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Blog, International, Legal News

Philippines v China: facts about a much-watched legal battle

MANILA – A UN-backed tribunal is expected to soon deliver a verdict on a Philippine challenge to China’s claims to most of the South China Sea.

Spanning three years, two hearings, and nearly 4,000 pages of evidence, the arbitration case at The Hague is complex.

In essence, China claims most of the sea, even waters approaching neighbouring countries, based on a vaguely defined “nine-dash” Chinese map dating back to the 1940s. The Philippines disputes this.

Here are the key facts on the case:

– What is the tribunal and what are its powers?

The tribunal was set up by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an intergovernmental organisation established in 1899. The PCA has 116 member states, including the Philippines and China. It is allowed to arbitrate on certain matters of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The five-member tribunal hearing this case is composed of top maritime affairs experts, with the Philippines appointing one member. China waived its right to choose one arbitrator.

The tribunal has the power to set the rules of procedure and make a decision that cannot be appealed. However the tribunal and the PCA have no means to enforce the verdict, with compliance left to parties.

– What are Manila’s key points?

The Philippines has presented five main claims before the tribunal:

1. China is not entitled to exercise what it calls “historic rights” over waters beyond limits defined in UNCLOS, a treaty to which both the Philippines and China are parties.

2. China’s “nine-dash line” has no basis under international law.

3. The various maritime features relied upon by China to assert its claims in the South China Sea are not in fact islands and, as such, are not legally capable of generating such entitlements. China’s recent massive artificial island-building does not change the situation.

4. China violated UNCLOS by preventing the Philippines from exercising its fishing and exploration rights.

5. China has irreversibly damaged the environment by destroying coral reefs, using harmful fishing practises, and catching endangered species in the South China Sea.

– Why did Manila take the action?

The Philippines said, after 17 years of negotiations with China, it had exhausted all political and diplomatic avenues to settle the dispute.

The Philippines calls international law “the great equaliser” allowing small countries to challenge more powerful states. A nation of about 100 million, the Philippines has one of Asia’s weakest militaries, and its economic and diplomatic clout pales in comparison with China’s.

– What is China’s position and how will it react?

China denies the tribunal has jurisdiction on the issue and insists that it will not abide by the decision.

The country’s first move to an unfavourable ruling will be to reject it. But no one is sure what China will do after that. Its response could range from provocative to diplomatic.

On the aggressive end of the spectrum, Beijing may take it as an opportunity to increase its construction activities and further assert its claims by declaring an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the sea, essentially demanding that aircraft transiting it announce themselves to Chinese authorities and follow their instructions.

When it proclaimed one in 2013 that covered islands in the East China Sea disputed with Japan, the move prompted international fury, and Washington made a point of sending warplanes through it without complying with Beijing’s rules.

A more diplomatic option would be to try and mount opposition to the ruling in the UN by challenging the tribunal’s legitimacy. Beijing claims that more than 60 countries back its position on settling disputes in the South China Sea through direct negotiations, and it could seek to call a vote on the issue in the general assembly. But only a handful of countries have explicitly confirmed they support China’s stance.

– If the tribunal can’t enforce its ruling and China has vowed to ignore it, what’s at stake?

Full Article – http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/1017009/philippines-v-china-facts-about-a-much-watched-legal-battle

Blog, Business Law, Legal News

Vacation Rental Company Faces Lawsuit Over Service Changes

By Randy Mac and Matt Schrader


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Some customers across the country are outraged, saying VRBO took their money for a service, then changed the terms of that service.

Just steps from sunny cove beach in Santa Cruz is Carrie Walton’s vacation home. She rents it to travelers who book on the website VRBO. Walton paid the company $1,200 for a one year “Platinum membership,” designed to boost her home’s ranking in search results.

“Someone looks, there’s maybe 10 pages of homes, and maybe this way, with platinum, you’ll be on the first page, mostly likely at the top,” she said. “We thought it was worth the cost — it was an investment in marketing.”

