Around the Bloc:Estonian Businessman Suspect in Latvian Bribery Probe
Transport magnate Oleg Ossinovski’s son, a prominent Estonian politician, denies ties to his father’s business interests.
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Transport magnate Oleg Ossinovski’s son, a prominent Estonian politician, denies ties to his father’s business interests.
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Art. 30–32 of the Code of Medical Ethics (CME) are standards defining ethical medical assistance to patients in the terminal stages. Knowing these ethical standards is essential for everyphysician. It should be emphasized, however, that the rules for granting such aid are associatedwith large uncertainties due to the fact that medical assistance is intended to patients who „are at the end of their lives”. The existing regulations cause a lot of controversy. On the one hand,the rules of the Law on the medical profession require saving the life of a dying patient, on theother hand exempt the physician from the obligation of initiating and performing resuscitationor persistent medical treatment, or exceptional measures for patients in the terminal stages. TheAct on the medical profession also fails to regulate the cessation of the so called futile (persistent)treatment. The absence of explicit regulation also results in a clear admission of voluntary passive euthanasia and the indirect euthanasia, on the basis of Art. 30 CME.
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The aim of the paper is to discuss regulations concerning ex vivo and ex mortuo transplantation, contained in the Code of Medical Ethics.Pursuant to the Code of Medical Ethics and Articles 9 and 9a of the Act of 01.07.2005 on collecting,storing and transplanting of cells, tissue and organs, ex mortuo transplantation can becarried out after confirmation of permanent and irreversible cessation of brain activity (braindeath) or irreversible cessation of blood circulation. On the other hand, ex vivo transplantationcan be carried out when the following conditions are obligatorily fulfilled. Firstly, transplantrecipients can be: a relative in lineal consanguinity, a sibling, an adopted person, a spouse oranother person if this is justified by particular personal reasons. In order to carry out transplantationfor an unrelated person, it is necessary to have permission of a district court competent interms of permanent or temporary residence of the donor. The proceedings before this court havea non-litigious character: the court hears the applicant’s statement and gets acquainted with theopinion of the Ethics Commission at the National Transplantation Council. Secondly, bone marrowand other regenerating cells or tissue can also be taken when another person is the recipient.Thirdly, bone marrow or hemopoietic cells of peripheral blood can be collected from a juvenileperson without full legal capacity to act, by consent of his or her legal representative, with permissionof the Guardianship Court competent in terms of residence of the prospective donor.
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This opinion indicates that Polish citizens deprived of freedom and staying in prisons or remand centers, who have the right to vote in elections to the Sejm and are entitled to fully enjoy civil and political rights, therefore have a full right to participate in the submission of a bill initiated by citizens, as referred to in Article 118 para. 2 of the Constitution. In particular, they may establish a legislative initiative committee, and act as an agent of such a committee or his/her deputy. The exercise of this right cannot, however, lead to evade disadvantages related to the actual situation of the convicted person or a person suspected of committing a crime.
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The provisions of the Standing Orders of the Sejm concerning the reduction of Deputy’s salary or parliamentary per diem allowance (as a form of financial penalty) do not require any changes, as there is no need to adjust Polish law to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights contained in the cases referred to in this opinion. The views expressed by the ECHR in these judgments may however affect the interpretation and application of the provisions of the Standing Orders of the Sejm concerning, in particular, the terms “a Deputy making it impossible for the Sejm to work” and “making it impossible to carry out the debate”. The author claims that the introduction into the Standing Orders of a requirement to give reasons for decisions on the reduction of salary or per diem allowance in order to avoid the allegation of “excessive severity of the penalty,” would also allow both to demonstrate that the principle of equality before the law and principle of proportionality are observed.
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The opinion relates to the use of the term “occasional “ in the context of provision of office space to a Deputy for meetings with voters. This cannot apply to fixed, regular meetings of a Member of Parliament with voters, but only occasional, irregular work on duty. Even if governmental or local administration authorities are obliged to provide premises for the duration of such occasional work, the way (form) in which such premises are provided is at the discretion of these authorities, which means possibility – but not a necessity – to provide office space without charge.
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The concept of “a non-state economic entity”, referred to in Article 20 of the Act on the Exercise of the Mandate of a Deputy or Senator, causes difficulties with interpretation. A broad interpretation of that article, indicating that the category of entities to which the intervention may be addressed includes private-law entities, raises serious doubts in the context of the provisions of the Constitution. Moreover, it is not possible to enforce an obligation (imposed on a private entity) to response to the intervention undertaken in relation to it, and the impact of a Deputy on the issue underlying the intervention depends solely on the “power of authority” of the representative mandate.
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Sending out holiday greetings by regular mail does not involve the exercise of rights and duties of Deputies, also within a broad meaning of this term, and could not be recognized as an activity aimed at the creation of an organizational framework for the exercise of the mandate. Therefore, it cannot be classified as the exercise of a Deputy’s mandate, or activity substantially connected with the performance of the function of a Member of Parliament. In the author’s opinion, holiday greeting cards cannot be distributed by Deputies with the use of postage-paid envelopes provided by the Sejm.
