Mobilising for Action: Introduction to the Special Issue

Mobilising for Action: Introduction to the Special Issue

Author(s): Mark Harvey,Marie McEntee / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Mobilising for Action (MFA) is a transdisciplinary project consisting of social researchers and community knowledge holders and practitioners, largely situated in Aotearoa|New Zealand, but also including researchers from the United Kingdom who are investigating the social dimensions of ngahere (forest) health in Aotearoa|New Zealand. Our research focuses on the people and communities who are affected by or at risk of being affected by the plant diseases kauri dieback and myrtle rust.

He Taonga Kē Ngā Kaumātua: Kaumātua Perspectives of te Taiao, Ngahere and Taonga Species

He Taonga Kē Ngā Kaumātua: Kaumātua Perspectives of te Taiao, Ngahere and Taonga Species

Author(s): Ariana Apiti,Natasha Tassell-Matamua,Te Rā Moriarty / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: indigenous psychologies; Māori; environmental perspectives; Indigenous worldviews; taonga species;

Māori cultural beliefs, values and practices are intimately connected to te taiao, the natural environment. While te taiao is of unique cultural significance, contemporary Māori live in diverse realities, so beliefs, values and behaviour cannot be viewed through a singular lens. Within Māori society, older Māori are often referred to as kaumatua, who are valued by their communities for the intergenerational transfer of knowledge and afforded respect and recognition. Consequently, kaumatua perspectives of te taiao, including how it has changed during their time and considerations for the future, are important for informing Māori understandings of the environment. Using a wānanga-based approach (using meetings centred on Māori social or political issues and knowledge), we obtained the perspectives of a group of kaumatua from the Horowhenua region, who discussed their perspectives of te taiao. Four key themes were constructed from the wānanga: remembering our old people, remembering our childhood, the present, and the future. We discuss these themes in the present article and reflect on their implications for enhancing and informing initiatives focussed on biosecurity protection of taonga (heritage) species in Aotearoa New Zealand.

‘Pūrākau o te Ngahere’: Indigenous Māori Interpretations, Expressions and Connection to Taonga Species and Biosecurity Issues

‘Pūrākau o te Ngahere’: Indigenous Māori Interpretations, Expressions and Connection to Taonga Species and Biosecurity Issues

Author(s): Bevan Erueti,Natasha Tassell-Matamua,Pikihuia Pomare,Bridgette Masters-Awatere,Kiri Dell,Mariana Te Rangi,Nicole Lindsay / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: Māori knowledge systems; pūrākau; taonga species; biosecurity; forest health;

The utility of mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledges) in Aotearoa|New Zealand Forest conservation is not particularly visible in research and policy. Indeed, current forest biosecurity processes are largely constructed from Western principles, values and scientific knowledge that are often devoid of Māori beliefs and values. While the interface between mātauranga Māori and mainstream science is still problematic, we argue that traditional Māori frameworks, ethics, and principles that capture local interests, perspectives, realities, and aspirations of Māori are mandatory to articulate modern solutions to taonga species and biosecurity issues. A mātauranga Māori approach draws upon physical, spiritual, and metaphysical values, providing a unique knowledge base in which to improve environmental management, including protection of biological heritage. By employing a pūrākau (storying) method that endorses personal lived realities as a means of knowledge transfer, we were able to elicit the meaning and value our participants give to te taiao (the environment), ngahere (forests) and taonga (heritage) species. We conclude that mātauranga Māori is a necessary discourse if the longer-term biosecurity strategic goals of Māori and the government are to effectively and efficiently result in collaborative priorities in forest health.

