Legal Dialogue

The Guelph Treasure, a collection of medieval decorative art, was acquired by a German state collection in 1935 from a consortium of Jewish art dealers. Their descendants say the sale was forced, but in 2014, a German arbitration commission that specialises in Nazi-looted art ruled that the museum had acquired the collection legitimately and did not need to return them.

Source: The New York Times

The Russian State Duma deputies have proposed a bill on imprisonment for a term of five to ten years for inducing drug use on the Internet.

Source: Meduza

A law punishing discrimination and hate crimes against LGBT+ individuals may soon be approved in Italy. With the new law, those who discriminate against gay and transgender people would be sanctioned with up to four years imprisonment, and generally any discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, as well as gender-based violence will be punished.

Source: Forbes

Latvia's media watchdog took the Russian broadcaster RT off-air, calling its channels "propaganda" and citing its ties to EU-sanctioned Russian media executive Dmitry Kiselyov. The regulator said RT had tried to portray Latvia as a failed country and that Latvia's security services saw RT as the most influential Russian propaganda channel in the west of Europe.

Source: The New York Times

A Dutch government-appointed commission has been set up to prepare a compensation settlement proposal for surviving family members of 350 Bosniak men from Srebrenica who were handed over by the UN’s Dutch Battalion of peacekeepers to the Bosnian Serb Army and later killed. In 2019 The Dutch Supreme Court ruled that the Netherlands was ten per cent responsible for the deaths of the Bosniaks.

Source: Balkan Insight

A military court in Pskov convicted journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva of “justifying terrorism” in an article about a suicide bombing against a Federal Security Service building in Arkhangelsk. Though prosecutors wanted her imprisoned for six years, the court only fined her 500,000 rubles (almost $7,000).

Source: Meduza

Taking unsolicited pictures or videos of the area under a person's skirt or bustline, as well as photograph or film those who have been killed in accidents, is to become a punishable crime in Germany. Under the new legislation, these crimes will be punishable by a fine or a prison sentence of up to two years.

Source: DW

Sweden changed the legal definition of rape in 2018 to sex without consent. Unlike in many countries, prosecutors do not have to prove the use or threat of violence or coercion.

Source: Reuters

France did not break the law when it stripped five dual nationals of their French nationality over their ties to an Al Qaeda-affiliated group linked to attacks that have killed hundreds, ECHR has ruled.

Source: The National