American Arbitration Association (AAA)

The American Arbitration Association (AAA), is a not-for-profit organization with offices throughout the U.S. AAA has a long history and experience in the field of alternative dispute resolution, providing services to individuals and organizations who wish to resolve conflicts out of court.

The AAA role in the dispute resolution process is to administer cases, from filing to closing. The AAA provides administrative services in the U.S., as well as abroad through its International Centre for Dispute Resolution® (ICDR). 

WILL AND TRUSTS (PDF)

Arbitration Rules & Mediation Procedures Including Procedures for Large, Complex Commercial Disputes

Every year billions of dollars are administered by executors and trustees.

Wills, transferring property to beneficiaries, are the most frequently used instruments, but family trusts, charitable trusts, and commercial trusts are growing in use and scope.

Occasionally, disputes arise over whether those funds are being properly administered and whether the governing will or trust is being interpreted correctly by the fiduciary.

The Testamentary Foundations of Commercial Arbitration (PDF)

PETER B. RUTLEDGE

ABSTRACT This Article offers the first systematic treatment of the relationship between commercial arbitration and testamentary arbitration.

(By testamentary arbitration, I mean an arbitration clause contained in a will requiring beneficiaries to resolve differences over the estate by means of an enforceable decision by a private party rather than judicial resolution in a probate court.)

Recent scholarship and jurisprudence have questioned the enforceability of these arrangements as incompatible with the requirement of a written "agreement" between parties to the arbitration.

What May Day really means to the French

May Day is celebrated around the world, but it has particular significance to the French.

First and foremost. It's a day off. Except this year. Damn.

May 1st is steeped in tradition in France but the reality is, most of the country just see it as a paid holiday, or jour ferié, which means relaxing with friends and family or taking a long weekend, if it falls on the right day.

But the day, also known as the Fete du Travail or Labor Day, falls on Sunday this year so most in France, including us at The Local, are pretty disgruntled at the fact we are being robbed of an extra day off. 

Reliance Defence signs pact with 3 Ukranian firms

NEW DELHI: Reliance Defence has signed strategic partnership agreement with three Ukranian state-owned companies which will allow them to collaborate on a range of military products including transport aircraft, upgrade of armoured vehicles, maritime gas turbines and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The development follows a meeting between Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani and Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine this week.

During the hour long meeting, the two leaders discussed issues of strategic interest between the Indian and Ukrainian defence and aerospace industry.

Airbnb for people

Airbnb is a website for people to list, find, and rent lodging. It has over 1,500,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 190 countries. Founded in August 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company is privately owned and operated.

Airbnb hosts share their spaces in 190 countries and more than 34,000 cities. All you have to do is enter your destination and travel dates into the search bar to discover distinctive places to stay, anywhere in the world.

There are a few ways to book spaces on Airbnb. Some hosts want to get to know a guest before they confirm a reservation while others prefer to reduce the time it takes to manage requests by using Airbnb's Instant Book feature.

Bohdan Zdziennicki, były prezes TK: Etos sędziego

Bohdan Zdziennicki

1. Pierwszy prezes Sądu Najwyższego Stanisław Dąbrowski mówił, że od sędziego wymaga się niemal tyle, ile od świętego. Oznacza to, że ma nie tylko głosić wzniosłe zasady, ale i je urzeczywistniać w swoim zawodowym życiu. Wybierać rozwiązania abstrahujące od partykularnych interesów, politycznej poprawności czy osobistych preferencji.

2. Sędzia powinien być odporny na naciski polityków, określonych grup społecznych i środków masowego przekazu. Nie wolno mu nikogo faworyzować. Innymi słowy, oczekujemy od sędziego całkowitej niezależności i niezawisłości w sprawowaniu jego misyjnego urzędu.

Dumb Study Says Unarmed Black People Less Likely To Be Shot By Police

Joe Patrice

The Washington Post’s slide into the ludicrous continues with its laughable write-up of a new study out of Washington State that boldly suggests that unarmed black people are much safer from police shootings than white people. Indeed, the paper trumpets the study with the headline: “This study found race matters in police shootings, but the results may surprise you.” You have to appreciate the now passé “knowledge gap” clickbait headline purloined from all those websites that ate the print media’s lunch five years ago. It serves as a metamarker of how out of touch the accompanying Washington Post article will be.

