Extension of the presumptive period for compensation for Gulf War veterans. Final rule

This document affirms an amendment to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) adjudication regulation regarding compensation for disabilities resulting from undiagnosed illnesses suffered by veterans who served in the Persian Gulf War. This amendment is necessary to extend the presumptive period for qualifying chronic disabilities resulting from undiagnosed illnesses that must become manifest to a compensable degree in order that entitlement for compensation be established. The intended effect of this amendment is to provide consistency in VA adjudication policy and preserve certain rights afforded to Persian Gulf War veterans and ensure fairness for current and future Persian Gulf War veterans.     

Extension of the presumptive period for compensation for Gulf War veterans. Interim final rule

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is issuing this interim final rule to amend its adjudication regulations regarding compensation for disabilities resulting from undiagnosed illnesses suffered by veterans who served in the Persian Gulf War. This amendment is necessary to extend the presumptive period for qualifying chronic disabilities resulting from undiagnosed illnesses that must become manifest to a compensable degree in order that entitlement for compensation be established. The intended effect of this amendment is to provide consistency in VA adjudication policy and preserve certain rights afforded to Persian Gulf War veterans and ensure fairness for current and future Persian Gulf War veterans.     

Compensation for certain undiagnosed illnesses--VA. Final rule

This document adopts as a final rule the provisions of an interim final rule which amended the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) adjudication regulations regarding compensation for disabilities resulting from undiagnosed illnesses suffered by Persian Gulf Veterans. This amendment is necessary to expand the period within which such disabilities must become manifest to a compensable degree in order for entitlement for compensation to be established. The intended effect of this amendment is to ensure that veterans with compensable disabilities due to undiagnosed illnesses that may be related to active service in the Southwest Asia theater of operations during the Persian Gulf War may qualify for benefits.     

Extension of statutory period for compensation for certain disabilities due to undiagnosed illnesses and medically unexplained chronic multi-symptom illnesses. Interim final rule

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is issuing this interim final rule to amend its adjudication regulation regarding compensation for disabilities suffered by veterans who served in the Southwest Asia Theater of Operations during the Persian Gulf War. This amendment is necessary to extend the period during which disabilities associated with undiagnosed illnesses and medically unexplained chronic multi-symptom illnesses must become manifest in order for a veteran to be eligible for compensation.     

Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniform Services (CHAMPUS); annual fiscal year deductible for outpatient services or supplies--DoD. Final rule

This amendment incorporates the applicable provisions of recent statutes relevant to the deductible amounts for outpatient care. Public laws 101-510 and 101-511 provide that effective April 1, 1991, the deductible amounts for medical care or services will increase from fifty dollars ($50.00) to one hundred and fifty dollars ($150.00) for an individual and from one hundred dollars ($100.00) to three hundred dollars ($300.00) for a family to include all CHAMPUS beneficiaries except dependents of active duty sponsors in pay grades E-4 or below. However, the Persian Gulf Conflict Supplemental Authorization and Personnel Benefit Act of 1991, Public Law 102-25, stipulates that, in the case of dependents of a member of the Uniformed Services who served or serves on active duty in the Persian Gulf theater of operations in connection with Operation Desert Storm, the provisions of Public Laws 101-510 and 101-511, shall not become effective until October 1, 1991. This latter category is defined in the rule as those dependents whose sponsors, are, or were, entitled to Special pay for Hostile Fire/Imminent Danger authorized by section 310 of title 37, United States Code, for service in the Persian Gulf Area.     

Unusual cases from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Dubai is one of the small countries of the United Arab Emirates located on the shores of the Persian Gulf in the Middle East. This report deals with two deaths: one an unusual method of suicide by hanging and the other, a death under investigation into whether it was accidental or suicidal.     

The Aftermath of the Macondo Discovery Well Spill: The Interplay of Claims to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility and Insurance Claims

The processing of claims for compensation arising from the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig and its environmental and economic aftermath has proceeded simultaneously before the Gulf Coast Claims Facility and insurers. The criteria for recovery between these two recipients of claims differ significantly. Compensation from the facility has included claims for purely economic injury, whereas compensation from insurance generally requires, inter alia, a closer geographic or causal nexus to property damage. The resolution of compensation issues both by the facility and insurers will impact whether further disputes arise in the courts. Based upon similar experiences from September 11 and Hurricane Katrina, these issues are likely to continue for several years before they are fully resolved.     

