Since 1945, diplomatic immunity has altered. There are many factors which inhibit immunity. Firstly, consistent Cold War retaliation existed. Second, national security in the nuclear age was prioritized. The intricacy of international politics and mission expansion influenced a change. Also, the abuse of diplomatic and non-diplomatic immunity necessitated modification. In the 1960s, when hundreds of diplomats were sued, diplomatic immunity was called into doubt. Diplomatic abuses should force a reform of the Vienna Convention. Functional needs explained immunity modifications in the 1960s. Increasing and expanding immunity categories contributed to the improvement of the theory. However, there is no abuse remedy that is universally acceptable and enforceable. Should functional necessity theory replace immunity’s cloak? The pacta sunt serva concept of the noncontroversial law of treaties could be utilized to obtain multilateral agreement on the nature, cause, and effect of the functional necessity theory. A Permanent International Diplomatic Criminal Court with mandatory jurisdiction over accused diplomats and its own punishment system has been under discussion since the late 1980s. It never occurred, yet it may have resolved the diplomat disagreement between the victim and the accused.

Violence and harassment are present in the world of work in the most diverse forms2. The ILO Violence and Harassment Convention 20193 should therefore be of great importance for labour law practice. It was adopted on 21 June 2019, together with the non-binding Recommendation for Implementation (No. 206)4, on the occasion of the centenary of the ILO.
As the Convention falls partly within the competence of the European Union, with the EU not being able to ratify the Convention itself5, the European Commission has invited the member states to ratify the Convention by the end of 20226. The German Federal Government is currently planning ratification.
In the following, I give an overview of the Convention and, using German law as an example, discuss how it could be implemented in a legal system shaped by EU law.

The recent pandemic forced companies to switch to working from home, which was necessary to maintain health and economic efficiency. The move from physical workplaces to virtual workplaces in the digital space, however, started earlier than the pandemic. The pandemic amplified this process. In parallel, we also see that companies have had positive experiences in the process of creating virtual workplaces. The virtual workplace has serious IT-issues, which we attempt to reflect on. Some of the employees have taken to this solution: a significant part of the companies has not even returned to the classical former working processes. We have to focus also on the issues of the virtual workplace. Due to its practical popularity, it was necessary to regulate home office at the legal level, as most experts also had the opposite opinion on its essential elements. In order to close this debate, the legislator has created a new regulation concerning teleworking, which amends the rules of the Hungarian Labour Code on teleworking with effect from the end of the emergency. The purpose of this paper is to present the new legislation, with particular attention to the points at issue and the basics of its application in practice.

The aim of this paper is to analyse a new form of employment which has appeared in the Polish labour market in recent years, i.e. work via digital platforms. The author discusses the issue of platform work in the context of its impact on the current labour market. Particular attention is paid to the identification of threats connected with this new form of employment, the demands of the European and Polish trade unions put forward in relation to platform workers and the regulations planned in this field at the EU level. The author also shares his reflections on the practices applied by the owners of digital platforms and the effective method of their control by Member States.

Based on historical experience, in Bulgarian labour legislation, in recent years the problem of the state of its codification has become more and more pronounced. This condition is alarming. In the presence of a reasonable, comprehensive code, laws are being constantly adopted on separate issues that either do not regulate anything specific, or repeat provisions of the Labour Code. Furthermore, the body of by-laws
keeps expanding uncontrollably. Most often this is explained by some requirements of EU law, new socio-economic conditions, etc., while in fact this expansion is due to inadequate expertise of the law-making bodies, interference of non-legal considerations, etc. This creates many difficulties in understanding and applying labour legislation.

The problem posed by Jakub Grygutis in this article concerns the admissibility of the payment of remuneration in cryptocurrency in the light of Polish law. Grygutis analyzes the legal nature of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. Currently, a state of what can be called legal dualism obtains with regard to cryptocurrencies. The bitcoin is means of payment in El Salvador, while other cryptocurrencies do not have this value. Next, Grygutis analyzes the key issue through the prism of Art. 86 § 2 of the Labor Code, which defines the rules for the payment of remuneration.

The article concerns the topic of remote work. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work has become a common solution, which has intensified the demands for its permanent introduction into the Polish law. Patrycja Pokutycka’s article compares remote work to the Labor Code’s regulations concerning teleworking. In addition, Pokutycka draws attention to what the regulations on remote work should look like in the future. Regulating remote work in the Labor Code would require a detailed analysis of the reasons for its introduction and the interests of both employers and employees.

Barbara Surdykowska draws attention to legislation, specifically in the US, which prohibits (or emphasizes the importance of the employee’s consent to) subcutaneous microchipping in the context of work relations. In Surdykowska’s opinion, issue of the use of microchips in the labor context and the potential decisions of the legislator may serve as a litmus test of reactions to the expected technological transformation. The simultaneous and progressive use of subcutaneous microchips is at this point a very early phase of the phenomenon of the cyborgization of the employee’s body.

In this article, Piotr Sypecki examines the aspect of overtime work in video game development. He notes that the phenomenon known as “crunch” poses a challenge for producers and employees. Sypecki analyzes the legal issues that arise here; in particular, he highlights the basis of work performance, the predictability of overtime, and the protection of employees’ health.