Treatment of International Human Rights Violations in the United States

In our day and age, the violation of human rights has become a matter of international concern. This article is focused on the sharing of those concerns by the United States, in particular as manifested by the treatment of human rights violations in the United States. Following introductory observations in Part I highlighting the special commitment of the United States to the protection of international human rights, the article will show, in Part II thereof, that in virtue of Article 6, Clause [2] of the American Constitution (the Supremacy Clause), human rights conventions are in principle self-executing in the United States.1 However, the United States invariably adds a reservation to its instruments of ratification of such conventions proclaiming that they will not be self-executing in the United States. Incorporating the provisions of human rights conventions ratified by the United States into the country’s municipal legal system therefore requires Congressional implementation legislation, which will be exemplified in Part III with reference to the Torture Convention Implementation Act of 1994. Part IV of the article is devoted to the exercise of universal jurisdiction by federal courts, in virtue of Article 1, Section (8), Clause [10] of the Constitution, to bring to justice those responsible for piracies and felonies on the High Seas and offences against the law of nations.2 In the United States, universal jurisdiction of federal courts is not confined to criminal prosecutions but has also been extended by the Alien Tort Statute to civil actions by foreign victims of a tort that constitutes a violation of the law of nations or of a treaty entered into by the United States.3 The treatment of human rights violations under the Alien Tort Statute and similar legislation is the subject-matter of Part V of this article. Some concluding observations to evaluate the above manifestations of the American commitment to human rights, notably in view of considerations based on the national interests of the United States and a perception of American exceptionalism, will bring the article to a close in Part VI thereof.http://dflsc.law.duke.edu/am201

Higher education course content: paper-based, online or hybrid course delivery?

[Abstract]: The emergence of the Internet has made many institutions involved in the delivery of distance education programs re-evaluate the course delivery framework. A variety of models and techniques co-exist in an often uneasy alliance at many such institutions. These range from the traditional distance learning model, which remains paper-based, to the purely online model. Recently, hybrid models have emerged which apparently attempt to forge elements taken from several models into a unified whole. Many of these hybrid models seek to eliminate paper-based materials from the tuition process. While many arguments are put forward about the efficacy of purely electronic delivery mechanisms, cost containment is often the driving motivation. This study explores student perceptions of the various delivery mechanisms for distance learning materials. In particular, it seeks to determine what value students place on paper-based delivery mechanisms. The study surveys a group of undergraduate students and a group of graduate students enrolled in the Faculty of Business at a large regional Australian university

Optimization of constant power control of wind turbines to provide power reserves

In several countries, the wind power penetration increased tremendously in the last years. As the current wind turbines do not participate in frequency control nor reserve provision, this may compromise the proper functioning of the primary control and the provision of power reserves. If no actions are taken, increasing levels of wind penetration may result in serious problems concerning the stable operation of the power system. This paper focuses on the provision of power reserves by wind turbines. For this service, the constant power control strategy is chosen as control strategy, as it gives a constant power output and has the ability to provide power reserves. In this way, the wind turbine behaves more like a conventional power plant. The choice of the power reference value is crucial as it determines whether or not a stable operation of the wind turbine is possible and power reserves can be provided. In this paper, an algorithm is proposed to obtain the range of possible reference values. By means of simulations, the optimal reference value to provide power reserves with a single wind turbine is obtained. Also, reserve provision in a wind farm is investigated. It is shown that the provision of power reserves with wind turbines using the constant power strategy is possible, especially in wind farms

Contribution of a smart transformer in the local primary control of a microgrid

In order to enable an easy participation of microgrids in the electricity markets, the smart transformer (ST) concept has been developed. The ST controls the power exchange between a microgrid and the utility network by only controlling its microgrid side voltage, instead of the conventional arrangement where new set points are communicated to all microgrid elements. When the voltage-based droop (VBD) control is implemented in the DG units, loads and storage elements, all microgrid units automatically respond to this change of microgrid voltage by altering their power output or consumption. However, this reference value of power exchange is dependent on (day-ahead) predictions of both consumption and (renewable) power generation. Hence, when these predictions prove to be inaccurate, the ST will still control the power exchange, but with consequently large variations of the microgrid voltage from its nominal value. It is suggested to take the real-time microgrid voltage into account when determining the reference power of the ST. This is presented in this paper by extending the ST's control strategy with a VBD control, such that the ST can contribute in the primary control. Simulations are included to analyze this primary control of the ST combined with VBD control of the other microgrid elements