Te Mauri o te Kauri me te Ngahere: Indigenous Knowledge, te Taiao (the Environment) and Wellbeing

Te Mauri o te Kauri me te Ngahere: Indigenous Knowledge, te Taiao (the Environment) and Wellbeing

Author(s): Pikihuia Pomare,Natasha Tassell-Matamua,Nicole Lindsay,Bridgette Masters-Awatere,Kiri Dell,Bevan Erueti,Mariana Te Rangi / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: Indigenous psychologies; biosecurity; forest health; taonga species; mātauranga Māori;

Ko te kauri he rākau rongonui, he rākau rangatira puta noa i Te Tai Tokerau. The kauri (Agatha australis) is a chiefly tree that represents strength and is an iconic symbol for Te Tai Tokerau, Northland, Aotearoa|New Zealand. This research was undertaken with whānau (kin group) participants based in Te Tai Tokerau to explore contemporary mātauranga (knowledge and wisdom pertaining to Māori, the Indigenous people of New Zealand) about the connection between the taiao (natural environment), ngahere (native forest), kauri and the hauora (health and wellbeing) of people. A summary of some of the key messages from participants is presented as four themes: 1) ūkaipō, the ngahere as a place of sustenance and renewal; 2) e kore te kauri e tū mokemoke, a holistic approach to caring for the forest; 3) barriers to caring for the forest and kauri dieback (Phytophthora agathidicida); and 4) transmission of mātauranga, the importance of sharing knowledge. Findings highlight opportunities for change and solutions that have the potential to enable the ngahere and health of people to thrive. This study illustrates how mātauranga Māori and Indigenous Māori psychologies can inform biodiversity approaches in Aotearoa|New Zealand, while also facilitating (re)connection with the environment.

Mai i te Pū ki te Wānanga: Interpreting Synchronistic Meaning Through a Wānanga Methodology

Mai i te Pū ki te Wānanga: Interpreting Synchronistic Meaning Through a Wānanga Methodology

Author(s): Nathan Matamua,Te Rā Moriarty,Natasha Tassell-Matamua / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: wānanga; Māori; ontology; cosmology; methodology; whakapapa;

Making sense of synchronistic meaning between seemingly unrelated events is normalised within a Māori cultural context. However, westernised methodological approaches to exploring such phenomena are not so. Wānanga methodology, as applied through the dissemination of the concept of wānanga, offers a relevant, customised and culturally appropriate approach to facilitating interpretation and knowledge generation related to researching meaning between synchronistic events. Wānanga is a multifaceted, holistic approach derived from a Māori cosmological and ontological perspective that validates naturally inherent processes in connecting people to phenomena. Through these connections, we can interpret our interconnected relationships between events, objects and places to draw insight into their deeper meaning. Therefore, wānanga methodology extends our understanding of reality and how it can be interpreted. It further highlights the importance of Indigenous methodologies in offering new and innovative ways to explain and elicit meaning about the world.

Indigenous Knowledge Revitalisation: Indigenous Māori Gardening and its Wider Implications for the People of Tūhoe

Indigenous Knowledge Revitalisation: Indigenous Māori Gardening and its Wider Implications for the People of Tūhoe

Author(s): Natasha Tassell-Matamua,Teina Boasa-Dean,Marie McEntee / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: Indigenous knowledges; communal gardening; māra kai; māra tautāne; Ngai Tūhoe; Rūātoki; Te Māhurehure; land confiscation; cultural revival

The revitalisation of Indigenous knowledges is vital to the emancipation of Indigenous peoples worldwide, as well as an increasingly essential component of environmental sustainability. The re-establishment of traditional communal gardening practices and their associated rituals is part of such revitalisation efforts in Aotearoa|New Zealand. We document recent efforts to re-establish the knowledge and practice of communal gardens and the related ritual of māra tautāne in an Indigenous Māori community – Te Māhurehure – in the Rūātoki Valley, Bay of Plenty, Aotearoa|New Zealand. We discuss that, beyond food provision, such revitalisation has a concentric influence of revitalising a range of other Indigenous knowledges for this community.

