Combatting electoral traces: the Dutch tempest discussion and beyond

In the Dutch e-voting debate, the crucial issue leading to the abandonment of all electronic voting machines was compromising radiation, or tempest. Other countries, however, do not seem to be bothered by this risk. In this paper, we use actor-network theory to analyse the socio-technical origins of the Dutch tempest issue in e-voting, and its consequences for e-voting beyond the Netherlands. We introduce the term electoral traces to denote any physical, digital or social evidence of a voter's choices in an election. From this perspective, we provide guidelines for risk analysis as well as an overview of countermeasures

21st century company law in Belgium

The new Belgian Code of Companies and Associations (BCCA) of 23 March 2019 entered into force on 1 May 2019 (See section 8 for the details.). The BCCA is divided in five parts, and further subdivided in different books. The first part, from book 1 to book 3, contains the general provisions that apply to companies, associations and foundations. Part 2 contains provisions specifically applicable to the different types of companies. Part 3 continues with the provisions that apply to associations and foundations. Part 4 deals with the restructuring and the transformation of the legal form and the last Part 5 contains provisions on the European legal forms

Positive or negative voting premium: what happened to private benefits in Italy?

A large body of research deals with voting premium as a proxy of private benefit of control. Almost all of them find positive voting premium, in particular in Italy. Therefore appears interesting to ask what is the current status of private benefits of control in Italy in the last decade (2007-2017). Surprisingly, we show three major findings: i) reduction of non-voting share in the Italian scenario; ii) prevalence of negative voting rights premium more than positive ones, thus conflicting with the assumption and the observations by other researchers; iii) limits of the voting premium method. Our aim is that this study, despite its limitations, may encourage further researches focused on the analysis of the improvement and the change in the Italian corporate governance. The article points out that interesting evidence already exists, although still much remains to do in the future

HandiVote: simple, anonymous, and auditable electronic voting

We suggest a set of procedures utilising a range of technologies by which a major democratic deficit of modern society can be addressed. The mechanism, whilst it makes limited use of cryptographic techniques in the background, is based around objects and procedures with which voters are currently familiar. We believe that this holds considerable potential for the extension of democratic participation and control

One share - one vote : a european rule?

In this paper, I tackle the question whether one share - one vote should become a European law rule. I examine, first of all, the economic theory concerning one share - one vote and its optimality, and the law and economics literature on dual class recapitalizations and other deviations from one share - one vote. I also consider the agency costs of deviations from one share - one vote and examine whether they justify regulation. I subsequently analyze the rules implementing the one share - one vote standard in the US and Europe. In particular, I analyze the self-regulatory rules of US exchanges, the relevant provisions of the European Takeover Directive (including the well known break-through rule), and the European Court of Justice's position as to golden shares (which also are deviations from the one share - one vote standard). I conclude that one share - one vote is not justified by economic efficiency, as also confirmed by comparative law. Also the European breakthrough rule, which ultimately strikes down all deviations from one share - one vote, does not appear to be well grounded. Only transparency rules appear to be justified at EU level as disclosure of ownership and voting structures serves a pricing and governance function, while harmonisation of the relevant rules reduces transaction costs in integrated markets

50 Years after the Civil Rights Act: The Ongoing Work for Racial Justice in the 21st Century

This report documents the state of civil and human rights, and paints a persuasive picture of just how far the United States still has to go to make racial justice a reality. The report also makes a series of policy recommendations in the areas of justice reform, education, employment, hate violence, housing, human rights, immigration policy, media and technology, and voting. This Report commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and the 20 years since the United States ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights collaborated with 39 other organizations in 2014 in documenting their concerns and recommendations for progress under the treaty. According to the report, while progress has been made, the U.S. still struggles on many fronts. The Leadership Conference addresses racial justice and highlights many of the issues that remain important today