Search Results

Two principal missions underlay the discussion in this chapter. First, it scrutinizes the notion of “access to information” and translates it into a vocabulary that property law can process and analyze. Second, the analysis explored three main routes as potential legal sources to rights-of-access: copyright law, free speech law, and human rights law. It concludes that positive copyright law itself does not provide a solid and sufficiently explicit basis for such rights. Also the remaining routes have proven to a large extent unable to safeguard rights-of-access, especially when the information at issue is subject to copyright exclusivity.

This chapter assesses freedom of information (FOI) in the United Kingdom. It discusses the terminology associated with FOI, namely, transparency and openness. FOI refers to access to non-personal information; the regulation of personal information is typically governed by privacy or data-protection laws. Some jurisdictions take an integrated approach to both categories of information, but this chapter focuses on information that does not relate primarily to the individual. The family of information statutes – encompassing FOI, privacy, official secrecy and the like – are known collectively as Access to Information laws. Finally, open government is a term close to openness, since both are concerned with systems and delivery.

This chapter examines the scope of the freedom of speech, that is, whether the freedom requires recognition of some positive rights to speak or of access to information, or whether it necessarily confers only immunities from state bans and other restrictions. Some hard cases for the application of a free speech provision are considered. One important issue concerns the regulation of election expenditure: should such regulation be regarded as a limit on the spending of money or on the dissemination of political speech? Other issues are whether freedom of speech covers a right not to speak and, more controversially, a right to exclude others from joining a parade or association engaged in speech. One issue is relatively clear: language rights are covered by freedom of speech. The chapter also discusses general arguments concerning the recognition of positive free speech rights; freedom of information; and whether freedom of speech limits government discretion in allocating grants, for example, by providing subsidies for the arts or research.

This chapter reprints the full text of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, which was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 24 April 2002 and received Royal Assent on 28 May 2002. The Act includes provisions relating to access to information held by Scotland’s public authorities, exempt information (such as those concerning national security and defence, international relations, commercial interests and the economy, law enforcement, confidentiality, court records, and personal information), general functions of the Scottish Information Commissioner, enforcement, historical records, codes of practice, and miscellaneous and supplemental topics.

This chapter further investigates the convergence among the international environmental standards for corporate accountability identified or proposed by the international organizations previously discussed. It proceeds to clarify further the level of detail and international acceptance of these emerging international standards, also drawing upon recent developments in multilateral environmental agreements, in particular the Convention on Biological Diversity. The following emerging standards are considered as having reached a significant level of detail and acceptance at the international level: the self-assessment of environmental impacts, environmental management system; prevention, precaution, disclosure of environmental information; public consultations, and the sustainable use of natural resources. In all, these standards remain subject to specific application on a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless, a fundamental, minimum normative benchmark, firmly rooted in international environmental law, is emerging. According to these standards, it is now possible to appraise critically corporate conduct, even in the absence of, or in the presence of ineffective, national laws to this effect.

This chapter applies the arguments developed in Chapter 1 to the UK Environment Agency. The origins of the Agency are described, noting how it undertakes both managerial and regulatory functions but with strong internal separation between the two. There is examination of the Agency's relations with central government, with local government, with the European Union and with the economic regulator for water. The Agency's duties are described and there is analysis of its role in protecting environmental rights and in promoting social solidarity through a commitment to sustainability. The Agency's procedures are examined, and the special rights of access to environmental information under European Union law are emphasized.

This chapter examines different perspectives on the relationship of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, along with the concept of editorial freedom, arguably the central idea in any discrete right to press freedom. It looks at the legal implications of recognition of special media rights and immunities in a number of different contexts: taxation of the press, competition law, press rights of access to information, and the privilege not to disclose the sources of information. It also discusses how different legal systems resolve conflicts between the free speech and free press interests of owners, editors, and journalists. Many of these questions are as relevant to the broadcasting media as to the older print media, but the former have always been subject to a degree of special regulation that has not been countenanced for centuries in the case of newspapers and books. The chapter concludes by discussing whether this regulation is compatible with freedom of speech.

