Far-reaching changes are presently occurring in legal systems. The rule of law is becoming less self-evident in several countries worldwide. New types of crime – like organizational crime, human trafficking, money laundering and various types of online crime – are on the rise. Several miscarriages of justice have been detected worldwide, creating an imperative for in-depth analysis of their potential causes. The involvement of disciplines other than the legal in the court system is becomi...

This is the third and final volume in the ‘New Bank Insolvency Law

for China and Europe’ series. The current volume provides a detailed

comparison of Chinese and European bank insolvency and resolution

laws. Moreover, it assesses to what extent these laws conform to

international standards such as those set by the Financial Stability

Board. Specific topics discussed in the book include: the institutional

framework for the management of failing banks, insolvency

proceedings, management of ...

Comparative Constitutional Justice adopts an innovative approach to constitutional justice. From a methodological perspective, it assumes that it is impossible to apply an absolute criterion of classification, which depends on the purposes comparative scholars aim to achieve when delivering their own taxonomies. A broad definition of constitutional justice is adopted, which revolves around the following taxonomy: 1) the legality of norms, 2) the conformity of actors’ behaviours with the dis...

Inspired by the vision of the future of humankind in outer space, an international team of technical experts, lawyers and political scientists examined topical issues of law and policy under the leadership of the editors – not only with respect to international space flight and space exploration, but also in view of the safe and sustainable use of space technology for the benefit of our planet. After all, our original habitat should not be sacrificed on our way to Moon and Mars!

In this reg...

This volume contains the proceedings of the 63rd Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space held virtually in October 2020, as well as the report of the IISL Standing Committee on the Status of International Agreements Relating to Activities in Outer Space.

Around 1500, portraiture flourished like never before. In countless European cities major Renaissance artists like Hans Holbein II, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Memling and Antonello da Messina produced lifelike portraits at the highest artistic level. For the first time in history, they not only immortalized kings and noblemen but also, and increasingly, powerful bankers, wealthy merchants and renowned scholars. These paintings, busts, medallions, prints and drawings still bear witness to their pow...

Early modern heraldry was far from a nostalgic remnant from a feudal past. From the Reformation to the French Revolution, aspiring men seized on these signs to position themselves in a changing society, imbuing heraldic tradition with fresh meaning. Whereas post-medieval developments are all too often described in terms of decadence and stifling formality, recent studies rightly stress the dynamic capacity of bearing arms.

Heraldic Hierarchies aims to correct former misconceptions. Contributi...

Faced with the highly overlapping factors of the external disturbances -- natural disasters caused by extreme climate change, and internal interactions -- the contradiction between natural conditions and rapid urbanization, traditional spatial planning and design used to pursue economic development could not be flexible enough to respond to the dynamic and uncertain future of the Pearl River Delta (PRD).

Therefore, spatial planning and design should pay great attention to the fragile natural ...

Public bodies acting in the construction industry have to deal with major transitional issues, such as globalization and urbanization, population ageing, climate change and digitalization. Moreover, the public domain, private parties and society are becoming increasingly interdependent. As a result, safeguarding public values in the built environment has become ever more complex.

Public bodies face the challenge to adhere to collective public values while confronted with private and societal...

The PowerSKIN Conference aims to address the role of building skins to accomplish a carbon neutral building stock. Topics such as building operation, embodied energy, energy generation and storage in context of envelope, energy and environment are considered.

The focus of the PowerSKIN issue 2021 deals with the question of whether simplicity and robustness stay in contradiction to good performance of buildings skins or whether they even complement each other: simplicity vs. performance?

As an...