Nada Bodiroga-Vukobrat

Making a Living in the ‘Gig’ Economy: Last Resort or a Reliable Alternative?

Modern work arrangements in the collaborative or ‘gig’ economy challenge and redefine traditional work patterns. Extensive scholarly writings in the last years have been dedicated to revealing the true nature and implications of such work, and this topic is a matter of heated debates. However, empirical research on the prevalence of ‘gig’ work is still relatively scarce and not reliable enough to reach any definite conclusions or provide prospective outlooks. This contribution does not aspire to analyse all open issues associated with the work in the ‘gig’ economy but instead attempts to bring only the most pressing issues to the forefront.

Challenges of Personalized Medicine: Socio-Legal Disputes and Possible Solutions

We are living in an era of epic transformation and advancement of medical science and technology, which allows us to gather comprehensive information about a person’s health and predict and even prevent a disease. The focus on personalized or individualized medicine presents new challenges, not only in the fields of medical sciences, biotechnology, and nanotechnology but also in the fields of social law and economy, where the consequences of medical activities are manifested. The existence of technically available and possible methods of diagnostic and treatment raises the question whether there could be a constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right of access to them. What consequences would the introduction of personalized medicine in compulsory health insurance systems have? Is it possible, would it destruct or reconstruct the essential features of compulsory health insurance? These are just some of the issues this paper aims to address.

Think Globally, Act Regionally: How Europeanisation Enhances Consumer Welfare?

Globalisation radically affects human lives, but is it capable of bringing welfare and how? To answer this question, one has to narrow down his/her view to a regional counterpart of globalisation, that is, Europeanisation. More specifically, the focus of this paper is on the effect of Europeanisation processes in the field of consumer welfare. Is “fundamentalisation” of consumer rights possible and attainable in unequal societies, in the world of winners and losers? This paper aims to explore how the EU and economic subjects on the internal market can be global players in the merciless world of global competition but at the same time protect consumer welfare.

Precarious Times, Precarious Work: Lessons from Flexicurity

The intention of this paper is to re-think the concept of precariousness of labour relations, which is rising in times of uncertainty, and to examine whether a potential answer to this challenge lies in flexicurity, or, on the other hand, whether flexicurity creates an ever bigger gap between insiders and outsiders in the labour market.