Singapore Convention Presents an Opportunity for Georgia in Mediation

On Dec. 20, 2018, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Singapore Convention. The Singapore Convention ensures that a mediation settlement reached by parties will be binding and enforceable in accordance with a streamlined procedure. The convention will compel contracting states to recognize international mediation settlement agreements in commercial disputes. On Aug. 7, the opening day of the convention, a record 46 nations signed the Singapore Convention on Mediation, including the United States. The Singapore Convention presents a unique opportunity for Georgia to become a forum for hospitable mediation. Much like it adopted an international arbitration code, the state could consider enacting an international mediation law tied to the provisions of the Singapore Convention. Such legislation could enhance Georgia’s appeal as a mediation forum and build upon its reputation as a jurisdiction hospitable to business, including the resolution of business disputes

Seismology: neotectonics and structure of the Baltic Shield

Recent Danish seismological projects involving neotectonic investigations and structural studies have determined the edge of the Baltic Shield underlying Denmark. The most active earthquake zones in Denmark are located in northwestern Jylland and adjoining offshore areas, and in the region around Kattegat, Øresund and north-east Sjælland (Fig. 1). This pattern was originally recognised by Lehmann (1956) and has been confirmed by several later studies, e.g. Gregersen et al. (1998). Recent, more detailed investigations have documented that changes in the pattern of earthquake activity have occurred within a short time span. The most pronounced example of change – possibly related to exploitation of hydrocarbons – is an activity recorded in the Central Graben area of the North Sea that was first documented by Gregersen et al. (1998). The south-western margin of the Precambrian Baltic Shield separates areas of different earthquake activity (Fig. 1; Gregersen et al. 1991). Although lithospheric stresses are more or less uniform in northern Europe, there are pronounced differences in the behaviour of the lithosphere across Denmark. The north-eastern area underlain by the Baltic Shield experiences brittle failure as recorded by common earthquakes, whereas earthquakes are virtually absent in the region southwest of the shield (Fig. 1). The margin of the Baltic Shield as defined by earthquake activity is not identical with that distinguished structurally in sedimentary studies (EUGENO-S Working Group 1988; Vejbæk & Britze 1994), in crustal studies (Abramovitz & Thybo 2000), or by recent studies of the structure of the subcrustal lithosphere (Gregersen et al. 2002; Shomali et al. 2002). The physical edge of the Baltic Shield cannot be uniquely determined on the basis of seismological studies. The earthquakes recorded, although of low magnitude, do give information about the released stresses. The earthquakes seem to be a response to a dominant NW–SE compression, also apparent elsewhere in Scandinavia and northern Europe (Slunga et al. 1984; Slunga 1989; Gregersen 1992; Müller et al. 1992). These stresses are part of the large-scale stress systems associated with continued plate motion pattern (Gregersen & Basham 1989; Zoback et al. 1989). In contrast to present low-magnitude earthquakes, postglacial sediments in northern Scandinavia have preserved features interpreted as caused by earthquakes of magnitudes around 7; these major, c. 9000 years old earthquakes are believed to be related to the post-glacial uplift of Scandinavia (e.g. Arvidsson et al. 1991; Gregersen 2002). Earthquakes are always related to fault activity, but attempts to link recent earthquakes occurring in and around Denmark to geologically known faults have only been partly successful (Gregersen et al. 1996). The most significant fault zone in Denmark, the Sorgenfrei–Tornquist Zone, is only locally active. Recent geodetic and seismic investigations demonstrate that the two sides of the Sorgenfrei–Tornquist Zone are characterised by different patterns of deformation, but the zone itself is not defined by a present-day seismicity trend crossing the central parts of Denmark (Fig. 1)

European Decision Could Have Killed Investment Treaties, Affecting Arbitration and Investments

A dramatic upheaval in investor-state arbitration last year recently led to the apparent demise of investment treaties throughout Europe and could have broad implications for both international arbitration and foreign investments in the European Union. In May 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union found in Achmea v. Slovak Republic that the bilateral investment treaty between the Netherlands and the Slovak Republic (a so-called intra-EU BIT) contained an arbitration clause that was incompatible with European law

Lawyers Should Keep Their Eyes on Cuba Sanctions Cases

A dramatic change in the executive branch position on Cuban sanctions recently led to a wave of litigation in the federal courts and could have broad implications for entities that conduct business in or with Cuba. In April, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Title III of the Helms-Burton Act would no longer be suspended, thereby allowing U.S. nationals to file lawsuits against any individual or entity that “traffics” in property expropriated by the Cuban government

Recent developments in Vorton Theory

This article provides a concise overview of recent theoretical results concerning the theory of vortons, which are defined to be (centrifugally supported) equilibrium configurations of (current carrying) cosmic string loops. Following a presentation of the results of work on the dynamical evolution of small circular string loops, whose minimum energy states are the simplest examples of vortons, recent order of magnitude estimates of the cosmological density of vortons produced in various kinds of theoretical scenario are briefly summarised.Comment: 6 pages Latex. Contribution to 1996 Cosmology Meeting, Peyresq, Franc

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty – a peace-keeping initiative with scientific impact

Any major shaking of the Earth can be recorded on a seismograph regardless of the nature of the source. Earthquakes and large explosions generate waves with similar frequency content. This fact has been used for decades to construct systems to monitor detonations of underground nuclear explosions. The quality of the monitoring system has increased significantly in recent years, and we demonstrate here that the data are useful in Danish earthquake research