EU Law & Regulatory Governance
The Role of Corporate Responsibility and Quality Legislation in Achieving the Sustainable...
Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Due Diligence, Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The adoption of Directive (EU) 2024/1760 on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD) constitutes a significant step in the EU’s efforts to promote responsible business conduct. It imposes binding obligations on large companies to identify, prevent, and mitigate adverse human rights and environmental impacts throughout their operations and value chains. Member States must transpose the directive into national law within two years, raising important legal and practical challenges. This paper provides a legal analysis of the CSDDD, focusing on its scope, enforcement mechanisms, and alignment with principles of legislative quality. It places the directive within the broader international sustainability agenda, particularly the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting the relevance of SDG 16 and SDG 17 to strengthening institutions and partnerships. The study also explores the evolving concept of corporate due diligence as a cornerstone of ethical governance. In the Hungarian context, it examines Act CVII of 2023 on ESG, identifying overlaps and gaps in relation to the CSDDD. This comparison offers insights into Hungary’s readiness for implementation. In addition to normative analysis, the paper showcases best practices from companies engaged in responsible conduct, illustrating how legal compliance can go hand in hand with positive social and environmental impact. The study further examines how the new unified directive fits within the broader framework of previous regulatory efforts from a legal perspective.
SZABÓ, ÉVA
Regulatory Approaches to Fintech and the Challenges of Fintech-Regulation on Example of Slovakia
FinTech Regulation, Slovakia, National Bank of Slovakia (NBS), Regulatory Sandbox, Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation (MiCAR)
The article summarizes existing regulatory approaches to FinTech-based financial innovation. In this context, it is important to point out that, in general, there is no legal regulation at the EU level that would impose on Member States which regulatory approach they should choose and apply in relation to FinTech. The choice of the appropriate regulatory approach is therefore left to the Member States. Against this background, the author identifies the regulatory approach to FinTech applied in the Slovak Republic, while the platforms for institutional dialogue between the national regulator (National Bank of Slovakia) and FinTech companies are analyzed separately. The article also illustrates the regulatory trend within the EU that may prove decisive for the field of FinTech by reference to a specific regulatory instrument (the EU Regulation on Markets in Crypto-assets – MiCAR).
ČUNDERLÍK, ĽUBOMÍR
Environmental Governance and Legal Integration in the European Union under Digital Transformation
EU environmental law, sustainable development, governance, legal harmonisation, digital transformation
This paper examines how the European Union’s environmental governance and legal harmonisation are being reshaped by digital transformation. Using legal analysis, it explores how core environmental principles – such as the precautionary principle, the polluter pays principle, and the integration principle – are being operationalised through data-driven regulation, real-time environmental monitoring and cross-border digital cooperation. It analyses how these digital mechanisms can make regulation more targeted and adaptive, enhance compliance and transparency, and require new legal instruments for cross-border coordination. The findings suggest that digital tools have the potential to strengthen both environmental protection and legal harmonisation, while also posing challenges of data standardisation, interoperability, and institutional capacity. The paper concludes that EU environmental law can remain effective only if its legal frameworks are adapted to integrate these emerging digital instruments in a coherent and principle-based manner.
HOTTÓ, ISTVÁN
Data Localization, International Law Perspective
Data protection, data localization, data flow, international trade law, trade barriers, WTO panels
Although the core principles of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) can extend the agreement to the movement of data, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of GATS in the digital age, there is very little to prevent governments from implementing wide data localisation measures, as GATS provides broad exceptions that create leeway for circumventing these obligations. Additionally, the ambiguity surrounding internet technology has given governments more justification. After all, how could anyone challenge these policies when technology and intelligent services themselves were once incapable of detecting what Edward Snowden later exposed? In response to these uncertainties, and the existing security exceptions in GATS, countries continue to invent new data localisation measures through different approaches. China forbids data transfers by default, only allowing them as exceptions, and emphasises national security with ambiguous discretionary limits. The GDPR limits transfers from outside the EU in order to balance privacy and trade but provides exceptions. The USA, without a unified federal legislative framework, has focused localization on areas such as taxation and defence, motivated mostly by national security. Given these dynamics, and the sensitivity of national security, the author argues that greater emphasis should be placed on reactivating the role of WTO panels and, at the very least, establishing broad boundaries for what constitutes security, even if the concept itself is difficult to define precisely.
ALI, SHAREEF SANAR
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