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Designing an interactive course based on gamification by educators and VET providers

Author(s): Remigiusz Mazur / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: VET; interactive course; gamification; competence development; training; training materials;

The article is a summary of the work carried out by an international team of expertsas part of the first intellectual output of the i-CONTENT project: A Toolkit for Educators and VETproviders for the design and development of online interactive gamified content, funded by theErasmus+ Programme, which aims to serve Trainers and VET providers (mainly SMEs) deliveringnon-formal initial and continuous VET courses who wish to transform the typical classroomled course delivery into an online interactive gamified learning experience (asynchronous andsynchronous learning) allowing them to meet current market needs and enabling them to targetthe global market. Partners from five countries (Poland, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, United Kingdom)conducted research on two target groups – VET trainers and students, in order to determinewhat online tools are used by trainers to create online courses, which prompts students toenroll in an online course, and what key elements they believe are necessary to keep the courseengaged and what makes the course attractive. Based on the results of the research, the authorshave developed “A guide for the design phase of the interactive phase of an online course”containing information on designing attractive and effective course content before moving tothe development phase, how to set goals, structure, and define learning outcomes.

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Bibliometric Analysis of Top-Ranked European Law Schools’ Research Outputs: an East–West Comparison

Author(s): Piotr Steczkowski / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: research assessment; metrics; law school rankings;

The paper deals with a bibliometric analysis of a sample of the top law schools included in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022. An equal number of Western European and Central and Eastern European law schools have been analysed. The results show that both groups follow similar publication patterns. There is a clear tendency to publish in journals controlled by the authors’ universities. Citation rates in the sample are very low, and in line with what has already been found for humanities. There is a clear division between the multidisciplinary and transnational legal journals that are more international and less internationally recognised law reviews focusing on domestic issues. Law clearly follows its own publication pattern, and the East–West division is in this respect negligible: both groups perform equally well (or equally poorly) as far as the metrics indicate.

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On Some of the Theoretical and Practical Problems Accompanying Remote Hearings in the Light of a Fair Civil Trial

Author(s): Tadeusz Wiśniewski / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: remote hearings; court communication; civil trial structure;

It is quite paradoxical that such a negative social phenomenon as the ever-present threat of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its mutations has contributed to the exceptional acceleration of the widespread adoption of the institution of remote hearings in the area of civil trials in our country. Traditional hearings are no longer the only possible format of public hearing in the form of a trial. We are now witnessing a new quality in the way in which civil cases are heard. Most importantly, the nature of the court’s communication with the parties and other participants of such proceedings has changed significantly in the broad sense due to the remote nature of the hearings. At present, the venue where a court gets to hear the parties to proceedings is not only the courtroom in a court building, but also cyberspace. Thus, the landscape and the structure of civil trials have changed considerably.

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What We Talk About When We Talk About the Principle of the Active Role of the Court in Administrative Procedure

Author(s): Yerik Bulatovich Akhmetov,Yermek Bayakhmeto Abdrasulov / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: Regularity; universality; system of principles; law and order; hierarchy; legality; proportionality; managerial activity; public rights; interests of citizens; officials; administrative affairs;

The article examines the application of the principle of the active role of the court in the administrative proceedings of the Republic of Kazakhstan and foreign countries. The attention is paid mainly to the identification of the main function and the system of application of this principle. The scientific novelty lies in the study of important subordinate guiding principles, the influence of which is decisive when applying the principle of the active role of the court in the administrative proceedings of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The authors conclude that the judge should apply the principle of the active role of the court in order to have a fair trial within a reasonable time.

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Strategic Autonomy of The EU. Is it „Unreachable Star”?

Author(s): Andrzej K. Koźmiński / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: essay; Strategic Autonomy of The EU; national sovereignty; Andrzej K. Kozminsky; European strategies; Russian imperialism;

Let me start with historical reflection. At the very beginning of the century in the year 2000 we were hosting here Annual Conference of the EFMD (European Foundation of Management Development). In search of a motto of the Conference we coined a phrase: “One Europe One World”. It represented our hope for order and rationality both on the European and global level. At that time one of the most quoted book was Fukuyama’s deadly wrong “The End of History”. In this part of Europe these were the times of “big hopes” for the European quality of life at the end of the Soviet imposed crude life styles

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Plastic Pollution in Nigeria: The Need for Legislation to Tackle the Menace

Author(s): Adeola Olufunke Kehinde,BOLADE DAMILOLA AWOSUSI,SUNDAY KOLAWOLE IYANIWURA,YAHAYA GANIYU / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: plastic pollution; waste management; environment; legislation; Nigeria;