"I Am not Homer’s Helen": Myths Retold in Amanda Elyot’s The Memoirs of Helen of Troy

"I Am not Homer’s Helen": Myths Retold in Amanda Elyot’s The Memoirs of Helen of Troy

Author(s): Salim Kerboua,Lamia Mechgoug / Language(s): English / Issue: 113/2023

Keywords: female-centred narrative; Helen of Troy; myth; retelling; women’s writing;

The present article examines the representation of female characters in classical Greek myths and the rewriting of the latter from a feminist and feminine perspective. In Homer’s Iliad, female characters are either reduced to an object, blamed for being the cause of a devastating war, or not given freedom over their life and destiny. From a feminist mythanalytical perspective, Homer’s Iliad participates in the subjugation of women in classical literature. In this androcentric epic, female characters are depicted as passive and submissive creatures. However, some contemporary women writers have sought to deconstruct myth narratives that give power and voice to men at the expense of women. With her novel The Memoirs of Helen of Troy (2005), Amanda Elyot retells Homer’s epic from a female character perspective. Accordingly, the article examines how the character of Helen disavows the classical tale about her and other women. Elyot’s female character provides her own version of the famous epic and its tragic story. Based on the works of feminist literary and social critics, the article argues that Elyot’s Helen is thus no longer Homer’s Helen. On the contrary, she is a new empowered character who evolves in a fictional narrative that gives voice and agency to subjugated women within a text that was initially male-centred.

The Devil’s Highway: The U.S. - Mexico Border Crossing, Global Influences and Politics

The Devil’s Highway: The U.S. - Mexico Border Crossing, Global Influences and Politics

Author(s): Ezgi İlimen / Language(s): English / Issue: 113/2023

Keywords: The Devil’s Highway; deterritorialization; reterritorialization; the U.S.-Mexico border;

Beginning with the 1846 Mexican-American War and expanding to the post-9/11 era, the U.S.-Mexico border has become the embodiment of crises, conflicts, and reconciliation. The border crossing has occupied the headlines with strict border control policies and high death tolls along the border. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for the nonfiction category in 2005, Luis A. Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway (2004) gives voice to marginalized Mexican border crossers in his personal-political border writing. This article poses a major question about Mexicans crossing the border: why do they embark on a fatal journey across the border? As a response, the article explores the historical, cultural, economic, and political repercussions of Mexican border crossing through The Devil’s Highway. Mexicans’ sense of displacement and search for a place in American society and economy relate their border crossing to the concepts of deterritorialization and reterritorialization, keyed by Deleuze and Guattari. In addition to Arjun Appadurai’s intersectional global dynamics and John Tomlinson’s overwhelming mass media and communication networks, Mexican migrants’ broadened entrapment in a cycle of global deterritorialization and reterritorialization is noted. With the failure of border militarism and prevalent xenophobic responses, Urrea’s political narrative calls for collaboration between the United States and Mexico on diplomatic, legal, and humanitarian terms. Therefore, the analysis of Urrea’s pro-life narrative and his call for border policy reform provide a new dimension to the politics of border control, border and immigration studies, and human rights struggle along the border. As an interdisciplinary border narrative, The Devil’s Highway highlights the predominance of Mexican history, geopolitical and regional dynamics, and globalization in the experience of undocumented Mexican migrants.

Toi Taiao Whakatairanga: Tukanga: Processes of Navigating the Interface between Art Curation/Research, Forest Ecologies and Māori Perspectives

Toi Taiao Whakatairanga: Tukanga: Processes of Navigating the Interface between Art Curation/Research, Forest Ecologies and Māori Perspectives

Author(s): Mark Harvey,Molly Mullen,Nick Waipara,Sophie Jerram,Ariane Craig-Smith / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: arts; mātauranga Māori; whakawhanaungatanga; ecology

What processes are involved in navigating the interface between mātauranga Māori/Māori knowledge frameworks, Western arts, and science perspectives when working to raise public awareness of the plant diseases kauri dieback and myrtle rust? This paper explores how our collaborative project, Toi Taiao Whakatairanga (uplifting the environment through the arts), attempts to do this, focusing on what we have learned about our tukanga (processes). Our project consists of a mixed group of Māori and Pākehā, curators, arts researchers, social scientists and a biological scientist. We are commissioning Māori artists to respond to the ecological threats of kauri dieback and myrtle rust and to encourage public awareness in some form. Underlying the project are the aims to generate new understandings of how the arts can support mana motuhake (self-determination) for Māori and communities in relation to these plant pathogens.

