The rise and fall of international administrative arbitration: An inquiry into the commerciality of international arbitration under Egyptian Law

تقدم هذه المقالة فهماً جديداً وموسعاً لتعريف التحكيم الدولي التجاري وتداعياته على القانون الذي يطبق وفقاً لأسس موضوعية، وكذلك على اختصاص المحاكم وسلطتها في مراجعة وتنفيذ قرارات التحكيم الأجنبية. وهذه المشكلة تظهر في الدول ذات الأنظمة القضائية المزدوجة مثل مصر وفرنسا، حيث نجد لديها محاكم عادية ومحاكم إدارية. وفي تلك الدول، تختص المحاكم الإدارية بالنظر في العقود التي تبرمها الدولة باعتبارها شخصاً عاماً يتمتع بسلطات سيادية، مثل العقود الإدارية، في حين يمتد اختصاص المحاكم العادية ليشمل جميع المنازعات التي تنشأ بين أطراف خاصة. وخلافاً للمحاكم العادية، تطبق المحاكم الإدارية القانون العام وُتعلي اعتبارات المصلحة العامة فوق الاعتبارات الخاصة. وينبغي إخضاع القضية للتمييز عندما يتعلق الأمر بالتحكيم، حتى وإن كانت الدولة مشاركة في ما يسمى بالعقد الإداري، لأن التحكيم يعتبر وسيلة خاصة لتسوية المنازعات. وهذا هو السبب في أن المادة 1 من قانون التحكيم المصري الخاص بالمسائل المدنية والتجارية (قانون التحكيم) ُتوسع صراحة نطاق تطبيقه ليشمل ”جميع عمليات التحكيم التي تقع بين أشخاص في القانون العام أو الخاص، مهما كانت طبيعة العلاقة القانونية التي يتمحور حولها النزاع“. وفوق ذلك، تربط المادة 2“ صفة التجارية“ في النزاع بطابعه الاقتصادي، رغم قدرات الأطراف أو طبيعة علاقتهم القانونية سواء كانت تعاقدية أو غير تعاقدية. وعلى الرغم من عدم اليقين الذي ولدته القرارات المتناقضة للمحكمة في عدة سوابق مثل قضية كرومالوي التي يستشهد بها كثيراً، فإن هذه الأحكام تنص بوضوح على أن المشرع يعتزم توسيع نطاق أحكام قانون التحكيم إلى جميع النزاعات ذات الطبيعة الاقتصادية دون تمييز بين النزاعات المدنية والإدارية، شريطة أن ترتبط المسألة بمعاملات دولية. والنتيجة الطبيعية لذلك هي أن أحكام قانون التحكيم هي وحدها التي ينبغي أن تسود في أي تحكيم دولي بشأن علاقة قانونية ذات طبيعة اقتصادية حتى حينما يتعلق الأمر بعقد إداري. ويترتب على ذلك أيضاً أن على هذه المنازعات ٰ ق ب ُط القانون الخاص، أي القوانين المدنية والتجارية، وليس القانون الإداري العام هو ما ينبغي أن ي موضوعية. وهذا يعني منح المحاكم العادية سلطة حصرية لمراجعة ُسس إذا كان القانون المصري يطبق على أ وإنفاذ القرارات التحكيمية الدولية. ويتماشى هذا التفسير المقترح، الذي يناقض فكرة العقود الإدارية في المعاملات الدولية، مع أهداف التحكيم التجاري الدولي باعتباره وسيلة خاصة وتوافقية لتسوية المنازعات بين الأنداد. كما أن تبني مثل هذا النهج يساعد على استعادة ثقة المستثمرين في الحكومة المصرية ويشجع الاستثمارات الأجنبية اللازمة لتعزيز قوة الاقتصاد المصري ما بعد الثورة.This article proposes a new expanded take on the definition of commerciality of international arbitration and its ramifications on the applicable law to the merits, the jurisdiction and authority of courts to review and execute foreign arbitral awards. The problem manifests in states with dual jurisdiction court systems such as Egypt and France, where there are ordinary courts and administrative courts. In such states, administrative courts assume jurisdiction over contracts entered by the state as a public person enjoying sovereign powers, i.e., administrative contracts, whereas ordinary courts’ jurisdiction extends to all disputes arising between private parties. Unlike ordinary courts, administrative courts apply public law and favor public interest considerations over private ones. The case should be distinguished when it comes to arbitration even when the state is involved in a so-called administrative contract, for arbitration is a private means of dispute settlement. This is why article 1 of Egypt's Arbitration Law on Civil and Commercial Matters (Arbitration Law) expressly extends its scope of application to “all arbitration between public or private law persons, whatever the nature of the legal relationship around which the dispute revolves”. Furthermore, article 2 ties the “commerciality” of a dispute to its economic nature notwithstanding the parties’ capacities or the nature of their legal relationship whether contractual or non-contractual. Despite the uncertainty created by Egypt's paradoxical court decisions in several precedents such as the oft-cited Chromalloy case, these provisions imply that the legislator intended to extend the provisions of Arbitration Law to all disputes of economic nature without distinguishing between civil and administrative disputes, providing that the matter relates to international transaction. A corollary is that only the provisions of Arbitration Law should govern any international arbitration over a legal relationship of an economic nature even when it relates to an administrative contract. It also follows that private law, i.e., civil and commercial laws, not public administrative law should apply to such disputes if Egyptian law is applicable to the merits. And this means granting ordinary courts an exclusive authority to review and enforce international arbitral awards. This proposed interpretation, which controverts the idea of administrative contracts in international transactions, is in line with international commercial arbitration objectives as a private and consensual means of settling disputes between equals. Adopting such approach also helps restore investor confidence in the Egyptian government and encourage foreign investments needed to boost Egyptian post-revolutionary economy

