Prevention of Pollution of the Marine Environment from Vessels : The Potential and Limits of the International Maritime Organisation

--Critically discusses the role of International Maritime Organization (IMO) in the protection of the marine environment --Presents a clear, updated, concise and critical overview of the IMO marine environmental legal instruments --A fresh outlook on the north-south tensions in the IMO marine environmental discourses --Critically examines the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities in the context of IMO This book examines the role of The International Maritime Organization (IMO) in the prevention and control of pollution of the marine environment from vessels with a particular reference to the current north-south tensions regarding the strategy for combating climate change in the maritime sector as well as the prevention of marine pollution from the ship-breaking industry. The IMO, a United Nations specialized agency, has been entrusted with the duty to provide machinery for cooperation among governments for the prevention and control of pollution of the marine environment from vessels. The organization is responsible for drafting legal instruments as well as for facilitating technical cooperation for the protection of the marine environment. Although IMO legal instruments are mainly targeted at the prevention of pollution of the marine environment from vessels, there is a trend towards a liberal interpretation of this, and the organization has expanded its work to areas like shipbreaking, which is essentially a land-based industry.

Graduated driver licensing : an international review

Graduated driver licensing (GDL) aims to gradually increase the exposure of new drivers to more complex driving situations and typically consists of learner, provisional and open licence phases. The first phase, the learner licence, is designed to allow novice drivers to obtain practical driving experience in lower risk situations. The learner licence can delay licensure, encourage novice drivers to learn under supervision, mandate the number of hours of practice required to progress to the next phase and encourage parental involvement. The second phase, the provisional licence, establishes various driving restrictions and thereby reduces exposure to situations of higher risk, such as driving at night, with passengers or after drinking alcohol. Parental involvement with a GDL system appears essential in helping novices obtain sufficient practice and in enforcing compliance with restrictions once the new driver obtains a provisional licence. Given the significant number of young drivers involved in crashes within Oman, GDL is one countermeasure that may be beneficial in reducing crash risk and involvement for this group.

Advances in the science of objective physical activity monitoring : 3rd International Conference on Ambulatory Monitoring of Physical Activity and Movement

Editorial: This theme issue of BJSM presents key papers from the 3rd International Conference on Ambulatory Monitoring of Physical Activity and Movement (ICAMPAM). The July 2013 conference was hosted by the University of Massachusetts and was attended by researchers, clinicians, students and technology vendors for North America, Europe, Australasia and Asia...

An Australian perspective on the ALI-III global principles for cooperation in International insolvency cases

In 2012, Professor Ian Fletcher (United Kingdom) and Professor Bob Wessels (The Netherlands) presented a Report to the American Law Institute and the International Insolvency Institute entitled Transnational Insolvency: Global Principles for Cooperation in International Insolvency Cases (“Global Principles”). This followed their appointment as Joint Reporters to investigate whether the essential provisions of the American Law Institute Principles of Cooperation among the North American Free Trade Agreement Countries with their annexed Guidelines Applicable to Court-to-Court Communication in Cross-border Cases may, with certain necessary modifications, be acceptable for use by jurisdictions across the world. This article comments on the Global Principles from the perspective of a jurisdiction which has adopted the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-border Insolvency (“Model Law”). In 2008, Australia enacted a standalone statute, the Cross-border Insolvency Act 2008 (Cth) to which is annexed the Model Law. In that process, it made minimal changes to the Model Law text. Against the background of the 2008 Act, related procedural laws as well as Australia’s general insolvency statutes and recent cross-border insolvency jurisprudence, this article comments on the potential relevance of the Transnational Insolvency Report as a point of reference for Australian courts and insolvency administrators when addressing international insolvency cases. By comparing the Global Principles with the Model Law as closely adopted in Australia, this analysis is a resource for other Model Law jurisdictions when considering the potential relevance of the Global Principles for their own international insolvency practice.

