Socrates. 2022, 2 (23)
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Item Problems and Opportunities for Improvement of Legal Framework for Provision of Telemedicine Services: Experience of the Republic of Latvia and Ukraine(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Timule, Elza; Žukovs, Artūrs; Filipenko, Nataliia; Spitsyna, Hanna; Rīga Stradiņš University, Latvia; Law Department of National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”, UkraineIn recent years technological progress has had a huge impact on healthcare sector. New products, services are becoming popular among patients and healthcare providers. Long waiting periods, to see healthcare specialists and COVID-19 pandemics have influenced the situation as well. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a need for non-contact healthcare due to prevalence and infectivity of the disease, which has led to active provision of remote healthcare, both for COVID-19 patients and remote consultations. The aim of the article is to analyse the international regulatory framework of telemedicine, problems, and opportunities for Improvement of the Legal Framework for the Provision of Telemedicine Services. The article will analyse both national regulatory framework of Latvia and Ukraine.Item Victim’s Right to Prove in Criminal Proceedings(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Klāviņa, Gerda; Zanders, Ansis; Talsi District of Kurzeme Regional Administration of State Police, Latvia; Ventspils District of Kurzeme Regional Administration of State Police, LatviaThis article is about the victim’s right to prove in criminal proceedings. It studies the victim’s right to prove only in criminal proceedings before the court. However, it does not consider the victim’s ability to prove in court. The aim of the study is to examine the possibilities of victims to prove in criminal proceedings, to identify legal and practical issues for the victim’s right to prove in criminal proceedings, as well as to put forward proposals for solving them. Material and methods used in the preparation of the study include analysis and description of regulatory enactments, court judgments, comparable and logical method. Analysis and description of normative acts and court judgments were used for the creation of the study. The comparative method has been used to compare provisions of regulatory enactments, while the logical method has been used to draw conclusions. Methods of interpretation of legal norms have also been used in the study: grammatical, systemic and teleological method.Item Money Laundering Issues and Recent Trends(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Neimane, Liene; The team of the office of sworn advocates “Neimane & “Partners”, LatviaThe legitimate aim of confiscation of property obtained by crime can be defined as the removal of property obtained by crime from the lawful civil circulation to prevent its further circulation and the commission of further criminal offences and to reduce the financial incentive to commit criminal offences. The author’s research into the case law and new trends has led to the conclusion that the qualification of property as criminally acquired requires time and understanding of the application of the relevant rules in practice. The study examines current issues in money laundering cases and recent trends. In many cases, the evidence presented to prove the legal origin of assets is often considered insufficient by the prosecution. In order to develop an understanding of what the proceeds of crime really are, an appropriate institution should be established with relevant economic expertise and understanding of business structure, to name the few. It has been often found that property or other assets are confiscated simply due to the lack of understanding or lacking education, knowledge and practical experience, which leads to unjustified decisions. Thus, assets are considered to be criminally acquired and confiscated for the benefit of the State. In this way, the State itself is put at risk, because sooner or later, a claim for compensation will be brought, as human rights violations are also detected.Item Augstskolas autonomija kā demokrātisks pārvaldības princips Latvijā(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Bite, Kitija; Rīgas Stradiņa universitāte, Juridiskā fakultāte, LatvijaAutonomy of a university is a right to self-determine its existence and operation. Autonomy is not the absolute freedom of action of the institution, but rather the liberty to operate within the national legal framework. Autonomy embraces the democratic principles of a governance model enforced with the purpose to maintain a balance between the self-governing entities. The balance refers to internal and external democracy. Shifting the balance of the current governance model of the Constitutional Assembly, the Senate, the Rector, the Audit Commission and the Academic Arbitration Court affects democracy at large. The article aims to analyse the legal framework of university autonomy and its changes, identify shortcomings of the governance model, and propose solutions to them. Used materials include legal acts, publications and literature. Methods used in the article are descriptive, analysis, synthesis, dogmatic, induction