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Coronavirus is the first global crisis of a digital age and the divergence in policy responses reflects the challenge of navigating an unprecedented global situation under conditions of enormous uncertainty. We ask what lessons can be learned from this experience and identify two, both of which push against mainstream interpretations of recent events. First, and contrary to the view that the crisis exposed social media and Big Tech as a source of dangerous misinformation that needs to be regulated more strictly, the paper argues that the less mediated spaces of the Internet—social media and Twitter, in particular—played an essential role in triggering a more effective policy response based around social distancing, lockdown, and containment. Second, and contrary to the view that things will go back to normal once the worst of the crisis has passed, the paper argues that, as a direct result of lockdown, the status quo has been shifted across multiple sectors of the economy. Three examples of this shift are introduced, notably the forced experimentation with digital technologies in education and health, the increased use of remote work in many companies, and a reduction in environmentally harmful behavior and decrease in pollution levels. The long-term effects of this ‘reset’ are impossible to predict, but a quick return to the ‘old normal’ seems unlikely. The paper concludes with the suggestion that this reset has created a unique historical opportunity for the reappraisal of regulatory approaches across multiple domains and exposed the need for regulatory models better aligned to a less mediated, more decentralized world. COVID-19 is a global tragedy, but—given that it has happened—it should be used as a learning experience to re-imagine a better, more socially, and environmentally responsible future.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) contains a blanket prohibition on the transfer of personal data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) unless strict requirements are met. The rationale for this provision is to protect personal data and data subject rights by restricting data transfers to countries that may not have the same level of protection as the EEA. However, the ubiquitous and permeable character of new technologies such as cloud computing, and the increased inter-connectivity between societies, has made international data transfers the norm and not the exception. The Schrems II case and subsequent regulatory developments have further raised the bar for companies to comply with complex and, often, opaque rules. Many firms are, therefore, pursuing technology-based solutions in order to mitigate this new legal risk. These emerging technological alternatives reduce the need for open-ended cross-border transfers and the practical challenges and legal risk that such transfers create post-Schrems. This article examines one such alternative, namely a user-held data model. This approach takes advantage of ‘personal data clouds’ that allows data subjects to store their data locally and in a more decentralised manner, thus decreasing the need for cross-border transfers and offering end-users the possibility of greater control over their data.

In this paper, we identified five fundamental principles for developing data protection law courses in today’s digital age. The paper outlines the broader context of the transformation of legal education in a digital age; describes the importance of integrating legal-thinking and design-thinking with a deeper understanding of the underlying technologies and user-interfaces; and introduces the main features of a new approach to teaching data protection and privacy. The main argument of the paper is to suggest that the data protection lawyer of the future will become a key intermediary of innovation – or a ‘transaction engineer’ – who helps facilitate and coordinate new forms of business and other social relationships; contributes to harnessing the benefits of disruptive technologies, automation and digital connectivity to build next generation legal services; and contributes to the development of a legally compliant and socially responsible technological infrastructure. To perform this function effectively, however, data protection professionals need to develop a new mindset, along with several new skills and capacities, including a better understanding of the technological architecture of a post-digital transformation world, as well as the power and importance of legal design. Crucially, this means re-visiting the law school curriculum and legal education, more generally. From a pedagogical perspective, we propose a task-oriented, “sandbox”, and “gamified” approach to data protection law that delivers a more meaningful student experience in which students are given the space to experiment via engagement with timely and practical problems.

This paper explores the issue of ‘re-making’ corporate law through the prism of the United Nations’ recent efforts at reducing legal obstacles experienced by micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises in starting and scaling a business. In order to be fully successful, this paper suggests that the UN should go back to business fundamentals and should attempt to build from the ground up based on the real world needs of entrepreneurs, rather than work off already existing corporate legal systems. In this way, it is possible to engage in a more imaginative form of regulatory design in which a clear, open and preferential legal framework for stimulating innovation and business creation can be developed.

Understanding the corrosion behaviour of zirconium alloys is essential in providing cost effective and safe operation of nuclear power plant. Long-term corrosion testing of Zircaloy-4 and Zircaloy-2 in 350 °C pressurised water is presented with detailed analysis of the oxide's development. The correlation of the corrosion and analytical data provides a detailed understanding regarding the point at which different microstructural features, such as cracking, occur during the cyclic corrosion process. The results from this work show that the large scale cracking, which is often associated with the cyclic transitions, evolve following, rather than prior to, the onset in rapid corrosion.

