Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of State and Law

Since ochratoxin A (OTA) was discovered, it has been ubiquitous as a natural contaminant of moldy food and feed. The multiple toxic effects of OTA are a real threat for human beings and animal health. For example, OTA can cause porcine nephropathy but can also damage poultries. Humans exposed to OTA can develop (notably by inhalation in the development of acute renal failure within 24 h) a range of chronic disorders such as upper urothelial carcinoma. OTA plays the main role in the pathogenesis of some renal diseases including Balkan endemic nephropathy, kidney tumors occurring in certain endemic regions of the Balkan Peninsula, and chronic interstitial nephropathy occurring in Northern African countries and likely in other parts of the world. OTA leads to DNA adduct formation, which is known for its genotoxicity and carcinogenicity. The present article discusses how renal carcinogenicity and nephrotoxicity cause both oxidative stress and direct genotoxicity. Careful analyses of the data show that OTA carcinogenic effects are due to combined direct and indirect mechanisms (e.g., genotoxicity, oxidative stress, epigenetic factors). Altogether this provides strong evidence that OTA carcinogenicity can also occur in humans.

Spices are imported worldwide mainly from developing countries with tropical and/or subtropical climate. Local conditions, such as high temperature, heavy rainfall, and humidity, promote fungal growth leading to increased occurrence of mycotoxins in spices. Moreover, the lack of good agricultural practice (GAP), good manufacturing practice (GMP), and good hygienic practice (GHP) in developing countries are of great concern. This review summarizes recent data from a total of 56 original papers dealing with mycotoxins and microfungi in various spices in the last five years. A total of 38 kinds of spices, 17 mycotoxins, and 14 microfungi are discussed in the review. Worldwide, spices are rather overlooked in terms of mycotoxin regulations, which usually only cover aflatoxins (AFs) and ochratoxin A (OTA). In this paper, an extensive attention is devoted to the limits on mycotoxins in spices in the context of the European Union (EU) as well as other countries. As proven in this review, the incidence of AFs and OTA, as well as other mycotoxins, is relatively high in many spices; thus, the preparation of new regulation limits is advisable.

The advent of technological developments is allowing to gather large amounts of data in several research fields. Learning analytics (LA)/educational data mining has access to big observational unstructured data captured from educational settings and relies mostly on unsupervised machine learning (ML) algorithms to make sense of such type of data. Generalized additive models for location, scale, and shape (GAMLSS) are a supervised statistical learning framework that allows modeling all the parameters of the distribution of the response variable with respect to the explanatory variables. This article overviews the power and flexibility of GAMLSS in relation to some ML techniques. Also, GAMLSS' capability to be tailored toward causality via causal regularization is briefly commented. This overview is illustrated via a data set from the field of LA. This article is categorized under:Application Areas > Education and LearningAlgorithmic Development > StatisticsTechnologies > Machine Learning.

In recent years digitalization is one of the main drivers of changing the financial field in the world as a whole and in Russia. At first, the phenomenon called "cryptocurrency" (in essence, it is what the economists call "private money") developed beyond state control and was subjected to a very critical attitude on the part of official regulators. However, state and central banks later joined digital experiments. Thus, the phenomenon of the “digital currency of the Central Bank” — Central Bank digital currencies (CBDC) — appeared. The Central Bank saw new opportunities, primarily in terms of abandoning paper (cash) circulation and control, in the new instrument. Many central banks in the world are currently conducting research, and some have reached the level of testing relevant solutions. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation does not stand aside as well: in 2019, the first report was prepared — a study on the prospects of digital currencies of central banks; in 2020 the report “Digital Ruble” was published for public consultation. The introduction of such a financial instrument entails significant changes in the legal field. The paper analyzes such changes as well as the main shortcomings of the Report.

"Saluka Investments B. V. (The Netherlands) v. The Czech Republic Comments on the Partial Arbitral Award of 17 March 2006" published on 01 Jan 2006 by Brill | Nijhoff.

