Preliminary conclusions. About Self-archiving
Preliminary conclusions. International humanitarian law contains a number of obligations for parties to an armed conflict which are applicable to the exploitation and plundering of natural resources in situations of armed conflict. These obligations follow from provisions which afford protection to property and to civilian objects. However, upon closer examination, three problems immediately become apparent. The first concerns the general ability of international humanitarian law to regulate the exploitation of natural resources, which is principally a commercial activity and not an act of warfare. International humanitarian law is not designed to address these types of activities. This is only different for occupation law, which regulates the position of an occupant as a de facto authority. Most importantly, the right of an occupant to exploit natural re- sources is limited to a right of “usufruct” to cover the costs of civilian admin- istration in occupied territory. The second issue that immediately becomes apparent concerns the enormous range of obligations under international humanitarian law. Although there are actually not many rules that apply to the exploitation of natural resources in situations of armed conflict, different rules apply to different conflict situations. Moreover, some of the rules target only one party to the conflict. This asymmetry of obligations for parties to an armed conflict is most apparent in situations of internal armed conflict. For example, the prohibition against seizing or destroying the property of an “adversary” restricts its application to the exploitation of natural resources by non-state armed groups, while the prohibition has no direct relevance for governments. The final problem that is apparent is the failure of IHL to provide adequate protection to the environment in situations of armed conflict. The prohibition against causing widespread, long-term and severe damage to the environment applies only to situations of international armed conflict. Moreover, it has such a high threshold that it would only cover the most extreme cases of environ- mental damage resulting from the exploitation of natural resources. The mass- ive pollution of a river caused by the use of chemicals or the cutting down of a forest encompassing at least several hundred square kilometres are examples of this. More general provisions regarding the protection of property or of objects that are indispensable to the civilian population could fill some of the gaps, b...
Preliminary conclusions. A framework agreement is similar to that of a sales contract, except that the price or quantity is not fixed. Moreover, it has a fixed duration which a regular sales contract does not as it is a »one-time deal«.
Preliminary conclusions. The assessment of the application of graphene family material for the water treatment and purification resulted in the identification of main issues to be addressed to evaluate early on its potential impact. Graphene-based membrane properties make them a potential candidate to substitute current water treatment methods, with a potential global diffusion in high amount (thousands of tons). Also, the efficacy and simplicity of certain systems (e.g. the biofoam) can lead to diffusion among consumers of portable systems. On one hand, effective and cheap systems to clean water and produce drinkable water both at general service and personal level is an important achievement toward sustainable and just society. On the other hand, the knowledge about the possible abundant use of graphene in composites, its persistence and hydrophobicity, as well as its substantial toxicity according to conducted studies, implies that graphene should be regarded as a potential environmental and health hazard. According to the 4 preliminary risk hypotheses, from a foresight point of view, there is the need to have more data on (in order of priority): • Emission of graphene form nanocomposites has to be studied in realistic conditions, simulating potential use and accelerated wear. Even indicative measurements can improve the preliminary assessment of adverse impacts. • Workplace emissions have to be better measured characterized at different level (from lab to industry), for the main production methods, those eligible for scaling-up, in order to exclude workers as specific target as well as to identify the need of risk management measures. • Toxicity studies on graphene family materials are still lacking, in number and quality. The European flagship initiative should allow filling the gap by using regulatory acceptable methods. However, there is a very strong focus on development of technical applications, and more investment on the side of safety is needed. From a regulatory point of view, to address the graphene safety, if the production amount will reach the predicted level, there will be a REACH dossier, but it is not clear the level of detail that it will have depending on the tonnage/year of each company. If the number of companies is limited as it seems, it is likely that a detailed dossier will be available in the next 5 to 10 years. However, in the meantime, the only obligation for graphene is in CLP regulation. Water framework directive do not have a reference value for...
Preliminary conclusions. ▪ High degree of structured information, combined with a limited complexity, makes dentistry well suited for using SNOMED CT
Preliminary conclusions not in itself as such meet the needs of the general interest79 in that the activities are not of »direct benefit to the public«.80 Instead, because the suppliers pay 1-3% of the revenue of the specific agreement, and the contracting authorities who use the agreements then pay a subscription fee to use the agreements to SKI81 (thus, in category iv regarding financing, see Section 5.3. of this chapter), it could be argued that it is in fact a commercial body having been placed in a »lucky position« where it does not have to work hard like private companies to receive work and earn money. Furthermore, the same job could have been performed by a private company. Although, in this author’s opinion, XXX does not fulfil the conditions es- tablished in Mannesmann, SKI is considered to be a body governed by public law and thus covered by the procurement rules. This, however, seems very strange and inappropriate.
Preliminary conclusions. To sum up this chapter, overall there are four ways in which contracting au- thorities can organize themselves when establishing framework agreements. This includes common public purchasing, purchasing associations, occasional joint procurement and central purchasing bodies.