In a technology-driven, digital world, many of the largest and most successful businesses now operate as ‘platforms’. Such firms leverage networked technologies to facilitate economic exchange, transfer information, connect people, and make predictions. Platform companies are already disrupting multiple industries, including retail, hotels, taxis, and others, and are aggressively moving into new sectors, such as financial services. This paper examines the distinctive features of this new business model and its implications for regulation, notably corporate governance. In particular, the paper suggests that a tension exists between the incentives created by modern corporate governance and the business needs of today’s platforms. The current regulatory framework promotes an unhealthy ‘corporate’ attitude that is failing platforms, and a new direction (what we term ‘platform governance’) is urgently required. In identifying this new regulatory direction, the paper considers how firms might develop as successful platforms. Although there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, the paper describes three interconnected strategies: (1) leveraging current and near-future digital technologies to create more ‘community-driven’ forms of organization; (2) building an ‘open and accessible platform culture’; and (3) facilitating the creation, curation, and consumption of meaningful ‘content’. The paper concludes that jurisdictions that are the most successful in designing a new ‘platform governance’ based on the promotion of these strategies will be the primary beneficiaries of the digital transformation.

This paper argues that the key to success for any business enterprise is to build and maintain relevancy in the marketplace, whilst also remaining relevant to all the various stakeholders within the firm (e.g., employees and investors). Relevancy in the market means delivering products or services that matter for consumers. Relevancy to stakeholders means offering a meaningful experience that allows individuals to develop a unique identity and related capacities; communicate an image; and participate in a fulfilling collaborative project. These two objectives are interconnected in the sense that a firm that remains relevant to stakeholders gives itself the best opportunity to remain relevant in the market place. One recent trend amongst large public companies—often encouraged by activist investors—is to go down the ‘break up’ route in an attempt to remain relevant or recapture relevancy. There is something to this strategy of splitting up or selling off certain parts of the business. The idea is that these newly formed—and smaller—companies will be able to better focus on their respective core competencies. We, however, suggest that firm size does not matter. What is important is to realise that the most innovative firms currently seek to achieve relevancy via the implementation of various ‘new’ corporate governance practices. This paper offers an interpretation of the principles underlying these practices, namely, flat hierarchy, open communication and inclusivity. Equally, these principles provide a starting point for a critical review of the existing legal framework. The current regulatory framework has a tendency to over-emphasise investor interests and this has created a number of unintended side effects, namely ‘dinosaurs’ (companies that find themselves in a process of slow and terminal decline); ‘unicorns’ (large companies that remain private in order to avoid the stifling effects of post-IPO regulation); and ‘governance renegades’ (public companies that adopt unconventional corporate structures in order to retain the pre-IPO—start-up—feel). In the light of these unintended side effects, we propose a recalibration of existing regulation based around the three principles, i.e., a relevancy-based approach to regulation.

This article examines whether the concept of penal populism can be useful in understanding contemporary developments in Japanese criminal justice. In addressing this issue it is suggested that we need to draw a clear distinction between different conceptions of penal populism and, in particular, we should avoid equating penal populism with intensification of the severity of state punishment. A discussion of the Japanese experience highlights the importance of focusing on populism as a process by which new voices emerge and influence criminal justice policy as a result of an unmet demand for justice and security. This perception of a lack of security and justice is a global phenomenon that, nevertheless, expresses itself in distinctive, culturally specific ways. Although the extent of this shift should not be exaggerated, at least in a Japanese context, penal populism has contributed to an opening up of criminal justice and a disaggregation of state sovereignty.