and deduction, and legal interpretation methods as well – grammatical, systemic, historical and teleological methods. The main results relate to how changing the university governance model in Latvia impacts the university autonomy and compliance with the democratic principle in governance. Leaving the choice to establish the Constitutional Assembly to the university jeopardises the principle of participation of a university staff in the university’s activities. Furthermore, leaving the establishment of the Academic Arbitration Court to the university dismantles the democratic balance in the university governance.Item Challenges of Digitalisation in Judicial System(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Kucina, Irēna; International and European Law Department, Faculty of Law, University of LatviaDigitalisation opens the debate on the fundamental principle of a democratic society: legitimacy of decisions. There is a relationship of trust between a society living in a law-governed legal area and a judge based on the expectation that the relationship between the individual and the state is governed by a public contract that defines the rights and obligations of all parties involved to represent the common interest. The aim of the study is to detect challenges of digitalisation in judicial system and define whether it is possible to include a decision algorithm in such a public contract and what innovations that guarantee efficiency, legal certainty and access to justice could be.Item Sanctions as Means of Security in Registering Information on Beneficial Owners in the Register of Enterprises(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Bukēviča, Diāna; Register of Enterprises of the Republic of LatviaThis research examines the place of sanctions as a means of security in the legal framework of the Republic of Latvia. Specifically, relation between the sanctions as a legal impediment and registration of beneficial owners by the Register of Enterprises has been analysed as the central problematic. The aim of this research is to evaluate effectiveness of the provisions of law with respect to sanctions as a legal impediment in registering beneficial owners in Latvia and argue for a necessity to introduce amendments for elaboration thereof. In order to achieve the aim, such research methods as analysis of relevant legal norms on sanctions, legal impediments to registration of beneficial owners and competence of the Register of Enterprises have been applied. To supplement arguments of the research, a number of case studies have been used to illustrate the current practice of the Register of Enterprises in registering information on sanctioned beneficial owners. Eventual findings of the research lead to a conclusion that legal framework on sanctions regarding registration of information on beneficial owners needs serious amendments to improve its effectiveness and accordance with latest international developments. The results of this research underline the necessity to define sanctions as a means of security in the Law on the Enterprise Register of the Republic of Latvia, so as to clarify the competence of the Register of Enterprises.Item Covid-19 pandēmijas aktualizētie pārvaldības kārtības noziedzīgie apdraudējumi Latvijā(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Baumanis, Jānis; Rīgas Stradiņa universitāte, Juridiskā fakultāte, LatvijaCOVID-19 pandemic in Latvia has activated several types of criminal threats. Their range also included criminal threats to the administration existing in Latvia, which have been explored in detail in this article. The author has highlighted three topical groups of criminal threat in the field of administrative order: 1) threats, expressed as counter-activities against the person, who participates in elimination or termination of illegal commitment driven towards COVID-19 restrictions; 2) threats expressed as violations of the procedure determined for processing of documents in the field of COVID-19 restrictions; 3) threats expressed as violation of special regulations in the field of COVID-19 restrictions. Having paid attention to each separate group, the author has studied not only the case law, but also amendments to the Criminal Law planned and implemented by the legislator, analysing the positive and negative aspects of the amendments. The study revealed that the repressive approach of the state, implemented within the framework of control of the restrictions for spread of the COVID-19, lead to the situation, where not only the need was discussed to recognise the offences not yet deemed as criminally punishable, but where the legislator still considered it necessary to supplement the special part of the Criminal Law with new norms, thus expanding the types of expression of criminal offences.Item Towards Treaty on Business and Human Rights: Key Areas of Agreement(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Birģelis, Mārtiņš; Ph.D. student at the University of LatviaCurrent legal framework does not properly address the impact that transnational corporations have on human rights. In response to that in 2014 the UN Human Rights Council established an open-ended intergovernmental working group with a mandate