European Court of Justice's (ECJ's) judgment on jurisdiction in the UK's Sellafield Mixed Oxide (MOX) plant dispute was discussed. The judgment shed some light on the nature of mixed agreements, ...where competences between EC institutions and the Members State were shared. The judgment underscored the extent to which Article 10 EC applied as a general obligation on Member States to avoid any measure, which put EC law in jeopardy. The judgment highlighted the linkages that existed between international and EC environmental law. If the ECJ was to find exclusive jurisdiction over disputes concerning international agreements to which it and Member States were party, then permitting direct effect to its provisions could be said to be a progressive step towards more effective international dispute settlement.
Risk management in campus recreational sports has been a consideration on the minds of campus recreational sport directors for over the past three decades. But are directors' concerns aligned with ...the litigation being decided in the courtroom? This study examined whether or not campus recreation directors were concerned about the same legal and risk management issues that appeared most frequently in published court decisions. A case law analysis revealed that 54 cases were related to campus recreation over the past 30 years. To determine risk perceptions of campus recreation directors, a Web survey identifying 34 risk issues was administered. The findings showed the relationship of perceptions of directors to published cases and the risk management formula, as well as differences in perceptions based on demographic variables. The results identified several opportunities for discussion and new areas for research.
Various aspects of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and public participation related to the determination of the limits of Member State discretion are discussed. The EIA directive establishes ...the basic principles of a system for environmental assessment and leaves it to the member States to flesh out the practical details. By deploying a framework directive, the Community legislature attempted to accommodate the diverse planning and administrative law systems operating across the Member States. The results show that this flexibility leads to difficulties of interpretation. The results concluded that the outer limits of Member State discretion to levy fees, and whether or not special treatment must be afforded to ENGOs pursuant to Aarhus obligations, remain unresolved.
Many of the most significant principles established by the ECJ have been decided in the context of a reference to that court for a preliminary ruling under Article 234 (ex 177) EC. Article 234 ...facilitates a dialogue between the national courts and the ECJ in order to allow national courts to seek guidance on the appropriate interpretation of Community law principles in a particular dispute. The importance of the Article 234 procedure in seeking to ensure the uniform and consistent interpretation of Community law cannot be under-estimated, particularly in the field of competition law. This article is based on collaborative research involving fourteen Member States and a comprehensive review of all Article 234 competition and State aid rulings to 1 May 2004. The article considers various issues relating to the number and type of preliminary rulings given by the ECJ in competition-law related matters. It provides insights into which Member States have resorted most frequently to the Article 234 mechanism, and the types of competition law issues raised in those legal disputes, and assesses the extent to which resort to the procedure has varied over different time-frames, together with suggested rationale for the varying use between different Member States, and over different periods of time. Finally, the article outlines the extent to which information has been gained on the post-ruling process in different Member States.
Various aspects related to biotechnology and organic farming in Hoffman v Monsanto case are discussed. The case of Hoffman v Monsanto Canada Inc. involves a group of Saskatchewan organic farmers ...bringing an action for certification as a class in order to pursue class action litigation against both Monsanto Canada Inc. and Bayer Crop Science Inc. The farmers are seeking redress for alleged damage caused to them by Monsanto's and Bayer's genetically modified (GM) varieties of canola. It is observed that whether implicit or explicit, there is a multitude of social, economic, and environmental values integrated into the farmers' claims. Their litigation is an extremely blunt instrument for trying to defend these values, but if these integrated concerns can be brought to the attention of the court, then a judgment can be hoped that includes consideration of the full consequences of the ruling, whichever side it favors.
