The social media post

In May 2017, when Brandi was 14 years old, she uploaded a Snapchat post after an unsuccessful try-out for the school’s varsity team. In the post, Brandi and a friend were raising their middle fingers which were addressed to the cheerleading squad, the school, softball and “everything”. Additionally, she criticized another girl’s selection in the squad.

A girl took a post’s screenshot and showed this screenshot to a friend who, unfortunately, was the daughter of one of the cheerleading coaches. As a consequence, Brandi has been expelled from the squad for a year.

Why did she sue?

As a result of the coaches’ act, Brandi Levy sued the Mahanoy Area School District claiming that her expulsion violated her First Amendment right to free speech. The case was firstly dealt with by the Court of Appeal, which ruled in favour. Therefore, the school district decided to take the case to the Supreme Court hoping they would rule in their favour.

The school argued that the staff must take action against students for speech or actions which happen outside the school to safeguard the pupils from bulls, racism or harassment which usually happen on social media.

On the other hand, the American Civil Liberties Union which represented Brandi Levy argued that students have to be protected by censorship or monitoring.

After hearing the two arguments, the Supreme Court established that the school violated Ms Levy’s right to freedom of speech as the post did not cause any problem to the school.

Ms Levy was extremely shocked by what happened. She could not imagine that a single snap would turn into a Supreme Court case.

However, despite everything she went through, she is deeply proud to have won such an important cause. In the following statement, she said that is truly important for young people to express themselves without worrying about being punished by their school.

However, it is of vital importance to make clear that the Supreme Court declared that school administrators have the right to punish student speech that happens online or on-campus if it obstructs classroom study.

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Ethiopians have been voting amid rising tensions and a conflict in the northern Tigray region the army has been fighting a local force since November. This latter is the cause of a humanitarian crisis, indeed, more than 350,000 people are living in famine conditions.

Why are these elections so important?

The actual prime minister, Mr Abiy, came to power in 2018 without facing the electorate as he had been named by the then-ruling coalition. He became prime minister after several protests against the government headed by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and introduced some reforms. Prime minister Aby Ahmed is hoping to succeed in the elections and demonstrate the success of democracy.

However, the vote shows a chaotic reality. In fact, according to the election board, authorities were not able to hold polls on Monday in four out of ten regions. Not only violent conflicts and logistical problems are delaying the voting but also some opposition parties are seeking to boycott the election over what they define as harassment of their members.

In Sidama, voters went to the polls on Tuesday as there were logistical problems.

Conflict in Tigray

Nevertheless, the prime minister won the Nobel prize in 2019 for making peace with Eritrea, his reputation is on edge since war erupted in Tigray, where he sent the military after accusing regional authorities of attacking the army bases.

Additionally, due to the conflict in this region, there has not been any date set for elections. However, Tigray is not the only region that did not vote Harar and Somali did not vote on June 21. In Harar, there were disputes over voter eligibility against the National Election Board of Ethiopia which were taken to court by the regional government. The court led to a judgment against (NEBE), hence, the electoral process has been delayed.

On the other hand, in the Somali region, the elections have been affected by some irregularities and therefore, the government interrupted the process.

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Moreover, smart contracts can automate a workflow, provoking the next move when reached the necessary conditions. They are potentially one of the most useful tools associated with blockchain technology.

How smart contracts work

They follow statements that are written into code on a blockchain. A network of computer analysis actions when predetermined conditions have been reached and verified. It is important to understand what these “actions” include. They can include registering a vehicle, sending notifications, or issuing a ticket. They define rules like normal contracts and automatically enforce them through the code.

After having analysed what needs to be analysed, the blockchain is updated, hence, the transaction cannot be modified and only parties who have obtained permission can have access to the results. These contracts are not controlled by a user they run as programmed. However, user accounts can interact with the contracts by submitting transactions that perform a function defined on the contract.

In a smart contract, it is possible to create as many conditions as the clients want by agreeing on the “if/when..then..” rules that manage those transactions and evaluate all possible exceptions.

Smart contracts are also at the core of the transference of cryptocurrency and the digital representation of a physical asset or utility. They can control the transference of other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. When the payment is confirmed bitcoin goes from the seller to the buyer.

Benefits of smart contracts

It is now worth mentioning that there are some very important benefits of smart contracts. Firstly, their speed. Once a condition is met the contract is immediately completed. Additionally, they are extremely efficient and accurate. The fact that there is no paperwork to process helps avoid making mistakes.

