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The article deals with the institute of parliamentary immunity particularly parliamentary privileges. Scientific views for comprehensive understanding and right interpretation of the parliamentary privileges have been provided. The authors focus on the lack of universal terminology for definition of the principle of immunity in foreign legislation. Two models of parliamentary immunity in foreign have been described and their peculiarities have been investigated. The types of parliamentary privileges in foreign legislation have been identified and their classification according to the set of immunity and duration has been provided. The authors focus on the peculiarity of foreign legislation regarding the procedure of bringing the parliamentary member to liability for the offences prior to his/her tenure. It has been stated that full abolishment of parliamentary privileges regarding criminal prosecution is not possible in most European states. Limitations of parliamentary privileges in European practice have been established. The authors investigate more thoroughly legal regulation of parliamentary immunity in Poland and Germany. The authors state that legal regulation of parliamentary privileges in Ukraine was an area of abuse of powers by the people's deputies and a tool to avoid responsibility. The Law of Ukraine No. 7203 'On Amendments to Art. 80 of the Constitution of Ukraine (regarding immunity of the people's deputies of Ukraine)' which will be effective from January 1, 2020 has been analyzed. But the authors mention that full deprivation of privileges will be an obstacle for their protection and creation of respective parliamentary working conditions. The authors think it is not necessary to abolish parliamentary immunity but to change its formula by limiting the sphere of its application during the parliamentary session, simplifying the procedure of abolishing immunity and excluding grievous offences, arrest during or after commission of a crime.

In the summer of 2015 Hungary constructed a 175 km long barbed-wire fence at its southern border with Serbia. New criminal offences and asylum procedures were introduced that limited access to refugee status determination and ignored agreed EU asylum policy, deterring and de facto preventing asylum seekers from entering Hungarian territory. This paper provides an analysis of these new measures, which criminalized asylum seekers, and the subsequent Hungarian policy in relation to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights – arguing that the Hungarian authorities excessively abused their discretion in implementing these new policies of immigration and border control.

This introductory essay explores some of the commonalities and differences that emerge from reading this thematic issue on religion and tourism in China and India. Economic growth has led to an explosion in domestic tourism activity in both countries, and the respective states are deeply involved in this development. The Indian state sees tourism as a means to create jobs, revenue and regional development. While this is also true for the Chinese state, it further treats tourism as a means to control and manage religion. In both countries, official tourism development can lead to complete makeovers of particular sites as beautification projects and tight regulation drives out informal economies and change the religious dynamics on the ground. The local management, be it formal or informal, affects not only where the money flows, but also how temples are visited and gods worshiped. Buddhism related tourism plays a peculiar role in India, where the government employs it as a vehicle for articulating pan-Asian and even global aspirations. Asian Buddhists visit Indian Buddhist destinations in growing numbers[1]. At the same time, Buddhist sites attract a steady stream of Western tourists who are most comfortable labelling themselves as spiritual travellers. For these travellers, the notion of 'tourism' threatens sources of authentic spirituality. In China, tourism is contributing to a revival of religion, sometimes providing means for temple institutions to legitimate their religious activities. Self-professed secular domestic tourists in China routinely engage in short acts of veneration at Buddhist places of pilgrimage. In this respect, Han Chinese tourists appear not so different from their Hindu counterpart in India. Increasingly, Hindu visitors at sites of pilgrimage opt for short acts of worship, rather than long rituals. Travel guidebooks, however, paint different pictures: Chinese tourists are given practical advice and encouragement on the performance of rituals, and their representation of religion recalls orientalist tropes of Western guidebooks. Indian guidebooks, on their part, retain elements of traditional Hindu pilgrimage literature assuming that the reader has the required know-how of religious practices. The tourist imaginaries of the Global North, as expressed in English language guidebooks, still rest on Orientalist underpinnings when it comes to both India and China. ; publishedVersion