Collection, disposal and management of plastic waste and polythene bags is a growing problem in Nigeria. The use of plastic/polythene bags made of thin plastic film has increased significantly in recent years. The manner of disposal of these items has resulted in the degradation of the natural environment. In Nigeria, lots of plastics are used on daily basis, of which most, if not all of them, are not properly disposed of. Some of these items end up in landfills, littering the environment, harming wildlife or blocking drainages, therefore, increasing the risk of flood. This paper examines the existing laws in relation to waste management in Nigeria and the inadequacies of the existing legislation in combating this phenomenon. The doctrinal method of research was used and it is recommended that there is a need for new legislation to be enacted for Nigeria to surmount the menace of plastic pollution.

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On the Need to Amend the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Part I

Author(s): Anna Łabno / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: Constitution of the Republic of Poland; amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland; constitutional surveys; constitutional protection of state forests; constitutional protection of natur

The issue of constitutional protection of natural resources does not arouse the interest of lawyers, including constitutionalists, in Poland. In none of the drafts of the new Constitution of the Republic of Poland presented after 1989 was this issue regulated. After the new Constitution of the Republic of Poland came into force in 1997, no draft amendment to this act dealing with natural resources was submitted either. The constitutional surveys conducted in 2011 and 2017 did not explicitly call for a complete or even very extensive amendment of the Constitution. Most often, they indicated the need for punctual amendments or concerning certain areas of constitutional regulation. In light of the experience with forest management, it would be advisable to extend constitutional protection to all strategic natural resources.

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Court Mediation Within Administrative Court Proceedings in Hungary

Author(s): Ádám Rixer / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: administrative court procedure; court mediation; mandatory mediation; qualitative interviewing;

Under the provisions of Act I of 2017 on the Code of Administrative Court Procedure, a brand new institution has been introduced in Hungary: as of 1 January 2018, in administrative court proceedings, the judge may, with the agreement of the parties, allow for a court mediation procedure in the cases in which the law does not preclude it. The primary method to approach the topic is the review of the relevant primary legal sources [actual law in the form of the constitution (Fundamental Law of Hungary), acts, governmental decrees, orders of the President of the National Office, court cases, etc.] and secondary legal sources (Hungarian and international scientific literature explaining the primary sources, the legal practice and also the specific circumstances determining the broader social environment) through which we may define relevant scientific problems, create our own definitions and prepare a catalogue of practical problems, specifically for Hungarian issues regarding the topic. Moreover, this article tries to build on the results of the interviews with judges, representatives of different defendants (administrative authorities) and others. Qualitative interviewing, including the interviewing of judges and other participants of such proceedings, is a relatively new method in the field of legal studies, at least in Hungary.

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Instruments Stimulating Taxpayers to Transfer Their Tax Residence to the Republic of Poland

Author(s): Beata Kucia-Guściora / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: personal income tax; tax residence; lump-sum on foreign income; tax exemption for return to the country; special system to ‘attract’ residents;

The purpose of this article is to present two tax preferences, in force from 1 January 2022, dedicated to taxpayers transferring their residence to Poland. Their way of design is an incentive to become a Polish tax resident, and their introduction to Polish income tax is justified by both economic and demographic reasons. The first of the instruments is a lump-sum tax on foreign revenue amounting to PLN 200,000, addressed mainly to natural persons with very high foreign income (high net worth individuals), who are ready to allocate significant funds for the implementation of socially beneficial projects. The second instrument stimulating the transfer of residence is the tax exemption due to the return to the country, which can be considered a type of ‘tax holiday’, as selected domestic income during the four tax years from the transfer of tax residence is subject to a limited tax exemption. The article indicates the stimulating nature of both concepts by analysing the conditions for their application in the context of a deviation from standard taxation rules. Moreover, the paper indicates that similar solutions are also applied in other countries.

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Indian Legal Framework in Shaping Patents Regime in the Healthcare Sector vis-à-vis Securing Right to Public Health

Author(s): PIYUSH ROY,RIDHIMA CHANDANI,SONY KULSHRESTHA / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: Patent; healthcare; right to health; pharmaceutical industry; global value chain;

The patents regime in healthcare sector and its tussle with right to public health is a long controversial saga. The crux of matter which is debated focuses upon providing patent rights that reduces the accessibility of cost-effective healthcare services, particularly in developing country. The counter point to this has remained that providing patent allows nurturing of research and development in the healthcare sector, which promotes the healthcare industry to take initiatives to tackle various health related problems and provide better treatment. According to the rival opinions presented in the aforesaid, the centre of the issue is health, therefore it is necessary to discuss the corresponding rights of citizens and duties of the government to make healthcare industry favourable.