The subject of the research is the legal nature of the digital profile of a citizen, as well as a set of legal norms regulating digital profiling relations in Russia. The comparative method, the method of system analysis, as well as the method of legal modeling are used in the article. The purpose of the article is to confirm or disprove the hypothesis that legal regulation is not the only mechanism for regulating relations in the field of digital profiling. The main results, scope of application. The article studies the phenomenon of digital profile, the main approaches to the digital profiling as well as the circumstances that have caused the state's interest in digital profiling. The creation and operation of a digital profile should be aimed at achieving the goal set out in the legislation. The digital profile is a set of relevant, reliable information about individuals and legal entities formed in the unified identification and authentication system or other information systems of state and local government authorities. The formation of a digital profile is carried out in order to provide data to authorities, legal entities and persons who have requested access to this information through the digital profile infrastructure. The analysis of the Russian legal regulation of relations in the field of digital profiling is presented, the problems of enforcement practice are identified. The analysis revealed the main differences between the digital profile and related categories, including social scoring, the unified population register and others. The comparison of a digital profile with a digital avatar and a digital character was carried out. It is extremely important to pay close attention to the problems of digital profiling both at the level of fundamental and applied scientific research. At the state level, it is important to strategically determine what a digital profile is, as well as formulate the main directions of the digital profiling development, challenges and risks. The importance of the development of digital profiling for unified system of public authorities in the Russian Federation is outlined. Conclusions. The analysis of the emerging practice of digital profiling in contemporary society shows that legal regulation does not always allow us to keep up with the rapidly developing relations in this area. The possibility of using other mechanisms should be considered. The use of mechanisms of regulatory experiments can also be considered as special mechanisms for regulating relations in the field of digital profiling. The goal of the research has been achieved, the legal nature of the digital profile has been revealed, approaches to regulating this phenomenon in the conditions of digital transformation have been proposed.

Abstract Former socialist European countries (FSECs) have largely been overlooked in the scholarly debate on sentencing disparities and structuring sentencing discretion. The article addresses this gap by analysing the specific sentencing characteristics in FSECs, which differ from those in their Western counterparts. Specifically, FSECs place greater emphasis on the principle of individualisation and exhibit distrust towards the executive branch. Whilst recent studies have documented important unwarranted disparities in FSECs, scholarly and professional debates on sentencing issues in these countries have been rare and often superficial to date. In this paper, we describe the specifics of sentencing in FSEC, emphasising the broad discretion provided to sentencers, the lack of interest from sentencing stakeholders, and the frequent neglect of procedural factors influencing sentencing. Drawing on existing scholarship and empirical evidence, we put forward general principles for structuring sentencing discretion in a manner specific to FSEC. We identify key actors who might provide guidance and discuss how our suggestions might be implemented in practice.

Abstract A system of equations describing the production of electron-hole pairs in semiconductors by energetic electrons and holes is given for the low energy region. It is assumed that electron-phonon interaction and interband Auger transitions constitute the dominant slowing-down mechanisms. Quantitative estimates are obtained for the influence of parameters characterizing both the band structure and the interactions under consideration on the mean number g of electrons and holes created. Also, the second order moment g2 and the Fano factor Fare calculated. Furthermore, the problem of energy transfer to the crystal lattice is discussed in detail. The radiation-ionization energy ∊ and the corresponding phonon-loss part ∊ph are estimated for several typical band structure models.

Thematic analysis and other variants of inductive coding are widely used qualitative analytic methods within empirical legal studies (ELS). We propose a novel framework facilitating effective collaboration of a legal expert with a large language model (LLM) for generating initial codes (phase 2 of thematic analysis), searching for themes (phase 3), and classifying the data in terms of the themes (to kick-start phase 4). We employed the framework for an analysis of a dataset (n = 785) of facts descriptions from criminal court opinions regarding thefts. The goal of the analysis was to discover classes of typical thefts. Our results show that the LLM, namely OpenAI’s GPT-4, generated reasonable initial codes, and it was capable of improving the quality of the codes based on expert feedback. They also suggest that the model performed well in zero-shot classification of facts descriptions in terms of the themes. Finally, the themes autonomously discovered by the LLM appear to map fairly well to the themes arrived at by legal experts. These findings can be leveraged by legal researchers to guide their decisions in integrating LLMs into their thematic analyses, as well as other inductive coding projects.

Abstract BACKGROUND Biochars have become one of the most intensively and extensively investigated soil amendment materials in terms of their production, application and fate in the soil because of benefits such as increased soil quality and fertility. Biochar from woodchips and bone char from meat bone waste from a poultry slaughterhouse were prepared at 300 and 500 °C and then thoroughly mixed with two soils (cambisol and luvisol) that differed in their physicochemical parameters in ratios of 2% and 5% (w/w). RESULTS The impact of bone and biochar amendments on nutrient availability was assessed during a one‐year model laboratory experiment. The feedstock origin and pyrolysis temperature affected the prepared materials’ physical properties and nutrient (Ca, Cu, K, Mg, Mn, P, S, Zn) availability. With increasing temperature, the structure of woodchip biochar changed from macroporous to microporous, and bone char changed from non‐porous to mesoporous. However, when mixed with soil, the biochar‐derived change in soil pH was revealed to be the most crucial parameter affecting soil nutrient mobility. Of all the tested elements, Only Cu, Fe and Zn were unaffected by biochar addition. Furthermore, temporal changes in element mobility during incubation were also elucidated. CONCLUSION The changes over time in element mobility indicated that soil properties were more important than bone and biochar characteristics. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).

