Veto of R287, H.5270

This veto message from Governor Nikki Haley vetoes a bill that would allow the state to collect dues for the Society of Former Agents of the State Law Enforcement Division because the government should not serve as a dues collector for private organizations.

Summary of pending common pleas cases by circuit/county for date 5/31/2016

This report gives a summary of common pleas cases broken down by county and circuit.

Legal consideration on Convention for the Prevention of Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (at sea) and assessment of its implementation in Iran (The London [dumping] Convention)

Making use of sea, as a place for dumping of wastes and other materials from human activities wasn’t forbidden before creation of the convention on the prevention of marine pollution by dumping of wastes and other matters (London Convention). Therefore, industrial countries, without any specific consideration, were dumping their wastes into the world’s seas. Many years and before the beginning of rapid development of industry, the great self- purification of seas were preventing some of discharging problems. But gradually, the increase of industrial development activities, exceeded the production of wastes and other matters, and this led to the misuse of world’s seas and oceans as a dump site. One of the most important consequences of 1972 Stockholm World Conference was to focusing world attention on threats have jeopardized marine environment balance. World countries` leaders committed in Stockholm to begin protecting the environment. Finally, this movement at marine environment section led to the creation of London Convention in the same year. London Convention was concluded for cooperating between countries at December 29, 1972 to promote effective control of all marine environment polluting resources and to prevent marine pollution by dumping wastes and other matters. Then it was opened for signature to other countries. At last, after 15 states signature, this convention was entered in to force at August 30.1975. Ratification and execution of London Convention resulted in coordinated performance of countries in marine waste management. Common actions with supports and cooperation of different international, regional, governmental and non-governmental organizations and agencies prevent marine pollution by dumping of wastes and other matters. Due to the importance of wastes in our marine and coastal areas, investigation of the performance of London Convention can identify the lack of regulations and lack of regulation supports about marine pollution prevention by dumping of wastes and other matters in Iran. Considering this issue, proper protection of seas will be achieved. London Convention has been studied here to achieve intended purposes. In first chapter, generalities about marine environment, including the importance and necessity of marine environment protection, with the focus on some internal and international resources of environmental law accompanying with marine pollution and its recourses, and finally, due to the study theme, dumping of wastes and other matters at seas with its impacts have been investigated .In the section of international measures, a brief history of marine pollution and marine environment international law with international law framework, exclusively for controlling of wastes and other material discharge at seas and oceans has been reviewed. In second chapter, obligations, amendments, and annexes of London Convention have been investigated and classified. The obligations have been categorized in to legal obligations and technical and organizational obligations. In former section, subject ,purpose, territory, exceptions, rights and duties of parties, convention amendments,… and in latter, special requirements for wastes assessment, determination of pollutants` permissible limit, site selection and type of discharge selection, design principles for marine environment quality monitoring program, and discharge license issuance mechanism have been studied. In third chapter, due to the examination of convention performance in Iran, the internal law system for marine environment conservation and its pollution has been mentioned in detail. Considering this, two issues have been compared .firstly, convention obligations with regional treaties that Iran as a party to them and secondly, Iranian internal law there of .Finally, common and different aspects of these issues have been determined. At last, recommendations and strategies for convention enforcement and conformity of its obligations with internal regulations have been presented. Furthermore, translation of convention English text has been reviewed and its protocol has been translated.

The Principle of Proportionality in International Law

Whilst the principle of proportionality indisputably plays a crucial role in the protection of fundamental rights, it is still unclear to what extent it applies to other fields in international law. The paper therefore explores the role it plays in selected fields of public international law, beyond human rights. The examination begins in the classical domain of reprisals and in maritime boundary delimitation and continues to analyse the role played in the law of multilateral trade regulation of the World Trade Organization and in bilateral investment protection. In an attempt to explain differences in recourse to proportionality in the various fields, we develop in our conclusions a distinction between horizontal and vertical constellations of legal protection.

The constitutional rights of children and the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998

The Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998 [POCA] embodies a serious attempt by the South African government to effectively police and curb organised crime, money laundering and criminal gang activities in South Africa. The Act provides inter alia for a range of crippling fines and for orders such as confiscation and forfeiture. Asset forfeiture and confiscation orders can affect the rights of third parties directly and indirectly in a number of ways. Young persons and children can beaffected indirectly because asset forfeiture and confiscation orders may violate the right to parental care of the dependent young persons and children of the person who is subject to the order. This brief article will investigate aspects of the protection afforded to the rights of children when such orders are made in terms of the provisions of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

Addressing the curious black spot that is the separation between the principle of legality and sentencing

The principle of legality has evolved into a clear and entrenchedjurisprudential mechanism for protecting common law rights and freedoms. It operates as a shield to preserve the scope of application of fundamental rights and fre edoms. In recent years it has been increasingly applied by the courts to limit the scope of legislative provisions which potentially impinge on human rights and fundamental freedoms. Yet there is one domain where the principle of legality is conspicuously absent: sentencing. Ostensibly, this is paradoxical. Sentencing is the realm where the legalsystem operates in its most coercive manner against individuals. In thisarticle, we argue that logically the principle of legality has an importantrole in the sentencing system given the incursions by criminal sanctionsinto a number of basic rights, including the right to liberty, the freedom ofassociation and the deprivation of property. By way of illustration, we setout how the principle of legality should apply to the interpretation of keystatutory provisions. To this end, we argue that the objectives of generaldeterrence and specifi c deterrence should have less impact in sentencing. It is also suggested that judges should be more reluctant to send offenders with dependants to terms of imprisonment. Injecting the principle of legality into sentencing law and practice would result in the reduction in severity of a large number of sanctions, thereby reducing the frequency and extent to which the fundamental rights of offenders are violated. The methodology set out in this article can be applied to alter the operation of a number of legislative sentencing objectives and rules.