Disease Narratives and Artistic Alternatives

Disease Narratives and Artistic Alternatives

Author(s): Sophie Jerram,Gradon Diprose,Michael Harvey,Molly Mullen,Ariane Craig-Smith,Chris McBride / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: art; narrative; forest; disease; biosecurity; te taiao;

The dominant colonial scientific narrative of managing disease is one of risk, response, and control. This narrative, while shifting, continues to frame the priorities and delivery of how biosecurity is implemented in Aotearoa|New Zealand and elsewhere. In this article, we explore the narrative position of four artistic works commissioned in response to the pathogens Phytophthora agathidicida (kauri dieback) and Austropuccinia psidii (myrtle rust). While much is still unknown about these pathogens, they threaten the unique species of the indigenous forest(s) of Aotearoa|New Zealand. The commissioning research team Toi Taiao Whakatairanga sought to ‘widen public awareness’ about the two pathogens. In response, nine commissioned artists developed an alternative narrative to the conventional science-based approach to both the framing of disease and biosecurity efforts focused on eradication. We use collaborative narrative analysis with four of the nine projects to describe the practices that have produced the alternative framings in the artworks. We draw on the notion of the ‘contact zone’ to explore how these narratives as art provide a ‘truth buffer’ free from expectations for ‘facts’ that, in process, open possibilities for different kinds of knowledges and action. We suggest that the artists’ work tends to explore the wider systemic context of biosecurity rather than the pathogen-specific perspective. We postulate that alternative narratives might alter the approach to governance, management, and care relations for te taiao (the natural environment).

Children’s Participation and Engagement in Biosecurity and Forest Health: Toitū te Ngahere

Children’s Participation and Engagement in Biosecurity and Forest Health: Toitū te Ngahere

Author(s): Marie McEntee,Mark Harvey,Molly Mullen,David C. Houghton,Ariane Craig-Smith / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: arts; Aotearoa; biosecurity; children’s participation; socio-environmental issues

The arts, mātauranga Māori, and the environmental and social sciences might seem like unusual bedfellows for engaging children in biosecurity. But this article proposes that these diverse knowledges interwoven together in project activities can play an important role in facilitating children’s engagement in biosecurity issues. We reflect on our collective learning in a schools-based arts project, Toitū te Ngahere: Sustainability of the Forest and the Arts, which involved a transdisciplinary team from the Creative Arts, Social and Environmental Sciences, Education and mātauranga Māori, with partners from participating schools and local artists. We examine the contribution that different knowledges offer to children’s learning about, and engagement in, forest health management, focussing, in particular, on the plant diseases kauri dieback and myrtle rust. We illustrate our approach to interweaving knowledges by describing and reflecting on three project activities. We then examine the structural and relational barriers that both undermine and promote the interweaving of knowledges for fostering children’s participation in ngahere (forest) health. We argue that to effectively engage children in forest health requires a strongly relational, place-based approach to research and engagement that fosters bottom-up collaborative processes based on care and values and interweaves diverse knowledges in creative ways. How effectively this can be achieved depends on wider dynamics, including societal tensions between colonial norms, mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge frameworks) and Kaupapa Māori (Māori customary practices); the level of engagement a school has with te ao Māori (the Māori world); aspects of curricula; and notions of time and strategies in teaching children. Our reflections from the first year of this project show that interweaving multiple knowledges into project activities can enrich children’s inquiry and lead to locally relevant action that is well suited to complex socio-environmental issues.

