After having relative success in curtailing the spread of the novel coronavirus in the first phase of the pandemic, Israel experienced a rise in the number of diagnosed patients, resulting in a second countrywide lockdown. Restrictions have been gradually lifted since the end of October 2020, but the number of cases has been increasing. As …
This month marks the 400th anniversary of the signing of the Mayflower Compact. Signed on November 21, 1620 (November 11, Old Style), the Mayflower Compact was an agreement that joined the people onboard the Mayflower – the ship that carried the colonists who first settled Plymouth, Massachusetts – in a single self-governing community. People have often …
This is a guest post by Elizabeth Boomer, an international law consultant in the Global Legal Research Directorate. Elizabeth has previously written for In Custodia Legis on Technology & the Law of Corporate Responsibility – The Impact of Blockchain, and the 30th Anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Tomorrow, …
This month, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH)—Germany’s supreme court for civil and criminal cases—is celebrating its 70th anniversary. It was established on October 1, 1950, and immediately started hearing cases as it took over the case files from the German Supreme Court for the British Zone (Oberster Gerichtshof für die Britische Zone, …
The permeation of misinformation and disinformation relating to any conceivable issue, particularly on social media platforms, is rampant. This problem has become particularly acute with the advent of the COVID-19 global pandemic. A policy document issued by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED) described the ubiquity of false information and the challenge it presents in …
Unlike most countries, Austria does not have just one constitutional document, like the Constitution of the United States for example, but several documents that have constitutional status. Of these documents, the most important one is the Austrian Federal Constitutional Law (Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz). It was adopted by the Constituent National Assembly on October 1, 1920—100 years ago today—and entered into force …
When a novel coronavirus was first reported as having been contracted by people in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, there was a lot of discussion about the potential source of the virus. On January 12, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement saying that “[t]he evidence is highly suggestive that the outbreak is …