Search Results for: International law

BY KEITH NUTHALL
JUST as a punch-drunk boxer cannot resist another slug in the ring, the Indian government is refusing to throw in the towel in its interminably long World Trade Organisation dispute with the European Union over Brussels’ anti-dumping duties on bed-linen from India.…

BY PHILIP FINE

AMERICAN businesses seem to be shying away from the country’s newly available terrorism insurance policies, saying they cost too much money.

Under a mandatory federal programme, insurers have been required to provide separate insurance to commercial policyholders for events defined as terrorism and causing at least US$5 million in losses; President Bush signed the law last November and the insurance carriers had until February 24 to inform policyholders how much they would have to pay for the coverage.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BRITISH government’s golden share system, granting it control over any disposal or winding up of assets owned by the privatised British Airports Authority, breaks European Union law and should be reformed, an advocate general of the European Court of Justice has claimed.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPOL has signed an operational agreement with the United States which will improve cooperation between the EU police agency and the various US law enforcement authorities. The deal promotes the exchange of personal data, an agreement that has been approved by the Joint Supervisory Body, the independent authority monitoring and controlling the use of such information by Europol.…

Keith Nuthall
A CRIMINAL group based in the Lebanon is stealing multi-million dollar cargoes, the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has warned. It has reported that the group is running at least two vessels off the eastern Mediterranean, north African, and west African coasts, which they use to divert cargoes from their agreed destination.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission and the Algerian government are to cooperate to ensure that sub-standard shipping does not ply the seaways of the Mediterranean, notably through the phasing out of old single hull tankers.

European Union (EU) transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio and Algeria’s transport minister Abdelmalek Sellal agreed at a meeting in Algiers that a joint group of experts should draw up a cooperation programme on improving maritime safety.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has agreed to admit officials from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and representatives from secretariats for other multilateral environmental agreements as observers to its ongoing Doha Development Round negotiations. The move has been welcomed by the European Commission, which wants these representatives to point out when the free trade talks are in danger of creating an agreement that may undermine or conflict with existing international environmental agreements.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANCE’S Suez water company and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have launched a joint drinking water improvements programme that will provide around Euro 300,000 in its first three years and will initially concentrate on the Volga-Caspian region.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE ADAGE ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink’ applies in many walks of life and it is certainly relevant to the ongoing World Trade Organisation’s negotiations on liberalising market access for services.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
LEGAL professionals across the European Union (EU) are to be asked whether they support the idea of creating a parallel body of European contract law that would exist alongside national legislation. The idea is to create a set of legal principles that are recognised across the EU as a tool by which cross-border disputes could be resolved, but which – unlike standard European legislation – would not supersede national rules.…