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The Luxleaks scandal, which had garnered widespread attention in 2014 and implicated A. Deltour and R. Halet, has taken a significant turn with the recent publication of the Grand Chamber’s decision in favour of Mr Halet. Initially, Deltour was officially recognised as a whistleblower by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in defence of the actions he took, while Halet faced condemnation for lacking whistleblower status. Halet had previously brought his case before the ECtHR, alleging a violation of his right to freedom of expression. However, the ECtHR’s judgment in February 2023 ultimately upheld the right to freedom of expression, marking a pivotal moment in this legal saga. The judgment itself focused on two critical criteria for safeguarding whistle-blowers within the framework of freedom of expression: assessing the damage caused to the employer and determining whether such damage could be outweighed by the public interest, as well as evaluating the severity of the imposed sanctions. This contribution aims to provide a critical assessment of the Luxleaks case up until the the ECtHR’s Grand Chamber decision. As this analysis will argue, the judgment holds immense significance as it introduces a fresh perspective on the notions of damage and public interest in the context of the Court’s established jurisprudence concerning whistleblower protection.

In this paper, we examine the relationship between open banking and tax evasion. As the open banking literature is still evolving, we try to systematically analyze the literature on conventional banking and tax evasion and then extend the discussion in the context of open banking. The popularity of open baking recently raises a question about its relationship with tax evasion. Digital banking and digital taxation contributed positively to mitigating tax evasion in the context of conventional banking. However, in open banking, the customers can decide to what extent they will share any transaction-related data with their bank, while they can also choose to complete direct transactions with third parties. This creates a new challenge in relation to the mitigation of tax evasion, which is the focus of this paper. Due to lack of granular empirical data, we conduct a systematic literature review and a bibliometric analysis to track the development of the relevant academic debates and identify the arguments that have been presented in relation to this topic. This approach is recognized as well suited for emerging topics in finance research, particularly when data are scarce, as evidenced by studies on COVID-19 and biodiversity. We find that the gaps of the current regulatory framework, at both the national and supranational level, have created challenges and uncertainties at multiple levels. Nonetheless, the findings of the study suggest future research directions and offer valuable guidelines for regulators in utilizing open banking.

Whistleblowers and their role as accountability and fraud prevention mechanism have recently been in the centre of attention. Despite several initiatives to encourage and motivate whistleblowers internationally, there are numerous recorded instances of retaliation and harassment practices. As a result, potential whistleblowers do not feel adequately protected to step up and raise their concerns. The improvement of the protection regime internationally and the establishment of a robust system of incentives requires going beyond the introduction of new rules. Emphasis needs to be given to corporate culture so that the existing culture of silence is replaced by a new culture of honesty, integrity and transparency. Drawing inspiration from the UK Bribery Act 2010, an attempt will be made to offer practical recommendations for this much-anticipated change of corporate culture to be initiated and for companies to be actively involved in this process. whistleblowers, culture, retaliation, speak-up, Bribery Act, accountability, transparency, incentives, harassment, rewards

Purpose With sanctions becoming an increasingly important tool in ostracising autocratic regimes from western markets, the need for effective enforcement of sanctions and anti-money laundering (AML) is increasing, and the global AML regime will be the backbone to detecting evasion of sanctions. This regime, however, has been widely criticised as ineffective. This paper aims to discuss issues with the current sanctions/AML regime and propose a reward scheme for whistleblowers to enable asset seizures that is not reliant on its effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach This paper reviews weaknesses in the global AML regime, provide suggestions on how to design whistleblower reward programmes, based on agency experience and empirical evidence, as well as elaborate on how to use such programmes in the AML context. Findings This study concludes that for reward programmes to be effective in the context of AML and sanctions enforcement, they need to include witness protection and leniency for money launderers, though not for those convicted of a criminal offence associated with the predicate crime. Moreover, rewards should be mandatory and scale with the amount of money seized or confiscated, and the cap on monetary rewards should be higher than it is under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Programme in the USA. Originality/value In contrast to how the USA went about implementing rewards in this area under the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Programme, this study argues that these programmes should be designed differently. This study also provides novel advice to governments on different design dimensions in the AML context and a model with three crucial pillars along with other design dimensions that should be considered.

This article has been written by a student participant of the ‘Legal Research Methodologies in European Union and International Law’ workshop series as detailed in the three Research Notes - 'Legal Research Methodologies in European Union and International Law', by Tamara Hervey, Rob Cryer, Bal Sokhi-Bulley .  The article introduces the student’s PhD project and details some of the methodological research issues which the AHRC funded workshops have helped the student to address.

Whistleblowers and their role as accountability and fraud prevention mechanism have recently been in the centre of attention. Despite several initiatives to encourage and motivate whistleblowers internationally, there are numerous recorded instances of retaliation and harassment practices. As a result, potential whistleblowers do not feel adequately protected to step up and raise their concerns.The improvement of the protection regime internationally and the establishment of a robust system of incentives requires going beyond the introduction of new rules. Emphasis needs to be given to corporate culture so that the existing culture of silence is replaced by a new culture of honesty, integrity and transparency.Drawing inspiration from the UK Bribery Act 2010, an attempt will be made to offer practical recommendations for this much-anticipated change of corporate culture to be initiated and for companies to be actively involved in this process.

Social enterprises in Asia: A new legal form, by Ernest Lim, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. 350 pp. Hardback: 85.00 pounds.