Online Savings

Online Savings Features:

• ·         No minimum deposit to open
  ·         No transaction fees
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  ·         Multiple ways to access your money
  ·         Interest compounded daily, paid monthly
  ·         Rate is variable and may change after the Account is opened
  ·         Six withdrawal limit per statement cycle
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Original

How Russia Is Lying to Us About Syria

Alexis Mrachek / Luke Coffey

What seemed like an encouraging headline a few weeks ago was really all smoke and mirrors—far from pulling out of Syria, Russia has been rolling in even more troops and equipment. Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again proven that he cannot be trusted.

On March 14, Putin began ordering troops to return home from Syria. It is true that some troops did leave the country, but we now know that this announcement was more about distracting the world and portraying Russia as part of the solution in Syria rather than being part of the problem.

Ofcom Releases Statement on Spectrum for the ‘Internet of Things’

By Cynthia O’Donoghue and Dr. Thomas Fischl on 28 April 2016Posted in Social, Mobile, Analytics & Cloud (SMAC)

Last year, we reported on Ofcom’s Statement on ‘Promoting investment and innovation in the Internet of Things (IoT)’ (Statement). IoT refers to the exponentially growing network of products that are capable of communicating with each other, such as smart watches and smart thermostats. The Statement identified four priority areas to support the growth of IoT (data privacy, network security and resilience, spectrum availability, and network addresses) and sought stakeholders’ views on the actions required to achieve that goal.  In a separate consultation, Ofcom invited views on the suitability of specific spectrum frequencies for ‘machine-to-machine’ (M2M)/IoT applications.

A Look Back at April Drone Law Developments: the Micro UAS Report

BY MARK J. CONNOT AND JASON J. ZUMMO ON APRIL 29, 2016POSTED IN ASSOCIATION FOR UNMANNED VEHICLE SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL (AUVSI), COMMERCIAL DRONES, DRONE REGULATIONS AND POLICY, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), GENERAL UAS NEWS AND DEVELOPMENTS,PERSONAL DRONES, UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

This past month, a FAA committee tasked with providing recommendations on a regulatory framework for the classification and operation of micro unmanned aircraft systems (“UAS” or “drones”), submitted its official report to the FAA.

The Micro UAS #Aviation_Rulemaking_Committee (“ARC”) was directed to develop “recommendations for a performance-based standard that would allow for micro UAS to be operated over people who are not directly participating in the operation of the UAS.” On April 6, the FAA accepted those recommendations. Moreover, the FAA has already started the process of developing a notice of proposed rulemaking based on the ARC’s recommendations.

Japan ready to support Ukraine in developing cyber police

Japanese Ambassador to Ukraine Shigeki Sumi at a meeting with Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said that his country is ready to provide support to Ukraine to develop cyber police, the communications department of the Interior Ministry has reported.

"The Japanese diplomat said that one of the key directions of cooperation between Ukraine and Japan in reforming the police is cyber security. He said that Japan backs the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's steps to create and develop cyber police and is ready to provide the country with financial and expert assistance," the department said.

Порошенко поздравил украинцев с Пасхой

Swedes want answers from Russia after Nato warning

Sergey Lavrov said Russia would feel compelled to act if Nato’s military infrastructure stretched to Sweden. 

“It’s every country’s right to decide what form its security should take, but one must understand that if military infrastructure approaches Russia's borders, we would of course have to take the necessary military-technical action. There’s nothing personal in it; it’s just business,” Lavrov said in an interview with Dagens Nyheter (DN). 

Stefan Löfven said the comments were "really unnecessary and uncalled for". 

Stability and Democracy for Ukraine Act/STAND for Ukraine Act

BY NIKOLAI HOLMOV

In the US Congress, Bill 5094 has been submitted, entitled Stability and Democracy for Ukraine – or STAND for Ukraine Act as a reader may prefer.  It has cross-party support, the charge through Congress to be headed by Messrs Engel (Democrat) and Kinzinger (Republican).