to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. Although this decision was strongly contested and initially there was very little consensus on what such a treaty should entail, much effort has been invested to improve the content of the proposed treaty and gather the necessary support for its adoption. The aim of this article is to analyse the progress made in negotiating the treaty and to find any essential areas of agreement between different stakeholders. To achieve that aim, historical and analytical research methods have been primarily used. The study finds that two crucial areas of agreement exist – on the regulatory targets and regulatory model – that allows for real negotiations to begin.Item Right to Copy of Medical Records Free of Charge According to Article 15 (3) Sentence 1 of the GDPR vs. Mandatory Reimbursement of Costs by Patient under National Law(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Hahn, Erik; Zittau / Görlitz UAS & Dresden International University, GermanyThe article covers the topic of compatibility of national regulations, which contain an obligation for the patient to reimburse costs for copies from the medical record, with the regulations of the GDPR. The discussion is based on the example of the German regulation in Section 630g (2) of the German Civil Code (BGB) since the German Federal Court of Justice (2022) recently submitted the question of the compatibility of this provision with the GDPR to the ECJ (European Court of Justice) for a preliminary ruling. The study also focuses on Austria, where the Supreme Court of Justice already in 2020 had assumed that the comparable provision in Art. 17a (2) lit. g of the Vienna Hospital Act 1987 could be a permissible restriction within the meaning of Art. 23 (1) lit. e of the GDPR. The article concludes that the request for a copy of the medical record is not “excessive” within the meaning of Art. 12 (5) sentence 2 of the GDPR, although the request did not serve data protection purposes but served to assert claims for damages against the physician. Furthermore, the article assumes that a national provision that requires the patient to bear the costs in any case is not a “necessary and proportionate measure” within the meaning of Art. 23 (1) of the GDPR. However, a restriction of the physician’s obligation to provide copies free of charge based on the wording of Art. 15 (3) sentence 1 of the GDPR might be possible.Item Diagnosis of Rare but Dangerous Diseases in Primary Telephone Consultation(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Justickis, Viktoras; Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania Medical Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, LithuaniaPrimary telephone consultation provides the patient with the opportunity to make a phone call and receive medical information between the onset of the first symptoms of the disease and their first visit to the doctor. This creates an opportunity to speed up the moment when the patient receives the first qualified help and thereby increases the success of further treatment. This is especially important in the case of the so-called “must not miss” diseases. These are the most dangerous, albeit rare, diseases in which early detection and treatment is a decisive factor in the success of treatment. However, telephone consultations can also create new problems, the most important of which is related to the fact that in such process the doctor has only the data that can be obtained by interviewing the patient. This is fraught with an increased risk of medical error. This danger is especially great in the case of “must not miss” diseases, in which only at the very early stage there are serious chances to stop the progression of the disease. The article discusses ways to solve this problem – the requirements that must be met by the organisation of a consultation in order to maximise the use of the possibilities of telephone consultation in these conditions for the timely detection of “must not miss” diseases. The problems of harmonising these requirements with the organisational and economic conditions in which telephone consultation is carried out are discussed.Item Algoritms kā būtiska kaitējuma noteikšanas metode noziedzīgos nodarījumos, kas saistīti ar automatizētu datu apstrādes sistēmu (ADAS)(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Ķinis, Uldis; Sinkevičs, Ņikita; Rīgas Stradiņa universitāte, LatvijaThe aim of the article is to analyse the problem of applying substantial harm in offenses against the security of information systems, in particular Paragraph one of Article 241 and the paragraph one and two of Article 243 of the Criminal Law. Although substantial harm is defined in Article 23 of the Law on the Procedures for the Coming into Force and Application of the Criminal Law, the wording of the current law and its application in the court practice of Latvia is still problematic. The authors have studied the European Union and regulations in Latvia on the network and information system, which provides security of services essential to society. The authors concluded that systems which provide essential service and significant impact of service must be recognised as the direct object of the offense of Article 241, Paragraph three and