Our everyday use of electronic devices and search for various contents online provides valuable insights into our functioning and preferences. Companies usually extract and analyze this data in order to predict our future behavior and to tailor their marketing accordingly. In terms of the General Data Protection Regulation such practice is called profiling and is subject to specific rules. However, the behavior analysis can be used also for unique identification or verification of identity of a person. Therefore, this paper claims that under certain conditions data about online behavior of an individual fall into the category of biometric data within the meaning defined by the GDPR. Moreover, this paper claims that profiling of a person can not only be done upon existing biometric data as biometric profiling but it can also lead to creation of new biometric data by constituting a new biometric template. This claim is based both on legal interpretation of the concepts of biometric data, unique identification, and profiling as well as analysis of existing technologies. This article also explains under which conditions online behavior can be considered biometric data under the GDPR, at which point profiling results in creation of new biometric data and what are the consequences for a controller and data subjects.

The leading countries across the world have entered the race to develop quantum technologies that will enable them to ensure their continued economic prosperity. Among these technologies, a special place is occupied by quantum communication, which is designed to ensure information security in an era where a quantum computer is capable of compromising a number of cryptography algorithms. In this article, this new digital technology includes quantum key distribution and encryption methods that are cryptographically resistant to a quantum computer. The study does not consider the regulation of the quantum communication sub-technology, the so-called “quantum internet,” due to the technical limitations of the existing equipment. The authors note that their predictions about the cryptographic strength of encryption algorithms are based solely on modern knowledge about the capabilities of quantum computing and do not take into account its hidden potential, for example, in terms of cryptanalysis information systems based on a machine learning model generated by a quantum computer. Currently, the only data protection system that is not subject to quantum threats is the technology of quantum key distribution. In today’s information and digital age, information security systems are an important element of critical infrastructure. Given the importance of these technologies, different states use different methods to regulate this field. This article puts forward and substantiates the hypothesis that the implementation of a combination of regulatory legal acts could have a greater positive impact on the development of quantum communication and ensure an acceptable level of information security in the post-quantum era. The analysis showed that a significant number of states and interstate associations are conducting research in this area, relying only on investment growth. This strategy has prevented any country from achieving the competencies of the People’s Republic of China. The authors also analyzed the methods of legal support used by China, Russia, and other countries in the field of quantum communication, which made it possible to identify a model of legal regulation of quantum communication that stimulates this technology’s development.

Judicial experience is considered essential for the proper functioning of the sentencing system. We investigate how it influences judicial decisions and its role in reducing sentencing disparity. To do so, we analyze all Czech criminal decisions imposed in 2007–2017 using data that includes judge identifiers. This unique feature of our data enables us to measure judges’ experience directly, as the number of criminal cases processed, and to assess patterns in between-judge disparities longitudinally over the course of judges’ careers. We find that experienced judges impose more prison sentences, decide fewer cases via shortened procedure and find fewer defendants guilty. In addition, as judges become more experienced, between-judge disparities reduce across all the outcomes considered. Experience is thus an instrumental factor affecting judicial decisions throughout the criminal process, and one that contributes to greater consistency.

This article focuses on the concept of just transition, which has recently greatly expanded in the climate debate, expressing the demand to adopt and implement climate policies leading to decarbonisation in a way that maintains equity and justice. Building on previous research on the concept of just transition in other disciplines of social sciences, and on the concept’s appearance in international climate law instruments and law literature, we analyse the just transition in the field of law. We seek to clarify its conceptual framing, to define its meaning, and to determine its position and limits in law. We then examine it vertically (for each level of law) and horizontally, addressing the main criteria that define its content, i.e., human rights and legal principles.

