Archive for August, 2011
Integration Of Travel Agency Acquisitions Process
Posted by admin in Integration on August 15, 2011
Congratulations are in order for your recent acquisition of the travel agency you targeted, what is next?
One of the most important phases of an acquisition is the integration phase, where you work to smoothly transition the acquired agency into your world, with as little interruption and strife as possible. From modifying window signs and stationary to introducing new procedures or policy to providing training, you will help facilitate this change. Your commitment to shareholders, customers and employees will be communicated through all your actions and plans. You become an ambassador of your firm to these new employees and customers.
This article has been written as a resource highlight to guide you through the integration process. As integration manager, you are responsible for specific itemized tasks as well as the most important role of ensuring all steps are completed.
The following areas should be the Acquisition Managers primary focus:
• Technologies
• Human Resources
• Finance
• Legal
• ARC/IATAN Unit
• Compliance
• Accounting
• Operations Read the rest of this entry »
Caribbean Court of Justice As an Engine of Integration
Posted by admin in Court of Justice on August 15, 2011
INTRODUCTION
Caribbean Integration has long been the goal of policy makers in the region. After the 1973 Treaty of Chaguaramas attempt, competent decision makers recognized that if the region is to function as a viable unit there must be a legal institution at its centre that will safeguard its integrity by providing stability, uniformity and certainty. To this end the original jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) finds its official roots in the Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice and the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas 2001(RTC).
As the spine of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), The Court functions in its original jurisdiction as an organ of interpretation, enforcement and dispute settlement, regarding all issues under the RTC. In the dispensation of its duties the CCJ essentially operates like the European Court of Justice (ECJ) with the exception that the CCJ does not have supranational powers. The Court then relies heavily upon its status as an organ of an international treaty whose decisions, once incorporated, are binding upon member states. Even then, the CCJ’s ability to unite the region has been questioned; given that the CCJ lacks the capacity to establish a system of direct effect or supremacy as is practiced in the EU and arguably largely responsible for integration in that Community.
Despite this contention, the regional Court has demonstrated that even with its limited powers over national laws, it is willing to chart its own course for integration via its teleological judgements. Given its first set of rulings in its original jurisdiction, the Court seems poised to break from tradition, all the while transfusing new life into the worn idea of Caribbean integration to the benefit of the wider community. Read the rest of this entry »
International Law And The Right To A Healthy Environment As A Jus Cogens Human Right
Posted by admin in World Court of Justice on August 15, 2011
. JURISPRUDENTIAL BACKGROUND AND THEORETICAL ISSUES
To date, traditional international law does not consider human environmental rights to a clean and healthy environment to be a jus cogens human right. Jus cogens (“compelling law”) refers to preemptory legal principles and norms that are binding on all international States, regardless of their consent. They are non-derogable in the sense that States cannot make a reservation to a treaty or make domestic or international laws that are in conflict with any international agreement that they have ratified and thus to which they are a party. They “prevail over and invalidate international agreements and other rules of international law in conflict with them… [and are] subject to modification only by a subsequent norm… having the same character.” (1) Thus, they are the axiomatic and universally accepted legal norms that bind all nations under jus gentium (law of nations). For example, some U.N. Charter provisions and conventions against slavery or torture are considered jus cogens rules of international law that are nonderogable by parties to any international convention.
While the international legal system has evolved to embrace and even codify basic, non-derogable human rights (2), the evolution of environmental legal regimes have not advanced as far. While the former have found a place at the highest level of universally recognized legal rights, the latter have only recently and over much opposition, reached a modest level of recognition as a legally regulated activity within the economics and politics of sustainable development.
1. The international legal community recognizes the same sources of international law as does the United States’ legal system. The three sources of international law are stated and defined in the Restatement (Third) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States (R3dFRLUS), Section 102. The first source is Customary International Law (CIL), defined as the “general and consistent practice of states followed out of a sense of legal obligation” (3) (opinio juris sive necessitatus), rather than out of moral obligation. Furthermore, CIL is violated whenever a State, “as a matter of state policy,… practices, encourages or condones (a) genocide, (b) slavery… (c) the murder or causing the disappearance of individuals, (d) torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment… or (g) a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” (4) To what extent such human rights need to be “internationally recognized” is not clear, but surely a majority of the world’s nations must recognize such rights before a “consistent pattern of gross violations” results in a violation of CIL. CIL is analogous to “course of dealing” or “usage of trade” in the domestic commercial legal system. Read the rest of this entry »