This article reviews the legal status of nonmarital cohabitation in the United States. The recognition of cohabitants’ claims in the United States has occurred largely through the common law, and the article provides an overview of the patchwork of legal approaches. It shows the continuum of approaches, from states that refuse to recognize cohabitants’ rights drawn from their relationship to jurisdictions that impose status-based obligations. While most states today allow cohabitants to assert claims against one another as a matter of common law, a few state legislatures have enacted statutory provisions governing cohabitants’ contractual claims. The article also provides the first published discussion of the development of the Uniform Law Commission’s new cohabitants’ economic remedies act, and the article concludes with thoughts about possible future directions of the law of nonmarital cohabitation in the United States.
At present, there is great variance in the law and practice concerning the publication of personal data of newly naturalised citizens across the EU Member States, affecting a million individuals annually. Depending on the extent of the personal details made available, publishing the fact that an individual has naturalised can have negative repercussions in that individual’s state of naturalisation or state of other/prior nationality. While certain Member States publish personal details in their official journals to some extent, twelve do not do so at all. In recent years, several countries have amended their related legislation or re-assessed publication practices in response to the growing awareness of the importance of data protection concerns. This article analyses the current Member State practices in this respect, conducting case studies into the practices of Ireland, France, and Latvia. The analysis documents the emergence of a clear trend toward the development of a more critical approach to the publication of personal data, which was previously the unquestioned default. The article subsequently investigates the possibility of identifying a legal standard that can be used to determine whether a more coherent approach to regulating the issue of publishing personal data of naturalised citizens can be deduced. In the EU context it finds that these publication practices may fall within the scope of the GDPR, while in the context of Council of Europe law, the principles of the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data undoubtedly apply. UN instruments, by contrast, appear de facto inapplicable. The article concludes with a set of recommendations on what information should be published and how, emphasising that public authorities should carefully scrutinise and potentially re-consider their strategies managing the publication of personal data upon naturalisation.
LAWS are a threat to humanity, and after an objective analysis without a preconceived attachment to a particular outcome they are prohibited by the lex lata. The analysis is not conducted in a legal vacuum only focused on positive law, but instead, argues that the law of war is a product of natural law that is not constrained by existing codifications. Further, that even to a legal positivist, the general principles of the law of war, morality, and ethics are not merely precatory guidelines, but were fully incorporated into the codified law of war through the Martens Clause. To approach the subject objectively, the third part of the paper conducts a full-scale legal review of the concept of LAWS as a government attorney would, and honestly assesses the common arguments for and against LAWS from a perspective informed by: history; concepts of honor, morality and ethics; military science; and an understanding of warrior culture.
Most commentary on the law against monopolization under Section 2 of the Sherman Act highlights the difficulty in distinguishing aggressive competition (which society prizes) from anticompetitive exclusionary conduct (which should be condemned), as well as the controversy created by various tests for monopolization proposed since the turn of the century. This Article seeks to do the opposite. It argues that, despite the apparent differences between the key proposals in this area, a common thread can be identified. In particular, each of the proposed tests for monopolization reveals a central concern, not with the actual effect of the impugned conduct, nor with its profitability for the monopolist or the firm’s subjective intent, but with the objective purpose of the impugned conduct. There is, in fact, a unifying theme, an implicit norm, at work in Section 2 cases and commentary. The implicit norm is that a firm should not engage in conduct which has the purpose, objectively assessed, of creating, protecting, or enhancing monopoly power by suppressing rivalry without creating proportionate benefits for consumers. The relevance of this type of purpose is reinforced by the key themes in the current, highly contentious, debate about the reform of misuse of market power laws in Australia.
V. THE IMPORTANCE OF UPDATING THE ENERGY POLICY WITH THE ENRA .......................................................................... 391 A. The ENRA has the Potential to Increase Revenue for the U.S.................................................................... 392 B. Environmental Concerns are addressed in the Senate’’s ENRA. .......................................................... 396
This essay addresses the question regarding whether U.S. territorial jurisdiction exists over an outer continental shelf of the United States or in superjacent waters. In particular, this essay revisits 18 U.S.C. § 7(3) to consider whether the special territorial jurisdiction addressed therein can reach alleged criminal conduct on the continental shelf or in superjacent waters beyond a U.S. territorial sea. The essay also addresses whether other federal legislation concerning the outer continental shelf can provide federal criminal jurisdiction regarding conduct occurring on the outer continental shelf or in superjacent waters.
