Archive for the ‘International law and structures’ Category

Definitions matter

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

EUObserver reports on internal EU Commission documents that seek to redefine palm oil plantations - "the source of one of the most destructive forms of biofuels" - as forest that "would not per se constitute a breach" of rules on sustainability. While forests are generally seen as desirable under such ...

War declared! (kind of)

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Well this could be awkward. (Are we expected to cut off all communications?) The EU is threatening a visa war with Canada, because of its withdrawal of visa waivers from visitors from the Czech Republic. That decision, in turn, had been prompted by a large number of applications for asylum ...

Postal services in Europe – have your say

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

This from the Comreg list:ComReg was asked by ECORYS for help in identifying consumers who are willing to participate in a short web-survey on customer needs for postal services.  This is part of a study that ECORYS is undertaking for the European Commission on The Main Developments in the Postal ...

The Cliff Richards performance copyright extension

Friday, February 15th, 2008

The EU commission is proposing to extend copyright terms for performers of music, to match the existing terms for composers. The notion of retroactive extension is problematic (though not unprecedented), but there are some interesting aspects to the proposal:For session musicians, the record companies will set up a fund reserving at least ...

A Critical Ear – 24 January, 2008

Friday, January 25th, 2008

We're now posting this evening's edition of A Critical Ear. It lasts about 90 minutes. Contents: Interworld Radio news headlines (3-4 min) Interworld Radio feature about healthcare services in Zambia (6 min) Discussion of Iran and US foreign policy regarding Iran (30-40 min) Gaza - recent developments and contextJose Padilla (5-10 min) Economic developments in ...

A Critical Ear – latest edition

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

This week's show is now online. It lasts just around an hour, and features Bob Naiman and myself discussing Pakistan, Iran, and the success of Brazil's AIDS drugs policy. Locally we discuss SEIU's possible strike and the growing support from the campus community, and the CCHCC protest about the exclusion ...

A Critical Ear: recent interviews

Friday, September 14th, 2007

One of my current side projects is the radio show I present with Bob Naiman on WRFU. A Critical Ear covers a range of US domestic and foreign policy developments. Bob works for Just Foreign Policy and is incredibly well informed on foreign policy, activism, and labor issues, so it's ...

Data retention and vehicle tracking

Monday, January 2nd, 2006

Just before I came home for Christmas I was Paul's guest on MediaGeek on WEFT. We had intended, originally, to talk about the state of community media in Ireland and Europe generally, but ended up spending most of the show talking about the Data Retention compromise that had just passed ...

Why the French referendum failed

Wednesday, June 15th, 2005

This is surreal! Giscard d'Estaing blames the failure of the EU constitution in France on the fact that each household was sent a copy of the full text of the constitution:One crucial mistake was to send out the entire three-part, 448-article document to every French voter, said Mr Giscard. Over the ...

Saddam, Geneva and the UK

Saturday, May 21st, 2005

Given that I understand Saddam to be in the custody of the coalition authorities, which includes the UK, does the UK have a legal duty to prevent the publication of photographs of Saddam? That is, does the requirement that a prisoner not be exposed to ridicule cover not only the ...