On-orbit servicing commercial opportunities with security implications

The On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) working group discussed legal and political implications of developing a commercial OOS industry. The group considered the benefits that OOS and Active Debris Removal (ADR) can offer the satellite industry, as well as potential disadvantages for international relations between space faring nations. To gain an accurate perspective of stakeholders involved in such a process, the OOS working group held a mock hearing for OOS licensing, with members of the working group assigned to represent stakeholders. Working group members presented their cases at a simulated domestic regulatory panel, constructed of members representing various government ministers, to fully explore stakeholder views. The mock hearings explored the challenges faced by OOS and ADR entrepreneurs as well as the benefit of regulation. The groups highlighted recommendations to ensure the practicality of OOS and determine how best to encourage licensing and regulation of such activities, as summarised below. 1. The United Nations (UN) should provide regulatory guidelines for OOS and ADR. 2. Government agencies should license OOS. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has taken responsibility for licensing commercial space transportation in the United States and this should be extended to OOS/ADR missions to enable short-term advancement prior to further UN regulation. 3. Government should support OOS and ADR development to ensure continued demand. This includes leading by example on government satellites and potential launch levies to enable on-going ADR funding. 4. All stakeholders should prevent weaponisation of space through transparency of operations. 5. Nations should initiate international cooperation on ADR. OOS and ADR will ensure sustainable use of satellites, particularly in LEO and GEO, for the coming decades. It is through transparency, economic stimulation and close monitoring that such endeavours will be successful

Zoning for Conservation Easements

Richardson and Bernard talk about zoning for conservation easements. Most conservation easements are perpetual and may have a huge impact on the land use in a community. With few exceptions, however, conservation easements have not been incorporated in any meaningful way into local land-use planning

Governing by internet architecture

In the past thirty years, the exponential rise in the number of Internet users around the word and the intensive use of the digital networks have brought to light crucial political issues. Internet is now the object of regulations. Namely, it is a policy domain. Yet, its own architecture represents a new regulative structure, one deeply affecting politics and everyday life. This article considers some of the main transformations of the Internet induced by privatization and militarization processes, as well as their consequences on societies and human beings.En los últimos treinta años ha crecido de manera exponencial el número de usuarios de Internet alrededor del mundo y el uso intensivo de conexiones digitales ha traído a la luz cuestiones políticas cruciales. Internet es ahora objeto de regulaciones. Es decir, es un ámbito de la política. Aún su propia arquitectura representa una nueva estructura reguladora, que afecta profundamente la política y la vida cotidiana. Este artículo considera algunas de las principales transformaciones de Internet inducida por procesos de privatización y militarización, como también sus consecuencias en las sociedades y en los seres humanos

Principles of forming a modern accounting and analytical model of commercial organization in digital economy

Purpose: The article presents basic methodological approaches to the creation of a new model of forming and functioning of the accounting and analytical system to meet the information needs of internal and external stakeholders of organizations. Design/Approach/Methodology: Substantiation of the principles of building a system for accounting and analytical information management that meets current conditions for the business functioning using modern hardware and software. Findings: The developed model of cascade functioning of organization’s information support system optimizes the structure and content of accounting and analytical modules, contributes to the effective implementation of management functions, timely control and rapid response to the impact of negative factors. Practical implications: The principles of information flow management system constructing formulated in the article contribute to optimization of expenses for organization of accounting and analytical functions, improvement of quality of financial and non-financial reporting, realistic assessment and forecasting of business efficiency. Originality/Value: The proposed new model for constructing an accounting and analytical information base allows to improve the procedures of collection, processing, storage and disclosure of financial and non-financial information, to create a balanced structure of the database on the basis of cascade digitization of primary and derived data.peer-reviewe

Regulation in the Shadows of Private Law

With proponents of deregulation ascendant, both domestically and around the world, private regulation appears to be an attractive solution to a seemingly intractable problem—assuming it is or can be effective. This Article adds an important corrective to standard accounts of private legal regulation and its effectiveness. Existing scholarship generally looks to the formal contract terms as the key to understanding private regulation and to evaluating its impact. This practice needs to be rethought. The relationship between contracting parties, as well as the regulatory authority that one party exerts over the other, can be quite different than the relationship described by the formal contract terms. This Article illustrates the problem with the scholarly assumption that formal contract language reliably describes the private regulatory relationships they establish. It does so through an in-depth analysis of a form of private contracting with great regulatory potential: the loan guarantees and associated political risk insurance policies underwritten by the World Bank. Such policies are purchased by corporations to mitigate the risks associated with doing business in under-regulated jurisdictions. Because, on their face, the terms of these policies require socially responsible corporate behavior, they appear to be a promising form of private regulation, succeeding in imposing significant obligations on corporations that traditional public regulation has failed to mandate. But these formal terms reveal little about the true nature of the private regulatory relationships they create. Even though the policy terms themselves are unlikely ever to be formally enforced, the policyholders often have significant incentives to go above and beyond the contract requirements if requested to do so by the underwriter. But whether they are in fact being asked to do so, and whether they are in fact complying if they are being asked, is unclear. The World Bank provides considerable transparency surrounding the terms of its policies and the process for obtaining them. However, little information is available regarding its post-contracting interactions with policyholder corporations. Providing data about these interactions could be done relatively easily and without infringing upon the confidentiality interests that it, and its policyholders, may have. To the extent that entities like the World Bank are serious about their corporate social responsibility policies, it is imperative that information about the actual contracting relationship—and not just the formal contract terms—be made available