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According to the author, there are no legal obstacles for a Deputy to hold shares in certain types of companies which, in their business, benefit from EU funds. If funds for the implementation of the program in which the company intends to participate, come – partly or in whole – from the state budget, they will be classified as state property. There are reasons to consider that the funds available to entrepreneurs under EU programs, paid in 100% from EU funds, do not constitute property of the state nor municipal property.
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In the proposed draft position the author claims that the challenged provisions of the Act of 13 October 1998 on Social Insurance, insofar as it takes no account of the situation in which the day of death of the decedent was considered to be the date when the court decision declaring the person (for whom social security contributions were collected) dead was made, do not conform with the Constitution. In her opinion, in order to achieve compliance of the above-mentioned Act with the Constitution it would be sufficient to take into account – as a precondition – the suspension of the limitation period due to the death of the decedent. The author notes that in would be at risk of irrationality for the Constitutional Tribunal to adjudicate on both examined provisions, as it is difficult to consider the issue of suspension of the limitation period in relation to the claim for undue contributions when the limitation period has not yet started.
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The article analyses legal regulations concerning the application of noise barriers with reference to road investments. It discusses general provisions aimed at protecting the environment against noise, special regulations pertaining to roads, and the legal status of a noise barrier. The role of noise barriers was approached in the context of the environmental impact assessment of a project. It was also necessary to take heed of the impact of noise barriers on third parties’ interests and the landscape.
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The commented rules determine the basic scope of Geological and Mining Act of 9 June 2011. It covers the performance of geological work, extracting minerals from deposits, underground non-reservoir storage of substances, and also — as part of a demonstration project — the underground storage of waste and carbon dioxide. The provisions of this Act shall apply correspondingly to some other use of the interior of the Earth’s crust.
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Forest is a concept difficult to define in legal language. In European Union Member States the concept refers to both, an area from 0.05 ha up to 2 ha as well as an area of tree crowns from 10% to 30%. Forest definition in Poland is significantly different from the forest definition included in the European Union legislation. The Forest Act introduces four criteria of considering a given land a forest: environmental criterion, spatial criterion, criterion of the use for forest production and criterion of a relation with forest management. For the purpose of proper interpretation of forest definition, the interpretation of the following criteria is of importance: the use of the land for the purposes of forest management and its use for forest production. It is necessary to amend the forest act in the scope of specifying the forest definition. The legislator should also solve the problem concerning the issue of types of forest crops, a type of forest stand that can be considered as forest. A new forest definition should include the issue of planting fast-growing trees, pines understood as a separate type of production forests and the issue of considering the land as forest area, when this land cannot be of use for forest management.
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The subject of the text is the issue of geothermal energy, considered in the context of the rights to a plot of land and the interior of the Earth when conducting geological works under the relevant legislation in this matter, which have been analyzed taking into account the specifics of specified types of renewable energy sources.
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The courts are not held responsible by the considerations of the Decision no. 895/2015 regarding its effects, since the way in which the decision acknowledging unconstitutionality shall be applied, in terms of the effects produced by the legal text into question, does not depend on the explanation of the operative part of that decision, and is not a prerogative of the Constitutional Court.The judge shall carry out its own analysis related to these effects, considering that the decision is not applicable to the appeals against enforcement filed prior to its publication and that the annulment of the enforcement proceeding shall not be justified or, otherwise, he may appropriate the opinion of the Constitutional Court out of the considerations of the decision.In this last assumption, it is necessary to fulfil several conditions: the appeal against enforcement should be filed within the deadline provided by law; it should be admissible in relation to the provisions of art. 713 para. (3) of the Code of civil procedure; its object should consist as well, in the annulment of the writ of execution; the legal basis of the request for annulment shall consist in the unconstitutional nature of the provisions of art. 666 of the Code of civil procedure; the plea of unconstitutionality should have been declared as admissible under a resolution delivered by the court having jurisdiction to settle the appeal against enforcement.