I. INTRODUCTION II. SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY III. UNCONVENTIONAL PETROLEUM RESOURCES IN AUSTRALIA A. Shale Gas Resources B. Development of coal seam gas resources in Queensland IV. REGULATION OF UNCONVENTIONAL GAS RESOURCES IN AUSTRALIA A. Overview of Regulation--Jurisdiction and Competence B. Regulation of East Coast Coal Seam Gas C. Central and Western Australia Shale Gas Development D. Harmonisation of Unconventional Petroleum Regulation in Australia V. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION Australia contains vast amounts of both conventional and unconventional petroleum resources. (1) Like the United States and the united Kingdom, Australia primarily focused on the development of conventional petroleum resources, with onshore gas production for commercial purposes occurring from conventional reservoirs for over fifty years. (2) The production of gas commenced with the exploitation of the giant Moomba field in the cooper Basin, operated by Santos, which has been a constant and voluminous supplier of petroleum, especially gas, to the densely populated eastern states via a series of pipelines. (3) The Moomba field exists in central Australia, in an area that is sparsely populated, and which most Australians do not even know exists. (4) other conventional gas extraction has occurred in the cooper Basin in South Australia (SA), the Otway Basin in Victoria, and the Amadeus Basin in the Northern Territory (NT). (5) Conversely, the production of conventional petroleum from Western Australia (WA) has been small to date. (6) With the exception of the giant Moomba field in the Cooper Basin, onshore conventional petroleum resources have been relatively unspectacular, contributing little to Australiau0027s energy supply. (7) Unlike the United States, Australia and Australians have had little exposure to the development of unconventional petroleum resources (UPR) to date. This is primarily a function of the location of the largest source of onshore production, the Moomba gas fields in the Central Australian desert. To most Australians, gas magically appears at the end of a tap at home, with little thought to how the gas arrives there. This is especially the case in New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, which are heavily reliant on gas for industry and domestic use. (8) In the western areas of Australia there is a heavy reliance on gas for the generation of electricity, which is primarily attributable to the low coal resources that WA possesses. (9) This gas has, until now, been provided largely from offshore gas fields, making WA vulnerable to interruptions to gas supply, illustrated by a 30% reduction in gas supply in 2008 as a result of the Varanus Island Gas pipeline explosion. (10) In order to ensure the security of its supply, the western Australian government is committed to investigating and developing its unconventional gas resources as an additional source of gas for the WA domestic and industrial population. (11) At the beginning of the 2000s, there became an extraordinary interest in the small amounts of coal seam gas (CSG) (12) that had been produced from the coal reserves in the Surat Basin in Queensland (Qld), (13) on the back of increased interest in shale gas in the United States. (14) The development of CSG in Queensland has been undertaken by a large number of Australian and international petroleum companies, including British Gas, Arrow Energy, Shell, PetroChina, Santos, Queensland Gas Company, Conoco Phillips, Total, Petronas, Kogas, Origin and Sinopec. (15) Extraordinarily, the Queensland Government has not coordinated the development of field infrastructure, transport and processing facilities. Rather, these facilities have been developed by the consortia of companies that have been established to exploit Queenslandu0027s CSG resources. (16) This has resulted in the triplication of pipelines, storage, processing and shipping facilities, and facilitated the need to reclaim Curtis Island and undertake large scale dredging in an area within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park off the coast of Gladstone. …
With the formal announcement of the end of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan, habeas courts and the Obama administration are called upon to determine the term “end of active hostilities,” and the proper limits of detention authority “incident to war” as defined in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld. This litigation highlights again the unsolved debate on the proper grounds, under international law, for internment in non-international armed conflict. Detention in Guantánamo raises a number of complex questions about the legal nature of U.S. military operations against Al Qaeda and the authority to detain in a non-international armed conflict not least when the government’s authority to detain under the “law of war” would end.