ADMINISTRATIVE CONVERGENCE AND REFORMS IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPEAN STATES - Analyses, models and comparative studies

The fundamental idea of the current publication emphasizes the characteristics of the processes related to administrative convergence and reform in the South-Eastern European states. Of course the area under review is quite wide and complex and therefore our approach aims to comprise only a few characteristics. Encompassing various geo-political aspects, political heritages enhancing that diversity as well as endemic socio-cultural traditions, the public administrations in the South-Eastern European states have faced a definite option for restoring democracy and accomplishing reforms according to the principles and values of the European Administrative Space, in the past two decades. For the time being other questions emerge and others remain still open. Which is the most adequate model for the administrative reform, which are the most efficient mechanisms and tools triggering its accomplishment and implementation? Lacking a formalized acquis communautaire on the processes related to administrative reform, their diversity has enhanced and the conditions for so called administrative convergence have multiplied. The research reports achieved and presented in the current publication emphasise the progress in implementing the democratic processes of central and local governance which do not lead however to convergence, being definitely relevant for the processes related to administrative dynamics. Various political experiences undergone by the states under review in the second half of the 20th century have induced attitudes and behaviours mainly of subordination and loss of identity of the organizations in national public administrations. That situation persisting in the South-Eastern European space creates difficulties and unbalances in the dialogue and cooperation with the public administrations of Western European states. The state itself is weak, determining a lack of finality for the administrative reforms. The processes of administrative convergence have become more complex and complicate as the EU administration is searching a model and it is attempting to define an identity. The traditional models of administration, based on a hierarchic bureaucracy are overcome and the model of EU administration could not be found by a transfer or enlargement of an administrative model belonging to one or several states. Therefore, we should acknowledge that the processes related to administrative convergence and reform are profoundly integrated in a complex context, with globalizing valences, benefiting of profound mechanisms, enhancing the interdependence and systemic character of the developments of national public administrations. The current volume incorporates contributions of South-Eastern European universities (National School of Political Studies and Public Administration – Romania, New Bulgarian University – Bulgaria, University of the Aegean - Greece or University of Rijeka – Croatia, as well as of international organizations – European Public Law Organization – Greece. In the above briefly described context, the studies reveal both comparative aspects, strategies of administrative reform or significant developments of administrative convergence and conceptual models aimed to contribute to the debates on EU administrative and organizational future or contemporary developments of EU administrative law. The reports were achieved in the framework of Jean Monnet project “South-Eastern European developments on the administrative convergence and enlargement of the European Administrative Space in Balkan states“ and provide an overview close to the realities on specificity of administrative processes in South-Eastern European states.administrative convergence, balkans, public administration reforms, european administrative studies, South-Eastern European States

International ethics and globalization

In the inherently anarchic international system the validity of moral principles is weakening. To overcome anarchy global governance is needed. It means efficient international institutions, but also pressures from the global civil society and the self-regulation of business. Multinational firms have the duty of cooperating in governance systems. They also have the duty of reconciling in their activity the two, equally legitimate claims of universalism and cultural relativism; i.e., applying universal moral principles and respecting local moral norms. Finally, multinationals must be guided by the principle of enhanced responsibility. However, although globalizing efforts are important in overcoming international anarchy and coordinating the protection of global commons, strong arguments support the notion that economic globalization does not promote sustainable development. Some form of localization of the economy is certainly needed. The challenge is to find a way towards more global governance with less economic globalization

Creating European Rights: National Values and Supranational Interests

This Article develops an explanation for the emergence of individual rights before the European Commission, one of the oldest and most powerful international organizations in existence today. I argue that, in the early days of the European Community, rights before the Commission were patterned on the laws and legal traditions of the dominant Member States. Changing political circumstances largely outside the control of the Commission and other European institutions gave rise to a number of discrete, historical challenges to their authority. Most of these challenges came from citizens with allegiances to minority, national constitutional symbols and practices who were determined to retain them in the face of European integration. To preserve and extend their authority, European institutions adopted these constitutional ideals and hence altered the nature of European rights. In developing this explanation, I draw upon a number of theories in political science. One of the longest-running debates over European integration is the balance between sovereign states and supranational institutions in setting the pace of European integration. While some scholars argue that traditional state interests and the balance of power among states are critical, others take supranational institutions--and their interest in expanding their powers and pushing forward integration--as the decisive force behind integration. My review of the origins of rights before the Commission shows that both sets of actors, at different points in time, were agents of rights. More importantly, the empirical analysis brings to light two important constraints on the ability of states and supranational institutions to design European rights to their advantage, often overlooked in the political science literature. The first is history writ large: understandings of fair and democratic government developed within the nation-state and representing the accumulation of experiences, beliefs, and norms over generations. The second is history writ small: episodic, external challenges to the authority of European institutions that serve as the context in which such institutions further their interests. These factors should be taken into account in explaining the rights that define what it is to be a European citizen today