Developments in court to court communications in International insolvency cases

As business increasingly operates on a global basis, courts are called upon more often to adjudicate insolvency cases with international connections. The financial collapse of Lehman Brothers Holding Inc (‘Lehman Holdings’) provides a recent example where courts across many jurisdictions were called upon to determine issues arising from a multistate insolvent enterprise. Lehman Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States on 15 September 2008. Lehman Brothers was the fourth largest investment bank in America and the largest company ever to file for bankruptcy in the United States. However the effects of its collapse were felt worldwide, including within Australia.

University life and Australian homes : three case studies of international Muslim students in Brisbane

Despite a significant increase in enrolments of postgraduate international Muslim students within Australian universities, little is known about their perceptions of life within Australian homes while undertaking their studies. The aim of this study is to investigate the ways in which students’ cultural and religious traditions affect their use of domestic spaces within the homes in which they reside. The research found that participants faced some minor difficulties in achieving privacy, maintaining modesty and extending hospitality while able to perform their daily activities in Australian designed homes. The findings suggest that greater research attention needs to be given to the development of Australian home designs that are adaptable to the needs of a multicultural society. Australian society encompasses diverse cultural customs and requirements with respect to home design, and these are yet to be explored.

Conference report : ‘For the Socially Responsible University’. Reflections on Universidad 2014, the 9th International Higher Education congress in Havana, Cuba, February 2014

This article describes salient aspects of 'Universidad', the 9th International Higher Education conference held in Havana, Cuba, in February 2014. Addressing the conference theme, 'For the Socially Responsible University', participants debated the university's capacity to lead societies in matters of knowledge creation and diffusion, and discussed how it could help governments in the quest for solutions to inequality and exclusion. A particularly interesting panel was one that discussed the social commitment of Hugo Chavez, the late president of Venezuela, and his work to support the expansion of education.

Keeping international visitors safe on Australian beaches : informing the content of surf safety messages

In Australia, international tourists/visitors are one of the highest risk groups for drowning at beaches. Swimming in patrolled areas, between the flags, reduces the risk of drowning with most drownings occuring outside these areas. There is a need to understand beliefs which influence the extent to which international tourists/visitors intend to swim between the flags. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and, in particular, the indirect beliefs which underpin constructs in the model, represent a means of determining what factors influence this intention. The current study compared international visitors/tourists as having either low or high intentions to swim between the flags on a range of behavioural, normative, and control beliefs. A series of MANOVAs revealed significant differences between the groups in all three of the beliefs. The findings provide insight into potential foci for message content for use in educational campaigns aimed at keeping international visitors safe on Australian beaches.

Developing an international survey of bicycle and helmet usage

The European Union‐funded collaborative network, COST Action TU1101: Towards safer bicycling through optimization of bicycle helmets and usage, aims to increase scientific knowledge about bicycle helmets in regards to traffic safety and to disseminate this knowledge to stakeholders, including cyclists, legislators, manufacturers, and the scientific community. The COST research team has developed a uniform international survey to better understand attitudinal and other factors that may influence bicycle and helmet usage, as well as crash risk. The online survey is being distributed by project partners in Europe, Israel, Australia, and potentially the US and Canada. The survey contains four types of questions: (1) biographical data, (2) frequency of cycling and amount of cycling for different purposes (e.g., commuting, health, recreation) and in different environments (e.g., bicycle trails, bike lanes, on sidewalks, in traffic), (3) frequency and circumstances for use and non‐use of helmets, attitudes and reasons for it, and; (4) crash involvement and level of reporting to the police. While the potential value of comparative data across countries with very different cycling cultures and safety levels is substantial, there are numerous challenges in developing, conducting, and analyzing the results of the survey. This presentation will focus on the scope of the international study, methodological issues and pitfalls of such a collaborative effort, and on initial results from one country (Israel). To illustrate, two findings from the preliminary Israeli survey indicate that: (1) none of the crashes were reported to the police including the ones involving hospital admission. Although underreporting of bicycle crashes by police is well documented in all countries the extent is unknown, and can be extreme. (2) Older riders tend to ride more for health/exercise reasons, while younger riders tend to ride more for commuting. Thus there is an interaction between riders’ age and the place and times of riding.