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Critical Analysis of Kosovo Legislation on Women’s Political Participation at the Municipal Level – International and European Standards

Author(s): Sabiha Shala,Avdullah Robaj,EDITA MUSA / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: gender equality; women’s representation; local governance; municipalities in Kosovo; challenges;

Women constitute half of the population in Kosovo, thus representing half of the voters in elections. Given the high importance of women’s representation in local governance, Kosovo has approved relevant legislation to guarantee gender equality at this level. The purpose of this study is to critically analyse Kosovo’s legislation on women’s political participation rights in the country’s municipalities. The analysis of Kosovo legislation on gender equality, international standards, and statistical data on women’s representation in local governance in Kosovo proves that women are underrepresented in municipal-level politics, with an average of 14.5% during the last twenty-three years, much lower than the gender quota in Kosovo and the world average of 36%. This is due to the non-sharmonisation of the electoral quota with the gender quota (50%), the non-implementation of Kosovo Law on Gender Equality, traditions, prejudice against women, and the reluctance of women to assume governing positions.

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Constitutional Defence in Vietnam: New Opportunities, Universality, and Specificity

Author(s): MAI VAN Thang / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: Constitutional defence; socialist rule-of-law state; Constitutional Council; Vietnam;

Constitutional defence is considered one of the important constituents of a ruleof-law state. Without a professional and independent constitutional defence mechanism, it is difficult to protect the constitution as the foundational law with the highest legal effect. Modern Vietnam is built around the Soviet mode of power organization; therefore, there are many inherent difficulties in building and operating a professional and independent constitutional defence. As a result of the 2013 Constitution and the 2015 Law on Referendum, the opportunity to establish a centralized, relatively independent, and professional constitutional defence model in Vietnam has never been more possible than it is now. By applying certain main research methods such as the normative analysis and comparative methods, this article attempts to clarify the opportunities and analyse the characteristics of the Vietnamese constitutional defence mechanism concerning universal standards. Consequently, it proposes a constitutional defence model for a socialist rule-of-law state.

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Relations of Research and Teaching in Legal Education: International Legal Framework and Selected National Solutions

Author(s): Maciej Perkowski,Izabela Kraśnicka,Anna Drabarz,Wojciech Zoń,Maciej Oksztulski,Małgorzata Skórzewska-Amberg,Ewa M. Kwiatkowska / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: legal education; scientific research; academic teachers;

The aim of the article is to provide an overview of the international and EU law framework concerning the relation between the research and teaching. The analysis of internal regulations of selected European states is provided for a broader vision and comparative perspective. Such an overview constitutes the initial ground for further research and evaluation of the applicable law and its implementation. The article constitutes a summary of the initial phase of the research project dedicated to the impact of the legal research on legal education based on the projects funded by the Polish National Science Centre.

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Trustee’s Duty to Become Familiar with the Contents of the Mail Addressed to a Bankrupt and the Right to Privacy

Author(s): Przemysław Wołowski / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: constitution; bankruptcy; privacy; trustee; bankruptcy estate;

The publication looks into the conflict that occurs between values protected under the Constitution of the Republic of Poland – i.e. the right to privacy and the protection of communication versus the protection of property rights – in a situation of declaration of bankruptcy. Acting pursuant to Article 176(2) of the Bankruptcy Law, the legislator has a priori given preference to the protection of property rights over the right to privacy and the protection of communication. The conflict in question has been resolved in favour of bankruptcy creditors. The legislator’s adoption of a hierarchy of values in the area of bankruptcy law does not, of course, deal with all the problems arising in the field of the conflict between these values, and does not mean that the solution chosen is in accordance with hierarchically higher norms – meaning constitutional norms. In principle, the Constitution of the Republic of Poland makes the legislator free to resolve conflicts of competing values protected under this normative act. What is important is that this conflict be resolved by the – legislator in a way that meets the requirements of Article 31(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

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Withdrawal of a Member State from the International Labour Organization

Author(s): Sabina Kubas / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: international organisation; state; withdrawal; membership;

The International Labour Organization is a specialised organisation of the United Nations. Regarding membership, the founding agreement provides for the possibility of a Member State withdrawing. These regulations do not include detailed stages of the procedure, but they indicate specific actions that should be taken by the state to withdraw from the ILO. With the end of the withdrawal procedure, the Member State should be prepared for the emerging (political, economic, strategic) consequences of such a procedure. Importantly, the statutory provisions regarding the procedure for withdrawing from the ILO have been implemented many times, with examples being the breaking of the membership ties by South Africa or Indonesia.