Economic freedom in Muslim countries: an explanation using the theory of institutional path dependency

This article explains the level of economic freedom in Muslim countries through the theory of institutional path dependency. Islamic countries are generally not free and they have a poor record regarding property rights. To explain these realities we use the institutional history of Muslim countries. We define three steps: the Arab and Ottoman Empires when Islamic law was of great importance, European colonisation, and the contemporary era with its movement towards a revival of Islam. Islamic law is not liberal. This explain why in general Muslim countries are not free. Colonisation radically changed institutional life in the twentieth century. British colonisation proved to be better than did French or Soviet colonisation. This explains why the Persian Gulf countries are freer. The collapse of the Soviet model explains the speed of liberalisation in former socialist countries (such as Albania, Kyrgyz Republic, and Kazakhstan). Nevertheless, the twentieth century was not just the century of Westernisation. It was also the century of the revival of Islam. The article concludes that the history of the twentieth century does not explain the way in which Muslim countries are attracted by the ideal of the Muslim city. The revival of Islamic intellectual innovations and the evolution of Muslim opinion sustain this thesis. Therefore, there is a dependency on the past and on an imagined future. Islam acts, like yesterday, on the world of institutional possibilities.     

Intimate femicide in Israel; temporal, social, and motivational patterns

This study investigated all (76) cases of intimate femicide (the killing of women by their intimate male partners) in Israel during the years 1990–1995. The analysis focused on temporal patterns, the representation of various population groups, and given motives. The findings show a relationship between the incidence of intimate femicide and a number of major events/processes experienced by Israeli society during the period investigated. Following the Persian Gulf War (in 1991), during which families were enclosed for lengthy periods in sealed rooms, there was a sharp increase in intimate femicide. On the other hand, the enactment of the Law for the Prevention of Family Violence in 1991 was followed by a sharp (though temporary) decrease in intimate femicide in 1992. New immigrants from the former Soviet Union and even more so, from Ethiopia were over-represented among intimate femicide offenders. In most cases, more than one motive is given for the intimate femicide, with 'possessiveness' being mentioned in the majority of cases usually in conjunction with other motives (such as argument/conflict between the parties, mental, drinking or drug problems of the offender). Here too, differences were found between the various population groups. The findings are discussed within the framework of a stress-support theoretical model which postulates that violence in society will be positively related to stress factors and negatively related to support systems.     

论国际海洋石油开发环境污染法律救济机制的构建

长期以来,国际海洋石油开发环境污染法律救济机制一直是一个法律空白。随着海洋石油资源开发利用步伐的日益加快,这一问题理应引起国际社会的关注。美国墨西哥湾漏油事故和中国渤海湾漏油事故的先后爆发,使得这一问题的解决更显迫切。建立国际海洋石油开发环境污染法律救济机制,具有深厚的国际法基础,应当遵循三个基本的法律原则,从应急处理和损害赔偿等不同层面加以系统构建。     

渤海溢油事故海洋生态损害赔偿研究——以墨西哥湾溢油自然资源损害赔偿为鉴

2011年我国渤海溢油事故引起社会强烈关注,尤其对我国海洋环境保护相关法律形成挑战。本文着眼于2010年墨西哥湾溢油事故中的相关赔偿问题,比较美国溢油自然资源损害赔偿制度,分析了渤海溢油事故中涉及的"海洋生态损害"的概念界定、责任主体与索赔主体、赔偿范围、索赔额度及评估标准等法律问题,总结并分析渤海溢油事故对完善我国海洋生态损害赔偿制度的启示。     

海盗——租约下的英国法律与实务问题研究

苏伊士运河、亚丁湾和北印度洋构成了世界航运的主要水道之一。据称,每年利用该水道通行的商船超过20 000艘。但是,索马里海岸和亚丁湾也因其频繁出没的海盗以及海盗在劫持船舶和人质后获取高额赎金而声名狼藉。如此猖獗的海盗袭击无疑给国际航运市场带来了巨大的冲击,特别是对租约履行以及海上保险的承保和理赔等产生严重影响。从法律和实务的角度就海盗对租约履行的影响加以研究,特别是对船东在租约项下拒绝船舶穿越亚丁湾的权利、穿越海盗频繁出没海域与额外费用分担、船舶在海盗劫持情况下的停租及租约解除等问题进行分析和探讨。     

蓬莱油田溢油事故暴露的环境损害救济制度的缺陷

蓬莱19-3油田溢油事故暴露出法律制度和司法实践并不能对受害者和潜在受害者快速响应,尽最大可能实现对弱者提供及时、有效、公正保障的问题。侵权法、物权法提供的法律工具,对受害者保护来说,都存在较大程度的缺陷,而跨国公司母公司利用其与子公司的特殊关系,加剧了受害者求偿权实现的难度。国家应当在环境赔偿责任社会化的基础上将受害者事后救济制度与环境损害填补机制结合起来,形成综合机制。     

论惩罚性死亡赔偿金制度之构建——兼谈死者近亲属缺位情形下的死亡赔偿

在我国侵权法上,死亡赔偿制度系以赔偿死者近亲属的损害为核心,而对受害人生命的丧失则未提供任何救济措施。这不仅使死亡赔偿金的性质难以界定,同时也无法解决死者近亲属缺位情形下的死亡赔偿问题。我国应当把"生命的丧失"本身纳入侵权法的救济范围,加害人应对此承担惩罚性死亡赔偿金的责任。     

