Omer L and Nancy Hirst Endowed Chair and a University Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University.…

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Notes on the Irish passport (and the National Anthem, again)

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| National Anthem

Passport p8 (element) (via TheJournal.ie)No, this post isn’t about the notes on the forms to be filled in to apply for a passport, or even about explanatory notes that might appear on the passport itself.

Instead, it’s a musical post, (about the National Anthem – the most recent in a series, earlier posts are here, here, here, here and here), based on a letter in today’s Irish Times:

Notes on Irish passport


Sir,

In a queue at Dublin Airport last week, my daughter Alex was curious about music notation on successive pages of her passport and asked me to read the music.

To our surprise and delight, it was the music of our National Anthem. Whoever imagined this subtle celebration of Irish musicality should be congratulated.

Yours, etc,

Keith Donald,
Chair of the Irish Music Rights Organisation,
Lower Baggot Street,
Dublin 2.

The image, above left, via TheJournal.ie, shows some of those notes. I saw this letter in the paper version of the Irish Times, and whilst searching online for the letter on the Irish Times site, and for an appropriate image, I also found the following post on the website of Absolute Graphics – a marketing, design and print company based in Bray, Co.…

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The BAI is conducting a review of its strategic objectives (including media pluralism and diversity)

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| Broadcasting Authority of Ireland

BAI Strategy Statement CoverHot on the heels of the announcement of a review of the Defamation Act 2009 (also here) by the Department of Justice comes news of a consultation by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland on its Strategy Statement for 2017–2019 (download pdf).

Sections 66(2)(i) and 137(2)(i) of the Broadcasting Act, 2009 (also here) require the BAI to have regard to “the desirability of allowing any person, or group of persons, to have control of, or substantial interests in, an undue amount of the communications media” in a specified area.

Against this background, and in the context of the recent debate about the constitutional issues facing the regulation of media ownership in Ireland, (especially where such regulation is directed to the promotion of pluralism and diversity), the BAI’s proposed Mission Statement provides that it is the aim of the BAI [emphasis added] –

I To regulate, foster and support broadcasting in the public interest;
II To promote a plurality of voices, viewpoints, outlets and sources in Irish media;
III To foster diverse and culturally relevant quality content for Irish audiences.

Moreover, one of the five proposed strategic themes is the promotion of diversity and plurality, with the following strategic objectives:

1 [To] Facilitate a mix of voices, opinions and sources of news and current affairs in audio-visual media which enhances democratic debate and active citizenship in Ireland.

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The Department of Justice is conducting a review of the Defamation Act 2009

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| 2016-17 Reform, Blasphemy, Defamation

DoJEDublin (element of Wikipedia photo)The Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality has announced a review of the operation of the Defamation Act 2009 (also here), and is now inviting contributions and submissions by 31 December 2016. This is excellent news.

According to the announcement on the Department’s website, the aim of the review is:

– to promote an exchange of views and experiences regarding the operation in practice of the changes made by the 2009 Act,

– to review recent reforms of defamation law in other relevant jurisdictions,

– to examine whether Irish defamation law, and in particular the Defamation Act 2009, remains appropriate and effective for securing its objectives: including in the light of any relevant developments since 2009,

– to explore and weigh the arguments (and evidence) for and against any proposed changes in Irish defamation law intended to better respond to its objectives, and

– to publish the outcomes of the review, with recommendations on appropriate follow-up measures.

Interestingly, the review excludes the blasphemy provisions of the Act (sections 36 and 37), because the issue will be the subject of a constitutional referendum, as provided in the Programme for a Partnership Government. Moreover, the review will take into account any relevant recommendations of the recent Report of the Law Reform Commission on Harmful Communications and Digital Safety.…

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What are the constitutional issues facing the regulation of media ownership in Ireland?

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| Freedom of Expression, Irish Supreme Court, Media and Communications

Element of Media Report CoverA just-published Report on the Concentration of Media Ownership in Ireland (download pdfs here and here) directly addresses the question in the title to this post: what are the constitutional issues facing the regulation of media ownership in Ireland. The Report concludes that such issue do not prevent government action here, and calls on the Irish government to tackle Denis O’Brien’s media control. It seems that some media are ignoring it. That is a pity. It is a very important Report. It was commissioned by Lynn Boylan MEP on behalf of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group of the European Parliament, and was prepared by Caoilfhionn Gallagher and Jonathan Price, barristers in Doughty Street Chambers, London, and Gavin Booth and Darragh Mackin, of the Belfast solicitors’ firm KRW Law. It was launched in Leipzig (panel | photo) on 6 October last, and in Dublin last night (press notice | photos).