This chapter provides an overview of freedom of information as it is practiced in Scotland, with particular emphasis on access to environmental information. Before the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) was enacted, people already had certain statutory entitlements to environmental information. Comprehensive rights were delivered by the Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) first introduced in 1992 and amended in 1998 which gave the public the right to ask for information which ‘relates to the environment’. Access to environmental regime advanced still further when the UK signed the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making, and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention) in 1998. There are three ‘pillars’ which form the key principles behind the Aarhus Convention: the rights of access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice in environmental matters. In Scotland, the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 give the public rights of access to environmental information held by public authorities. All of the exceptions under the EIRs are qualified by being subject to a ‘public interest’ test.

Chapter 5 examines the Courts' approach to participation in rulemaking procedures analysing in depth the Courts' leading ruling on this matter (Atlanta). It argues that the different positions of the Court on the right to be heard in individual procedures, on the one hand, and rulemaking procedures, on the other, are grounded in the same premise: the preconception regarding the structure of the procedure characterised in Chapter 4. The reasons why the Courts excluded general acts from the realm of participation rights — representative democracy, institutional balance, and inaccurate classification of legal acts — are scrutinised and criticised. Furthermore, this chapter argues that the concept of participation rights adopted in the book may contribute to surmount the shortcomings of the Courts' approach. Finally, it analyses the possible impact of the modifications proposed on the scope of other procedural guarantees: access to information, the duty to state reasons, the duty of careful and impartial examination and language rights.

Chapter 5 focuses on Article 15 of the GDPR and explains the scope of the information that can be accessed under the right. The chapter then discusses the importance of the interface to submit data subject access requests. The core part of Chapter 5 is the analysis of the regulatory boundaries of the right of access and various avenues to limit the right, for instance, a conflict with the rights of another individual. Finally, the chapter illustrates how the right of access is applied in the data-driven economy by applying it to three different contexts: shared data, anonymised/pseudonymised data, and automated decision-making.

This chapter examines how choices about the design and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), including the telegraph and the Internet, have reconfigured access to information, expertise, and experience through e-Research. It highlights the variety of ways in which emerging research-centered computational networks (RCNs) can enable actors in the research process to reconfigure access, first providing an overview of the scope of RCNs before turning to reconfiguration of access and how it can transform research. The chapter then stresses the need for a new perspective on the impacts of ICTs, discusses the expansion or contraction of the proximity of access, and considers the restructuring of network architecture. It also looks at the creation or elimination of gatekeepers in the dissemination of information, user control over digital content and access, social factors shaping digital choices, the geography of space and place, law and public policy, and the intrinsic social nature of e-Research. The chapter concludes with a discussion of cyberinfrastructure, the role of scientometrics and Webometrics in e-Research, and the concept of the “economics of superstars.”

This chapter looks at the division of power and accountability structures in the European Banking Union, the principal emphasis being on political accountability. Other types of accountability are also examined where appropriate (e.g. budgetary, administrative, or legal accountability). The discussion begins with the division of competence between the national and EU authorities in the Banking Union. This is followed by examination of the role of the European and national parliaments, as well as the Council and Eurogroup, in holding the European Central Bank, the Single Resolution Board, and the national supervisory and resolution authorities to account for their actions in this area. The focus then shifts to the intra-institutional balance of power and the emerging patterns of geographical fragmentation. The penultimate section of the chapter focuses on access to information, which is crucial for all forms of accountability. The final section of this chapter offers a snapshot of some of the features of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) and the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM) which may hamper the effectiveness of the Banking Union and place its output legitimacy in jeopardy. The chapter concludes with proposals on how to strengthen accountability and transparency in the Banking Union.

This chapter unpacks the conceptual and analytical framework of this book on accountability in EU security and defence. Accountability is first delineated as a corollary to holding (public) power and conceptualized as a three-stage mechanism. In a further step, accountability is contextualized in the particular setting of international relations, characterized by executive governance, which is the habitat of EU peacebuilding activities. The chapter then turns to accountability catalysts and inhibitors, namely institutional design, the accountability architecture, and information-sharing modes. Subsequently, the chapter offers a taxonomy of accountability in civilian CSDP by mapping actors and potential fora, both at the strategic and operational level. Prior to outlining the overall research agenda of this study, the chapter addresses analytical and practical challenges for (studying) accountability in the subject area, notably the restrictive information disclosure policy regarding EU security and defence matters.

