Possible New Legislation on the Export of E-waste

by Evan Zhao

     Electronic waste, or e-waste, is a term used to describe electronics at the end of their useful lives. E-waste can be generated from a variety of sources, ranging from cell phones and computers to media tablets and portable music devices. As global demand for these electronic technologies increases, the management of e-waste becomes increasingly important.

     On one hand, the inefficient recycling of e-waste has contributed to the rising price of valuable metals such as gold. Currently, the worldwide manufacturing of electric and electronic devices requires an annual $21 billion in gold and silver, but less than 15% of these metals are recovered from e-waste. This inefficiency is partly due to the export of e-waste from developed to developing countries for processing. Although exporting e-waste overseas reduces processing costs, these reductions occur at the expense of efficiency. The crude dismantling processes of many developing nations result in 50% of the gold in e-waste being lost and a recovery rate of only 25% for the remaining gold, whereas modern facilities in developed countries are able to recover 95% of the 75% of gold not lost in the dismantling process.

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February 04, 2013

U.S Courts Hold Argentinean Debt in the Balance

by Bryce Johnson

     In December 2001, Argentina defaulted on $100 billion worth of debt after a series of unsuccessful attempts to reduce the debt it had accumulated through a severe recession during the late 1990’s. In the wake of this default, Argentina was essentially cut off from the global financial market, and the bonds representing the government’s debt were reduced in value to pennies on the dollar. Speculators soon took advantage, and bought up a lot of the debt at the significantly reduced price in the hope of turning a large profit in the future.

     In 2005 and 2010, the Argentinean government initiated debt exchanges in which it offered holders of the bonds payments of 30 cents on the original value, representing a large return on investment for any of the speculators who bought at the low point. Approximately 93% of the bondholders accepted one of those two offers, and Argentina has been reliably making payments ever since. 

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January 14, 2013

Service of Process Abroad for FCPA Enforcement Actions

by Stephanie Keats

     Prosecution of white collar crime, such as the recent Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) case brought against Siemens executives who allegedly agreed to pay more than $100 million in bribes, often goes hand in hand with the prosecution of individuals residing in foreign countries. These sorts of crimes are often committed by individuals outside of the United States because practices that are illegal in the United States, such as bribery, are considered the norm (sometimes even a necessity) in foreign countries. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeing an increase in the amount of international prosecutions due to the recent focus on enforcing the FCPA. Although the anti-bribery portion of the FCPA was originally only enforced sporadically, it has now become a main priority and has resulted in more prosecutions of individuals. Although the SEC brings civil enforcement actions, it still must effectuate service of process on individuals against whom it wishes to bring proceedings. There are certain procedures in place that assist with service of process when bringing suit against individuals residing in a foreign country.

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December 27, 2012

The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Intellectual Property Rights

by Evan Zhao


     The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) aims to integrate economies across the Asia-Pacific region and serve as a template for future regional trade agreements. The TPP has expanded from its four original signatories (Brunei, Chile, Singapore, and New Zealand) to include the United States, Australia, Peru, Vietnam, and Malaysia, and, as of June 2012, Mexico and Canada. The most recent round of negotiations (Round 14) took place September 6-15, 2012, in Leesburg, Virginia.

     Although TPP negotiations have been active for some time, they are shrouded in secrecy. TPP parties have no obligation to release their positions to the public. U.S. officials have indicated, however, that a congressional review and public comment period will follow the completion of talks. In the meantime, a leaked draft of the U.S. position has unveiled aggressive intellectual property (IP) provisions that implement IP measures far more restrictive than what international law currently requires.

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December 17, 2012

The Benghazi Attack and Consular Relations

by Christina Hennecken

     
     On September 11, 2012, the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks—and just hours after demonstrators stormed a compound outside the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Egypt—Islamist militants armed with anti-aircraft weapons and grenade launchers attacked an American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three members of his staff were killed during the attack. The incident represented the first death of an American ambassador due to a violent assault in more than 30 years. An estimated six Libyan guards were protecting the facility. The Libyan Deputy Interior Minister, Wanis al-Sharif, admitted that he ordered the withdrawal of security forces during the initial phase of protests in a purported effort to avoid inflaming the crowd with confrontation.

