Search Results for: International law

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A RULING from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over the protracted row over the rights to the names Budweiser and Bud could weaken an attempt to prevent US-based Annheuser Busch from importing its beer into Austria. Its Czech Republic rival Budejovicky Budvar has been trying to block such imports – named ‘American Bud’ – on the grounds that a bilateral convention between Austria and the Czech Republic reserves the name “Bud” for Czech beer in Austrian markets.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has started European law infringement proceedings against the British government, formally demanding confirmation it will continue to seize alcohol brought into the UK from other EU countries by citizens shipping alcohol for other people, but not for profit.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Parliament has called for a threshold of 1mSv/Hh to be inserted in to a proposed European directive on controlling high activity sealed radioactive sources, to clarify when the legislation should be followed. MEPs also passed non-binding amendments to highlight suppliers’ responsibilities and that all potential cross-border movements within, to and from the EU should be monitored.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A REGIONAL far east and Pacific meeting of the Office International des Épizooties, (the world animal health organisation), has focused on calls to avoid the mass slaughter of livestock to control animal disease outbreaks. Delegates called for work on creating effective alternatives to culls that would ease environmental problems caused by carcass disposal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AFTER a long period of consultation, a comprehensive directive protecting the European Union’s (EU) groundwater reserves has been proposed by the European Commission, which would force Member States to establish and police locally sensitive pollution limits. The legislation would insist that national governments carefully monitor groundwater quality and take steps to reverse its pollution, where it has exceeded these self-imposed thresholds.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL Expert Group on Nuclear Liability (INLEX) has started work for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has tasked it with creating an effective and globally accepted set of rules on assigning responsibility to nuclear accidents, especially where they have cross-border effects.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a report outlining how it plans to reform the European Union’s (EU) taxation systems next year and beyond. Notably, it is planning to establish an expert group to ease the future harmonisation of EU tax rules by discussing how International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) could be used as a basis for common detailed tax principles.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SCANDINAVIA dominates the top rankings of a new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) global index on information and communication technology (ICT) access, with Sweden, Denmark and Iceland scoring the highest marks. The ITU says that the league table distinguishes itself from other indices by including new variables, such as education and affordability.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Chamber of Commerce (ICC) wants the European Commission to call for changes to the USA’s 1789 Alien Tort Statute, allowing non-American companies to be sued in US courts for alleged human rights, labour and environmental offences committed in third countries.…

BY PHILIP FINE

IN the era of the Kyoto Protocol, where polluters pay more environmentally friendly businesses and services for ‘carbon credits’, a group has been formed to ready the food industry to profit from the situation. The Consortium for Agricultural Soils Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases groups nine US universities and several American government agencies to set out the financial benefits.…