论生态补偿的法律关系

生态补偿行为必须通过法律法规和规章进行调整,从而产生各种法律关系。对生态补偿法律关系进行分析、论述和提炼的前提下,试图理清生态补偿到底由谁来补,最终补给谁,他们各自的权利和义务以及补偿的客体是什么等问题。弄清这些,有助于我们进一步加深对生态补偿法律制度的认识和理解。     

Compensation for workplace injury leading to suicide in Australia

Workplace-related death by suicide raises a number of difficult issues in the context of workers compensation. On first reading, workers compensation statutes usually prevent recovery of compensation where an injury is self-inflicted, suggesting that compensation for suicide will be excluded. Additionally, compensation is usually denied when the nexus between employment and injury is broken which is frequently the defence to any claim by the dependants of workers who takes their own life following a work injury. This article examines the Australian landscape in relation to the evolution of principles that apply to consideration of workers compensation claims where suicide is an element.     

Defining the Other: An Intellectual History of Sanskrit Lexicons and Grammars of Persian

From the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries, Indian intellectuals produced numerous Sanskrit?CPersian bilingual lexicons and Sanskrit grammatical accounts of Persian. However, these language analyses have been largely unexplored in modern scholarship. Select works have occasionally been noticed, but the majority of such texts languish unpublished. Furthermore, these works remain untheorized as a sustained, in-depth response on the part of India??s traditional elite to tremendous political and cultural changes. These bilingual grammars and lexicons are one of the few direct, written ways that Sanskrit intellectuals attempted to make sense of Indo-Persian culture in premodern and early modern India. Here I provide the most comprehensive account to date of the texts that constitute this analytical tradition according to three major categories: general lexicons, full grammars, and specialized glossaries. I further draw out the insights offered by these materials into how early modern thinkers used language analysis to try to understand the growth of Persian on the subcontinent.     

Exorbitant CEO compensation: just reward or grand theft?

The failure of society to criminalize policies and practices of powerful organizations and individuals that are demonstrably harmful has been a central theme of the white collar crime literature since Sutherland. In recent years much commentary and criticism has been directed at vastly exorbitant compensation packages awarded to CEOs of major corporations and other major institutions. Although some criminal prosecutions have been pursued on the basis of allegations of fraud in relation to CEO compensation (e.g., the Dennis Kozlowski/Tyco case and the Conrad Black/Hollinger case), and some civil lawsuits demanding repayment of unjustifiably large CEO compensation have been initiated (e.g., the Richard Grasso/New York Stock Exchange case), most typically exorbitant CEO compensation packages result in neither criminal indictments nor civil lawsuits. This article explores the status of exorbitant CEO compensation as a criminological phenomenon, beginning with a typology of different views on such compensation. The contemporary scope of disproportionate compensation is reviewed, with the exponential increase in the gaps between the compensation of CEOs and those below them documented. Some of the different mechanisms along a continuum of legal to illegal for providing exorbitant CEO compensation are identified. Why is the awarding of exorbitant CEO compensation typically legal? What specific forms of harm arise from awarding exorbitant CEO compensation? Why do Corporate Board Compensation Committees award exorbitant CEO compensation? Indeed, what are the specifically criminogenic dimensions of Corporate Board decision-making that contribute to this process? What arguments can be advanced in favor of criminalizing exorbitant CEO compensation and against doing so? What specific practical constraints would have to be overcome to criminalize the awarding of exorbitant CEO compensation? If exorbitant CEO compensation has not been addressed traditionally as a form of white collar crime, what arguments can be advanced in favor and against doing so now? This article promotes attention to the exorbitant CEO compensation issue by white collar crime scholars, with a provisional addressing of the questions raised above.     

试论生态城市环境补偿制度

生态城市是城市区域内各要素能够保持和谐统一、持续发展的人类聚居区。环境补偿是生态城市建设、运营的保障制度。本文界定了生态城市环境补偿含义,论述了环境补偿的理论基础,分析了我国生态城市环境补偿立法与实践存在的问题,提出了完善我国生态城市环境补偿法律制度的建议。     

死亡补偿费研究——尝试一种非主流观点

死亡补偿费的性质不仅关系死亡的民事救济,还涉及生命权的有无以及宪政和刑法理论对于生命的关注.现行法将死亡补偿费定性为对财产损失的赔偿,客观上把人看作获取收益的工具,有悖生命伦理.死亡补偿费应该是对生命损害的补偿,死亡赔偿项目除包括死者生前的健康和财产损失,现行法规定的其余赔偿项目都应以死亡补偿费概括.死亡补偿额以35岁为基数,赔偿可支配收入35年,每增加或者减少一岁,减少一年,最低赔偿不低于10年,对二亲等亲属的赔偿数额酌减.