     The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) initially believed that the attack was a spontaneous event following protests in Cairo related to an anti-Islamic YouTube video. On September 28, however, the Director of Public Affairs for ODNI, Shawn Turner, released a public statement asserting that, after over two weeks of investigation, ODNI had revised its assessment and believed the event was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack linked to al-Qaeda.

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December 05, 2012

Kiobel and Extraterritoriality

by William Hart

     The Alien Tort Statute (ATS) provides federal courts with jurisdiction to hear tort lawsuits brought by aliens against others for violations of international law and U.S. treaties. The statute, passed by the First Congress in 1789, was all but dormant until the Second Circuit held in Filártiga v. Peña-Irala (1980) that a district court had jurisdiction to hear a suit brought by one alien against another for torturing the former’s son to death. After Filártiga, there was a veritable explosion in ATS litigation, which eventually reached the Supreme Court in 2004 in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain. In Sosa, the Court reined in ATS litigation by concluding that any ATS claim must rest on “a norm of international character accepted by the civilized world and defined with a specificity comparable to the features of the 18th-century paradigms [the Court had] recognized.”

     Less than a decade after Sosa, the Supreme Court has another opportunity to limit the scope of the ATS in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. The Court was initially concerned with whether a corporation could be held liable under the ATS, but at the first oral argument the questioning turned to the wisdom of allowing a federal court to hear claims brought by aliens against a foreign corporation for acts which occurred in another country. The Court ordered the parties to brief the issue of extraterritoriality and re-argument was held on this new question at the beginning of October 2012.

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December 05, 2012

Sanctions - Is World of Warcraft Sanctions Compliance More Than a Joke?

by Elizabeth Gibson

[Editor's Note: GJIL is having a symposium on the issue of international sanctions - The Evolution of Economic Sanctions: Increasingly Financial, Multilateral, and Robust - on February 13, 2012. Therefore, each month The Summit will feature a post on sanctions. We encourage you to attend our symposium.]

     Over the last month, the media has been all over the story of Iranian gamers getting kicked off World of Warcraft in the name of sanctions compliance, and who can blame them with all the great punch lines about elves, trolls, and the U.S. government?

     However, in addition to the mystery of why exactly Blizzard Entertainment chose now to shut down Iranian accounts (sorry, no refunds), the situation has raised other interesting issues. Should interactive community games be considered a productive form of communication for sanctions purposes, and how much does all this matter in a world where savvy gamers quickly reconnected by rerouting their Internet through foreign networks?

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November 27, 2012

Myanmar's Economic Opportunities and Risks

by Bryce Johnston

     Over the past two years, Myanmar has undergone dramatic political and economic reforms. In late 2010, after more than fifty years of totalitarian rule under a military junta, former general Thein Sein was elected President in a vote that many western countries criticized as lacking credibility due to the absence of legitimate opposing parties. Nevertheless, the new civilian government has responded by releasing political prisoners and allowing pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy to participate in the political process and win seats in Parliament.

      As a result of the positive democratic steps taken by Thein Sein and the civilian government, the United States and the European Union have lifted sanctions, and many foreign corporations have prepared to conduct business in the country formerly known as Burma. Because of its longstanding economic isolation, Myanmar is perhaps the last major untapped market for consumer goods and its woefully underdeveloped infrastructure offers significant opportunities for investment. Cellular and Internet access reach a very small portion of the population, electrical grids routinely fail, and sewer systems flood. Most indicative of the isolation, ubiquitous brands such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi are just now gearing up to add Myanmar as a new front to their worldwide cola battle.

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November 08, 2012