Thirdly, as there is no third party involved there is no risk of altering information, indeed, these contracts can be deemed as transparent and trustworthy. Another benefit is their security. The transaction records are encrypted, thus, it is very unlikely that they can be hacked. Last but not least, smart contracts transactions do not need to be handled by intermediaries.

Smart contracts’ history

The word “smart contract” was first used by Nick Szabo, a computer scientist and cryptographer, 20 years ago. This latter defined smart contracts as “smarter” than paper contracts as they can automatically execute contracts. According to Szabo, a perfect example to explain smart contracts can be a vending machine.

Once the purchaser inserts the money into the machine, the machine automatically honours the terms of the unwritten contract and delivers what the client paid for.

In conclusion, as aforementioned, they are extremely useful and can be deemed smarter than paper-based contracts. They have several advantages which the client can deeply benefit from.

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Coca-cola removal of its top lawyer places the company in the spotlight as the replacement happened just after he introduced the industry’s bravest diversity program.

Bradley Gayton, one of the most important black lawyers in the US entered Coca-Cola in September. In January he presented a new policy that required his outside law firms to have a minimum of 30% of the time they will be employed by people of colour, people with disabilities, LGBTQ people and women. More specifically, half of that time would have to be worked by black lawyers. Additionally, it is worth noting that failing to accomplish the policy would amount to a 30% fee cut.

However, after only eight months on the job, Gayton decided to resign. There are some suppositions that it was due to the fact of his hostile push for diversity, more precisely for Black lawyers.

Monica Howard Douglas, its successor and a black woman who has been at Coca Cola since 2002, is now reviewing the standards which were put in place by Gayton. She said she intends to stop Gayton’s diversity policy.

The program caught the attention of Edward Blum, an anti-affirmative-action activist. In April, his lawyer notified Douglas that they thought Coca Cola’s outsider lawyer program was illegal as the company policy affirms that if a law firm does not meet the requirements, it faces a non-refundable 30% reduction in fees. Moreover, this latter believes the company should publicly withdraw the racial quotes laws promptly.

The fact that the general counsel, Bradley Gayton, resigned not even a year later, implies that the company is already conscious that its racial requisites are unjustified. Coca-cola should make a public statement where it declares the policy is no longer in effect, otherwise legal action may be forthcoming.

In conclusion, the policies adopted by Bradley Gayton were not deemed legal. The company is threatened with being sued if they do not publicly withdraw the racial quotes laws immediately.

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The German court ruled that according to German law, the European Central Bank program would be deemed as illegal unless the central bank can prove that the purchases were justified. The decision refers to a judgement made in May 2020.

Last year, more specifically in May, the German Federal Constitutional Court affirmed that the European Court of Justice acted above its powers, namely ultra vires, by supporting the European Central Bank’s bond-buying incentive program to moderate the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The EU deemed the German court ruling as an opposition to the supremacy of EU law.

What will the European Commission do?

This latter formally informed Berlin last Wednesday that the EU was launching a legal proceeding concerning the matter. Indeed the commission stated that “The judgment of the German Constitutional Court constitutes a serious precedent, both for the future practice of the German Constitutional court itself and for the supreme and constitutional courts and tribunals of other member states”.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the legal measure might lead to huge fines. The first step of an infringement procedure is a letter of formal notice, indeed the German government has two months to reply to a letter of formal notice from the commission.

In the letter, the government has to list the possible solutions. If the commission decides that Berlin failed to act under its obligations according to the EU law, the case could end up in the EU’s top court.

It is of vital importance to understand that “EU law has primacy over national law”. Every decision made by the European Court of Justice is binding for member states’ authorities and that includes national courts.

It is, therefore, possible to affirm that the German court act was a violation of fundamental principles of EU law. As a consequence, this could threaten the integrity of EU law and open the possibility to a ‘Europe a la carte’.

However, an infringement procedure would not overturn the court’s ruling but it would simply put the German Government in an awkward position.

The PSPP program

This latter authorised the European Central Bank (ECB) to purchase sovereign bonds from governments. The main aim is to provide liquidity and stabilise the financial conditions in the eurozone. The program dates back to 2015 and started to control the aftermath of the European debt crisis. From 2015 to nowadays, it bought 2.3 trillion in debt.

However, it is worth mentioning that the program follows perfectly the policy of the monetary area and observes the principle of proportionality.

In conclusion, despite the program falls within the policy of the monetary area the EU decided to take legal actions against Germany.

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