<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

Ordinary citizens today support the local decision-making authorities in the domain of public spending using the instrument of participatory budgeting. The situation is of particular interest in Cracow, the second largest city in Poland in terms of the number of residents, as it stands out for its intensive and advanced use of technology. Here, participatory budgeting is a formalized, multi-stage procedure, composed of an information and education campaign, preparation and submission of projects, verification of submitted projects, submission and examination of protests, voting, implementing of projects, and informing about the concluded projects. Using participatory budgeting, the residents communicate their needs and obtain funds to satisfy them. Participatory budgeting covers on average 0.5% of the municipal budget and is decided by 5–7% of Cracow’s residents. The research covers the years 2019–2021 and takes into consideration the changes resulting from the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. The article aims to examine the coexistence of forms of communication, supporting dialogue between residents and local officials in the participatory budgeting process. According to the adopted hypothesis, the two forms of communication used within participatory budgeting—the traditional ones and information and communication technologies (ICTs)—are not separated but are integrated into governance process and reinforce each other. The literature, legal provisions, the website on participatory budgeting, media information, social media, and evaluation reports based on qualitative and quantitative methods were analyzed. The results show that the introduction of participatory budgeting resulted in a new type of dialogue and relationship between residents and local officials, based on the traditional tools of communication and ICTs. ICTs cannot replace the traditional forms of communication but their potential should be used to a greater extent. As both forms of communication, direct and indirect (technologically supported), coexist and have their own advantages and limitations, especially under normal, non-epidemic conditions, the two should facilitate and reinforce each other.
</abstract>

Participatory Budgeting as the Instrument of Technologically Supported Dialogue in Cracow, Poland

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Using Georgia as an example, this article analyses the fintech ecosystem and the impact of fintech companies on traditional financial institutions. Both qualitative and qualitative research has been carried out for this research. Based on the analysis of Georgian and international financial markets, as well as the qualitative and regressive analysis used in the study, assumptions were made about the impact of fintech companies on traditional financial institutions. Moreover, the study identifies the challenges that hinder the development of the fintech ecosystem in Georgia regarding infrastructure, finance, regulation, and education. This article also reveals several aspects that positively affect the outcome of fintech and the diversification of the Georgian financial market. At the end of the article, the relevant conclusions and applicable recommendations are given.
</abstract>

The Impact of Fintech on Financial Institutions: The Case of Georgia

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

At the time when great emphasis is being placed on environmental protection as well as on the introduction of environmental safeguards, we are faced with an undesirable phenomenon—environmental crime. Environmental crime represents one of the fastest growing security issues. It is a criminal activity, and like other crimes, it has serious consequences that are costly to eliminate. This article uses systematic analysis and, through scientific methods, points out the growth of environmental crime in Slovakia. At the same time, it introduces possible prevention tools. Our aim is to specify the term ‘environmental crime’, present the legal aspects of environmental crimes by focusing on Slovak legal regulation, extend the topic to bentonite mining and processing companies, map environmental crime in the EU Member States, and clarify the nature of environmental crime as well as the legal basis for the protection of the environment in Slovakia. The findings and conclusions have the potential to introduce a new approach to mapping the topic of environmental crimes, provide recommendations for the prevention of this type of crime, and open a discussion on the actual global problem. It is evident that the effective fight with environmental crime requires a complex and multidisciplinary approach at all levels. This includes, in particular, the use of relevant national policies and instruments, as well as those of the European Union and other international organizations.
</abstract>

Environmental Crimes and Bentonite Mining and Processing Companies in Slovak Republic

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

The current article briefly presents a pilot machine-learning experiment on the classification of official texts addressed to lay readers with the use of support vector machine as a baseline and fastText models.
For this purpose, a hand-crafted corpus was used, created by the experts of the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary under the office’s Public Accessibility Programme. The corpus contained sentences that were paraphrased or completely rewritten by the experts to make them more readable for lay people, as well their original counter pairs. The aim was to automatically distinguish between these two classes by using supervised machine-learning algorithms.
If successful, such a machine-learning-based model could be used to draw the attention of experts involved in making the texts of official bodies more comprehensible to the average reader to the potentially problematic points of a text. Therefore, the process of rephrasing such texts could be sped up drastically.
Such a rephrasing (considering, above all, the needs of the average reader) can improve the overall comprehensibility of official (mostly legal) texts, and therefore supports access to justice, the transparency of governmental organizations and, most importantly, improves the rule of law in a given country.
</abstract>

Comprehensibility and Automation: Plain Language in the Era of Digitalization

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS) are already in use around the world by various militaries. However, the law governing such systems in the scope of international humanitarian law (IHL) currently lacks specific binding international treaties. Nevertheless, the existing framework is not silent on the topic of new weapons. Article 36 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions provides an obligation for states to review new weapons. Consequently, as AWS are being adopted, acquired, and developed, the wide reach of 174 state parties of Article 36, therefore <italic>prima facie</italic>, represents a reasonable chance of providing some AWS regulation in the meantime. Nevertheless, Article 36 is generic to all new weapons and therefore unable to address concerns specific to AWS. Therefore, considering the vast difference of AWS to weapons which rely on a human operator, it is not unreasonable to state that there is a need for additional regulation. Hence, various non-binding guidelines and recommendations, such as the ‘11 Guiding Principles’ agreed upon by the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Group of Government Experts and the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Position on Autonomous Weapons Systems, could conceivably be considered to fill this void at least partly, albeit in a non-binding manner. When considered together with Article 36, these non-binding legal instruments could add predictability and consistency to the state parties’ reviews. Consequently, this paper will examine whether Article 36, in combination with the various non-binding instruments and national positions of state parties to Additional Protocol I, is viable as a binding stopgap measure to regulate AWS. As a result, the structure of the article is trifold. The first part focuses on Article 36, the second on the non-binding guiding instruments, and finally, when both are considered together, whether Article 36 could fulfil such a stopgap role.
</abstract>

Customary International Humanitarian Law and Article 36 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions: A Stopgap Regulator of Autonomous Weapons Systems?