Corporate criminal law refers to the body of legal norms that imposes criminal liability on the corporation, rather than individual members of the corporation, such as directors, officers, managers or employees. This chapter begins by suggesting that the reach of corporate criminal law has greatly expanded over the last three decades. A second striking feature of recent corporate criminal law is the degree to which the substantive criminal law in this field is often plagued by a lack of legal certainty as to the scope of the offence. Examples of legal “uncertainty” are introduced from securities law and anti-corruption law. The chapter goes on to argue that the legal basis for the new corporate criminal law – the doctrine of corporate legal liability – is similarly characterized by uncertainties of various kinds. The discussion highlights how a concern with legal certainty seems to run up against other policy considerations, notably the pragmatic need to take meaningful action against corporate wrongdoing. The chapter concludes with the suggestion that in the context of contemporary corporate criminal law, the meaning of legal certainty has been transformed from a fundamental principle of criminal justice to one of a number of competing policy considerations that have to be resolved in responding to socially undesirable corporate behavior. The combined effect of this net-widening and legal “uncertainty” has been to greatly increase legal risk for companies and to provide a strong incentive to invest in internal governance mechanisms aimed at social enforcement, i.e. corporate compliance.

This chapter examines the transnational character of the ‘new corporate criminal law’ and identifies some of the consequences for any business that operates across borders, notably the expansion of transnational legal risk. A response to this expansion in legal risk has been the growth of adaptive and flexible “compliance” mechanisms within organizational governance. From the perspective of regulators, the new corporate criminal law also creates new sources of risk and the chapter will suggest that the increased importance of transnational regulatory networks between regulators is an adaptation to the new legal reality. The chapter concludes by suggesting that one important consequence of this expansion in new scope of legal risk is a transformation in the normative character of criminal law, as it applies to corporations.

Over the last three decades, the rapid pace of technological change, transformations in the composition of markets and the emergence of global production capacities and service providers have created many new opportunities for business, as well as consumers. Globalization is the new and irreversible economic reality of our age. Clearly these economic changes have contributed to the creation of new pressures on, and expectations of, those fields of law connected to the regulation of business, particularly cross-border business. Lawmakers and regulators have been compelled to respond to the new demands and challenges created by the emergence of a global economy. New expectations of law – in particular, that it be more agile or flexible in regulating the market economy – have prompted law-makers and regulators in multiple jurisdictions to adopt various novel regulatory techniques and legal forms to respond to this challenge.

Introduction: Networks and Networked Governance.- Networked Governance, Network Actors & the Limits of the Law.- From Protected National Markets to Networked Governance? Regulatory Revolution in the EU Aviation Sector.- Unpacking Legal Network Power: The Structural Construction of Transnational Legal Expert Networks.- Science Based Governance? EU Food Regulation Submitted to Risk Analysis.- Regulatory Networks, Population Level Effects & Threshold Models of Collective Action.- Intermediaries, Trust and Efficiency of Communication: A Social Network Perspective.- Ethical Trade Networks as a Catalyst for Corporate Compliance with Human Rights.- Networked Governance: From Democratic Deficit to Substantive Legitimacy.- The Dilemma of European Consumer Representation in Deliberative Networks - The Democratic Deficit in the Context of the Drafting of the Common European Sales Law.- The "European Business Register EEIG" as a Network of European Commercial Registers.- The International Competition Network, its Leniency Best Practice and Legitimacy: An Argument for Introducing a Review System.- Networked Governance, Investment and Finance.- Evolving Hierarchies in Transnational Financial Networked Governance: The Relationship between the International Accounting Standards Board, the Financial Stability Board and the G-20.- The OECD Principles of Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets: A Successful Example of Networked Governance?.- The Role of Investor Networks in Transnational Corporate Governance.

This paper aims to contribute to the discussion concerning the scope of party autonomy in international family law. It is suggested to adopt a wider view and analyse the principle of party autonomy from the efficiency perspective. In particular, this short note questions the widely accepted assumption that agreements in family law are very similar, if not identical, to other forms of market transactions. In order to facilitate the debate, it is suggested to take into consideration that some forms of agreements perform signaling function and therefore should be treated differently from other forms of market transactions. It is argued that such a perspective could help identify the surplus value of the agreement. The paper concludes with some further thoughts about the implications of the signaling and surplus value to the discussion on party autonomy in international family law.

Technology is transforming our lives and the way we perceive reality so quickly that we are often unaware of its effects on the relationship between law and society. As an emerging field, a key aim of IT Law is finding the best way of harnessing different cutting-edge technologies and at the same time reducing the ever-growing gap between new technology and various legal systems. Therefore, this chapter deals with introducing and describing several limiting legal issues that have been exacerbated by emerging technologies and the Internet’s fast growing and dynamic nature. It follows from this chapter that we could expect disruptive technology and innovation to be integral components to the analysis of law in the future.