The core of the proposed legislation seeks to reaffirm several issues – clarifying existing U.S. policy toward Ukraine and unambiguously acknowledging the Ukrainian right to self-defense.  It seeks to robustly link sanctions relief for Russia to timely, complete, and verifiable implementation of the Minsk framework.  It ergo addresses the occupied Donbas issue.

Was Wladimir Putin in Syrien wirklich vorhat

Von Julia Smirnova

Über den dramatischen Appell des UN-Sondergesandten dürfte man in Moskau nur schmunzeln. Denn die Erosion des Waffenstillstandes ist ganz im Sinn der russischen Syrien-Strategie.

Russland ist sichtlich stolz auf seinen Einsatz in Syrien. In der Lobby des Moskauer Hotels "Ukraine" sind zur Begrüßung der Gäste der Moskauer Internationalen Sicherheitskonferenz Fotos aus Syrien ausgestellt: Russische Minenräumer in Palmyra, Syrer schwenken russische Fahnen und halten Porträts von Putin und Assad hoch, russische Militärflieger im Einsatz. Die gleichen Bilder werden auf die Leinwand projiziert, vor der die russische Sicherheitselite ihre Reden vorträgt. 

Google faces first EU fine in 2016 with no deal on cards: sources

BY FOO YUN CHEE

BRUSSELS - Google is likely to face its first European Union #antitrust_sanction this year, with little prospect of it settling a test case with the bloc's regulator over its shopping service, people familiar with the matter said.

There are few incentives left for either party to reach a deal in a six-year dispute that could set a precedent for Google searches for hotels, flights and other services and tests regulators' ability to ensure diversity on the Web.

Venice Commission returns to Poland to review new surveillance law

Representatives of the Venice Commission, the human rights body of the Council of Europe, will come to Poland on Thursday to analyze Poland’s newly amended surveillance law passed by the country's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party to assess whether it complies with Council of Europe standards.

The new law expands government access to digital data and allows for greater surveillance by police. Human rights group Amnesty International said the law is "a major blow to human rights".

Keeping Up with the Online Advertising Industry

By: Jessica Rich, Director, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection 

Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting down for some Q&A with members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), one of the leading self-regulatory organizations for the online, interest-based advertising industry. One of the questions they posed was what additional actions industry should be taking to address online tracking as it develops ever more complex technologies. My answer? Tell people how they’re being tracked and offer them easy-to-use tools to block all of the techniques used to track them. Industry has moved well beyond cookie-based tracking, and the choices offered to people must keep pace with what’s happening in the marketplace.  

Gazprom’s monopoly comes to an end

Written by Grzegorz Kaliszuk

World energy market experts proclaimed last week the beginning of the end of Gazprom’s monopoly in the European gas market. The reason for such an audacious thesis was the first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from US state of Louisiana, which arrived in the Portuguese port of Sines on April 26^th2016. 

The United States was unable to export raw material for many years, but an oversupply in its internal market has led to a significant reduction in prices and therefore resulted in the deterioration of the financial condition of companies engaged in gas extraction. Barack Obama's consent to export natural gas means there is a de facto full mobilisation of all six American gas ports (three are still under construction).

Kiselyov leaks: Russia's controversial chief propagandist's mail hacked

Email and WhatsApp accounts reportedly belonging to Dmitry Kiselyov, Russia's controversial chief propagandist, were hacked on April 29 and the Anonymous International group put the data array up for sale at a starting price of 33 Bitcoins, which is a little less than $15,000, according to The Insider Russia.

Some fragments of the array were made public, revealing interesting details of the life of the Kremlin's chief propagandist. In particular, the correspondence allows readers to estimate the level of the Russian TV host's incomes and learn about his desperate struggle for the lifting of Western sanctions against him and who advises him in the preparation of materials, The Insider wrote in the article titled "Dmitry Kiselyov's Anatomy. What Hacked Emails Tell about the TV Host," published on Saturday, April 30.

European Commission, The April infringements' package: key decisions

European Commission - Fact Sheet

Overview by policy area

In its monthly package of infringement decisions, the European Commission is pursuing legal action against Member States for failing to comply with their obligations under EU law. These decisions, covering various sectors and EU policy areas (see Annex I and II), aim to ensure the proper application of EU law for the benefit of citizens and businesses.