Abstract Questions What are the effects of environmental and dispersal filters on vegetation in small and species‐rich fragments of temperate forests in which species richness increases along the edge–interior gradient? Location Small fragments of thermophilic forests in central Bohemia, Czech Republic. Methods Repeated vegetation surveys and seed rain samplings were conducted in 71 plots located in 17 forest fragments (0.4 to 255 ha) in an agricultural landscape in Central Europe. A subsequent assessment of seed viability was performed via germination in a greenhouse. We evaluated species richness, composition and the similarities between forest vegetation and viable available seeds, accounting for potentially significant environmental conditions. Particularly, we examined the effects of species with different associations to the forest environment in combination with prevalent dispersal strategies. Results Species richness and composition of the herb layer vegetation (including tree and shrub seedlings) in small forest fragments reflected seed distribution and, to a lesser extent, seed viability. Plant species composition showed a nested pattern according to the distance from the forest edge; the species at the edge represented a subset of the species in the forest interior. Forest specialist species with spatially limited dispersal consistently achieved the highest species richness in forest interiors (>200 m from the forest edge), although this differed depending on aspect. Species richness of generalists and open‐land species benefitted from higher light quality and vice versa for forest specialists. Conclusions Small forest fragments maintain species‐rich herb layer communities confined in area‐limited interior habitats. They do this despite being mostly or entirely under the influence of the edge effect and impoverished of forest specialists. Moreover, the species‐rich interiors of the small forest fragments are likely prone to negative changes in species composition induced either by canopy closure or opening in the future.

What is the value represented by peace? What do human rights mean and what kinds of hu-man rights are there? What is the substance of the right to live in peace and what is its legal status? Those are the questions which I will attempt to answer in this paper. 1. Peace. Peace, in its broadest context, is the opposite of conflict and unrest in relations between States, between various factions of one society, between individuals, and even between the feelings and desires of a single individual. Peace is at all times a desirable value. The state of peace is beneficial for individuals, States, nations and for all mankind. In relations

The subject of research . In 2005, a new institution for exclusion of a legal entity from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities by decision of the registering authority (or, as it is also called "administrative termination of a legal entity"). Subsequently, as a result of a number of changes, including the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, introduced by federal laws in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2019, this institution was formed in the form in which it currently exists Its importance, at first more technical, has increased significantly after the changes in 2015, when this institution began to be used to conduct a large-scale "cleaning" of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities from inactive legal entities. As a result, millions of legal entities have been excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities in recent years. In addition, the range of situations in which this institution began to be applied has expanded. Accordingly, the increase in the number of disputes is due to the fact that such exclusion affects the rights and interests of many persons (creditors, participants of excluded legal entities, members of their governing bodies). These disputes have often been the subject of close attention of the Russian Constitutional Court (the latest example is the decision of the Russian Constitutional Court of May 21, 2021 No. 20-P). The article examines the goals of this institution, its development, shows the most problematic situations related to the application of the institution of exclusion of a legal entity from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The purpose of the article is to identify the main problems of the institution of exclusion of a legal entity from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, as well as formulate the main directions for changing this institution. The author's main scientific hypothesis is that during the development of the institution of exclusion of a legal entity from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, its original goals were lost. New goals and meanings were also formulated (in the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation), which eventually (taking into account the significant shortcomings of the exclusion procedure itself) lead to violation of the rights of a significant number of interested persons. The author believes that in the development of this institution there is clearly a disproportion in terms of its application in relation to limited liability companies and persons controlling such a company. The author also notes the lack of a unified concept of the institution of exclusion from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, since along with the administrative procedure for the termination of legal personality, the legislation also recognizes the judicial procedure. Description of research methods and methodology. The research is based on a systematic analysis, as well as the use of methods of interpretation developed in the doctrine. The main results , scope of application. The goals of creating the institution of exclusion of a legal entity from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities are established, the development of this institution is shown taking into account the legal positions of the Russian Constitutional Court, judicial practice, conceptual provisions on reforming civil legislation. Conclusions. There is a need for a complete renovation of the institution of exclusion of a legal entity from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The main directions for improving the institution of exclusion of a legal entity from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities are formulated.

Příspěvek pojednává o aktuálním tématu současného digitálního věku, jímž jsou otázky spojené s právní ochranou biometrických údajů, včetně možnosti jejich zneužití. Těmto otázkám dosud nebyla v ČR věnována systematická pozornost a neexistují ani statistické údaje týkající se postojů veřejnosti k biometrickým údajům a jejich užití. V rámci tohoto příspěvku tak byla provedena analýza současné právní úpravy, jež klade na zpracování biometrických údajů, které se řadí do zvláštní kategorie osobních údajů, výrazně vyšší standard ochrany než dřívější právní úprava. Zvažovány byly jak konkrétní důsledky dopadu této úpravy na soukromí člověka, včetně jejích principů, tak i subjektivní vnímání většiny významných atributů chování hlavních aktérů. Cílem článku je přispět ke zvýšení povědomí o rizicích používání biometrických údajů, jakož i přispět k vysvětlení klíčových principů obecného nařízení o ochraně osobních údajů při jeho aplikaci v oblasti biometriky. Příspěvek rovněž podrobně informuje o sociologickém průzkumu CVVM, jež obecně ukázal, že česká populace v poměru tři ku jedné upřednostňuje ochranu svého soukromí před uživatelským komfortem. Zhruba 71 % všech respondentů někdy o biometrických údajích slyšelo a téměř polovina z nich má alespoň hrubou představu o tom, co jsou to biometrické údaje. Pouze 70 % respondentů si však uvědomuje, že moderní technologie umožňují shromažďovat, zpracovávat a (zne)užívat osobní údaje, a to i bez jejich vědomí či souhlasu.