I. INTRODUCTION II. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENDER INEQUALITY AND FAMILY LEAVE LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES AND EUROPE III. THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT OF 1993 A. Notable Problems with FMLA in Practice IV. THE ICELAND ACT ON MATERNITY/PATERNITY AND PARENTAL LEAVE V. KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ICELAND ACT AND FMLA A. Broad Applicability B. Paid Leave C. Recognition of Gender D. Cautionary Notes VI. RECOMMENDED CHANGES TO FMLA BASED ON THE ICELAND ACT ON MATERNITY/PATERNITY AND PARENTAL LEAVE A. Equality Does Not Mean Neutrality B. Paid Family Leave C. Wider Applicability VII. TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A CLIMATE FOR CHANGE: THE INFLUENCE OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT VIII. ASSESSMENT OF FEASIBILITY OF CHANGE IX. CONCLUSION She deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job. A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship--and you know what, a father does, too. It's time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a "Mad Men" episode. This year, let's all come together--Congress, the White House, and businesses from Wall Street to Main Street--to give every woman the opportunity she deserves. Because I firmly believe when women succeed, America succeeds. --President Barack Obama (1) I. Introduction Despite President Obama's recent call for enhanced work-family balance policies in the United States, since its passage over 20 years ago, persistent concerns remain regarding gaps in the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), with some of the strongest criticisms leveled at its failure to mandate paid maternity and paternity leave. (2) In fact, this failure continues to make the United States an extreme outlier among industrialized nations in terms of provision of policies designed to facilitate work-family balance. (3) The United States is one of four nations in the world that does not have a law mandating some form of paid maternity leave, a reality made more surprising by the fact that the United States is the only high-income nation maintaining this policy. (4) This problem is compounded by the reality that pregnancy-related healthcare is more costly in the United States than in any other industrialized country. (5) As one possible consequence of the failures of FMLA, the 2013 Global Gender Gap Report ranks the United States twenty-third internationally in gender equality, (6) and number seventeenth among countries classified as "high income." (7) Alarmingly, the gender gap in the United States is greater than the gender gap in the lower-middle income nations of the Philippines, Nicaragua, and Lesotho and even greater than the low-income nation of Burundi. (8) By comparison, Iceland has distinguished itself as a leader in gender equality for several years. Iceland consistently has been ranked first in gender equality in the Global Gender Gap Report since 2009. (9) It has been suggested in popular and academic literature that Iceland also has one of the most progressive work-family policies in the world. (10) As such, a comparison of Iceland's work-family law to FMLA may inform strategies for addressing FMLA's weaknesses in an effort to remedy the persistent gender inequality in the United States. This Comment will explore the linkages between the deficiencies of the FMLA and the persistent presence of gender inequality in the United States, utilizing Iceland as a comparator for methods to facilitate greater gender balance through the structure of family leave laws. After discussing existing research on the relationships between family leave laws and societal gender inequality, I will discuss the provisions of the FMLA most relevant to family leave. I will then provide an overview of Iceland's Act on Maternity/Paternity and Parental Leave. Then I will discuss key differences between the two laws and offer suggestions for how Iceland's law may be incorporated into US law and policy. …
I. INTRODUCTION II. INTERNATIONAL DRUG TRAFFICKING A. Historical Background B. The Solutions So Far C. U.S. Policy and Approaches to Combating International Drug Trafficking III. THE IMPORTANCE OF INCENTIVIZING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IV. OBSTACLES TO COOPERATION AND THE FAILURES OF THE CURRENT INCENTIVES A. Criminal Law, National Sovereignty, and Political Relations B. Differing Legal Systems and Principles C. Sensitivity and the Perceived Nature of the Threat.. D. Effectiveness and Corruption E. Advantages of Current Policy V. ONE STEP AHEAD: OVERCOMING OBSTACLES AND INCENTIVIZING COOPERATION A. Eliminating Safe Havens: Overcoming Barriers to Extradition Agreements B. A Brief Example of the Operation of the Proposed Framework: Heroin and Afghanistan VI. