Human Rights Due Diligence is a key topic in the debates among human rights advocates and the business world. Its understanding varies from a standard ofexpected care to a process to manage business risks. As introduced in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, it is a process through which business enterprises should identify, assess and properly address human rights risks. Today, the concept is used or tends to be incorporated in avariety of legal instruments, from international soft-law to regional and national regulations. However, the understanding of what is the objective of human rights due diligence, its content, and the required standard still vary. Relying on the international soft-law instruments and the developments in national law, this study analyzes the foundation and narrative of human rights due diligence, content, common elements, and scope of obligation in a way to identify similarities and/or differences in the concept within different jurisdictions.

With the development of technology and the overwhelming expansion of the social networks in people’s daily life nowadays, a completely new branch in the direct marketing has emerged, and that is the influencer marketing. Influencer - marketing is emerging as a new and successful tool for promoting products, with more and more people appearing on social media. Over the years, the rate of influencers in digital marketing has been increasing, and it is believed that they can influence consumers’ decision to buy products directly. The emergence of influencers and their engagement is relatively new, hence the question of the status of influencers and their commercial activity in the legal system becomes an issue worth considering and regulating. How do influencers make money? Is there regulation for their actions? Are their actions in the internet space limited? What is their status? Do they pay taxes? These questions are the subject for analysis and elaboration in this text. The legal scope of this influencer – marketing is entering in many aspects of the Macedonian legal system, thus providing space for legal analysis, interpretation and regulation. This text in particular aims to make an analysis of the legal aspects of the contracts between the influencers and the brands, as well as the legal impact of the influencers’ actions on the consumers’ rights.

Competition law nowadays is becoming an increasingly important branch of law in the global society. The development of the global market, new technologies, and innovation requires a quick and effective response from the competition authorities in order to maintain effective competition on the market; thus to protect the consumers. Competition law in the European Union has been a core competency since its foundation. The European Commission plays a central role in the development of competition policy and the enforcement of EU competition law. In order to protect effective competition in the single market, the Commission has faced the challenges of the dynamic market; thus responding quickly and effectively to the new conditions created by the development of industries, new technologies and global society. In Macedonia, the development of competition is strongly influenced by the EU competition law. The entire competition law system is based on EU rules and standards. This paper provides an analysis of national competition law vis-à-vis EU competition law, with a focus on merger control as one of the mechanisms for effective competition protection. Since there is a lack of academic discussion on the topic in Macedonia and in order to see where we stand and in which direction our national competition law goes, this paper will elaborate on competition policy and competition law in relation to merger control in particular. In addition to the theoretical approach, the paper provides an analysis of merger control by the competition authorities in Macedonia and the European Union as well. This analysis provides an opportunity to draw conclusions and recommendations regarding the approach, policy and dedication to market mergers and acquisitions. The European comparative perspective, both in terms of legislation and in its enforcement of competition law, provides relevant data on how much legislation is in place and in what direction merger control in Macedonia is going, in relation to EU merger control trends. Finally, this paper makes a modest contribution to understanding the concept of protection from harmful concentrations, the level of development of competition law and competition policy in Macedonia.

The idea of the paper is to determine how the free legal aid system is an effective mechanism for ensuring equal access to justice for all citizens in the Republic of Macedonia. The paper includes an analysis of the existing system and an overview of the use and availability of free legal aid to those who need it. The right to access to justice is one of the fundamental human rights. The state is the one that has the main role in the realization of the obligation for respecting, protecting and exercising human rights, which involves the establishment of an efficient system of free legal aid. Such a system aims to ensure equal access of citizens to the institutions of the system. The right to free legal aid is provided by persons who, due to their material status, could not exercise the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the law, without compromising their own maintenance and support of the members of their family living in a common household. Access to legal aid is part of the right to a fair trial, arising from Article 6 of the ECHR. Article 6 paragraph 3c on minimum rights in criminal cases ensures provision of free legal aid when the interests of justice so required. Hence, in addition to domestic legislation, the paper also analysies the international conventions that guarantee the right to access to justice and presents different approaches and practices for providing free legal aid. At the same time, it deals with defining the system's shortcomings in providing efficient and effective access to justice for all citizens.

Despite the positive trends achieved in the last few years, high unemployment is still one of the worst indicators of the success of the applied macroeconomic and social policy of the state from independence until today. The indicators for the degree of unemployment among young people up to 29 years old (the age immediately after formal education) are particularly unfavorable. Unemployment in these years is one of the main reasons for young people leaving abroad. The motive is clear - employment is sought. The employment of young people in the homeland will reduce the trend of emigration, but it will also positively affect several segments of the socioeconomic life in the country. To encourage the employment of young people from 15 to 29 years old, the state applies several measures and policies, and one of them is the subsidized employment of unemployed young people up to 29 years old through the regime of exemption from social contributions. Encouraged by the initial results of this measure, the new Action Plan for the employment of young people for the period 2016-2020 foresees its extension. For now, this has not been translated into a specific legislative framework. The new Action Plan for the employment of young people for the period 2016-2020 (pages 26 and 33) provides for the extension of the measure after 2016 with the following parameters: planned employment of 3,000 people aged 15 to 29 and a budget in the amount of 2,040 .000 euros. The effects of the planned measures and policy for the employment of young people up to 29 years of age will depend on the successful implementation of the overall planned measures for the socioeconomic development of the country. The subject of our interest is the measure for the subsidized employment of unemployed young people up to 29 years old through the form of exemption from paying contributions, by the defined legal provisions. The subject analysis of costs and benefits aims to evaluate the costs and benefits of the implementation of the measure “Subsidized employment of unemployed young people up to 29 years old” through exemption from contributions. The measure is part of the state's policy to reduce unemployment and is governed by provisions of the Law on Employment and Unemployment Insurance (Articles 98-b and 98-c), which have limited application from March 2014 to March 2016. The analysis is structured in an introduction and eight main sections: 1. Trends 2. Legal framework 3. Terms and conditions for using the measure 4. Facts about the measure 5. Cost-benefit analysis 6. Qualitative analysis 7. Conclusion 8. Recommendations