A Comparison Between Shale Gas in China and Unconventional Fuel Development in the United States: Water, Environmental Protection, and Sustainable Development

China is believed to have the world\u27s largest exploitable reserves of shale gas, although several legal, regulatory, environmental, and investment-related issues will likely restrain its exploitation. China\u27s capacity to face these hurdles successfully and produce commercial shale gas will have a crucial impact on the regional gas market and on China’s energy mix, as Beijing strives to decrease reliance on imported oil and coal, and, at the same time, tries to meet growing energy demand and maintain a certain level of resource autonomy. The development of the unconventional natural gas extractive industry will also provide China with further negotiating power to obtain more advantageously priced gas. This article, which adopts a comparative perspective, underlines the trends taken from unconventional fuel development in the United States, emphasizing their potential application to China in light of recently signed production-sharing agreements between qualified foreign investors and China. The wide range of regulatory and enforcement problems in this matter are increased by an extremely limited liberalization of gas prices, lack of technological development, and barriers to market access curbing access to resource extraction for private investors. This article analyzes the legal tools that can play a role in shale gas development while assessing the new legal and fiscal policies that should be crafted or reinforced. It also examines the institutional settings’ fragmentation and conflicts, highlighting how processes and outcomes are indeed path dependent. Moreover, the possibilities of cooperation and coordination (including through U.S.-China common initiatives), and the role of transparency and disclosure of environmental data are assessed. These issues are exacerbated by concerns related to the risk of water pollution deriving from mismanaged drilling and fracturing, absence of adequate predictive evaluation regulatory instruments and industry standards: this entails consequences for social stability and environmental degradation which are inconsistent with the purposes of sustainable development

Conflict Between Intellectual Property Rights and Human Rights: A Case Study on Intangible Cultural Heritage

54 pagesThe ability to protect and safeguard cultural heritage is of vital importance to some communities. Without the ability to maintain control over these expressions, external subjects could freely appropriate them, which could negatively affect the community’s identity, spirituality, and general well-being. Increasing awareness regarding cultural heritage provides momentum to better define a legal framework for the protection of the intangible goods that constitute cultural heritage. It is fundamental to ascertain whether the current intellectual property right (IPR) regime represents an adequate model of protection vis-à-vis intangible cultural heritage (ICH). The culture’s unique concerns, which variably affect ICH, make it difficult to compare the rationales for these two legal domains. These concerns are pivotal in elaborating the need for legal protection

REGULATION OF STANDARDS IN TECHNOLOGY MARKETS: TRACING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN COMPETITION LAW AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE

The implications of standardization cannot be overstated: today, the global economy relies heavily on technical standards because they foster technology diffusion and economic growth. Yet little is known about their implications for global competition policy, innovation and trade. This absence in legal analysis is particularly critical in the context of disruptive technological advancements featured in information and communication technology and other innovation-intensive sectors, characterized by strong network effects, inter-operability and compatibility of consumer products and processes. In this respect, standards are constitutive of development and pivotal market enablers, as they represent a decisive instrument for gauging and capitalizing on technological advances. Nevertheless, technical standards can also serve the strategic interests of incumbents, which derive notable benefits from having their patented technologies selected as part of the standard. The concern is mainly due to the need to ensure that market power exerted by holding patents which are deemed essential to the implementation of technical standards – i.e. standard-essential patents – is not abused, hampering effective competition. However, the competition law outlook is only one side of the problem. To the extent that dissimilarities in laws and public policies concerning standardization pose significant hindrances for cross-border trade, this has pressed latecomers in the international economy to call for more penetrating government intervention, supporting the development and adoption of competing homegrown complementary standards as a source of economic catch-up, which, in return, could gain ground as a novel type of substantial, protectionist, non-tariff barrier to trade. My study adopts the following methodological approach: it addresses the international dimension of tension between IP rights in standards and competition law, investigating the role of international trade law – and the WTO in particular – (a) in enabling a status quo advantageous to incumbent IP holders in deterring new entrants and reaping monopoly rents, and (b) in addressing latecomers’ efforts to create new technical barriers to trade. An enlightening example is China’s standardization policy: Beijing’s authorities are inclined to rely on standards as a public policy regulatory tool for a variety of purposes, including promoting indigenous’ industries. My purpose is to develop a conceptual framework for addressing international competition and trade issues raised by standardization in innovation markets, with an emphasis on practical, policy-oriented research. Building on comparative, science and technology literature and theories of government regulation, I am interested in how diverging regulatory philosophies – especially in late-comer economies such as China – affect innovation. Drawing from different models of government intervention, my study investigates the advisability of establishing a coherent global competition framework integrated within international economic law so as to prevent global market distortions and foster welfare-enhancing trading policies to be deployed in the consumer – and public – interest

A Comparison Between Shale Gas in China and Unconventional Fuel Development in the United States: Water, Environmental Protection, and Sustainable Development