This chapter takes a look at political accountability for EU peacebuilding activities carried out under the CSDP. It starts with some reflections on parliamentary scrutiny in the domaine réservé, a policy field where parliamentary activity has traditionally been low, but becomes increasingly salient given the growing scope and impact of international policy-making. The chapter then develops a discussion of the fairly limited oversight role of national parliaments regarding EU security and defence. General patterns of parliamentary involvement and particular features of scrutiny related to EU peacebuilding activities are assessed. Afterwards, a thorough analysis of law and practice highlights the enhanced significance of the European Parliament as political forum in the CFSP/CSDP context through a range of formal and informal vehicles which, however, only marginally contribute to parliamentary scrutiny of civilian missions. Lastly, this chapter ascertains the hurdles to interparliamentary cooperation and, in its final section, underscores the significance of effective supranational parliamentary scrutiny of peacebuilding activities in the edifice of Europeanized intergovernmentalism.

Understanding the nature of public opinion about privacy and the collection and use of information by corporate and government agencies was dependent primarily upon the secondary analysis of a large number of surveys made public by the Harris Data Center. An additional and somewhat different perspective on related concerns was developed through the analysis of data from an original large telephone survey administered through an AT&T contractor, Maritz Marketing. A number of key questions were asked in both sets of surveys, but comparisons between 1978 and 1990 surveys allowed for the comparisons of the ways in which key responses changed over time. Among the more interesting were the changes in the levels of trustworthiness associated with particular actors at the time. The Census Bureau became more trustworthy, while telephone companies became considerably less so. Another comparison assessed the extent to which respondents were seeking to have a regulatory response applied to a particular area of activity. The secondary analysis of Harris data from 1978 made it possible to explore the social characteristics that were predictive of respondents’ orientations toward particular aspects of the panoptic sort. The variations of trust toward different institutional actors as a function of respondent age were quite substantial, and often curvilinear, with younger and older respondents often agreeing more with each other. Secondary analysis of data from 1989 surveys examined the relations between trust, and age, social class, and a variety of differences in experience. While those socioeconomic factors had considerable explanatory power, it was also clear that mass media exposure was playing an important role in shaping those opinions.

Chapter 4 identifies twelve proposals with the potential to help address the current crisis in the news industry. The proposals are not barred by the First Amendment and help advance its guarantees of free expression and press. While no single reform will fix the decline of news industries, these responses could help. Absent a range of new efforts, access to information, checks on falsehoods, government accountability, and the ability of journalism to expose corruption and other abuses of power all remain in severe jeopardy.

Chemical brain drain can be prevented if we recognize it as a serious public health problem. Test methods are available to be included in the documentation for decision-making. Doubt should no longer be used as an excuse for exposing developing brains to toxic chemicals. Although consumers can choose a healthy life-style, especially during pregnancy, this is only a partial solution, and it is seriously dependent on access to information. More to the point, the use and production of chemicals need to reflect ideals of clean production and safe products, while taking into account benefits to today’s children and their children. Precautionary thinking is the key, as we can’t rely on technofixes, special diets, neuroenhancers, or rehabilitation. Strategies and mechanisms must be decided upon on behalf of our children and grandchildren. They may not forgive us otherwise.

Chapter 3 addresses the various factors that influenced how Arabic-Islamic scholars received and processed information on the Roman West and medieval Western Europe. Explaining briefly how the rise of Islam was accompanied by the emergence of an Islamic scholarly culture in Arabic, the chapter maintains that the delayed emergence of this culture in the Muslim West accounts for the dearth of contemporary Arabic-Islamic sources on the early medieval Latin West. Then it focuses on the obstacles encountered by Arabic-Islamic scholars wishing to describe the Latin-Christian sphere and its history. It discusses their knowledge of Latin and other Western European languages of the Middle Ages and their problems of surmounting linguistic barriers. It equally gives attention to their problems of acquiring reliable data on the history and contemporary affairs of medieval Western Europe. Finally, it shows how Arabic-Islamic scholars often unintentionally or intentionally distorted this data by contextualizing and interpreting it.

This chapter discusses the open innovation project of mobile phone service company O2. It describes how open access to performance and other information was a key aspect of achieving profitability and discusses the most mportant characteristics of OI project leadership. It suggests that leaders must be able to lead by example and encourage employees to use their emotional energy. This chapter also explains that leadership challenges should be expected to increase as organizations become more open to inputs.