The State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Information Industry issued the Regulations for the Administration of Internet News Information Services on 25 September 2005. The Regulations, which entered into effect on the date of their promulgation, impose licensing and recordal requirements on providers of online news information services in China ...
On 1 May 2004 a new and revised Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (the TTBER) entered into force - Regulation No. 772/2004. The TTBER will provide block exemptions for IP licensing agreements, ensuring that certain technology transfer agreements are automatically exempt from the application of Article 81(1) of the EC Treaty, which prohibits anti-competitive agreements ...
The European Union has recently launched a new ccTLD (country code top level domain). Instead of using the various national European ccTLD's, such as .fr for French companies, .de for German companies, and .co.uk for U.K. companies, the EU has made available the .eu suffix as a Community-wide ccTLD. The new domain extension has already proved widely popular, with more than 100,000 applications for domain names filed thus far ...
Great fanfare surrounded the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 a year ago. The FOI legislation was hailed as a success in changing the culture of government. But while most public sector organisations have now come to grips with the workings of the FOI legislation, many have overlooked an associated set of regulations that came into effect at the start of this summer ...
On December 6, 2005 the British Columbia Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case of Hupacasath First Nation v. British Columbia(1). In this decision, the court held that Crown’s duty to consult with first nations, as articulated by the Supreme Court of Canada in Haida Nation(2) and Taku River,(3) extends to government decisions regarding planning, development and use of private land ...
Germany. November 9, 1938. Kristallnacht. “The Night of Broken Glass.” Nazi secret police and the Hitler youth swarm over Jewish businesses and homes, terrorizing and victimizing helpless individuals all over the country.1 SS leadership orchestrates attacks on every vestige of Jewish culture as “punishment” for fictitious crimes that will never be recognized by the rest of the world ...
In the past days, two very important events at the Regional and National Level, honored the ADR mechanisms, specifically the mediation and arbitration proceedings. We refer to the First Central American Congress on Mediation and Arbitration organized by the Nicaraguan Chamber of Commerce and the Third National Congress on Mediation organized by the Office of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Division (DIRAC) of the Supreme Court of Justice ...
Judgement of the European Court of Justice in case C-287/03 – Commission v. Belgium, dated 12 May 2005 The decision follows an action of the Commission against Belgium for breach of Article 49 of the EC Treaty providing for the free movement of services. The Commission alleged that the way in which the prohibition of a “linked offer” under Belgian law was applied constituted an obstacle to free movement ...
On November 24, 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision in the case of Mikisew Cree First Nation v. Canada (Minister of Canadian Heritage).(1) In the decision, the Supreme Court confirmed that, while governments have the power under treaties to authorize land uses which infringe on treaty rights, the exercise of that power imposes on governments a duty to consult where the taking up of land adversely affects those rights ...
Background The return to democracy in October of 1982 arrived with a “social debt” derived from the days of the Siles Zuazo government, which, by giving way to the workers’ demands, caused Bolivia to enter into a hyperinflationary downward spiral. The Government of Siles Zuazo ended one year before the end of its term (as Mesa did), allowing Dr. Víctor Paz Estensoro to come to power through the general elections of 1985 ...
The Scottish Parliament has set out a concrete timetable for business rates to be cut in Scotland to the level of those in England by April 2007 in a bid to boost competitiveness. Finance Minister, Tom McCabe, confirmed the timetable for this equalisation in a statement to the Scottish Parliament on 6 October 2005, outlining plans to stagger its implementation. It is proposed the reduction occurs over a two-year period ...
Irish Shell Limited v JH McLoughlin (Balbriggan) Limited, unreported High Court, 4 August 2005, Mr Justice Clarke This case is a good illustration of the application of the legal principles involved in granting an injunction while a related trial is pending (known as an interlocutory injunction). Facts: The plaintiff (Shell) sold a filling station in Balbriggan, County Dublin, to the defendant company in 2004 ...
British industry is undergoing a period of unprecedented regulatory reform as part of a government drive to reduce the costs and burdens on business. Over the next year, it will become clearer how effective this reform will be. Following independent recommendations from the Hampton Review and the Better Regulation Task Force (BRTF), Chancellor Gordon Brown launched the Better Regulation Action Plan in May 2005 with the aim of boosting flexibility and enterprise ...
Consultation Paper on Conditional Fees On 14 September 2005, the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong Conditional Fees Sub-Committee (the “Sub-Committee”) published a consultation paper on conditional fees (the “Consultation Paper”) recommending, among other things, that the existing prohibitions against the use of conditional fees in certain types of civil litigation by legal practitioners be lifted, so that legal practitioners may choose to charge conditional fees in appropriate cases ...
At the end of June, the US entertainment industry won a long fought victory to help bring file swappers to heel ...
The European Parliament dealt a blow to programmers seeking clarity on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions last month when it rejected a draft European Directive on the subject (the "CII Directive") by an overwhelming majority ...
Summary ‡ Information security “breaches” take many forms and occur in a wide variety of settings. However, contrary to recent press reports, they do not appear to be increasing. ‡ Research indicates that only a small percentage of breaches result in any harmful use of data. ‡ Account fraud and true identity fraud — the two identity-based frauds most feared by consumers and policy makers — are actually declining ...
After a prolonged period of development, the announcement in August of the Board of Directors for Scotland's Futures Forum has finally seen this body come to fruition. The development of the Forum has included a substantial period of investigating overseas models, canvassing MSPs and running a conference involving 140 representatives from a number of sectors ...
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed Amendment (5) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China (the "Amendment") on 28 February 2005. The Amendment was promulgated by President Hu Jintao and became effective on the same date. The Amendment introduces detailed penal provisions on credit card abuse and fraud and on damaging military equipment. We discuss the new sections regarding credit card abuse and fraud below ...
The Ministry of Information Industry ("MII") promulgated the Measures for the Administration of the Filing for the Record of Non-Commercial Internet Information Services (the "Recordal Measures") on 8 February 2005. The Recordal Measures took effect on 20 March 2005. It provides detailed guidelines on recordal filings for non-commercial websites ...
China presents enormous opportunities for the wealth management industry, as the domestic financial market and players develop increasing sophistication. The financial regulators in China are pushing ahead with financial market reforms and regulations, across the equity and bond markets, over banks, insurance companies, securities companies, securities investment fund management companies, trust investment companies and other financial institutions ...
Central Portal for Public Procurement has been recently launched at www.cvpp.lt. The portal publishes information on the public procurement conducted in Lithuania; the main purpose of the portal is to materialize the electronic procurement methods currently lawful under the Law on Public Procurement of the Republic of Lithuania. The main novelty introduced is the possibility to conduct electronic procurement under the normal commercial practice ...
It is just six months on from the introduction of the freedom of information regime, and there is already a wealth of advice and guidance available to public bodies on FOI. Private businesses however, are not as lucky. This article helps redress this imbalance ...
Proposal for Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Visa Information System (VIS) and the exchange of data between Member States on short stay-visas This regulation will enter into force from on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. Official Journal of the European Union, C 052 of 2 March 2005 ...
