Therefore this edition of CEJ is dedicated to pressing criminal and compliance-related questions in connection with the coronavirus-pandemic.

In some nations, including Sweden and South Korea, cash payments are becoming increasingly uncommon. Other nations, such as Germany, continue to predominantly prefer cash. At the same time, digital currency is on the rise, and the announced launch of Facebook’s stablecoin Libra, in particular, has caused a debate around digital money. In response, a number of central banks have begun to consider launching their own versions of digital currency. This article analyzes characteristics of both cash and digital currency and illustrates advantages as well as disadvantages of digital money and a cashless society. In particular, privacy concerns regarding digital cash are addressed. In addition, compliance risks are highlighted, and it is deliberated whether the introduction of digital cash could lead to a decrease in crime related to cash and cryptocurrencies.

The announcement by Adidas, Deichmann and H&M to stop paying rent for their closed shops beginning in April has caused quite a stir. Tim Drygala explains why such behavior is covered by case law.

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Due to the coalition agreement of CDU/CSU and SPD the German Government shall implement a new act on corporate criminal liability before the end of the current election period. After an informal draft from the ministry in lead, the BMJV, was leaked to the public this issue is frequently discussed in the media. The author tries to give an overview on the main items of the draft law, the major concerns against it and the mediating draft of the Munich Concept.

In this comment piece, I will seek to examine the relationship between cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies from a compliance perspective. I will tie this to the underlying theme from multiple studies, that a lack of knowledge of these products means more needs to be done by policymakers and the crypto industry to form cohesive and understandable standards that unearth what these products are, how they are used and how compliance analysts can be best supported to apply best practice procedures when conducting due-diligence checks. I will seek to lay out the advantages and disadvantages of recent developments and explore the challenges they pose on a socio-economic and macro level. This piece dissects the topic through four chapters. The first ties it into developments that unfolded during the global financial crisis, the use of collateralized debt obligations and other derivatives-based financial instruments, ultimately showing how a lack of knowledge was an underlying theme within the banking system during the 2008 global financial crisis. The second chapter combines the theme of knowledge and awareness of a product with the way in which people view cryptocurrency and digital coins, including regulators, courts and policymakers. The third explores recent developments from international central banks and governments, from sanctioned countries using of the product to help their citizens to international alliances forming across the globe in support of central-bank digital currencies. The final chapter unpacks the advantages and disadvantages of using these financial instruments, from countries in the global south suffering from scams to the pressure it takes on energy efficiency, concluding that more needs to be done to educate users, regulators and everyone in between for the success of the digital currency to be fully realized.

Michele DeStefano, founder and Content Curator of CEJ, is a Professor of Law at Miami Law and the director and founder of LawWithoutWalls. Guenther Dobrauz-Saldapenna is a Partner with PwC in Zurich, Leader of PwC Legal Switzerland, a member of PwC’s Global Legal Leadership Team directing the firm’s global legal practice and the firm’s Global LegalTech Leader. DeStefano and Dobrauz are editors of the book “New Suits. Appetite for Disruption in the Legal World” published in June 2019. It combines the expertise of 47 (!) authors, many of whom are already proven experts in the worldwide legal tech scene.

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The Austrian Act on Corporate Criminal Liability (VbVG) entered force on 1 January 2006 and has now been in effect fourteen years. The following article will evaluate the VbVG’s frequency of application in practice and critically examine the dominance of procedural termination (rather than prosecution) at the discretion of the district attorney’s office.

The EU Whistleblower Protection Directive came into force on 16 December 2019. Switzerland continues to struggle with this topic: the Swiss National Council (Nationalrat) dismissed a draft law on its introduction on 3 June 2019 and, after the Swiss Council of States (Ständerat) approved the draft law without changes on 16 December 2019, dismissed it again on 5 March 2020.