Child sexual abuse in religious institutions: A comparative study based on sentences in Spain

Child sexual abuse is a global problem that has several physical and psychological health implications for the victims. This study aimed to analyse the way criminal courts respond to allegations of child sexual abuse in religious institutions in Spain compared with cases of abuse committed in other institutional contexts. The sample is composed of 97 abusers from three institutional settings (religious institutions, educational centres, sports centres), responsible for a total of 335 child sexual abuse victims. Some of the results are similar to those found in other countries regarding the sex and age of the victims. There is a predominance of abuse involving bodily contact but without penetration, the abusers’ profiles are diverse, high exposure to minors was paramount as a risk factor, and there is a higher prevalence of diocesan priest abusers compared with members of religious orders. Significant differences were found between the three institutional groups (that is, religious, educational, and sports) in terms of penalties and civil compensation orders imposed on the abusers. The criminal courts consider sexual abuse committed by religious leaders to be a more severe form of the crime compared with abuse committed in other environments. Our study also revealed that several factors substantially influence the criminal courts’ response (for example, proven psychological harm, continuing crime, and the act of penetration), resulting in longer prison sentences and higher civil compensation. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Vorstandsinnenhaftung nach Kartellrechtsverstößen

This work offers a comprehensive appraisal of the intercorporate liability for damages of the executive board vis-à-vis the stock corporation for a corporate antitrust fine. Given the nature of the field, this topic is likewise highly controversial and relevant in practice. Subsequent questions, in particular with regard to the possibility of limiting liability de lege lata and de lege ferenda, are answered. The legal issues dealt with in this work are not only situated at the interface between corporate liability, public sanctions and civil compensation law, but also address regulatory matters of the economic order.

KAJIAN TERHADAP RENCANA PENGATURAN DISGORGEMENT DALAM PASAR MODAL INDONESIA

Various kind of capital market violations show the characteristics of capital market violations that the loss is rarely realized by the investor. Currently, the regulation provides a way to resolve investor loss of capital market and the practice of resolving violations of the law in the capital market through the investor protection regulation is sometimes not satisfactory for the harmed investors. As a step to strengthen the law enforcement instruments, the Financial Services Authority (Otoritas Jasa Keuangan / OJK) issued a Draft Regulation (RPOJK) on OJK regarding Disgorgement and Disgorgement Fund to facilitate investor’s legal protection against losses internally by itself. The purpose is to analyze the disgorgement mechanism regulation plan through the study of RPOJK so that it can be applied as a new settlement in the capital market and suitable with existing ways. The research method uses a normative juridical approach that is through the existing study of the rule of law that apply primary, secondary and tertiary legal materials, also from existing electronic literature. Based on the result of the study, it is concluded the plan of the disgorgement mechanism regulation as a form of refund through administrative mechanism is different from civil compensation and it can be applied as one of the investor’s legal protections because the form of the order in disgorgement as a refund is considered effective, proportional and can be preventive.

Gendered Justice in China: Victim–Offender Mediation as the “Different Voice” of Female Judges

Attempts to uncover the “different voice” of female judges through testing the statistical significance of judges’ gender in decision making have offered inconsistent results. Meanwhile, a proliferation of research suggests that such “voice” might be detected through qualitative analysis. Existing findings indicate that when female judges have discretionary power regarding case management, they will typically foster a process of settlement. Based on this information, I conducted eight months of fieldwork in China and observed 68 victim–offender mediations in four district courts. I found that the criminal division is widely perceived as a masculine setting, and female judges are accustomed to employing mediation as a preferred dispute resolution method to facilitate reconciliation between the two parties and seek civil compensation for victims. Such judicial behavior is a result of propaganda from the Supreme People’s Court and a reflection of female judges’ life and work experience. By contrast, a neglect of mediation among male judges can be identified in the same workplace. The belief that mediation is feminine and time-consuming contributes to this neglect. In addition, rape lawsuits are an exception for mediation. This explorative research not only represents one of the first efforts to reveal a “different voice” in the Chinese criminal justice system but points out a direction of research for studying the judicial behaviors of female judges worldwide.

Problems of Harmonization of European and Russian Legislation on Defamation

Russia’s integration into the global information space largely depends on how effectively fundamental human rights and freedoms will be protected by the current national legislation and the emerging integration law. Harmonization of Russian law with European standards of freedom of speech and protection of intangible rights of individuals and legal entities in terms of liability for defamation statements is a fundamentally important task to maintain the authority of the Russian Federation in the European political arena. The work of international human rights organizations, such as the International Press Institute, demonstrates the problems with ensuring real freedom of speech in the vast majority of European Union countries. The use of criminal sanctions for defamation offences, as well as the use of extremely large administrative fines and civil compensation, in fact, is a pan-European practice of countering not only defamation, but also any abuse of freedom of speech by the media community. Such practices could hypothetically threaten free speech, and they raise understandable concerns among the democratic public about the prospects of state institutions controlling private media. Calls for social and legal experiments in the form of regular attempts to decriminalize libel do not seem constructive. Based on the analysis of the Russian practice of bringing to responsibility for torts in the information space, it is proposed to understand defamation as any illegal dissemination of information with the aim of harming legally protected interests and to make wider use of civil liability measures in punishing such offenses. The authors propose to harmonize the European and Russian legislation on defamation through the development of uniform rules for the production of the forensic linguistic examination of the defamatory materials to substantiate evidence of the unlawful intent of delinquent.