Article 243, Paragraph five of the Criminal Law. Furthermore, it is not necessary to prove existence of harmful effects in order to prosecute these offenses. The authors propose to introduce a classification of information systems that would functionally cover all existing systems in the country. Therefore, the authors propose to simplify this process of determining significant damage and replace the current procedure with an algorithm. General methods of scientific research and methods of legal interpretation have been used in the research.Item Defence of Rule-Deductivism(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Musts, Jānis; University of LatviaMany legal theorists subscribe to the claim that the legal syllogism has a role in justification of legal decisions. A challenge to this thesis is put forward in Luis Duarte d’Almeida’s essay “On the Legal Syllogism”. This article aims to examine Luis Duarte d’Almeida’s arguments against rule-deductivism in order to refine the theoretical understanding of the role that the legal syllogism has in the justification of legal decisions. In this article, three main research methods have been used: the descriptive, the deductive, and the analytical method. The examination of Luis Duarte d’Almeida’s arguments against rule-deductivism results in several conclusions. Firstly, the general argument against rule-deductivism fails because of some faulty assumptions about the scope of the major premise in respect to the scope of the statutory rule entailed by its ratio legis, i.e. that this adherence must be perfect when the judge is expanding the scope of the statutory rule by referring to the general purpose of the rule. Secondly, the critique of the first notion of rule-deductivism is effective, but only insofar as one also adheres to several contentious assumptions that are held by some rule-deductivists, but are not essential to rule-deductivism.Item Definition of Tax Planning in the Case Law of the Court of Justice of the EU (ECJ)(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Zelmenis, Jānis; Law Firm “BDO Law”The objective of the study is to analyse the current and past case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding tax disputes based on the modern legislation of the EU countries and applicable international law to determine the concept and criteria for legal tax planning. This article provides an in-depth study of the well-known Cadbury Schweppes case (2006), including the decision of the ECJ, which laid the foundation for a new concept of examination and interpretation of tax disputes on the merits in general. The introduction of the concept of “wholly artificial arrangements” and their characteristics stipulated and determined the development of the entire field of tax planning for years to come. Other rulings of the ECJ following the case of Cadbury Schweppes have described in greater detail and more specifically the concept of “wholly artificial arrangements” under the influence of the practice of tax planning itself, determining what tax planning is legitimate and how exactly it should be distinguished from tax evasion and tax avoidance. Several research methods have been used in this study: comparative method, historical method, analytic method, inductive method.Item Development Strategy of International Cooperation of Forensic Science Institutions of Ukraine with Foreign Experts in Prevention of Terrorist Attacks on Critical Infrastructure(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Filipenko, Nataliia; Spitsyna, Hanna; Law Department of National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”, UkraineThe issue of using modern foreign experience of preventive activity in criminological work of forensic science institutions of Ukraine has been considered in this study. Peculiarities of the main organisational forms of forensic science activity have been analysed through specialised (forensic science) institutions and through specific specialists, namely: forensic experts (for example, practice of the institute of sworn experts: specialists who took the oath or received a license for forensic examination). Analysis of international standards used in forensic science activity has been carried out. Necessity position of legislative introduction of international standards in process of forensic examination has been revealed and substantiated. The main emphasis is on highlighting problems of cooperation of forensic institutions of Ukraine with foreign experts in preventing terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure. The research aim is to study the use of modern foreign experience in preventive activities in criminological work of forensic expert institutions of Ukraine. The result of the study provides evaluation of the problems of cooperation of forensic institutions of Ukraine with foreign experts in preventing terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure. Based on this evaluation, a proposal is put forward for the improvement of normative regulations.Item Socrates. Rīga Stradiņš University Faculty of Law Electronic Scientific Journal of Law. 2022, 2 (23)(Rīga Stradiņš University, 2022) Rīga Stradiņš University, Faculty of Law, Latvia; Rīgas Stradiņa universitāte, Juridiskā fakultāte, Latvija