In cooperation with the Law Academy of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan, IRZ organised two online seminars on 24 and 27 November 2020 to advise on the recent changes to legislation in civil, criminal and administrative court procedures in Kazakhstan. The presentations at the seminar were given by the following IRZ experts:
Dr. Michael Scholz, a judge at the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf
Prof. Dr. jur. Bijan Nowrousian, University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration in North Rhine-Westphalia,
Dr. Christian Schaich, Administrative Director at the Centre for Eastern European and International Studies, and
Dr. Christian Reitemeier, Chief of Department at the Ministry of Justice for North Rhine-Westphalia.
Dr. Michael Scholz spoke about the application of the basic principle of sincerity and good faith in the German law of obligations and the effects of this on the entire German legal system. Prof. Bijan Nowrousian explained the specific features of the procedure for dealing with criminal offences, juvenile criminal offences and people who have privileges and immunity from criminal prosecution. Dr. Christian Schaich and Dr. Christian Reitemeier gave a presentation on the general principles of the administrative process and administrative court proceedings in Germany. Their lectures covered the following topics:
basic elements of the principle of the constitutional state
constitutional requirements of administrative procedures
administrative court proceedings
The Kazakh participants showed a great deal of interest. The 220 or so judges joined in the discussions with plenty of questions put to the German speakers.
IRZ plans to offer further events on the application of the new legal standards next year.
As part of its cooperation with the Law Academy at the Office of the Public Prosecutor General in the Republic of Kazakhstan, IRZ organised an online seminar on money laundering on 18 November 2020.
In the context of international collaboration, cooperation between different countries is absolutely essential when it comes to controlling financial transactions with a terrorist and/or criminal background. There was therefore a requirement for an intensive exchange of experiences in order to develop the appropriate strategies to combat money laundering.
As its German expert, IRZ was able to attract Senior Public Prosecutor Thomas Junge from the Berlin Office of the Public Prosecutor General. Thomas Junge gave a lecture on “Fighting organised crime – money laundering”, in which he talked about subjects including:
The purpose and objectives of money laundering
The three steps in the money laundering process: placement, layering and integration
The legal framework in Germany, the EU and on an international level in the fight against money laundering
International authorities and international cooperation or legal aid in this area
Difficulties in the prosecution of offences
The participants followed the explanations provided by Senior Public Prosecutor Junge with a great deal of interest and asked plenty of questions. After the lecture, there were lively discussions and a reciprocal exchange of ideas. The seminar was a great success, which means that IRZ and the Law Academy will also organise and support other formats on this kind of subjects in future.
IRZ expert, lawyer Markus Scheufele, during his lecture (screenshot) Kazakhstan
On 15 and 16 October 2020, IRZ organised an online seminar on the collective management of copyright and related property rights, alongside the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Ministry of Justice for the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Around ninety participants from the business community, the Ministry of Justice for Kazakhstan and international copyright collectives discussed topics including:
Efficiency and transparency in managing copyright and related property rights in connection with WIPO practices and the EU Directive on the collective management of these rights
Specific features of the collective management of copyright in various fields and the experiences of international copyright collectives.
Pricing policies of copyright collectives from the perspective of the EU
The practice of assigning rights and the related challenges involved in various aspects of the collective management of copyright
IRZ was able to recruit lawyer Markus Scheufele as an expert in copyright issues. In his lecture on “Fair compensation for private copies in Germany and the EU – legal and historic background, fees and charges and their implementation”, Scheufele outlined German copyright law, which was changed as a result of a 2001 EU directive on copyright law in the information society. He explained the Padawan judgement delivered by the ECJ in 2010 on basic issues concerning the private copying levy and the EGEDA judgement passed by the ECJ in 2016. At the time, the court affirmed its Padawan ruling, according to which companies cannot be charged with private copying levies. To conclude his lecture, Markus Scheufele presented the German fee policy in this context.
The two-day seminar was met with a great deal of interest from the participants, and so IRZ wants to continue supporting other opportunities for cooperation on copyright issues in the future.