Improving the voltage quality of Abu Hummus network in Egypt

In this paper the performance of the electrical network of Egypt is studied by considering a small part on the network (Abu Hummus city). The transmission network of Abu Hummus city was created for 66 kV, 11 kV, and 0.4 kV in the digital simulation and electrical network calculation (DIgSILENT power factory software) to study the voltage profiles. The load flow operational analysis was performed to obtain the voltage magnitudes at every bus bar. The voltage magnitudes in 11 kV and 0.4 kV networks were 10% to 15% less than the nominal value due to overloading off the transmission lines and the voltage magnitudes in 66 kV was within permissible limits. By using automatic tap-changing transformer or Static VAR System, the main idea of this paper is to obtain the voltage profiles at every bus bar to improve the voltage quality of the networks, so as to achieve better voltage profiles on the low voltage side without much effect on high voltage side under various operating conditions

Laparoscopic management of pediatric and adolescent patients with intra-abdominal complications of ventriculoperitoneal shunt

Background/purpose: Ventriculoperitoneal (VP) shunt is the most common operative procedure performed in the treatment of hydrocephalus. The aim of this procedure is to drain CSF from the ventricles to the peritoneal cavity, thus to decrease the intracranial pressure. Numerous complications as a result of this technique are reported in the literature and are most commonly located around the peritoneal end of the shunt tube. The standard approach for management is laparotomy and correction of the complication. This approach, although solves the problem, causes the formation of adhesions, which are also not devoid of consequences. The aim of this study is to present our experience and outline the role of laparoscopy in the management of intraabdominal complications of VP shunt in pediatric and adolescent patients.Patients and Methods: Over a period of 4 years, 14 patients were managed and recruited in this study. All patients were presented with recurrent abdominal signs and symptoms or elevated intracranial pressure. All patients were managed laparoscopically according to the final diagnosis.Results: Fourteen patients (9 men and 5 women) with abdominal complications of VP shunt catheter were managed. Their ages at operation were ranged from 10 months to 15 years. All patients were investigated, diagnosed and managed laporoscopically. The median operative time of the laparoscopic procedure varied according to the diagnosis. It was 120 minutes in pseudocysts, 45 minutes in recurrent congenital inguinal hernias, 100 minutes in adhesive intestinal obstruction and 35 minutes in subcutaneous cyst and 30 minutes in umbilical fistula. Follow up period extended for 24 months after the procedure and all patients had complete resolution of their presenting abdominal or neurological symptoms. The length of the postoperative hospital stay ranged from one day in recurrent congenital hernias up to 4 days in the other procedures. There were no intra- or postoperative complications related to the laparoscopic technique.Conclusion: Laparoscopic is a very useful diagnostic and therapeutic tool in dealing with intra-abdominal complications of VP shunt with high safety and an excellent outcome.Keywords: hydrocephalus, laparoscopic management, ventriculoperitoneal shun

