Documentation fraud, Fraudulent bills of lading

This thesis investigates the issue of bill of lading fraud and discusses the impact of electronic bills of lading. The thesis will focus on English common law and international conventions under which the issue of bill of lading frauds will be analysed. In the analytical chapters, the thesis will make a detailed descriptive investigating as to the different kind of bill of lading fraud. Further it will look at impact of the Rotterdam rules in dealing with its provision on handling fraudulent bills of lading. It was argued that electronic bills of lading system were not only created to minimize the problem of late arrival of documents at the port of discharge but also minimizing the risk of fraud. This should foremost be achieved by electronic bills of lading no longer being sent in three or six originals. It is, however, still debatable, due to lack of a reliable e-commerce system, weather this will minimize the incidence of fraud in bills of lading. Moreover, according to some scholars, the occurrence of bills of lading fraud may even increase due to the likelihood of computer mismanagement and where an open network such as the internet is used. In order for traders to turn to an e-commerce system a reliable and trustworthy system is of essential importance. Further there should be a strong co-operation between states to exchange information about cross-border data flow and access evidence. The Rotterdam Rules was created to progress the current regimes and were projected to satisfy the needs of shipping industry in the 21st century. The Rotterdam Regime makes a more comprehensive attempt to further mitigating the occurrence of bill of lading fraud. Foremost, the particulars which are required to be incorporated in the bill of lading are more clarified and precise. Further, it seems that the Rotterdam regime provides a broader security for the carrier who acts in fraud than its former regimes

The relevant market : From an air passenger perspective

This thesis intends to analyze and clarify the relevant market within air passenger transport. Further the thesis intends to investigate if there is any difference in air passenger transport in accordance to more general business. The definition of the relevant market is an essential step in order to establish a breach under European competition law. The relevant market includes the relevant product market and the relevant geographic market. The fundamental issue in the relevant product market is whether products are considered to be substitutable and can constitute the same market. The Commission has set a notice which includes methods and criterias and serves as guidelines to courts and companies to define the relevant market. The notice is however not binding for courts. The CJ have developed implementation of the criterias which it tends to refer to even if it is a different branch, however a case-by-case based definition is needed. The definition of the relevant market is based on three main criterias: demand substitutability, supply substitutability and potential competition. Even though the supply substitutability seems not be implemented in a further extension in more general branches, it seems to be of greater importance when defining the relevant market within air passenger transport. The air passenger transport has also established a test called base of origin and base of destination which includes an analysis of price, travel frequencies, comfort of the journey, transfer time to terminals and differences in the qualities and quantities in airports.  However according to air passenger transport, travel sequences seems to be the criteria that courts focus most on

Sedimentology and geochemistry of surface sediments from the Pagassitikos Gulf

Volos city and its port are situated in the northern part of Pagassitikos Gulf, a shallow, semi-enclosed marine area in central Greece. A wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and pipeline operate in the same area. Muddy sediments with low carbonate contents cover most of the seabed, except for the Volos embayment and the western part of the gulf where sandy carbonates prevail. Bulk organic carbon contents and the organic carbon contents of the clay fractions are high in the vicinity of Volos embayment. High element (Pb, Cu, and Zn) contents and Igeo (geoaccumulation index) values were found for the clay fractions in the northern part of Pagassitikos Gulf. This enrichment is attributed to the discharge of raw domestic and industrial effluents of Volos city and port before the WWTP was installed. The dispersal of pollutants is essentially controlled by diffusion from point sources (city, port and WWTP) and is limited to Volos Bay. Relatively high Mn levels are ascribed to diagenetic formation of manganese carbonates (authigenic phase), whereas Cr and Ni are elevated due to weathering of ultrabasic formations on land