Here’s a flavour of the Report, from the executive summary [with added links to relevant posts on this site]:

1.8 In our view, taken together, the combination of the highly concentrated Irish media market, Mr. O’Brien’s threats and initiation of a large number of legal proceedings against media and other critics, and serious shortcomings in the defamation framework create a perfect storm which threatens news plurality and undermines the media’s ability to perform its watchdog function.

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Privacy Paradigm – getting the design right

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| Privacy

ODell@ICS2 I spoke today at the (ISC)² Security Congress EMEA in Dublin. Before me, Minister Naughten gave an opening address; after me, Brian Honan provided a fascinating keynote.

In between, I beat the drum (again) for Privacy Paradigm. The image, left, is an artist’s impression of the highlights of my talk. If you click through, you will get a bigger version, and – as a bonus, on the same sheet – the same artist’s impression of the talks from Brian and the Minister as well.

What I am hoping to do with Privacy Paradigm (if anyone wants to fund the research) is provide a simple means by which websites could signal not only that they respect their visitors’ privacy but also how (if at all) the sites processe personal data. For this, by analogy with Creative Commons, I suggest an appropriate icon and short accompanying text which explains that the site operates under a standard-form privacy policy, with a link to the underlying privacy policy, provided by an appropriately coded plugin. In my view, the key is to start with the standard-form privacy policies, and to code them accordingly, and then to provide the icons.

There have been many previous attempts covering some elements of this strategy, but none has caught on.…

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The Global Futures of Unjust Enrichment, 21-22 April 2017

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| Restitution

Goff&JonesA conference on the theme of the Global Futures of Unjust Enrichment will be held on Friday 21 April 2017 and Saturday 22 April 2017 in the UCL Gustave Tuck Theatre, Wilkins Building, Gower Street, London WC1 (map here).

The Bentham House Conference 2017 celebrates the publication of the 50th anniversary edition of Goff & Jones: The Law of Unjust Enrichment, and honours the memory of the book’s first authors, Lord Goff of Chieveley and Professor Gareth Jones, who both died in 2016. The conference brings together leading scholars from around the world to consider the future of unjust enrichment in overseas jurisdictions, and to discuss current problems and controversies in English law.

The emergence of the law of unjust enrichment as a distinct part of the law of obligations was the most important and radical development in English private law of the last hundred years. Academic writing played a significant role in this development, and most significant of all was Robert Goff and Gareth Jones’s seminal work on the topic in 1966. The speakers paying tribute to Goff and Jones are a veritable who’s-who of contemporary private law. On Friday 21 April 2017, they will discuss the future trajectory of the law of unjust enrichment in overseas jurisdictions; and on Saturday 22 April 2017, they will consider a series of important issues which have been thrown up by the English case law over the past decade, and which will require significant further attention from the courts.…

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Exhausting exhaustion – the limits of the first sale doctrine in EU copyright law

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| Copyright, ECJ

ExhaustionThe exhaustion of intellectual property [IP] rights by the first sale of the protected work is a fundamental principle of IP law. Where a work or product covered by an IP right is sold by the rightholder, that IP right is exhausted in the sense that it can no longer be exercised by the rightholder to prevent the purchaser from selling or lending the work or product to a third party. For example, Article 4(2) of the Software Directive (Directive 2009/24/EC) provides

The first sale in the Community of a copy of a program by the rightholder or with his consent shall exhaust the distribution right within the Community of that copy, …

Article 4(2) of the InfoSoc Directive (Directive 2001/29/EC) is in similar terms. In Case C-166/15 Ranks and Vasilevics, the Court of Justice of the European Union [CJEU] explored the limits of this rule, and established the point at which the exhaustion doctrine is itself exhausted. As to the rule, the CJEU held:

The holder of the copyright in a computer program who has sold, in the EU, a copy of that program on a material medium (such as a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM) with an unlimited user licence can no longer oppose the subsequent resale of that copy by the initial acquirer or subsequent acquirers of that copy, notwithstanding the existence of contractual terms prohibiting any further transfer.

…

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