Walton said it worked for a few months. Then VRBO started charging travelers a “service fee,” an extra 4 to 9 percent that VRBO pockets.

Walton said it’s killing her business. She thinks travelers aren’t renting her home because it’s more expensive now.

“We didn’t pay a platinum subscription to have VRBO scare business away,” she said.

Walton said VRBO told her it made another change. Her “Platinum membership” alone no longer guaranteed high search results.

Leena Shah’s story echoes Walton’s. She paid a platinum membership fee too and said she is now seeing rentals of her Maui condo drop drastically.

“I’m just throwing my hands up in the air now with VRBO,” Shah said.

Complaints about VRBO litter the internet. Angry homeowners even created a Facebook page.

“We receive dozens and dozens of calls,” said Michael Bowse, an attorney.

Bowse filed a class-action lawsuit against HomeAway, which owns VRBO, accusing the company of bait and switch, and breaching its contracts by charging the new service fee.

“So it essentially took people’s money under one set of circumstances and then changed the circumstances once it took their money,” he said.

Walton and Shah aren’t part of this lawsuit. But they do want their money back.

“I want my money refunded because it’s a breach of contract,” Walton said. “This is not what I signed up for.”

VRBO wouldn’t say whether it would refund Walton and Shah, citing pending litigation.

The company said since adding the new service fee, it’s introduced new security guarantees and “24/7 customer service.”

They said they’re now quote, “Delivering more happy consumers to VRBO owners.”

Source: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Vacation-Rental-Company-Faces-Lawsuit-Over-Service-Changes-384217571.html#ixzz4CYZ4bqC3
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Blog, Divorce, Family, Legal News, Supreme Court

Conn. Court Ruling Makes It Easier to Increase Child Support Payments

Decision makes it easier for former spouses to claim higher payments

THOMAS SCHEFFEY, The Connecticut Law Tribune

The divorce court battles of the rich have recently been spreading alarm among family lawyers for the poor.

It began with the 2014 alimony case of Dan v. Dan, in which the state Supreme Court held that a sharp increase in an ex-husband’s income, by itself, was not grounds for increasing alimony, and that the ex-wife would have to show some special need.

The controversy increased in 2015 when the Connecticut Appellate Court applied the Dan alimony precedent to Hebron lawyer Maria McKeon’s bid for increased child support for her three children, implying that the children, too, would have to demonstrate some special need.

McKeon’s former husband, William Lennon, is a vice president at General Dynamics’ electric boat division in Groton. McKeon, often representing herself, contended that Lennon’s income, based on salary, bonus and exercised stock options, had grown to $625,361 by 2011. But in 2015, the Appellate Court upheld a lower court ruling that McKeon had not proved a substantial change in circumstances warranting modification of child support payments.

Lawyers for poor children around the state were up in arms. They were afraid that child support-paying spouses – at all income levels—who had rising incomes could avoid sharing with their children by simply invoking Dan, thereby depriving children of millions of dollars in support that was their legal due.

Full article – http://www.ctlawtribune.com/id=1202760987574/Conn-Court-Ruling-Makes-It-Easier-to-Increase-Child-Support-Payments?mcode=1202617073650&curindex=0

Blog, Criminal, Immigration, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

World’s biggest ecstasy haul and the Australian Calabrian mafia in Keith Moor’s new book Busted

Keith MoorInsight EditorHerald Sun

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new full video on

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/true-crime-scene/worlds-biggest-ecstasy-haul-and-the-australian-calabrian-mafia-in-keith-moors-new-book-busted/news-story/2d9bc42c77fad464d2e9c38b4d11750d

Herald Sun Insight Editor Keith Moor’s fifth true crime book, Busted, is being released by Penguin next week.

It reveals the inside story of the world’s biggest ecstasy haul and how the Australian Calabrian mafia nearly got away with it.

This is an extract from it.

AS police involved in the world’s biggest ecstasy bust waited for the order to kick down the door they were as confident as they could be that those occupying the Carlton apartment would be asleep.