Putting the spoils of litigation into the shareholders’ pockets: when can shareholders bring a personal action against the directors of their company?

company is legally incorporated it must be treated like any other independent person with its rightsand liabilities appropriate to itself”.2 A consequence of this is the “proper plaintiff” principleestablished in Foss v Harbottle (1843) 2 Hare 461; 67 ER 189: the proper plaintiff in an action inrespect of a wrong done to a corporation is the corporation itself.3 It is also a “hallowed rule” thatdirectors owe their duties to the company, not the shareholders,4 and so any loss accruing to thecompany as a result of the directors’ breach of their duties is recoverable only by the company.5An obvious problem with this state of affairs is that a company will be unlikely to initiateproceedings against its directors when the company is controlled by those directors.6 While there aregood economic reasons for this division of management and ownership,7 shareholders are left with acritical question: under what circumstances can they initiate proceedings to recover loss suffered as aresult of company directors’ breach of their duties? Although one writer has referred to the“expansive statutory and common law arsenals” available to aggrieved shareholders,8 it seems ratherthe case that there are few effective remedies. For shareholders have no contractual relationship withdirectors,9 and the personal rights conferred on shareholders by statute or general law are largelyprocedural10 and seem a rather ineffective basis for “scrutinising directorial performance”.

The weak natural law thesis and the common good

The weak natural law thesis asserts that any instance of law is either a rational standard for conduct or defective. At first glance, the thesis seems compatible with the proposition that the validity of a law within a legal system depends upon its sources rather than its merits. Mark C. Murphy has nonetheless argued that the weak natural law thesis can challenge this core commitment of legal positivism via an appeal to law’s function and defectiveness conditions. My contention in the current paper is that in order to make good on the challenge, the defender of the weak natural law thesis should appeal explicitly to the common good, understood as the principal normative reason in the political domain. In section I I outline the main implications of the weak natural law thesis and clarify a common misunderstanding regarding its explanatory role. Section II then argues for the indispensability of the common good to the natural law jurisprudential thesis on the grounds that it has an essential role to play in a natural law account of law’s defectiveness conditions and the presumptive moral obligatoriness of legal norms. Finally, in section III I examine the compatibility of a strengthened version of the weak natural law thesis with legal positivism in light of the centrality of the common good to the natural law jurisprudential position.

Lapsed prospecting rights : "the custodian giveth and the custodian taketh away"? Palala Resources (Pty) Ltd v Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy

The decision in Palala Resources (Pty) Ltd v Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy & others 2014 (6) SA 403 (GP) (‘Palala Resources’) brings clarity about the lapsing of a company’s prospecting right in terms of s 56(c) of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 (‘the MPRDA’) upon deregistration of the company, and highlights some of the features of a statutory prospecting right. Section 56(c) determines that a company’s prospecting right will lapse upon deregistration of the company if no prior application has been made, in terms of s 11(1) of the MPRDA, to the Director-General of the Department of Mineral Resources for consent to alienate or transfer the right (item 1 of the Ministerial delegation of 12 May 2004). The principles underlying the decision could also be applied to mining rights granted in terms of the MPRDA. By way of introduction, these rights are briefly sketched before the decision will be set out and discussed. It will be argued that the case shows that despite the public law nature of the MPRDA, there is the need for a proper private-law analysis of these statutory rights.

The principle of legality and contemporanea exposition est optima et fortissima in lege

If the principle of legality operates to obscure from Parliament the common law (rights) backdrop against which it legislates, the clarity or rights-sensitivity of that legislation cannot be improved. This undercuts, rather than promotes, the democratic and rule of law values that underpin the modern conception of the principle and its contemporary normative justification. So the courts must strive to give Parliament the clearest possible picture as to the content of the fundamental common law rights it seeks to protect and, depending on the right, freedom, or principle in legislative play, the strength with which the principle will be applied in order to do so. Parliament (and parliamentary counsel) can only ‘squarely confront’ those fundamental rights the existence and content of which was known at the time of legislating. The proposition which, necessarily, follows is that the rule of contemporanea exposition est optima et fortissimo in lege must be revived when judges apply the principle of legality to the construction of statutes. If the courts are to maintain and take seriously the normative justification for the principle then its application to the construction of statutes can only operate to protect from legislative encroachment those fundamental rights existing at the time the statute was enacted.

An Examination of the merits of a human rights-based approach to higher education teaching and learning, compared with welfare and market-based approaches.

The thesis concludes that a human rights-based approach to higher education will produce better teaching and learning outcomes than welfare state or market-based approaches. It is intended that this research might influence an improvement in policy-making, identify a ‘feasible utopia’ for higher education, and contribute to discussion about the public interest role of higher education.

South Carolina/Common Pleas Court Circuits Meeting Benchmark ... as of July 31, 2016

This is a list of the courts in all the circuits of South Carolina and the percentage of cases disposed of in 365 day or less. None of the courts met the 80% benchmark.

Summary of pending common pleas cases by circuit/county For Date 7/31/2016 - Date Run 8/9/2016 - Program-ID CAC20

This report gives a summary of common pleas cases broken down by county and circuit.

Summary of Pending Common Pleas Cases by Circuit/County For Period 7/1/2016 thru 7/31/2016 - Date Run 8/9/2016 - Program-ID CAC60

This report gives a summary of common pleas cases broken down by county and circuit.

South Carolina/Common Pleas Court Circuits Meeting Benchmark ... as of June 30, 2016

This is a list of the courts in all the circuits of South Carolina and the percentage of cases disposed of in 365 day or less. All but four of the courts met the 80% benchmark.