Audrey Guinchard

Crime in virtual worlds: The limits of criminal law

Virtual worlds such as Second Life are not immune from crime. Their users can misuse their computer skills to damage virtual property or to control avatars of other users. Most of these behaviours fall within the remit of the computer misuse offences, as there is unauthorised access and the unauthorised act of impairing the use of a computer. However, beside these offences, can the criminal law of England and Wales cover a variety of problematic behaviours that can be committed in virtual worlds? This article aims at sketching an outline of the various issues and the possible answers criminal law can or cannot bring, whether we consider the laws that protect property or those related to the person and public order.

The Double Degree Experience between England and France: A Contribution to an Integrated European Legal Education

Double degrees provide students with a complete bijural education, rather than simply giving a taste of another legal system. In a world marked by legal pluralism and globalization, they promote a comparative approach to law, a European ‘regard’ on two different legal systems. In turn, they offer a unique perspective on what could be an integrated European legal education, in terms of identification of the curriculum and means to deliver the related outcomes.

Human Rights in Financial Services: the Boundaries between Discipline and Crime

This analysis intends to determine the scope of the human rights protection an individual or a firm delivering financial services may benefit from when subjected to disciplinary proceedings. It involves defining the boundaries and overlaps between professional discipline and crime. The distinction between the two is certainly long-standing, but the domain of the financial services brings new developments to the traditional delimitation. In contrast to the ‘disciplinary matters trac[ing] their roots to the rules of the ancient professions’1 and guilds whose structures were often maintained, sometimes modified, – long after the guilds themselves disappeared – the financial services are one of those areas where regulation was lose if non-existent. It is only recently3 that state regulation has stepped in to palliate the deficiencies of the ‘club ethos’ system where discipline was obtained through ‘social opprobrium’.4 The first legislative movement in 1986 established discipli-