Fiscal Drag Creates Uneven Tax Burden

A new OECD study investigated the interaction between income, inflation and tax obligations in OECD countries.  Notably, workers in several countries saw their nominal tax burden rise in response to high earnings growth. This phenomenon, known as fiscal drag, occurs in countries where tax rates increase as nominal taxable income rises. Workers are thus forced to pay higher taxes due to inflation or, ironically, after experiencing increases in real income. The latter scenario played out in several upper-middle income OECD countries that experienced high growth rates in full-time earnings, such as Greece, Hungary, South Korea, Portugal and Turkey. Despite concerted legislative efforts to ease tax burdens, such high growth in earnings – in many cases more than 40% – pushed enough workers into a higher income bracket to create fiscal drag.

For the full story, please click here.

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Madagascar Ratifies Rome Statute

On March 14, Madagascar’s Malagasy Government ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, bringing the total number of States Parties to the Court to 106. The statute will enter into force in the island nation on June 1, 2008.

The Rome Statute was adopted in July of 1998. Last year, the President of the ICC, Judge Philippe Kirsch, called for the ratification of the Rome Statute by countries that had not yet done so. Judge Kirsch emphasized that the Court was already having an effect in deterring crimes and building peace in some countries.

See here for story.

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Limited Liability for Pollution

In Commune de Mesquer v Total France SA and Total International Ltd, the European Court of Justice opined in favor of limiting liability under the polluter pays principle where the waste is not caused intentionally or recklessly. The plaintiff brought the suit for the costs of cleaning oil waste from beaches that resulted from the sinking of a defendant-owned ship. In practice, under the Waste Framework Directive, the financial burden of the disposal operation is on the persons who caused the waste, so long as there is an accusation that they contributed personally to the heavy oil leakage. The opinion relied on the International Liability Convention and the Convention on International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage to limit liability of oil producers, sellers, carriers while still meeting the ‘polluter pays’ principle.   

For further details on this case, click here.

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“Lord of War” arrested in Thailand

On March 6, infamous weapons dealer Viktor Bout was arrested in Bangkok. Bout’s role in supplying weapons to some of the world’s deadliest conflicts had earned him the nickname “Merchant of Death,” and he is believed to have inspired Nicholas Cage’s character in the film “Lord of War.”

While praising Bout’s capture, Antonio Maria Costa, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, called on Thailand to ratify the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. According to Costa, ratifying this treaty would “make it easier to bring criminals of [Bout’s] ilk to justice, for example through mutual legal assistance and extradition.” Costa also encouraged states to ratify the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their Parts, and Components and Ammunition, known as the UN Firearms Protocol.

According to the UNODC, nearly 1 billion guns are in circulation throughout the world, and three fourths of them are in civilian hands. Every year, 8 million guns are manufactured, along with twice the amount of ammunition that would be needed to kill the world’s entire population.

The story is available here.

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EU Allocates Funds to Fight World Hunger

On March 4, the European Commission announced that it would devote €160 million to provide food aid to nations suffering from destabilizing crises around the world. Between the 17 initially-targeted nations - largely in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East - it is estimated that 18.7 million people will receive aid. Specific concerns include refugees and internally displaced peoples, with an emphasis on providing for mothers and young children.

The funds will not only support the distribution of foodstuffs in the aftermath of disasters and conflicts, but will also assist “food-for-work” activities directed towards re-establishing lines of income, agricultural self-sufficiency, and stability. The aid will be funneled through the UN World Food Programme, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Commission-partnered NGOs.  More allocations are planned for later in 2008.

For more information, click here.

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Ugandan Tribunals To Try Rebels

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni declared that rebel leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army will be tried by local Ugandan tribunals rather than handed over to the International Criminal Court.  The local court system emphasizes compensation and apologies, rather than punishment.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for the five Ugandan rebel leaders after President Museveni requested the body investigate their crimes, leading some to claim that Museveni used ICC indictments as a mechanism for exerting pressure on the rebels to agree to a peace settlement.  Uganda is obliged under international law to send the accused men to the Hague for trial. The decision to try the rebels locally has “opened a rift” between African governments that believe ICC trials should be subordinate to local peace deals and reconciliation and countries which trumpet the ICC as responsible for international justice.  Museveni, asserting Uganda’s right to withdraw from the ICC process, contends that his decision is driven by the desires of the victims and the leaders of those areas affected by the conflict to use “traditional justice.”  Critics respond that Museveni’s actions undermine the credibility of the ICC and the international criminal justice system.

For the full story click here and here.

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Rwanda Agrees to Enforce Sentences

Last week, Rwanda agreed to enforce a jail sentence imposed by the United Nations war crimes tribunal set up to address the atrocities of the country’s 1994 genocide. Under the agreement, which has also been signed by six other countries, anyone convicted and given a prison term by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) can now serve that sentence in a Rwandan jail. The agreement is important in part because in signifies a milestone in cooperation between ICTR and Rwanda. For more on this story, click here.

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ICC Members Push for Multilateral IP Agreement

Members of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) Committee have asked US Trade Representative Susan Schwab to speed the development of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). CEOs of member companies gathered on March 3 to unveil recommendations for the ACTA and a set of in-country strategies aimed at fighting counterfeiting in Russia, China, the United States, the UK, Canada and Germany. BASCAP also announced a consumer education campaign which will inform the public of the damage caused by trade in counterfeit goods. The group also agreed to work with the World Customs Organization (WCO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The ACTA is currently being developed by the US, Canada, the EU, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and Switzerland. ICC Secretary General Guy Sebban hopes that ACTA will become the new “gold standard” in IP enforcement. The meeting of BASCAP included top executives from GE, Microsoft, Pfizer, Unilever and other corporations. The ICC announcement is available here.

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ECHR Finds Violations

The European Court of Human Rights recently decided Stoica v. Romania in favor of a minority applicant, finding violations of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The applicant, of Roma origin, alleged that he had been racially discriminated against and then brutally beaten by state police officials. He also alleged that at the domestic level, the case had been insufficiently investigated and racial prejudice resulted the decision of state authorities to not prosecute the police official who beat him. Consequently, the applicant approached the European Court for remedy. Considering factors such as insufficiency of evidence and investigation, minority and severe disability of the applicant, and possible lack of good faith of the prosecutor, the Court held that there was a violation of article 3 and article 14 of the Convention.

For further details on this case, click here.

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Prison Guards Found Guilty by Bosnian Court

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has found two Bosnian Serbs guilty of crimes against humanity for mistreatment of non-Serb detainees at a detention center in the Bosnian town of Foča.  Mitar Rašević and Savo Todović, prison guards at the Foča correctional facility during the Balkan wars in the mid-1990s, were sentenced prison terms of 8.5 years and 12.5 years, respectively.

Rašević and Todović were indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), then transferred to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s national court system for trial.  Although the ICTY still tries the most senior leaders, the ICTY has begun transferring lower-ranking defendants to national courts.  This is seen as significant progress in the ICTY’s attempts to strengthen rule of law by forging a partnership with the national judiciary.  So far, the ICTY has transferred ten defendants in six cases to Bosnia and Herzigovina’s national courts.

More information can be found here.

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