The Post-Brexit Need for a Data Adequacy Decision to Engage in Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters with the EU

There is a need for the UK and EU to continue mutual assistance in criminal matters. As a Member State, Mutual assistance in criminal matters between was primarily governed by an EU convention. This convention builds on existing Council of Europe (CoE) conventions on mutual criminal assistance. The EU convention states that mutual assistance shall be afforded in proceedings brought by member states’ authorities, or in connection with proceedings where a person may be liable in the requesting member state. Title II provides a framework for specific forms of assistance including restitution, hearings via videoconference and covert investigations. Member states are free to conclude further bilateral arrangements. A key element of this mutual assistance is harmonised EU data protection laws. With the UK now outside the EU’s data protection architecture, this may pose a significant hurdle for future cooperation. This article critically analyses the need for a data adequacy decision from the EU for the UK to engage in mutual assistance in criminal matters post-Brexit. To reach a conclusion, the article is set out over three substantive areas considering: mutual assistance and data protection law as it applies to EU member states; the law underpinning adequacy decisions; and future legal developments post-Brexit. Specific examples of data transfers and the effect of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) are compared and contrasted to adequacy decisions. While provisions of the TCA and EU Law Enforcement Directive (LED) provide some assurances, the article recommends that a data adequacy decision made under the LED is pursued

Why Rape Law Revisions should be Consistent with Anderson’s Negotiation Model

In this essay I argue that the current law structure unobjectionably fails to protect women against cases of rape and needs reform. I further maintain that Anderson’s suggestion of ‘negotiation consent’ is the most appropriate line of reform, and I will defend her proposal in the face of potential objections. The current rape law in the UK was implemented in 2003, which revised previous laws firstly defined in the Sexual Offenses Act of 1953. Despite the ostensibly ‘objective’ nature of this law, which will be further examined in this essay, many feminist philosophers have noted the biases within the law which favour male interests. This essay explores the present issues within UK law, as well as our current understandings of what constitutes ‘a reasonable belief of consent’, that fail to protect women in instances of rape. This foundational attitude towards such matters influence performative revision models, such as the No Model and the Yes model, which I consider within this essay. Yet the inadequacies of such approaches, as I demonstrate, mirror some of the current issues with rape law in the UK today; such as the lack of recognition of men’s frequent inability to interpret women’s nonverbal behaviour and disregard for instances where one person changes their mind. Furthermore, I advocate for Anderson’s proposal of the negotiation model as an alternative reform of the law as well as society’s attitude towards sex and how consent can be clearly obtained. This model, when legally applied, will not only legally protect women in cases of rape, but eventually protect them from the present societal norms that perpetuate the imminent risk of rape and sexual exploitation.  Through making the act of negotiation a legal requirement, I maintain that there would be a ‘ripple effect’ throughout society that would, eventually, lead to a change in public expectations of men and women. Anderson’s emphasis on either party being able to initiate the negotiation establishes a much more open-minded attitude towards gender roles and expectations of individuals based on their gender. This is the greatest strength of Anderson’s argument, as this equality-driven initiative would eventually seep into society’s wider expectations of individuals when initiating sex, and create a world where understanding what the other person is anticipating in a sexual situation is the norm. &nbsp

Habit as Love in Christian Theology

Have you ever tried to learn to play an instrument, to frame out a wall, or to run a mile without stopping? If you have, you know this: there is no way to build a skill without practice, practice which forms habit. And have you ever tried to squash a propensity for nail-biting, nose-picking, or some comparable vice? If you have, you know this: habit, once established, is as if carved in stone

Religious Patronage and Clientelism: Russia’s Soft Power and Networks of Influence in Syria