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

The application of blockchain technology to contractual activity has led to a decrease in transaction costs, but also an enormous potential cost of judicial solutions that order reversal of the effects of smart contracts. This research addresses solutions, both from the perspective of updating the unforeseen theory and from clauses that are introduced to the legal smart contracts to allow reducing the costs associated with judicial decisions that declare an anomaly in the contracts.
</abstract>

Remedies to the Irreversibility of Smart Contracts in Colombian Private Law

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

Plagiarism is a question of academic dishonesty and of ethics, but it also has a legal nature. At the same time, it is closely related to technology, since algorithm-based software is generally used when proceeding a plagiarism case. The article, as an empirical legal research and qualitative case study, discusses the legal nature of plagiarism, and how such legal aspects should be considered in practice and, specifically, in the context of algorithm-based legal decision making. It is also an institutional review, presenting an analysis of the regulations in one university, and concludes with suggestions how the university should deal with plagiarism, especially considering its legal nature and development of technology.
</abstract>

Plagiarism as a Legal Phenomenon and Algorithm-Based Decision Making

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

Autonomous vehicles (AV), a new innovative product of the automobile industry designed on the basis of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, thereby capable of operating without direct human control, are believed to be the future of transportation. Hence, as with most great technology, the development of AVs would eventually be limited if regulatory changes are not implemented on time. ASEAN, one of the world’s leading emerging automobile markets, has accepted the arrival of AVs and allowed the automobile producers to introduce autonomous and semi-autonomous cars for the customers. However, most ASEAN countries, with the exception of Singapore, have yet to enact regulations governing AVs. They are facing a number of challenges in determining the legal status of AVs, thereby creating certain restrictions for establishing the platform for production, sales and uses of this AI-driven product. This article will analyse the legal framework on AVs of four ASEAN countries—Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It then attempts to assess the regulatory approaches toward the development of a legal framework for AVs in Germany, France, and the Netherlands, to suggest some effective solutions for ASEAN.
</abstract>

Developing a Regulatory Framework for Autonomous Vehicles: A Proximal Analysis of European Approach and Its Application to ASEAN Countries

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 13 (2023): Issue 2 (December 2023)

Volume 13 (2023): Issue 1 (June 2023)

Volume 12 (2022): Issue 2 (December 2022)

Volume 12 (2022): Issue 1 (May 2022)

Volume 11 (2021): Issue 2 (September 2021)

Volume 11 (2021): Issue 1 (May 2021)

Volume 10 (2020): Issue 3 (December 2020)

Volume 10 (2020): Issue 2 (September 2020)

Volume 10 (2020): Issue 1 (June 2020)

Volume 9 (2019): Issue 4 (December 2019)

Volume 9 (2019): Issue 3 (September 2019)

Volume 9 (2019): Issue 2 (September 2019)

Volume 9 (2019): Issue 1 (June 2019)

Volume 8 (2018): Issue 2 (September 2018)

Volume 8 (2018): Issue 1 (June 2018)

Volume 7 (2017): Issue 2 (October 2017)

Volume 7 (2017): Issue 1 (June 2017)

Volume 6 (2016): Issue 2 (October 2016)

Volume 6 (2016): Issue 1 (February 2016)

Volume 5 (2015): Issue 2 (October 2015)

Volume 5 (2015): Issue 1 (February 2015)

Volume 4 (2014): Issue 2 (October 2014)

Volume 4 (2014): Issue 1 (June 2014)

Volume 3 (2013): Issue 3 (December 2013)

Volume 3 (2013): Issue 2 (October 2013)

Volume 3 (2013): Issue 1 (June 2013)

TalTech Journal of European Studies

 TalTech Journal of European Studies (abbreviation TJES) is a semiannual international peer-reviewed research journal (formerly known as the Baltic Journal of European Studies and Proceedings of the Institue for European Studies) with an international editorial office and extensive international editorial board. The journal is abstracted in SCOPUS, Web of Science (Emerging Sources Citation Index) and other relevant databases. Since 2020, the scope of the journal is related to digitalisation and technology implementation and their impact in the social, legal, political, economic and cultural domains in the European Union and its Member States. We kindly encourage members of the academic community to contribute to our journal. Papers submitted to the forthcoming issues will be reviewed by eminent scholars in the particular field under strict supervision of the international editorial board. Special issues   BJES 2013 Vol. 3 Issue 3 was guest co-edited by Natalia Chaban and Martin Holland (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)  BJES 2014 Vol. 4 Issue 2 was prepared in cooperation with Latvian European Community Studies Association (LECSA)  BJES 2017 Vol. 7 Issue 2 has been supported by the European Commission’s Jean Monnet Module “Digital Single Market as a New Core of European Union Studies”, project reference number 587255-EPP-1-2017-1-EE-EPPJMO-MODULE.   BJES 2018 Vol. 8 Issues 1 and 2 have been supported by the project ‘Digital Single Market as a Key Element in EU-oriented Georgian Higher Education’ (no. 155-2016-A), funded by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the framework of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid. TJES 2023 Vol. 13 Issue 1 was guest edited by Viktorija Skvarciany (Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania).      Why submit  TJES is an effective channel of academic dissemination as it is widely read and distributed through Baltic and European research networks and libraries and read by policy makers as well.  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 