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The issue of sovereignty always actualizes the commitment and pointing to the actual holders of real power and authority in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which takes controversial views and interpretations of the constitutional reality and political situation in our country. Sovereignty as a theoretical concept, is defined as the exclusive quality of a holder in the typical modern state, the category different to Bosnia and Herzegovina, according it‟s state organization, political system, and functioning of the state institutions. Pathological functioning of anatomically unique state organization, is leading to persistent tendencies of changes in legal supremacy as a main determinant of internal sovereignty in favor of the final interpreter of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the owner of so called Bonn powers, adopted in 1997. The basis of the forthcoming analysis, which entails a number of issues, is a comparison of decision-making process in Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the action of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1997. until today, especially taking into account that the legal supremacy should be exclusive right of one subject to create and implement its own legal norms. The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Annexes 4 and 10, supplemented by the so called Bonn powers in 1997, accords two possible entities for creating law in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and introduces complex legal discussion in context of indivisibility of sovereign , as a mostly unknown fact in theory of constitutional law. It‟s undoubtedly shown that the Institution of the High Representative in period 1997 until 2007, along with the decisions of the constitutional interpreter, the institution of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is the main factor of creating law and legislative contribution of factual changing the Constitution, as well as factor of improving determined competencies of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The empirical analysis in this paper also indicates a change in focus and direction in the creation of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina, when institution of the High Representative since 2008 until 2011 partially, and since 2011, completely, is entering a phase and the role of pure supervision of the implementation of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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The text gives a short analysis of grounding the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina on UN Charter in combination with the Washington Agreement. The paper subsequently lists the UN Charter‟s peace provisions and Higher Representative‟s legal position in regard the peace preservation in B&H. The peace observing as a sine qua non of both BH and regional stability must be enhanced by amending the Constitutions of BiH, FbiH and RS. This goal can be achieved by achieved by harmonizing the a) BH Constitution (Annex IV respectively) with the general and particular international standards of UN, Council of Europe, European Union in accordance with the Bosnia and Herzegovina‟s continuity in international relations; b) the Constitutions of FBiH and RS with the BiH Constitution by abolishing the majority of first generation provisions on human rights and fundamental freedoms, and certain provisions regarding the administrative and legal order of BiH and two entities, and c) changes to the BH Constitution, the Constitutions of FBiH and RS through decisions rendered by constituent and legislative authority. The opening of a discussion relating to the reform of BH legal order in international EU organizations with whom BiH has entered into international legal relations is presented instead of conclusion in the end of the paper.
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The legal foundations of proceedings concerning the professional responsibility of medical prac-titioners are currently stipulated by the Act of May 17, 1989 on the chambers of physicians anddentists and a government order of the Minister of Health and Social Care of September 16, 1990 regarding proceedings concerning the professional responsibility of medical practitioners; theorder is issued on the basis of a statutory delegation in Art. 58 of the above-mentioned Act. ThePolish Parliament (Sejm) passed the Act on the Chambers of Physicians and Dentists on October23, 2009. The changes shall become effective as of January 1, 2010. This act is not a mere amendment of that from 1989, but an utterly new legislative act to substitute the former one.Chapter 5 is devoted to the issue of the professional responsibility of medical practitioners. The paper presents the most significant changes introduced by the new legislative act. Its en-actment is assessed as deserving approval, and the regulations are described as the outcome andexpression of experience gathered with respect to the functioning of the organs for the professional responsibility of medical practitioners. The endeavors undertaken to describe the entireproceedings before medical courts and the professional responsibility ombudsmen in terms ofa statutory act rather than a government order, as it is at present, are deemed appropriate. It is alsoobserved that it was highly expected to grant the injured party (i.e. most frequently the patient)the rights of a party in the proceedings, to expand the catalogue of penalties, to introduce annul-ment by the Supreme Court, and to ensure the openness of proceedings.
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The paper is not a scientific treatise but rather a collection of thoughts stimulated by the discus-sions of politicians in the media as well as among society concerning assisted reproduction tech-nology (ART), commonly referred to as in vitro reproduction.The current potential for medical assistance in reproduction is a result of long-lasting re-search development. Owing to this progress many couples who would have previously been de-prived of the possibility to have a child of their own can expect to have one now. For that reasonART should be considered a success. The act on this method of reproduction should thereforesupport further progress of this branch of medicine. The drawing up of such an act mainly re-quires sophisticated medical knowledge, as well as taking into consideration of the family, socialand psychological aspects. The paper emphasizes that the success of so-called NaProTechnologyshould not be overestimated. It should be remembered that NaProTechnology delays the at-tempts of ART while a woman’s biology opposes waiting, as her fertility decreases every day.Consequently, „delaying the procedures of medical assistance in women is a crime, a proof of ig-norance and medical insouciance”.
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The paper presents legal solutions serving the purpose of the protection of a patient’s personaldata. The study demonstrates that the health service obtains and collects information on individ-uals which is indispensable for its appropriate functioning. The doctor-patient confidentialityprinciple helps in maintaining the confidentiality of these data and is sometimes described as theoldest form of personal data protection. However, the patient has at his disposal certain legal in-struments provided by the principles of general personal data protection which ensure the right tomonitor the flow of relevant information. This monitoring is to a considerable extent active innature, as the patient can intervene when the content of the information is untrue or incomplete,or collected in a manner violating the law. These conclusions are supported by the analysis ofregulations on the processing of patients’personal data, medical documentation as a collection ofpersonal data, the responsibilities of data administrator as regards information management andother tasks, patients’ rights to obtain the information related to personal data processing and theirintervention in the content of such information.
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