High-power diode lasers with in-situ-structured lateral current blocking for improved threshold, efficiency and brightness

We present high-power GaAs-based broad-area diode lasers with a novel variant of the enhanced self-aligned lateral structure ‘eSAS’, having a strongly reduced lasing threshold and improved peak conversion efficiency and beam quality in comparison to their standard gain-guided counterparts. To realize this new variant (eSAS-V2), a two-step epitaxial growth process involving in situ etching is used to integrate current-blocking layers, optimized for tunnel current suppression, within the p-Al0.8GaAs cladding layer of an extreme-triple-asymmetric epitaxial structure with a thin p-side waveguide. The blocking layers are thus in close proximity to the active zone, resulting in strong suppression of current spreading and lateral carrier accumulation. eSAS-V2 devices with 4 mm resonator length and varying stripe widths are characterized and compared to previous eSAS variant (eSAS-V1) as well as gain-guided reference devices, all having the same dimensions and epitaxial structure. Measurement results show that the new eSAS-V2 variant eliminates an estimated 89% of lateral current spreading, resulting in a strong threshold current reduction of 29% at 90 μm stripe width, while slope and series resistance are broadly unchanged. The novel eSAS-V2 devices also maintain high conversion efficiency up to high continuous-wave optical power, with an exemplary 90 μm device having 51.5% at 20 W. Near-field width is significantly narrowed in both eSAS variants, but eSAS-V2 exhibits a wider far-field angle, consistent with the presence of index guiding. Nonetheless, eSAS-V2 achieves higher beam quality and lateral brightness than gain-guided reference devices, but the index guiding in this realization prevents it from surpassing eSAS-V1. Overall, the different performance benefits of the eSAS approach are clearly demonstrated

The link between market orientation and performance in the Australian public sector

Marketing academics and practitioners assume a direct link between market orientation and performance and argue that this applies to both business and non-business organisations. While this aspect has been studied in the business sector, this paper discusses the concepts of market orientation and performance and investigates this relationship in the Australian public sector. The conceptualization of market orientation used is that by Jaworski and Kohli (1993) on which basis MARKOR was developed. This instrument together with an instrument to measure the perceptions of performance of senior managers in the Australian public sector are used to investigate the hypothesized link. The findings confirm a positive relationship between market orientation and performance. The size and type of public sector organisation involved are also found to affect the levels of market orientation together with its components and performance. From the findings, implication are drawn and directions for future research discussed.peer-reviewe

Controlling Mesenchyme Tissue Remodeling via Spatial Arrangement of Mechanical Constraints