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Negative Impact of Stardom on Child Artists in the Entertainment Sector

Author(s): SHARVIN VATS,AMIT YADAV / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: child artists; entertainment industry; film and television; negative impacts;

The last decades of the 20th century saw a dramatic expansion of economic liberalisation in Indian film and television industry. The stellar rise of the business has enticed the youth to engage and utilise this platform to exhibit their creative ability. The rise of young artists appearing on reality television and in feature films has sparked a variety of concerns. The article aims at discussing issue of the negative impacts of stardom on child performers in the entertainment industry, focusing specifically on the violation of their fundamental and other rights because of the nature of the employment in the film and television industry.

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The Independent State Legislature Theory – the Underlying Ideas and the Threats

Author(s): Paweł Króliczek / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: Supreme Court of the United States; judicial review; gerrymandering; Independent State Legislature Theory; federalism;

This article discusses the independent state legislature theory, which has been the subject of interest of an ever-growing group of American constitutionalists in recent years. This theory deals primarily with state legislatures’ power – derived directly from the U.S. Constitution – to regulate federal elections. According to its underlying premises, this fact results in the absence of any tools to control the law enacted in this area as to its compliance with a given state’s constitution. Neither the electoral administration nor the state courts can interfere with these laws. They would therefore be subject to federal courts’ review only. However, the Supreme Court, in applying the political questions doctrine, has excluded many election law matters – other than those concerning funding – from its jurisdiction. As a result, such an important part of state law – one concerning fundamental political rights – would remain without any supervision inherent in modern democracies.

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On Law, Ideology, and Violence: A Reply to Maciej Pichlak

Author(s): Rafał Mańko / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: critical legal theory; critical jurisprudence; law and ideology; law and the political; law and violence; adjudication; legal interpretation;

The present paper is a reaction to Maciej Pichlak’s article Law in the Snares of the Political: Addressing Rafał Mańko’s Critical Philosophy of Adjudication which was published in this journal (“The Critique of Law” 2020, 12(3), pp. 109–125). The present response addresses selected issues raised in Pichlak’s critique, focusing on three aspects: law and the political, the importance of justice in the critical project, and finally the question of adjudication and ideology. On a more general note, the polemic reveals the importance of philosophical, political and ideological commitments and presuppositions of legal theorists and poses the question of the limits of the autonomy of jurisprudential debates vis-à-vis such commitments.

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The Presumption of Common Language as an Interpretive Paradigm and Its Opponents in Polish Legal Theory

Author(s): Zbigniew Pulka / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: Interpretation; presumption of common language; linguistic competence; interpretative paradigm; law text;

In my paper, I reconstruct Jerzy Wróblewski’s theory of interpretation. My goal is to show that this theory has the characteristics of a paradigmatic theory because of the importance of the presumption of common language, which is a fundamental element of this theory. This presumption is decisive in shaping the picture of interpretation and, consequently, gives the theory in question the status of a model theory defining a postulated model of legal interpretation. In the paper, I discuss various aspects of this presumption, highlighting its importance in preserving the principle of universal access to practical (legal) discourse. At the same time, I question the views that challenge this presumption by claiming that the language of law is a code accessible only to a cognitively privileged group of professional lawyers.

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Artificial Intelligence, Law, and Ethics

Author(s): Grzegorz Mazurek / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2023

Keywords: Essay; Artificial Intelligence; Law; Ethics;

Artificial intelligence has been taking (and passing) law exams at universities, writing scientific articles on legal problems – in collaboration with academics – or preparing submissions, statements of claims, and contracts at lightning speed. And all this happening within weeks of the launch (November 2022) of the bestknown AI application called ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), made available for free by the US company OpenAI. It is a conversational chatbot based on large language models making use of deep learning. Its resources include almost unlimited data sets from all over the world, excluding current information from the Internet because the system is – at least for now – closed, limited, and able to establish neural connections only between what it already knows. It generates new content based on the resources it has access to, using logical semantic connections and the mathematical probability of occurrence of a given word in a given sequence. Its statistical model can generate differently worded, correct content each time – even in response to the same question. Hence the first natural attempts of pupils and students to use the tool to write assignments and theses.

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