Those about to execute the raid had the element of surprise in their favour so meeting resistance was much less likely, which further boosted their confidence.

And they were aware from a major surveillance operation the day before that the five people inside had only been in bed for a few hours after hitting the bottle hard the previous night.

But Australian Federal Police bosses — who had had been waiting for more than a year to arrest those responsible for importing 4.4 tonnes of ecstasy into Melbourne — didn’t want to risk any of the suspects getting away, or their agents being harmed, so they brought in the big guns for the pre-dawn operation.

The apartment the AFP’s elite Operations Response Group (ORG) was preparing to raid was rented by Australian Calabrian Mafia boss Pasquale Barbaro for his Melbourne mistress, Sharon Ropa.

While Barbaro’s home was his mansion in Griffith, New South Wales, he spent a lot of time shacked up with Ropa in Victoria — unbeknown to his dutiful Italian wife and four children.

Heavily armed AFP agents threw in flash grenades, which set off loud bangs and flashes of light to mimic a hail of bullets, as they smashed their way into the Little Palmerston Street unit through the front and back doors about 4am — which must have done wonders for the hangovers those inside the flat were suffering after attending a funeral and the inevitable wake the night before.

One funeral goer, Aldo Taddeo, no doubt still regrets deciding to spend the night at Barbaro and Ropa’s place after the wake; he wasn’t wanted by police and no charges were laid against him.

Not only did he get the shock of his life when the flash grenades went off, but he got another form of shock when he struggled with police and was zapped with a stun gun to stop him wrestling with one of the AFP agents.

Another of those arrested in the love nest that day, Severino Scarponi, was so scared by the dramatic entrance of the AFP agents that he literally shat himself — a bad start to what became a very crap day for him.

Barbaro’s cousin Pasquale Sergi, who came down from Griffith for the Melbourne funeral, was also arrested during that early morning raid.

He tried to hide in a bedroom cupboard, which, strangely enough, didn’t fool the AFP agents responsible for searching and securing the premises.

Ropa was naked in bed with Barbaro in the master bedroom when AFP agents burst in. The shocked couple were ordered to lie on the floor.

Police raided Barbaro’s Griffith mansion at the same time as they were smashing their way into his love nest.

Ever tactful, officers who spoke to Barbaro’s wife in Griffith that day didn’t mention the naked circumstances of her husband’s arrest in Carlton.

The AFP agents who arrested Barbaro were surprised at how unflappable and calm he remained. Despite being dragged out of bed and his whole world crumbling around him, Barbaro even found time to flirt outrageously with one of the female AFP agents.

It’s difficult to imagine that little old Melbourne is where the world’s biggest ecstasy haul was made, but it’s true.

It’s also difficult to imagine there are still people in Australia who doubt the existence of the Calabrian Mafia here — but that’s true too.

I have had access to several confidential reports prepared by Australian and Italian law-enforcement agencies, ASIO spies and US Federal Bureau of Investigation agents that should convince even the most ardent of doubters that the Calabrian Mafia is a major organised crime player in Australia.

Those documents have never been released, but their contents are revealed in Busted and they paint a graphic picture of the history of the Calabrian Mafia in Australia.

Calabria is in the toe of southern Italy and is the world headquarters of the Italian organised crime gang, ’Ndrangheta.

’Ndrangheta is known by some Italians as L’Onorata Societa (the Honoured Society) or La Famiglia (The Family).

It is simply called the Mafia by most in Australia, or the Calabrian Mafia to differentiate it from the traditional Sicilian Mafia.

’Ndrangheta eclipsed the Sicilian Mafia in the late 1990s to become the most powerful crime syndicate in Italy.

The Calabrian Mafia has a tight clan structure, often involving members marrying relations and sons taking over from ageing fathers to ‘keep it in the family’, which has made it difficult for law enforcement to penetrate.

The secret society has cells all over the world and has had a strong presence in Australia since at least the 1930s.

It is particularly prevalent in Melbourne, Mildura and Shepparton in Victoria, Griffith and Sydney in New South Wales, and Adelaide and Canberra.