The subject of research. The issue of reliability (unreliability) of information (data) included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities has increased after the amendments made to the Russian Civil Code in 2013 and to the Russian legislation on state registration of legal entities in 2015. The legislation, introducing the principle of public reliability of information included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities does not clearly define what is meant by such reliability. Accordingly, the question arises about what is meant by “unreliability” of information. Although legal norms contain the concept of “error”; the legislation does not contain a single legal regime of “error”. This is expressed in the presence of several independent cases described in the legislation, including, among other things, an independent procedure for correcting an error. It is also not clear how the presence of an “error” correlates with the requirements for the reliability of the data of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The author shows the evolution of the concepts of “error” and “technical error” in the legislation on state registration of legal entities, as well as ways to eliminate it for the first time in the Russian doctrine. The purpose of the article is to: (a) analyze the current regulation and qualify various cases of “errors” in the information included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities; (b) specify the objectives of regulation in each identified case of “errors”; (c) identify the main contradictions in the regulation; (d) form a new model of the reliability of the information included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and specific legal decisions based on the goals of the legislator to “whitewash” the Russian economy, strengthen the principle of good faith, and ensure the certainty of legal norms. The scientific hypothesis is that the “error” in the information included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, whatever its cause, is a special case of unreliability of information. Accordingly, all cases of “error” should be settled within the framework of the general model of reliability of information included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The current regulation does not provide real public reliability of the information; in fact, such public reliability today is nothing more than an illusion. Approaches to determining the reliability (unreliability) of information included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities do not provide such reliability. Description of research methods and methodology. The research is based on a systematic and teleological interpretation of normative material (legal norms, explanations of a normative nature, judicial legal positions). Information about the main scientific results. Conclusions. The conducted research fully confirmed the correctness of the proposed scientific hypothesis. Systematic proposals for changing existing approaches to regulation and specific legal solutions are formulated. Conclusions. It is noted that the current regulation regarding the criteria for the reliability/unreliability of information (data) of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities is confusing and creates uncertainty in the legal regulation. The necessity of changing the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and other federal laws, the abolition of the most odious explanations of a regulatory nature, the foundations of a new regulatory model and proposals for reforming the existing regulatory framework are formulated.

Přispěvek vstupuje do rozvijejici se pravněteoreticke a pravněfilosoficke reflexe pojmu lidských prav s cilem obohatit ji o poznatky a nastroje soudobých diskusi ve filosofii politicke. Konkretně se zaměřuji na otazku normativniho pozadi mysleni a rozhodovani o lidských pravech v situaci hlubokeho moralniho pluralismu. V textu obhajuji několik vzajemně souvisejicich tezi, z nichž ta nejobecnějsi řika, že interpretace lidských prav ma nevyhnutelně politickou, a odvozeně tudiž ideologickou dimenzi. Pokud ovsem přijmeme charakteristiku lidských prav jakožto bytostně rozporovaných (tež diskursivnich) pojmů, výrazně se kom­plikuje možnost dosaženi siroke shody na jejich interpretaci, zejmena proto, že lidska prava nelze odstinit od ostatnich bytostně rozporovaných politických pojmů a spolutvoři tak komplexni vize žadouci podoby spolecnosti. I proto dale argumentuji, že přislib tzv. rozumne neshody umožňujici koexistenci protichůdných před­stav o lidských pravech implicitně předpoklada předchozi odliseni „rozumných“ a „nerozumných“ přistupů, přicemž o vedeni teto hranice panuje nemeně silna neshoda. Způsob řeseni, který navrhuji, upřednostňuje teoretickou inkluzivitu před jistotou, že výstupem uvah bude preferovane pojeti lidských prav. Konecně take ukazuji, že výzva k „mezikulturnimu dialogu“ o lidských pravech neni z analogických důvodů upřimna.