The key decisions taken by the Commission (including, 2 letters of formal notice, 35 reasoned opinions and 6 referrals to the Court of Justice of the European Union) are presented below and grouped by policy area. The Commission is also closing 113 cases where the issues with the Member States concerned have been solved without the Commission needing to pursue the procedure further.

News Flash: An Agreement Between Competitors to Limit Advertising/Marketing Violates the Antitrust Laws

By Jonathan Lewis on April 29, 2016

For the second time in less than a year, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed an antitrust complaint against hospital systems that agreed to not advertise on billboards or in print in each other’s home county. Last time it was a number of hospital systems in Michigan. This time, it is two hospital systems in West Virginia, Charleston Area Medical Center, Inc. (CAMC), in Kanawha County, and St. Mary’s Medical Center, Inc. (St. Mary’s), in Cabell County.

What exactly did CAMC and St. Mary’s agree to do (or not do)?

No EU migrant deal if visas not lifted: Turkish PM

Verda Özer – DOHA

There will be no migrant deal with the European Union if visas are not lifted for Turkish citizens as agreed in a Turkey-EU deal in mid-March, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said. 

“If they do not implement visa-liberalization [for Turkish citizens], then we will not implement the readmission agreement. These [things] are linked,” Davutoğlu said in Doha on April 28.

Indian Court Extends Ban on Diesel Cars in New Delhi

 Pratap Patnaik 

India’s top court extended a ban on registration of new large diesel-powered vehicles in New Delhi to curb pollution, dealing a blow to automakers such as Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and Toyota Motor Corp.

The prohibition, imposed in December, will continue until the next hearing on May 9, said Gopal Subramaniam, a lawyer appearing for Mercedes Benz India. The bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur allowed the Delhi Police to register their vehicles on payment of a green cess of 30 percent, which has been opposed by carmakers.

The great mystery: Murder in Mexico

A grisly crime and a possible cover-up remind Mexicans of what they most dislike about their government

EVEN the official story is shocking. In September 2014 a group of student teachers from Ayotzinapa, in the south-western state of Guerrero, decided to commandeer some buses in the nearby town of Iguala. They wanted to go to a rally in Mexico City, and it is common for students in this part of Mexico to take buses for such things. They usually return them.

Forty-three of those students disappeared, and are presumed dead. The mayor of Iguala and his wife were angry with them for having disrupted a political event, the federal government says, and ordered the local police to hand them over to a drug gang, the Guerreros Unidos. The gangsters mistook the students for members of a rival gang. They killed them, burned their bodies at a rubbish dump and tossed the remains in a river.

PrivatBank wins Commerzbank STP Award 2015

Ukrainian PrivatBank won the prestigious banking award Commerzbank STP Award 2015, which is awarded annually to one of the world's largest financial institutions for the high quality of international payments.

The award was presented by head of Commerzbank AG representative office in Kyiv Petro Kozlynskiy.

For more than 10 years in a row, this award has been going to PrivatBank for high quality of SWIFT-payments, which is a testament to the professionalism of the personnel of PrivatBank, whose performance meets the highest international standards.

Statement by the HR/VP Federica Mogherini on the situation in Syria

The new spike of violence and actions undermining the cessation of hostilities, notably the Syrian regime's most recent offensives near Aleppo and east of Damascus, put the peace talks at risk, as the UN Special Envoy de Mistura has said.

People of Syria are once more living in fear of their lives, after the glimpse of the benefits peace could bring.

Returning to the fighting will achieve nothing but greater cost in human lives, and is only delaying the negotiations that are the only way to bring peace to the people of Syria.

Ministry of Finance is launching an automated procedure for processing customs declarations aimed to prevent biased approach and corruption at the customs

The Ministry of Finance has amended the procedures of customs clearance in regard to customs declarations. The amended procedure stipulates the automated distribution of customs declarations between customs officers for processing.

The Ministry of Finance is working to eradicate opportunities for biased approach and corruption at the State Fiscal Service. Pursuing this policy, the Ministry of Finance elaborated a concept for engaging international companies (advisors) to reform the customs offices reporting to the State Fiscal Service as well as a draft law on authorized economic operators. The latter is similar to the corresponding EU law.