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION Over a period of several decades, drug trafficking has gradually blossomed into a global problem, and has established itself as one of the world's largest grossing enterprises. (1) In response to the illicit activities intertwined with drug trafficking, the international community has attempted to keep up with the pace of the industry's growth through a variety of solutions-with varying success. (2) Commentators have noted that the effectiveness of international narcotics control measures depends on the "political will and good faith efforts of all nations to confront the drug trade." (3) Incentivizing the international community to effectively pursue and prosecute drug traffickers, as well as to implement measures designed to combat production at the source, is a vital step in ensuring the success of an international drug control effort. (4) Part II of this Comment provides a brief historical background on the nature of the problem of international drug trafficking, as well as past efforts to remedy the problem both by the international community and U.S. congressional measures, focusing particularly on U.N. treaties and U.S. maritime law. It also addresses the current U.S. policy framework for combating international drug trafficking--a framework which includes incentivizing international cooperation on drug control--and attempts to use portions of this framework both to criticize the flaws of past measures, and to suggest ways in which international cooperation can best be encouraged. Part III briefly discusses the importance of incentivizing international cooperation, and provides a brief overview of extradition and mutual legal assistance as two primary tools for achieving such cooperation. Part IV provides the operational framework for the proposed modification to U.S. policy by way of emphasizing five identified factors that typically serve to inhibit international cooperation, and Part V applies this framework to the examination of barriers to extradition agreements. Part V also includes a brief example of how the proposed approach may operate to enhance cooperation with new states. II. INTERNATIONAL DRUG TRAFFICKING A. Historical Background The global market for illicit drugs is pervasive. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime ("UNODC") estimates that approximately 155 to 250 million people worldwide consumed illegal substances at least once in 2008. (5) Drug trafficking is more globalized now than it has ever been in the past, and is approximately a $435 billion per year industry. (6) While the threat posed by drug trafficking to a given consumer in the market may be negligible, trafficking raises concerns on a larger level when political stability is examined. (7) One major stability concern is the increasing power and influence of drug traffickers in certain countries to a level at which they acquire the ability to affect political matters through violence and corruption. (8) Cocaine and heroin account for the majority of illicit substances trafficked internationally, with North America and Europe situated as the largest markets for cocaine, and Western Europe and Russia as the largest markets for heroin. …
I. INTRODUCTION II. ELECTRICITY AND ENERGY SECURITY IN INDIA A. Using Coal to Generate Electricity in India B. Alternatives for Generating Electricity in India C. Using Natural Gas to Generate Electricity in India III. INDIA'S NATIONAL OIL COMPANIES A. Indian Oil B. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation C. GAIL Limited IV. CHOOSING SOCIAL POLICY OR ENERGY SECURITY V. THE CHINESE NATIONAL OIL COMPANY MODEL A. Chinese NOCs: Reducing State Influence B. Chinese NOCs: Securing Adequate Supply C. Chinese NOCs: Developing Infrastructure VI. A WAY FORWARD FOR INDIA'S NATIONAL OIL COMPANIES A. Increased Transparency B. Acquisitions C. Developing Infrastructure D. Contract Stability VII. CONCLUSION We are energy secure when we can supply lifeline energy to all our citizens irrespective of their ability to pay for it.... --Planning Commission, Government of India (1) I. INTRODUCTION Electricity in India is one of the key drivers for rapid economic growth and poverty alleviation. (2) The Indian government recognizes electricity as basic human need. (3) The goals of India's National Electricity Policy include providing power to all households and meeting the demand for electricity in full. (4) The Policy has met with great success with regard to delivering electricity to India's population, in terms of both power generation capacity, as well as transmission capability to deliver the electricity generated: in 2001 44% of the Indian population did not have electricity, but by 2012 only about 25% of the Indian population was without electricity. (5) As of December 2013, India had installed electrical capacity of 232 gigawatts generating electricity from coal (58.8% of installed electricity generation capacity), renewable hydro-electric sources (17.2% of installed electricity generation capacity), renewable sources (12.7% of installed electricity generation capacity), natural gas (8.8% of installed electricity generation capacity), and nuclear reactors (2.1% of installed electricity generation capacity). (6) Because increased dependency on imported sources threatens India's energy (7) and India has large coal reserves, (8) it likely comes as no surprise that India relies on coal as mainstay to meet its energy needs for electricity generation. (9) However, burning coal to generate electricity has detrimental health and environmental effects. (10) Consequently, India may be obligated to find sources of fuel for electricity generation other than coal to supply the majority of its electricity needs as the Indian Constitution recognizes that a clean and healthy environment is right for