Search Results for: International law

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ECJ may be used by national courts to clarify aspects of EU legislation or it may determine cases brought by individuals, governments or European institutions against each other but what all rulings have in common is that they are binding in all EU member countries, take precedence over all legal decisions, are directly applicable to individuals and are not subject to appeal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SCOTCH Whisky Association (SWA) has welcomed the passage into European Union (EU) law of a newly approved directive on fighting counterfeiting and piracy, which will strengthen the hand of established drinks producers in suppressing fakes. The legislation widens powers available to EU customs and trading officials to seize fake goods and also for rights holders to secure the destruction and recall of illegal goods, plus financial compensation, injunctions and damages.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE USA government has listed the beluga sturgeon as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. This decision brings US requirements in line the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and could lead to restrictions or even a ban on imports of its caviar, a real threat given the US imports 80 per cent of world production.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has called on the organisers of this year’s Olympic Games in Greece to ensure that any sports footwear used by athletes has been manufactured under International Labour Organisation (ILO) codes, especially those banning the use of child labour.…

Keith Nuthall
AVITRACK, a three-dimensional monitoring system allowing airport managers to check all groundhandling movements on aircraft runways, taxiways, aprons and parking zones, is being developed by a European Union (EU) research consortium. Coordinated by French IT firm SILOGIC, it involves cameras creating digital images that identify individuals, objects and vehicles, whose movement can be interpreted by computers.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
SEEN in the context of the past decade, the entry of 10 new member states to the European Union (EU) which took place on May 1 has proved nothing like the disaster for the nuclear industry that was once feared.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations has unveiled a three-member panel charged with investigating allegations of substantial corruption within its now defunct Oil for Food Programme, under which Iraq’s deposed Baathist regime sold limited supplies of crude, supposedly to fund humanitarian supplies.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has signalled it is ready to make further legislative proposals to fight organised financial crime, focusing on money laundering, illegal asset confiscation and financial transparency. In a policy paper (Communication), the Commission says: “Illicit gain can be undermined by enhancing the ability of law enforcement services to identify, freeze and confiscate criminal proceeds”, while calling for “greater use of financial investigative techniques to trace money trails.”…

Keith Nuthall
THE INTERNATIONAL Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has released a global catalogue of ideal safety signs for accident prevention, fire protection and emergency evacuation, because of concerns that worldwide, confusion sparked by existing signs causes death and injuries. Its move follows the release in the UK of a survey by leading health and safety equipment supplier Seton, that 87 per cent of British office-based professionals cannot identify electrical warning signs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE 10 EASTERN and southern European countries joining the European Union (EU) last weekend are on course to meeting its food health standards, Brussels’ health and consumer protection Commissioner David Byrne has claimed. His confident declaration masks a series of problems, however, leading to many temporary exemptions and special measures, giving the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Malta, and Slovenia; the countries between three months and three years extra time to ensure slaughterhouses and food processing plants meet standards that should have been in place on May 1.…