What We Do in Kauri Forests: Exploring the Affective Worlds of ‘High Risk’ Users of Vulnerable Forest Areas in Aotearoa|New Zealand

What We Do in Kauri Forests: Exploring the Affective Worlds of ‘High Risk’ Users of Vulnerable Forest Areas in Aotearoa|New Zealand

Author(s): Sara MacBride-Stewart,Marie McEntee,Vicki Macknight,Fabien Medvecky,Michael Martin / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: biosecurity; recreation; kauri dieback; co-management; high-risk user;

Public use and anthropogenic activity are recognised sources of damage and threat to vulnerable forest areas in New Zealand, but also globally, through the spread of pathogens on shoes, tyres and on the paws of their companion adventurers. User experiences of sensitive and spiritual forest areas, however, have not been fully examined, particularly for those who might be considered ‘high-risk’ users of these areas. Using in-place methods and in-depth interviews with these high-risk users of all types – from pig hunters to mountain bikers, dog walkers to runners, this study focuses on their use of Kauri forests for recreation, sport and other aspects of daily life and invites their reflections on how they might develop biosecurity and stewardship for their ‘community.’ As such, the study opens biosecurity management to the messiness and value-laden relationships and affects between users and Kauri forests. The themes of deep connection and loss emerged, challenging the stereotype of public users as facilitators of forest disturbance and wilful inattention. The forest users were not a homogeneous group, but they shared many commonalities. We argue that it is not necessary to overemphasise the impact of user differences from those of scientists and managers and that sometimes affective relationships to the forest are more significant than cultural factors in shaping recreational experiences and biosecurity responses.

Positioning Research to Improve Tree-Biosecurity Relations

Positioning Research to Improve Tree-Biosecurity Relations

Author(s): Alison Greenaway,Sara MacBride-Stewart,Andrea Grant,Susanna Finlay-Smits,Maria Ayala,Will Allen,Liz O’Brien,Michael Martinek / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: relationality; values; trees; biosecurity; biodiversity; ethics; social; research; pathogens; positionality;

Management of biosecurity threats to forests and indigenous trees needs to address the legacy of colonising practices that have prohibited diverse knowledges from being included. This work is urgent and challenging in the context of mobile tree pathogens, investment in climate mitigation through tree planting and greater legal recognition of Indigenous rights and those of trees. While a transition towards shared, collective responsibility for trees and treescapes is compelling, its conceptualisation in practice remains underdeveloped. This is particularly the case when considering tree-biosecurity relations. This paper shows the positioning work a team of social scientists undertook to enable polyvocal imagining of biosecurity possibilities, which trees so urgently need. Situated in Aotearoa|New Zealand and Cymru|Wales, this team of social scientists engaged with colonising forces (of which social science is also a part) to position research for biosecurity and with trees. Presented here are their reflections informed by literature and document reviews as well as research team discussions. Released somewhat from the constraints of displaced ways of knowing human dimensions of trees by means of connecting with Indigenous (especially Māori) scholarship, the research project became more capable of connecting other relations too, between people and nature, knowledge and action, science and society, research and management. The relational approach developed widens the potential for tree-human relations and supports the creation of biosecurity knowledge, systems and practices, not through one but multiple worldviews.

Walking, Sensing, Knowing: An Ethnography on Foot Around Forest Biosecurity Interventions in Te-Ika-ā-Māui

Walking, Sensing, Knowing: An Ethnography on Foot Around Forest Biosecurity Interventions in Te-Ika-ā-Māui

Author(s): Maria Blanca Ayala / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: biodiversity loss; indigenous knowledge systems; science stories; ethnography; qualitative methods; walking;

