Dear reader,

Abstract

A large proportion of the articles in Juridica International this year is dedicated to criminal law. A paper that truly addresses the issues of legal dogmatics in this field in depth with regard to delict of negligence was contributed by Laura Feldmanis. Raimo Lahti’s article on the criminal liability of a legal person is written from the standpoint of criminal and comparative law, while Frieder Dünkel’s approach to German sanction law should provide plenty of interest and joy of discovery for legal scientists and practitioners alike. Thomas Weigend’s submission, in turn, takes a rather unique look at the material element in criminal law and criminal procedure. He focuses his attention on truth and values. Andres Parmas has considered Estonian criminal law in relation to the dogmatics of international criminal law. All of these articles are an outgrowth of presentations made at a jubilee conference that took place at the University of Tartu. I would like to take the opportunity here to thank everyone who participated in the conference – especially, of course, the speakers.

In addition, two articles on medical law had their beginnings in presentations at the conference. One of them, by Henning Rosenau, is squarely in the domain of classic medical law, bringing together discussion of human rights and of issues connected with reproductive medicine. The other medical-law article, by Henning Lorenz, draws particular attention to an addition to German criminal law that has made waves (and met a lot of criticism) in the fields of criminal law, medical law, and legal policy in general: criminalising assisted suicide. This topic has been subject to intense discussion also in the media of Estonia and other countries. 

I can happily say on behalf of both myself and the editorial board that, at the same time, the new issue offers plenty to read also for those less interested in criminal and medical law. Self-driving cars are a matter of interest not only to engineers but also for lawyers. Taivo Liivak’s ‘What Safety are We Entitled to Expect of Self-driving Vehicles?’ considers some of the issues that we will soon face on the streets on a daily basis. Private law is represented in the article ‘A Half-built House? The New Consumer Sales Directive Assessed as Contract Law’. This piece on consumer protection and contract law was submitted by Kåre Lilleholt, who holds the title Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Tartu. A paper jointly authored by Ilya Ilin and Aleksei Kelli, ‘The Use of Human Voice and Speech in Language Technologies: The EU and Russian Intellectual Property Law Perspectives’, examines the legal protection of intellectual property. The field of constitutional law is represented too, by Ivo Pilving’s presentation of an approach to fundamental rights in the context of European Union law in ‘Parallele Anwendbarkeit von Grundrechtecharta der EU und nationalen Grundrechten’. Still more colours are added to the legal palette by Märt Maarand, with his article ‘The Concept of Recovery of Credit Institutions in the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive’, and by the paper ‘Is Full Preference for a Secured Claim in Insolvency Proceedings Justified?’, by Anto Kasak.