The right to a fair trial and international cooperation in criminal matters: Article 6 ECHR and the recovery of assets in grand corruption cases

Are fair trial rights general principles of transnational criminal law (TCL)? If so, how do they protect individuals who are affected by transnational proceedings? Posing these questions in the context of international cooperation efforts aimed at ‘asset recovery’, this contribution asks whether State Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) are likely to violate the right to a fair trial in Article 6 ECHR when they directly enforce confiscation orders that are issued abroad with respect to the proceeds, objects or instrumentalities of high-value, high-level political corruption offences or substitute assets. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) considers that ECHR State Parties might exceptionally violate Article 6 ECHR in cooperative cases if the alleged victim ‘has suffered or risks suffering a flagrant denial of a fair trial in the requesting country’. Surveying its case law, I argue that the ‘flagrant denial of justice’ standard greatly attenuates the right to a fair trial in cases of international cooperation in criminal matters. In practice, the Court appears unwilling to find violations of Article 6 ECHR in such cases when the foreign proceedings do not involve allegations of treatment contrary to Articles 2 or 3 ECHR. This, it is submitted, reflects the difficulty of assessing ‘fairness’ in globalised law enforcement situations, a factor that also complicates efforts to deduce a general principle of a right to a fair trial from ‘justice’ as an objective of TCL. If those principles are formulated inductively and comparatively, the ECtHR’s case law nevertheless goes some way towards showing that a weak transnational fair trial right may be a general principle of TCL within the ‘legal space’ of the ECHR

How extensive creativity is related to the escalation of violence in art?

Film, dramaturgy and literature exhibit increasingly more episodes of cruelty in the interactions between the characters. With its focus on the core ideas about escalation of violence, this paper examines the fundamental reasons for the upsurge in depictions of violence in art. The article demonstrates social, cultural and anthropological factors contributed to shaping the technosphere which impedes the comprehension of the relationship and the contrast between life and death. Without this comprehension, a cultural dysfunction entails the existential crisis, hinders feeling fully alive, and provokes a “safe” virtual way to generate a limit situation that restores “life’s integrity” experience. Art that demonstrates violent scenes is one of these methods. In addition, and this is the first paper to analyze this, the extensive type of creativity dominates the postindustrial society culture. Research demonstrates that extensive creativity does not contain an ethical component and nor foster immunity to violence. On the contrary, by directing an individual towards exploring and transforming the external world, it provokes violence, since the nature of expansion is a priori forced. The authors conclude that escalation of violence in art testifies to the deficit of cultural methods that allow to satisfy a person’s existential needs. Santrauka Filmuose, dramaturgijoje ir literatūroje vis daugiau demonstruojama žiaurumo epizodų personažų santykiuose. Susitelkiant į esmines idėjas augančio smurto klausimu, šiame straipsnyje nagrinėjamos pagrindinės priežastys, dėl kurių smurtas mene tapo ypač dažnai vaizduojamas. Straipsnyje atskleidžiami socialiniai, kultūriniai ir antropologiniai veiksniai, prisidėję prie formavimosi technosferos, trukdančios suprasti gyvenimo bei mirties santykį ir priešpriešą. Be šio supratimo kultūrinė disfunkcija sukelia egzistencinę krizę, neleidžia išgyventi pilnutinės gyvasties jausmo ir provokuoja „saugų“ virtualų būdą sukelti apribojimo situaciją, kuri atkuria „gyvenimo integralumo“ patirtį. Menas, demonstruojantis smurto scenas, yra vienas iš šių metodų. Be to, tai pirmasis straipsnis, kuriame analizuojamas šis plataus kūrybiškumo tipas, vyraujantis postindustrinės visuomenės kultūroje. Tyrimas rodo, kad platus kūrybiškumas neapima etinio komponento ir nestiprina imuniteto smurtui. Priešingai, nukreipiant individą į išorinio pasaulio tyrinėjimą ir keitimą, provokuojamas smurtas, nes ekspansijos pobūdis a priori yra priverstinis. Autoriai daro išvadą, kad smurto eskalavimas mene liudija apie kultūrinių metodų, leidžiančių patenkinti egzistencinius asmens poreikius, trūkumą. Reikšminiai žodžiai:  agresija, šiuolaikinis menas, žiaurumas, egzistenciniai poreikiai, platus kūrybiškumas, filmas, technogeninė civilizacija, smurtas.