Walking has gained prominence in social sciences as a source of inspiration for scholarly narratives and methodological experimentation with embodied ways of knowing. Walking across biosecurity research facilities and declining forests has been an essential part of the fieldwork that informed my doctoral research and this article. My steps followed those of the experts in forest pathology or traditional Māori healing, involved in the research and management of microorganism-induced plant diseases in Te-Ika-a-Māui (Aotearoa|New Zealand). Whether we looked at the progress of phosphite treatments, the attempts to reproduce the infection within controlled settings, the fatal evolution of the disease in the wild, or the discharge of tree patients treated with an experimental rongoā, my companions directed my attention toward different aspects of a shared reality. This article discusses some of the ways in which biosecurity in Aotearoa is being shaped by the cohabitation of science and mātauranga Māori. Walking around, I argue that social scientists must adjust their pace and attune their methods to better account for increasing and overlapping socio-environmental emergencies.

Neoliberal Knowledge Production in Aotearoa New Zealand: Confronting Kauri Dieback and Myrtle Rust

Neoliberal Knowledge Production in Aotearoa New Zealand: Confronting Kauri Dieback and Myrtle Rust

Author(s): Katja-Soana Ehler,Courtney Addison,Andrea Grant,Susanna Finlay-Smits / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: neoliberalism; techno-solutionism; kauri dieback; myrtle rust; knowledge production; relational values; Aotearoa New Zealand;

The detection of kauri dieback and myrtle rust pathogens in Aotearoa|New Zealand prompted the government to fund research and engagement into what has been constructed both as a biosecurity risk and a threat to species of profound cultural significance. Researchers, iwi, public sector staff and community members are now working across projects and locations to build an understanding of these two plant pathogens and to develop protections for the trees they target. This paper combines interview material from two projects within Ngā Rakau Taketake’s Postcolonial Biosecurity Possibilities remit to investigate the factors that enable and constrain plant pathogen research and practice. Actors in this space discuss the difficulty of working around gaps in basic research, a fragmented and competitive research sector, and expectations of a technological fix for a complex pathogen and its varied ecological relations. We argue that these accounts illustrate the ongoing effects of Aotearoa’s neoliberal turn, which continues to shape knowledge production and, in turn, what it is to be a researcher in Aotearoa. While the effects of these reforms have been well documented in relation to higher education and other spheres, their impact on the sciences has received less scrutiny. Foregrounding the views of those involved in kauri dieback and myrtle rust highlights the everyday manifestations and material environmental consequences of a pervasively neoliberalised research landscape.

HUMAN VS. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - EU'S LEGAL RESPONSE

HUMAN VS. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - EU'S LEGAL RESPONSE

Author(s): Marijana Mladenov / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: artificial intelligence; the Europan Union; regulatory framework; the Proposal for the Artificial Intelligence Act

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the capacity to improve not only the individual quality of life, but also economic and social welfare. Although the AI systems have many advantages, they also pose significant risks, creating a wide range of moral and legal dilemmas. The European Union has been creating a legal framework for developing, trading, and using AI-driven products, services, and systems to reduce the risks connected with the AI systems and to prevent any possible harm they may cause. The main focus of this paper refers to the analysis of the Proposal for the Artificial Intelligence Act submitted by the European Commission in April 2021. The goal of the article is to move toward a possible resolution to the dilemma of whether the AIA proposal is appropriate for the AI era by addressing the scope of its application, the prohibited AI practices, rules on high-risk AI systems, specific transparency obligations, as well as certain regulatory gaps. The article should be viewed as an initial analysis of the AIA proposal in order to provide a useful framework for the future discussion.