In parallel to its military aid to the Assad Regime since 2011, Russia’s ‘soft power’ tools and forms started with the inflow of humanitarian aid to the Syrian Government and Syria Arab Red Crescent. Additionally, Russian efforts have been integrated and mobilised through religious, diaspora, political, and civil society delegations, whose communications and outreach efforts developed with visits from the Russian Orthodox Church to Syria in 2011, including the humanitarian assistance and relief initiatives that were launched to support Orthodox, displaced Christian communities and affected populations in Syria. Then, in the wake of Russia’s 2015 intervention and Russian-led inflow of relief assistance, Moscow developed a networking strategy that integrates tools with aid, cultural, development, and religious dimensions. In coordination with the Hmeimim-based Russian Reconciliation Centre (RRC) in Syria, Russian Muslim communities, diaspora networks, Caucasian states (former-Soviet Islamic states), Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and Imperial Palestinian Orthodox Society, and other charities from the Russia federation have started to operate in Syria. This article explores and analyses their contribution to Russian soft power in Syria, and how the wider instrumentalization of humanitarian aid, diaspora networks, and religious diplomacy for military and long-term political goals have been escalated to promote the Russian position in Syria. The research also argues that Russia's soft power in Syria is targeting micro-audiences and communities who are either favourable to Russia or disconnected and disenfranchised from liberal values

"Women in John’s Gospel" by Susan Miller

Review ofSusan Miller, Women in John’s Gospel, LNTS 676 (London: T&T Clark, 2023), pp. ix + 179, ISBN 978-0567708229. £85.0

"Religion and Worldviews: The Triumph of the Secular in Religious Education" edited by L. Philip Barnes

Review ofL. Philip Barnes, ed., Religion and Worldviews: The Triumph of the Secular in Religious Education (London: Routledge, 2023), pp. xi + 193, ISBN 978-1032206196. £22.9

State Prevention Targeting Persons Attracted to Minors in Europe

More than a decade ago, innovative legal obligations were created in Europe to provide persons who fear that they might commit child sexual offences with access, where appropriate, to effective intervention programmes or measures designed to evaluate and prevent the risk of such offences. These supranational obligations were included in Article 7 of the Council of Europe’s Lanzarote Convention (2010) and the near-identical Article 22 of the European Union’s Directive 2011/93 (2011). These provisions have the potential to prevent damaging children’s health, to help persons attracted to minors to lead more productive and fulfilling lives, and to save society substantial resources. The European Commission noted, however, in 2020 that out of all of the state action that needs to be undertaken to implement Directive 2011/93, the least progress has to date been made in relation to prevention programmes for persons attracted to minors who fear that they might offend or have offended. This article aims to review the supranational obligations and their implementation. It finds that the stigma around pedophilia hampers progress at individual, inter-personal, and structural levels. There is room for improvement in the cooperation between the European Union and the Council of Europe. In addition, specific programmes and measures for specific target groups, such as women or people with disabilities, are identified as a blind spot

A Defence of the Sensitivity Analysis of Knowledge

It is widely considered that Nozick’s sensitivity analysis of knowledge fails. This is largely due to arguments proposed by Sosa. In this paper, I defend Nozick’s sensitivity condition on knowledge. To do this, I define and motivate sensitivity, then explain Sosa’s definition of safety and its supposed advantages. For all three of Sosa’s purported counterexamples, we will find that the sensitivity theorist can offer responses that are more satisfactory than those available to the proponent of Sosa’s safety theory. Having motivated sensitivity and shown that it deals with these purported counterexamples better than safety, I will conclude that Sosa fails to motivate a move from sensitivity to safety

The Divine and The Human

Aquinas’ exposition of the relations between creator and creature has provided an important framework forilluminating aspects of the mystery of the incarnation. He maintains that while creatures are really related toGod, God is not really related to creatures. This doctrine of mixed relations in Aquinas’ theology describesthe character of the relation between God and humanity such that, when Christ incarnates, the doctrine ofimmutability is preserved

Editorial: Ecumenism in Scotland

What should we be learning from each other, and with each other, in the increasingly post-Christian context of today’s Scotland? For this issue of Theology in Scotland, contributors were invited to explore various facets of ecumenical theology and reflect on different expressions of ecumenical engagement