Festival focus : Brisbane International Film Festival

In 2012, the Brisbane International Film Festival officially came of age, celebrating its twenty-first birthday. The festival has emerged from a tumultuous adolescence and redefined its position on the Australian festival circuit as an advocate of locally made films and documentary filmmaking in particular. Brisbane’s International Film Festival opened in 1992 and has since been attended by more than 400,000 filmgoers. The festival is held annually and showcases a diverse range of feature films, documentaries, short films, animation and experimental work, children’s films and retrospectives.

The desirability of depoliticization: Compliance in the international climate regime

The Kyoto Protocol is remarkable among global multilateral environmental agreements for its efforts to depoliticize compliance. However, attempts to create autonomous, arm’s length and rule-based compliance processes with extensive reliance on putatively neutral experts were only partially realized in practice in the first commitment period from 2008 to 2012. In particular, the procedurally constrained facilitative powers vested in the Facilitative Branch were circumvented, and expert review teams (ERTs) assumed pivotal roles in compliance facilitation. The ad hoc diplomatic and facilitative practices engaged in by these small teams of technical experts raise questions about the reliability and consistency of the compliance process. For the future operation of the Kyoto compliance system, it is suggested that ERTs should be confined to more technical and procedural roles, in line with their expertise. There would then be greater scope for the Facilitative Branch to assume a more comprehensive facilitative role, safeguarded by due process guarantees, in accordance with its mandate. However, if – as appears likely – the future compliance trajectories under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will include a significant role for ERTs without oversight by the Compliance Committee, it is important to develop appropriate procedural safeguards that reflect and shape the various technical and political roles these teams currently play.

Foreign-currency and monetary geopolitics of United States and its effects on the future of the international system

The US dollar is still considered as the main strategic deposit among the currencies of different countries of the world and the policies of the World Bank and the International Financial Organizations have been and will always be influenced by the US economy. Despite the economic crises and commercial balance deficits in the United States, dollar has maintained its high position in and its domination over foreign exchanges and foreign-currency deposits of the countries. The novelty of the present research relies on its consideration of the political properties of the governments and the geopolitical effects of these countries on the position of their monetary and foreign-currency policies and consequently, on the international financial organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which can determine the future of international economy and the political relations among countries. Our research proves that the political development of the United States and its geopolitical situation have been of the effective factors on dollar growth; and unless the competitors acquire such a relative advantage, they will not be able to seriously challenge the currency of dollar and the monetary policies of the United States, at least in a short time

The impact of Internet marketing capabilities on international network capability, a cross country study comparison between Australia, Chile and Taiwan internationalised SMEs

The Internet has been shown to positively enhance internationalisation for SMEs, but scant empirical testing limits our understanding of the explicit impact of the Internet on firm internationalisation. This paper highlights key areas where the integration of the Internet can be leveraged through Internet-related capabilities within the internationalisation of the firm. Specifically, this study investigates how Internet marketing capabilities play a role in altering international information availability, international strategic orientation, and international business network relationships. This study provides evidence, indicating that these key relationships may vary between countries. To examine these key relationships this study utilises draws from data small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in three export intensive markets; Australia (215 international SMEs), Chile (204 international SMEs) and Taiwan (130 international SMEs); and tests a conceptual model through structural equation modelling. Results from the data show the impact of Internet marketing capabilities in positively impacting traditional internationalisation elements, which varies between countries. That is, our findings highlight the international business network relationships in Australia and Taiwan are directly impacted by Internet marketing capabilities, but not in Chile. We offer some insight into why we see variance across comparative exporting countries in how they leverage new technological capabilities for internationalisation and firm performance.