Сводное Упражнение VI.
1. In deciding what is reasonable an English court will refer to previous similar cases, however the most important thing is usually common sense. 2. Given sufficient legal grounds by an attorney, a judge may overturn a decision, or, based on the facts of a particular case, a judge may decide the case in a way that seems to be at odds with the precedent. 3. No matter how brilliant the attorney may be, rarely will a low court repudiate a higher court’s decision; the system must be stable. 4. A great many commercial contracts do contain a provision for disputes to be settled by arbitration. 5. The arbitration award, despite the country it was made in, is binding and is enforced after being applied to a competent court. 6. Whether a country signs and tries to enforce an international agreement depends on whether it is likely to gain from it. 7. What’s important in the WTO’s rules is that measures taken to protect the environment must not be unfair to its member countries. 8. Whether or not developing countries gain enough from the WTO system is a subject of continuing debate in the WTO. 9. Dumping is defined by GATT as offering a product for sale in export market at a price lower than that charged on its own home market in the ordinary course of trade. 10. Under the RCC compensation for moral harm shall be carried out regardless of whether or not material harm is subject to compensation.
44. Сводное Упражнение VII.
I. Brazil’s Congress at last had the courage to approve two overdue reforms, one being an increase in the pension contributions paid by higher – earners among public sector workers; the other – deduction of contributions from retirement pension. If Brazil is ever to stop being one of the world’s most uneauql and unjust societies, it needs redirecting public spending. Nobody likes a wage cut, which is what the increase in pension contributions amounted to. But the Congress was right to approve these measures. Reform in Brazil is falling victim to its president’s diminished authority. It is this rather than judicial independence or constitutional zeal, that explains the Supreme Court’s pension judgement.
II. A long battle for free trade must be waged against many enemies, whether protectionists, trade – unionists or environmentalists shouting loudly that free trade in general and the WTO in particular, are ruining the global environment. As a general statement, this claim is wrong. Far from damaging the environment, trade is often the best way to improve it. All this makes it doubly important to explain why trade generally benefits the environment. The reason is that it boosts economic growth. As people get richer, they want a cleaner environment – and they aqcuire the means to pay for it. The main solution is not to shut all exports, it is to impose tougher environmental laws that makes polluters pay.
III. Millions of dollars are still being diverted from the state’s revenue by increasingly cunning tax evaders. The goverments’s current legislation regarding this matter has left immense legal loopholes frequently exploited by individual tax dodgers. While policies such as the threat of bankruptcy may have begun to encourage large businesses to pay their debts to the government, it is the freedom with which individuals are able to escape legal proceedings that has led to allegations of inefficiency on the part of the tax police. The main problem is that the existing laws do not require that each individual should declare his expenditures.
IV. America has no principal objection to the idea of supernational bodies dealing with war crimes. However its initial enthusiasm for a permanent international criminal court evaporated when other countries rightly refused to tie the courts’s powers to the veto of the UN Security Council, which would have made it a mere political tool to be used by the great powers. Since then, America has pleaded that, as the sole remaining superpower, its soldiers and officials would be the target of politically motivated prosecution, peacekeeping efforts around the world being seriously hampered.
V. The Russian labor code is based on the assumption that the employee is the weaker party in the labor relationship – and hence must be to some degree protected by the Government. The labour code requires that when firing an employee the company must first give him two months’ notice and then one month of severance pay. The labor code also makes it difficult to fire an employee if the company discovers that he or she does not have the necessary qualifications for the job unless the above skills were set out in the employment contract. One of the ways to protect employees is by placing the burden of proof, or to be more precise, paperwork, on the employer. In other words, the employer must in most cases issue several written warnings, as well as document all disciplinary measures, before terminating a worker. But while the law is indeed clear in many of its provisions, some gray areas still remain.
VI. Under American constitution witnesses who fail to appear and testify after being subpoened may be subject to charges of contempt of court. In addition, a witness who appears but refuses to answer questions, when under examination, can be held liable for contempt of court. It’s true that no witness can be forced to testify if the testimony is self-incriminating, which only means that the witness can refuse to answer questions that might lead to criminal charges. Questions that might expose the witness to civil liability are permissible.
VII. WTO trade rules include an obligation for members to bring their disputes to the WTO and not to act unilaterally. Around 300 disputes have been brought to the WTO since it was set up in 1995. Small countries could win dispute cases against rich countries they would not have been able to win otherwise. The increasing number of disputes brought to the WTO reflects the closer economic ties throughout the world rather than increasing international tension.
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