Olga Labendowicz

It is our job to ensure not only that our personal freedoms are respected by others, but also that we ourselves know their value and power. Therefore, we felt that it is our responsibility to devote the 8th issue of 4liberty.eu Review to personal freedoms in the region.

We are happy to present the latest issue of Liberté! – a quarterly magazine published in Polish by Liberté! Foundation. The issue, entitled „RE:volution / Digital Reality”, is a follow-up after the last edition of the Freedom Games – an annual forum organized by the Foundation in Lodz, Poland.

Łódź, Poland – Free Courts, Women\'s Strike, Leave the Biłowieża Forest Alone, Save Democracy – these are just a few of the demonstrations I\'ve attended in the past few months. I might be all for social activism, but surely, that\'s not the point of living in a (seemingly) democratic country in the 21st century.

The fourth edition of Freedom Games was held on October 19-21, 2017, in Łódź (Poland). The unique interdisciplinary forum, the aim of which is to offer a creative space for individuals from the sectors of culture, business and public affairs, among others, to discuss the key challenges the Western societies must face in the 21st century.

Will the United Kingdom, now on the verge of a significant systemic shift, really be better off without the EU? Richard Teather, Senior Lecturer in Taxation at Bournemouth University and a strong supporter of Brexit, comments on the recent phenomena in a gripping interview for Olga Łabendowicz and the Liberté! magazine.

Although, as Dorothy Parker once said, “you cannot teach an old dogma new tricks”, we choose to believe that it is still possible. After all, to quote Nathaniel Hawthorne, “It is a good lesson – though it may often be a hard one – for a man (...) to step aside out of the narrow circle in which his claims are recognized”.

A lot people look to the United States as a role model. But I think it\'s important to try to seperate out what\'s good about the U.S. that you want to copy and what\'s bad about the United States that you do not want to copy. And that can be challenging.

We proudly present you a collection of articles and analyses devoted to (first and foremost) the sharing economy and secondly, to the digital challenges our region faces. Because as the fictional but nonetheless real Ayn Rand once said, “If you don’t know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn”. And, after all, sharing is caring, right?

President Andrzej Duda has just signed the act passed recently by both the Polish parliament (o, hail, the parliamentary majority of Law and Justice!) and the Senate (yay! another session held at 3am!) that is to alter the way in which Constitutional Tribunal operates. So now instead of 5 independent judges we\'ll have 15 (thus 13 will be necessary to make a binding decision) judges of somewhat dubious background while all claims will be scrutinized according to the chronological order in which they have been filed. Sounds sound, but is it really?

We are delighted to present you the 3rd issue of \"4liberty.eu Review\" devoted to the shadow economy in CEE. Read the editorial below and preview the magazine on Issuu. Enjoy!