It has been responsible for growing and distributing much of Australia’s marijuana for decades. It also got involved in heroin importations in 1979, through now-dead crime boss Robert Trimbole, and is known to have been involved in massive cocaine and ecstasy importations into Australia since at least 2000.

Just as it is important to have knowledge of the Calabrian Mafia to better understand the inside story of the world’s biggest ecstasy bust, it is equally important to know the backgrounds of the main players charged over the 4.4-tonne shipment.

Those players include Barbaro, Ropa, Saverio Zirilli, Rob Karam, John William, Samuel Higgs and Francesco Madafferi.

Easily the biggest of those players — and the undoubted leader of the gang responsible for importing tonnes of drugs into Australia — was Barbaro.

By the time of his 2008 arrest over the world’s biggest ecstasy bust, Barbaro was a senior Calabrian Mafia boss of international standing in the worldwide Italian secret society, and one of the biggest drug dealers Australia has ever produced.

It was Barbaro, through his senior role in the Calabrian Mafia, who had the international connections to give him access to tonnes of drugs through the Belgium-based Aquino Calabrian Mafia syndicate.

Barbaro was in regular contact with senior members of at least three of the world’s biggest international drug smuggling syndicates.

One of Barbaro’s contacts was an English criminal based in Asia who had strong connections to Chinese triad gangs; another was a Belgium-based Calabrian Mafia syndicate responsible for shipping tonnes of cocaine, ecstasy and other drugs around the world; and a third was a syndicate that specialised in making the world’s best-quality ecstasy in super labs near the Belgium — Netherlands border.

Each of the international syndicates also had something other than large scale drug dealing in common with Barbaro: a propensity to threaten and use violence.

Senior players in each of the three gangs treated Barbaro with incredible respect, a clear indication the international syndicate members considered Barbaro to be a major player on the world drug smuggling stage.

Full Article – http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/true-crime-scene/worlds-biggest-ecstasy-haul-and-the-australian-calabrian-mafia-in-keith-moors-new-book-busted/news-story/2d9bc42c77fad464d2e9c38b4d11750d

Blog, Business Law, Civil Rights, Legal News, Personal Injury, Supreme Court

New lawsuit against Duke Energy alleges coal ash polluting N.C. lake

by Jenna Martin

A new lawsuit filed Monday alleges that a Duke Energy coal ash pond in the northern part of North Carolina is contaminating surrounding water sources and that the Charlotte-based utility stands in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.

Filed in the U.S. Middle District Court of North Carolina by attorneys with the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of the Roanoke River Basin Association, the 25-page complaint focuses on Duke’s coal-fired Mayo power plant near Roxboro. It asserts that about 6.9 million tons of coal ash is stored in a leaking, unlined pit along the banks of Mayo Lake and polluting the fishing lake, a stream feeding into Dan River and the Roanoke River Basin, adjacent wetlands and surrounding groundwater with heavy metals.

The suit states that the Roanoke River Basin Association notified Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), the Environmental Protection Agency and the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality on April 11 of the violations and its intent to take legal action if they were not corrected within 60 days.

It contends that Duke Energy has built a lined landfill on property near the Mayo plant where the coal ash could be relocated. The association asks that the court require Duke to move the ash to a lined, solid-waste landfill away from the lake and tributary and asses a civil penalty of up to $37,500 per violation each day.

The plant, which according to Duke began operating commercially in 1983, is located near the Virginia border and about 70 miles east of Duke’s Dan River Steam Station near Eden — the site of a 2014 spill of 39,000 tons of coal ash into the river. Back in March, state regulators told Duke Energy it is subject to fines and penalties for improper leaks at coal ash ponds at 12 plants, including Mayo.

That follows a $7 million settlement reached last October between Duke and the DEQ to resolve groundwater-contamination issues at all 14 of Duke’s coal plants in the state — an order the SELC contested.

Full Article – http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/06/14/new-lawsuit-against-duke-energy-alleges-coal-ash.html

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