China is believed to have the world\u27s largest exploitable reserves of shale gas, although several legal, regulatory, environmental, and investment-related issues will likely restrain its exploitation. China\u27s capacity to face these hurdles successfully and produce commercial shale gas will have a crucial impact on the regional gas market and on China’s energy mix, as Beijing strives to decrease reliance on imported oil and coal, and, at the same time, tries to meet growing energy demand and maintain a certain level of resource autonomy. The development of the unconventional natural gas extractive industry will also provide China with further negotiating power to obtain more advantageously priced gas. This article, which adopts a comparative perspective, underlines the trends taken from unconventional fuel development in the United States, emphasizing their potential application to China in light of recently signed production-sharing agreements between qualified foreign investors and China. The wide range of regulatory and enforcement problems in this matter are increased by an extremely limited liberalization of gas prices, lack of technological development, and barriers to market access curbing access to resource extraction for private investors. This article analyzes the legal tools that can play a role in shale gas development while assessing the new legal and fiscal policies that should be crafted or reinforced. It also examines the institutional settings’ fragmentation and conflicts, highlighting how processes and outcomes are indeed path dependent. Moreover, the possibilities of cooperation and coordination (including through U.S.-China common initiatives), and the role of transparency and disclosure of environmental data are assessed. These issues are exacerbated by concerns related to the risk of water pollution deriving from mismanaged drilling and fracturing, absence of adequate predictive evaluation regulatory instruments and industry standards: this entails consequences for social stability and environmental degradation which are inconsistent with the purposes of sustainable development

A Comparison Between Shale Gas in China and Unconventional Fuel Development in the United States: Health, Water and Environmental Risks

China is appraised to have the world's largest exploitable reserves of shale gas, although several legal, regulatory, environmental and investment-related issues will likely restrain its scope. China's capacity to successfully face these hurdles and produce commercial shale gas will have a crucial impact on the regional gas market and on China’s energy mix, as Beijing strives to decrease reliance on imported oil and coal, while attempting to meet growing energy demand and maintain a certain level of resource autonomy. The development of the unconventional natural gas extractive industry will also endow China with further negotiating power to obtain more advantageous prices from Russia and future liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers. This paper, adopting a comparative perspective, underlines the trends learned from unconventional fuel development in the United States, emphasizing their potential application to the Chinese context in light of recently signed production-sharing contracts between qualified foreign investors and China. The wide range of regulatory and enforcement problems in this matter are accrued by an extremely limited liberalization of gas prices, lack of technological development, and political hurdles curbing the opening of resource extraction to private investors. These issues are exacerbated by concerns related to the risk of water pollution deriving from mismanaged drilling and fracturing, absence of adequate regulation framework and industry standards, entailing consequences on social stability and environmental degradation

Following the fate of microplastic in four abiotic and biotic matrices along the Ticino River (North Italy)

: Microplastics (MPs) are emerging contaminants in freshwater systems that have already attracted much scientific interest, but little attention has been paid to a multi-matrix analysis of MP occurrences along the length of a river. The present research provides the first record of MP contamination of four abiotic and biotic matrices from a river ecosystem simultaneously analysed. MPs were isolated and identified by micro-Fourier Transform Infrared (μ-FTIR) spectroscopy from samples collected along the Ticino River in North Italy during spring 2019. Abiotic samples were surface water (n = 18, 33 MPs m-3) and sediment (n = 18, 11 MPs kg-1), while biological samples consisted of stomach and gut content of fish (n = 18, wels catfish, Silurus glanis, 0.032 MPs g-1) and macroinvertebrates (n = 90, caddisfly larvae, Hydropsychidae, 0.03 MPs mg-1). MPs were found in biota from all stations; 44% of fish and 61% of macroinvertebrate samples contained MPs. The calculated unit-consistent concentration ratios indicate that both S. glanis and Hydropsychidae larvae had a consistent higher amount of MPs than their respective medium (sediment and water), strongly suggesting an efficient uptake pathway into organisms. MP levels in surface water, sediment, fish and macroinvertebrates were not correlated and did not increase with the river's length. From our mass balance calculations, the Ticino River transports a consistent amount of MP (yearly load of 3.40 × 1011 ± 1.1 × 1011 MPs) to the Po River. This MP load was almost half than an estimated MP load from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). On that basis and supported by the finding that MP concentration in sediment was mostly opposed to that in surface water but was on average 750-fold higher compared to the water matrix, we surmise that the complex hydrological network of the Ticino River retains a consistent amount of MPs which might build up over time

Pancreas

With the aid of an extensive series of high-quality images, this atlas describes all the potential applications of elastosonography in routine clinical practice. After a brief introduction on technical and physical aspects, the diagnostic benefits of elastosonography in a range of settings are illustrated with the aid of numerous representative cases. The coverage encompasses pathologies of the liver, spleen, pancreas, kidney, breast, thyroid, testis, musculoskeletal system, and vascular system. In addition, helpful correlations with imaging appearances on ultrasound and computed tomography are included. Elastosonography is a powerful, relatively new diagnostic technique that assesses the elasticity of tissues as an indicator of malignancy. Readers will find this book to be an excellent aid to use and interpretation of the technique