Defamation and Political Comment in Post-Soviet Russia

The law of defamation in Russia has a long history. Its roots are in the European tradition, but the discontinuity of its historical development has meant that there have been particular difficulties in reconfiguring the law for the new human rights era following Russia’s accession to the Council of Europe in 1996 and ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights in 1998. Defamation law must now be been tested against the fundamental standards enshrined in the ECHR, to ensure that appropriate levels of protection are provided not only for reputation but, also, for freedom of expression. It has been left largely to the judiciary and judge-made law to manage this difficult transition. This article analyses the elements that make up the law of defamation in Russia and assesses the challenges that remain in adapting it to the twenty-first century.</jats:p

Landscape evolution and holocene climate change in mountain areas of the northern Highlands, Scotland.

Holocene landscape evolution in the tectonically quiet mountain areas of the Northern Highlands of Scotland has been attributed largely to postglacial relaxation, which has left a legacy of stable, relict landscapes, disturbed only by intrinsic local response, and modified to an uncertain extent by human activity. A review of this model was prompted by improved understanding of a) the variability of the Holocene climate in mid latitudes, b) the responsiveness of some geological and geomorphological systems to low amplitude climate fluctuations, and c) a small number of field studies from the region, reporting mid and late Holocene slope mass movement unrelated to anthropogenic impact. Sixteen catchments were explored using fieldwork and aerial photographic analysis. Slope activity since the end of the last glacial was investigated at five sites which contained evidence of long sequence, shallow slope failure, gully transport of slope debris, and debris fan formation. At two of these, stratigraphic sections, together with sediment and facies analysis, were combined with radiocarbon dating, in order to elucidate slope processes and constmct a chronostratigraphy. Results confirmed widespread Holocene lower slope re-organisation, with mid and late Holocene landscape rejuvenation occurring millennia after apparent adjustment to postglacial conditions at the two dated localities. Mass movement on slopes was found to have parallels in floodplain aggradation and incision. These transformations appear to have operated on several different time scales, and across a strong regional precipitation gradient. Since they are a function of the glacial inheritance of these landscapes, the potential for further transformations exists. Mid and late Holocene events are only poorly accounted for by paraglacial relaxation. A more robust model of landscape evolution in this setting, incorporates climate change (specifically, precipitation shifts) - interacting with progressive weathering and vegetation cover - as a critical environmental variable. Although no justification was found for the use of dated slope mass movements as palaeoclimate proxies, changes in event frequency on a time scale of 10^ years may contain a climatic signal

Making law for Scotland:The Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Act 2021

The Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Act 2021 is, in its way, a major achievement. A codifying statute for a complex area of the law was produced in a relatively short time-frame, and the SLC’s objective of modernising and simplifying the law was certainly realised. Yet the Act also demonstrates some of the difficulties of legislating for the law of delict, especially in the Scottish context