Search Results for: International law

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU fishing businesses handling big-eye tuna and swordfish will have to declare their imports, exports and re-exports of the species, in the same way that an existing law forces them to release similar statistics about bluefin tuna. The aim is to boost conservation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE RICHES that can be made from the illegal ivory trade are well known, but what of illicit imports and exports of rare flowers. Shipping protected orchids to Europe, Japan and north America can make criminals a lot of money.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
PHANTOM ships may become less common on the high seas because of a Commonwealth-based law dating back to 1906, that was recently invoked for the first time in a Hong Kong court.

Section 44 of the Chinese territory’s Marine Insurance Act (MIA) says that a theft liability risk does not attach to a ship’s cargo if the ship’s managers had no intention from the outset of sailing to an agreed destination; it was used to defeat insurance claims made against mainland-China based and state-owned defendant China Insurance Company Limited by the owner of missing cargo worth US$2.5 million aboard the merchant vessel, the Pacifica.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Commission plans to postpone a ban on the marketing within the EU of cosmetic ingredients, that have been tested on animals after July 1 of this year, have sparked fury at the European Parliament, threatening the delicate negotiations over the final shape of Europe’s animal testing legislation.…

KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Court of Justice has cleared the way for Spain to restart subsidising investments by its hauliers into buying or hire-purchasing new lorries and vans.

Annulling a decision made by the European Commission in 1998 that blocked Madrid from helping haulage operators pay the interest on loans they raise for new vehicles, judges said Brussels was wrong to brand these payments as illegal state aid.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission today (Tuesday) announced proposed new legislation to bring in compulsory minimum insurance requirements for all air carriers and aircraft operators flying within, into, out of or overflying the European Union. It is also considering the merits of creating a mutual fund in the probable event that governments decided against maintaining the current state guarantees after the end of October this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN INTERNATIONAL Agenda for Action has been drawn up at a UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) workshop on boosting “Clean Coal Combustion in Small and Medium Sized Boilers in Central and Eastern Europe.” The plan has been approved by experts from the region, along with those from western Europe, the USA, the World Coal Institute, the World Energy Council, IEA Coal Research and UNECE.…

Keith Nuthall
A GLOBAL questionnaire has been launched by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, (UNCITRAL), which wants to kick start efforts to create a UN convention on insurance liability during multi-modal transportation.

The UN agency has pointed out that despite the huge growth in container movements (from zero in 1965 to 225.3 million in 2000), there is still no global set of rules governing responsibility for cargo carried by combined transport involving ships, rail and roads.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank and the World Trade Organisation have established a new international fund – the Standards and Trade Development Facility – which will help developing countries implement the strict and complex standards that are erected for the food trade by bodies such as Codex Alimentarius.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA, in Columbo
PUBLIC protests have broken out in Sri Lanka against the Bandaranaike International Airport expansion project, which would evict more than 10,000 families living in and around the Kurana, Katunayake and Katana areas. Campaigners fighting the project were once supported by the ruling United National Party when it was in opposition, but it switched policies after winning last year’s election.…