ECP versus ruxolitinib in steroid-refractory acute GVHD – a retrospective study by the EBMT transplant complications working party

IntroductionExtracorporal Photophoresis (ECP) is in clinical use for steroid-refractory and steroid-dependent acute GVHD (SR-aGVHD). Based on recent Phase-III study results, ruxolitinib has become the new standard of care for SR-aGVHD. Our aim was to collect comparative data between ruxolitinib and ECP in SR-aGVHD in order to improve the evidence base for clinical decision making. MethodsWe asked EBMT centers if they were willing to participate in this study by completing a data form (Med-C) with detailed information on GVHD grading, -therapy, -dosing, -response and complications for each included patient.Results31 centers responded positively (14%) and we included all patients receiving alloSCT between 1/2017-7/2019 and treated with ECP or ruxolitinib for SR-aGVHD grades II-IV from these centers. We identified 53 and 40 patients with grades II-IV SR-aGVHD who were treated with ECP and ruxolitinib, respectively. We performed multivariate analyses adjusted on grading and type of SR-aGVHD (steroid dependent vs. refractory). At day+90 after initiation of treatment for SR-aGVHD we found no statistically significant differences in overall response. The odds ratio in the ruxolitinib group to achieve overall response vs. the ECP group was 1.13 (95% CI = [0.41; 3.22], p = 0.81). In line, we detected no statistically significant differences in overall survival, progression-free survival, non-relapse mortality and relapse incidence.DiscussionThe clinical significance is limited by the retrospective study design and the current data can’t replace prospective studies on ECP in SR-aGVHD. However, the present results contribute to the accumulating evidence on ECP as an effective treatment option in SR-aGVHD

навчальний посібник

Конституційне право України: прагматичний курс : навч. посіб. / М. В. Афанасьєва, Ю. Ю. Бальцій, Ю. Д. Батан [та ін.] : за заг. ред. М. В. Афанасьєвої, А. А. Єзерова ; тех. ред. Ю. Д. Батан. - Одеса : Юридична література, 2017. - 256 с.Видання навчального посібника "Конституційне право України: прагматичний курс" спрямоване, передусім, врахувати потребу студентів у лаконічному та водночас комплексному викладенні навчального матеріалу, який би відповідав тематиці програми вступних випробувань з конституційного права України та відображав новітні конституційно-правові перетворення. Цінність даного посібника для вступників полягає в тому, що його структура дозволяє якнайкраще підготуватися до тестування, оскільки включає саме ті теми та питання, які включені до програми вступних випробувань. Крім того, прагматичний курс цінний для студентів 2-го курсу як опорний конспект лекцій при підготовці до практичних занять, а аткож до іспиту з конституційного права України. Навчальний посібник стане корисним при підготовці до державного екзаменаційного іспиту з конституційного права України для студентів 4-го курсу

DataSheet_1_ECP versus ruxolitinib in steroid-refractory acute GVHD – a retrospective study by the EBMT transplant complications working party.pdf

IntroductionExtracorporal Photophoresis (ECP) is in clinical use for steroid-refractory and steroid-dependent acute GVHD (SR-aGVHD). Based on recent Phase-III study results, ruxolitinib has become the new standard of care for SR-aGVHD. Our aim was to collect comparative data between ruxolitinib and ECP in SR-aGVHD in order to improve the evidence base for clinical decision making. MethodsWe asked EBMT centers if they were willing to participate in this study by completing a data form (Med-C) with detailed information on GVHD grading, -therapy, -dosing, -response and complications for each included patient.Results31 centers responded positively (14%) and we included all patients receiving alloSCT between 1/2017-7/2019 and treated with ECP or ruxolitinib for SR-aGVHD grades II-IV from these centers. We identified 53 and 40 patients with grades II-IV SR-aGVHD who were treated with ECP and ruxolitinib, respectively. We performed multivariate analyses adjusted on grading and type of SR-aGVHD (steroid dependent vs. refractory). At day+90 after initiation of treatment for SR-aGVHD we found no statistically significant differences in overall response. The odds ratio in the ruxolitinib group to achieve overall response vs. the ECP group was 1.13 (95% CI = [0.41; 3.22], p = 0.81). In line, we detected no statistically significant differences in overall survival, progression-free survival, non-relapse mortality and relapse incidence.DiscussionThe clinical significance is limited by the retrospective study design and the current data can’t replace prospective studies on ECP in SR-aGVHD. However, the present results contribute to the accumulating evidence on ECP as an effective treatment option in SR-aGVHD.</p