NORMATIVE REGULATION OF ELECTRONIC ADMINISTRATION IN REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

NORMATIVE REGULATION OF ELECTRONIC ADMINISTRATION IN REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

Author(s): Darko Golić / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: electronic administration; administrative procedure; the Electronic Administration Act

Following the general trend of the technical-technological progress in society, where technology is increasingly important in everyday life, states and public authorities on all continents strive to facilitate the exercise and protection of the rights of their citizens, and to remove bureaucratic barriers that previously existed and were a common accompaniment appearance of the administrative procedure. As an expression of such an aspiration, but also as a necessary consequence of the technical progress, many countries are introducing a system of electronic public administration. Following this trend, our legislator also establishes a system of electronic public administration, with which he tries to facilitate the exercise of citizens’ rights, but also to improve the image that citizens have of a public administration, previously known for its sluggishness and inefficiency. The introduction of electronic administration into the domestic legal system, on the other hand, was done without a sufficient preparation, and it was not realized without certain difficulties, both at the normative level as well as at the level of the implementation of various normative solutions. This paper presents the legal regulations, i.e. the normative framework regulating the introduction and functioning of electronic administration in Republic of Serbia.

JURISDICTION FOR CRIMINAL OFFENSES OF CYBERCRIME – INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL STANDARDS

JURISDICTION FOR CRIMINAL OFFENSES OF CYBERCRIME – INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL STANDARDS

Author(s): Joko Dragojlović / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: computer crime; transnational crimes; jurisdiction; international standards; The Convention from Budapest

Criminal acts of a computer crime are no longer a new social and legal phenomenon. In addition to the execution of criminal acts that fall within the domain of a computer crime, computers have found their application in the execution of the so-called classic criminal acts, giving them a different modus operandi. A spatial distance between the action taken and the resulting consequences during the execution of criminal acts of a computer crime, led to the strengthening of the transnational crime. Initially, the international community tried to intervene in this area, with the idea of regulating the criminal prosecution of the perpetrators of the cross-border criminal acts of a computer crime. However, to date, there has been adopted no normative framework regulating the issue of prosecuting the perpetrators of these criminal acts at the universal level. In this sense, the paper analyzes the existing international standards with regard to the normative arrangement of jurisdiction for the prosecution of perpetrators of transnational computer crimes. In addition, the paper contains a presentation of the normative arrangement of this issue in domestic legislation.

WRAP CONTRACTS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE CONTRACT LAW

WRAP CONTRACTS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE CONTRACT LAW

Author(s): Jelena Stojšić Dabetić / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: contracting; wrap contracts; the Contract Law; digital society; declaration of will

The basis of the digital economy is electronic commerce (e-commerce), based on contracting which increasingly relies on the use of a digital technology. A contract represents the basis of legal obligation, as well as the foundation of the validity and legitimacy of legal rules, dating back to the theory of the social contract. The functioning of the digital society and digital economy has introduced the process of digitization into the scope of the Contract Law and contracting practice. On the example of wrap contracts, as a kind of online contracts by access (adhesion contracts), the author shows how new practices in contracting affect the traditional obligation law institutes.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE BUSINESS REGISTERS AGENCY IN THE FUNCTION OF THE MODERN DIGITAL SOCIETY

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE BUSINESS REGISTERS AGENCY IN THE FUNCTION OF THE MODERN DIGITAL SOCIETY

Author(s): Milica Vasić,Petar Bulatović / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: digital society; the Business Registers Agency; registration; digital economy

Digitalization strongly affects the economy and society as a whole in different dimensions. The process of digitalization of the Business Registers Agency, including the registration procedure of business entities, is one of the priority tasks aimed at increasing efficiency and economy as well as economic prosperity in general. Certainly, there is a prerequisite referring to the existence of digital literacy, which is not an isolated category, but rather a superstructure of earlier forms of literacy. It is undeniable that every innovation arises as a privilege of the higher social classes, which, by inertia, turns into a need of the others. In this paper, it has been analyzed the legislative framework of electronic registration of business entities. Starting from the point of view that economic growth, competitiveness on the market, and socio-economic development represent the nowadays necessity, the authors, through this paper, primarily try to define the achieved progress of the work of the Business Registers Agency (BRA) in registering business entities in the digitalization process. The quintessence of this work is the identification of the availability of digital tools for the registration of economic entities, as well as their quantification and qualification.