Tissue morphogenetic remodeling plays an important role in tissue repair and homeostasis and is often governed by mechanical stresses. In this study, we integrated an in vitro mesenchymal tissue experimental model with a volumetric contraction-based computational model to investigate how geometrical designs of tissue mechanical constraints affect the tissue remodeling processes. Both experimental data and simulation results verified that the standing posts resisted the bulk contraction of the tissues, leading to tissue thinning around the posts as gap extension and inward remodeling at the edges as tissue compaction. We changed the geometrical designs for the engineered mesenchymal tissues with different shapes of posts arrangements (triangle vs. square), different side lengths (6 mm vs. 8 mm), and insertion of a center post. Both experimental data and simulation results showed similar trends of tissue morphological changes of significant increase of gap extension and deflection compaction with larger tissues. Additionally, insertion of center post changed the mechanical stress distribution within the tissues and stabilized the tissue remodeling. This experimental-computational integrated model can be considered as a promising initiative for future mechanistic understanding of the relationship between mechanical design and tissue remodeling, which could possibly provide design rationale for tissue stability and manufacturing

Advancements in tetronic acid chemistry. Part 1: Synthesis and reactions

AbstractThe preparation and the properties of the elusive tetronic acid are reviewed, including its synthesis, chemical reactivity and reactions

Low-index quantum-barrier single-pass tapered semiconductor optical amplifiers for efficient coherent beam combining

The requirements for coherent combination of high power GaAs-based single-pass tapered amplifiers are studied. Changes to the epitaxial layer structure are shown to bring higher beam quality and hence improved combining efficiency for one fixed device geometry. Specifically, structures with large vertical near field and low wave-guiding from the active region show 10% higher beam quality and coherent combining efficiency than reference devices. As a result, coherent combining efficiency is shown to be limited by beam quality, being directly proportional to the power content in the central lobe across a wide range of devices with different construction. In contrast, changes to the in-plane structure did not improve beam quality or combining efficiency. Although poor beam quality does correlate with increased optical intensities near the input aperture, locating monolithically-integrated absorption regions in these areas did not lead to any performance improvement. However, large area devices with subsequently improved cooling do achieve higher output powers. Phase noise can limit coherent combining, but this is shown to be small and independent of device design. Overall, tapered amplifiers are well suited for high power coherent combining applications. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd

Copy number variation and expression of exportin-4 associates with severity of fibrosis in metabolic associated fatty liver disease

Background: Liver fibrosis risk is a heritable trait, the outcome of which is the net deposition of extracellular matrix by hepatic stellate cell-derived myofibroblasts. Whereas nucleotide sequence variations have been extensively studied in liver fibrosis, the role of copy number variations (CNV) in which genes exist in abnormal numbers of copies (mostly due to duplication or deletion) has had limited exploration. Methods: The impact of the XPO4 CNV on histological liver damage was examined in a cohort comprised 646 Caucasian patients with biopsy-proven MAFLD and 170 healthy controls. XPO4 expression was modulated and function was examined in human and animal models. Findings: Here we demonstrate in a cohort of 816 subjects, 646 with biopsy-proven metabolic associated liver disease (MAFLD) and 170 controls, that duplication in the exportin 4 (XPO4) CNV is associated with the severity of liver fibrosis. Functionally, this occurs via reduced expression of hepatic XPO4 that maintains sustained activation of SMAD3/SMAD4 and promotes TGF-β1-mediated HSC activation and fibrosis. This effect was mediated through termination of nuclear SMAD3 signalling. XPO4 demonstrated preferential binding to SMAD3 compared to other SMADs and led to reduced SMAD3-mediated responses as shown by attenuation of TGFβ1 induced SMAD transcriptional activity, reductions in the recruitment of SMAD3 to target gene promoters following TGF-β1, as well as attenuation of SMAD3 phosphorylation and disturbed SMAD3/SMAD4 complex formation. Interpretation: We conclude that a CNV in XPO4 is a critical mediator of fibrosis severity and can be exploited as a therapeutic target for liver fibrosis. Funding: ME and JG are supported by the Robert W. Storr Bequest to the Sydney Medical Foundation, University of Sydney; a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Program Grant (APP1053206) and Project and ideas grants (APP2001692, APP1107178 and APP1108422). AB is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship. EB is supported by Horizon 2020 under grant 634413 for the project EPoS