all of India's citizens. (11) Financing difficulties and regional differences in both availability and policy mean that supplying electricity to the remaining 25% of India's population (289 million people) cannot rely solely on further development of renewable energy sources. (12) Nuclear power development is also limited as source of future development, both by limited supply of domestic uranium and negative view of nuclear power plants in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown. (13) For electricity generation, natural gas is relatively more environmentally friendly than coal. (14) India also has large supply of domestic natural gas. (15) Furthermore, recent developments in the natural gas industry, particularly in natural gas reservoirs in North America, have the global supply of natural gas, reducing the per-unit price of natural gas on the world market. (16) India should increase the role of natural gas as an energy source for electricity generation by further capitalizing on its domestic reserves and seeking an stake in international supplies. (17) India's national oil companies (NOCs) are uniquely positioned to improve India's energy security by increasing the supply of natural gas that is available to India, provided they behave less like state actors and more like China's NOCs. …
I. Introduction II. Background A. History of Privacy on the Internet B. The Proposed Regulations: India and Brazil III. A Closer Look into the Proposed Data Privacy Laws A. Strengths and Weaknesses of the Proposed Laws B. Effects of the Proposed Laws IV. A Practical Solution to the Inconsistency V. Conclusion I. Introduction [I]f you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself. --George Orwell (1) In the famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell painted a picture of a society that was constantly watched by Big Brother. Since the advent of computer databases, many different critics (2) and judges (3) have utilized the Big Brother metaphor to warn against the privacy concerns these computer databases pose. (4) In June 2013, the world found that this once fictional metaphor was fact reality. Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, leaked confidential documents and information. The information revealed that the united States had developed a top-secret program, called PRISM. (5) The PRISM program allowed the NSA to collect a variety of digital information from Internet and phone companies through a secret data-mining program to monitor worldwide Internet data, including information on foreign allies operating outside the United States. (6) The PRISM program was enacted for the sake of national security, but at the expense of individuals' and other countries' privacy. How did other countries react to this unconsented international surveillance? (7) Many countries expressed concern over the substance of Snowden's revelations. (8) The leaked documents indicated that India was the fifth most tracked country by the NSA. (9) The NSA also targeted Brazil, and the Brazilian president's communications were intercepted. (10) Even though both India and Brazil were targets of U.S. surveillance, the countries had differing initial reactions to the news. For example, Brazil expressed concern that the NSA had been secretly collecting data across the country without its government's knowledge. Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, emphasized the importance of the right to privacy, stating that [t]he right to safety of citizens of one country can never be guaranteed by violating fundamental human rights of citizens of another country. (11) President Rousseff emphasized the need for respect among nations upholding international relations. (12) But, [i]n the absence of the respect for sovereignty, there is no basis for the relationship among Nations. (13) President Rousseff further emphasized the importance of making new privacy laws when she stated, the [t]ime is ripe to create the conditions to cyberspace from being used as a weapon of war, through espionage, sabotage, and attacks against systems and infrastructure of other (14) The problem of protecting the interception and communication of online data affects the entire international community, not just the relationship among countries. (15) Finally, President Rousseff confirmed that Brazil has planned to establish its own secure, encrypted email service to prevent possible espionage. (16) In contrast, India reacted quite differently to the NSA leaks. India's Union Minister for External Affairs, Salman Khurshid, defended the United States' actions by noting, [i]t is only computer analysis of patterns of calls and emails that are being sent ... not actually snooping. (17) Now, Brazil and India are collaborating to find a solution to the issue of data protection on the Internet. Khurshid reinforced that the mass surveillance by the NSA is an area of concern for all democracies and announced that India is collaborating with Brazil and other countries in efforts to find platforms for global governance of the cyber space. (18) This conundrum reveals three main objectives digital privacy seeks to reconcile: (1) the government's responsibility to ensure the security of its country; (2) the individual's right to privacy; and (3) the business's interest providing services to its clients. …
