The Simplification of Procedures in Portuguese Administrative Law

The present paper intends to provide an overview and a critical assessment of the administrative simplification policies implemented in Portugal over the past 20+ years. Throughout these decades, the major instruments for administrative simplification have been: (i) Decree-Law n. 135/99, of 22 April; (ii) the Simplex programme; (iii) the 2015 new Code of Administrative Procedure and its 2021 amendment; and (iv) the COVID-19 legislation. Although Decree-Law n. 135/99 (i) was the first attempt to specifically address simplification, it was a very thin one. The Simplex programme (ii), created in 2006, was the first cross-sectoral robust policy of simplification; its motto is “the simpler the better” and it encompassed reforms in all government areas aiming at cutting red tape, promoting administrative efficiency, and making the citizens’ and the corporations’ lives easier when dealing with State. The new Code of Administrative Procedure (iii), approved in 2015, brought about specific normative solutions to simplify procedures, namely, prior communications, administrative assistance, procedural conferences, and the electronic one-stop shop. Finally, the COVID-19 legislation (iv) was made necessary by the COVID-19 pandemic and by the fact that public health restrictions made it impossible for citizens to establish personal contact with the administration in many cases.

Procedural differences between mutual legal assistance and international informal assistance

Countries around the world face legal impediments when dealing with the recovery of criminal assets - especially developing countries that do not have the resources to deal with the skills and creativity of criminals. The scale of the problem is growing and shows us that a more effective approach is needed to recover stolen funds. There is a perception that ,,international cooperation” in an investigation and recovery of assets refers to international legal assistance - the formal process of requesting assistance from a foreign jurisdiction. However, in practice, there is a step that should be earlier in the process, which is often ignored or forgotten and which is just as important, if not more so. This is mutual administrative assistance, often described only as ,,informal assistance”. Almost all cases of corruption and embezzlement have a significant international dimension, whether it is foreign bank accounts and residences abroad or a chain of transactions circulating in several jurisdictions. To start informal international cooperation, all that is required is for an officer or prosecutor to pick up the phone or email his or her counterpart in another jurisdiction to request assistance in verifying the information to support a criminal investigation. This informal cooperation helps the investigation team to develop a better and more complete picture of the case. It helps them to identify official evidence that may be required from abroad to successfully prosecute and, ultimately, to recover any criminal assets with limited resources at hand

Decolonisation and Free Association: The Relationships of the Cook Islands and Niue with New Zealand

<p>The Cook Islands and Niue are self-governing states in free association with New Zealand. The free association arrangements met United Nations decolonisation requirements. They reflected the needs and wishes of the Cook Islands and Niue, and the interests of New Zealand. Views are divided on what influenced the emergence of the arrangements for free association, whose interests they represented, and whether they have fulfilled the expectations of the Governments involved. The purpose of this thesis is to determine the formative influences shaping self-government in free association of these two states, and to reach a conclusion on how effective the free association arrangements have been in fulfilling initial expectations. The first half of this thesis draws on primary and secondary sources to establish what influenced the offer of self-determination, the options available, the choice made, the free association arrangements that emerged and whose interests these represented. The second half of this thesis turns to fulfilment of those expectations. It explores the flexibility of free association – the ability of the Cook Islands and Niue to make constitutional change. It examines each of the major elements of free association: holding New Zealand citizenship, New Zealand provision of necessary economic and administrative assistance and New Zealand responsibility for external affairs and defence. The conclusion is that the free association arrangements have been of mixed effectiveness in meeting the Governments’ initial expectations.</p>

Decolonisation and Free Association: The Relationships of the Cook Islands and Niue with New Zealand

<p>The Cook Islands and Niue are self-governing states in free association with New Zealand. The free association arrangements met United Nations decolonisation requirements. They reflected the needs and wishes of the Cook Islands and Niue, and the interests of New Zealand. Views are divided on what influenced the emergence of the arrangements for free association, whose interests they represented, and whether they have fulfilled the expectations of the Governments involved. The purpose of this thesis is to determine the formative influences shaping self-government in free association of these two states, and to reach a conclusion on how effective the free association arrangements have been in fulfilling initial expectations. The first half of this thesis draws on primary and secondary sources to establish what influenced the offer of self-determination, the options available, the choice made, the free association arrangements that emerged and whose interests these represented. The second half of this thesis turns to fulfilment of those expectations. It explores the flexibility of free association – the ability of the Cook Islands and Niue to make constitutional change. It examines each of the major elements of free association: holding New Zealand citizenship, New Zealand provision of necessary economic and administrative assistance and New Zealand responsibility for external affairs and defence. The conclusion is that the free association arrangements have been of mixed effectiveness in meeting the Governments’ initial expectations.</p>

Challenges to Private School Teachers in Remote Areas of Pakistan During Pandemic: An Exploratory Study

It was because of the worldwide lockdown, the COVID-19 had quite a significant impact on corporate organizations as well as the lives of millions of people. It had an impact on the supply chain as well. The impact of the COVID-19 period on educational systems and institutions was studied in this study. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the research conducted on primary school teachers working in private schools in remote areas of Pakistan. The research is based on quantitative analysis. The population of this study was 120 students from the education department of university students. The technique was simple and convenient because due to pandemics, it was not possible to collect data from individuals; data were collected through Google form. The results of this study articulated the challenges like lack of internet access, lack of administrative assistance and cooperation in Monterey terms, Parents complete absence in their children studies. This study recommends that government should work on the private teachers in terms of incentives and professional development and take action for their professional development in remote areas.

An Evaluation of Veterinary Production and Services in Bangladesh

As a developing country, the economy of Bangladesh is based on agricultural activities. Veterinary science and production have a significant impact on the socio-economic development of the country. The current study evaluates the sector in terms of Animal Feeds, Disease and Diagnostic Services, Preventive Veterinary Service, Clinical Service, Artificial Insemination, Wildlife Healthcare, Administrative Assistance, Legal framework and policy regime, Veterinary Public Health and Zoonoses, Research and Development for Veterinary Science, Licensing Veterinary Activities, Industrial Evaluation Based on ventures, and Veterinary education and research activities. Veterinary activities and economic development are positively correlated and affect poverty alleviation. The current study is a pioneering attempt to evaluate the area in the context of Bangladesh, which will essentially add value to the existing literature.

Does Ecuador Comply with International Tax Information Exchange Standards Required to Apply the Multilateral Agreement on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters?

The exchange of tax information is essential to prevent fraud and tax evasion. Accordingly, states and international organizations have developed international conventions regarding the exchange of tax information. One example is the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. Some States, including Ecuador, have signed and ratified this Convention. However, it is unclear whether Ecuador currently meets almost all Convention's requirements.In this article, I investigated the Ecuadorian regulations and showed that Ecuador complies with most of the Convention’s standards. However, Ecuador does not have a specific comprehensive law that regulates information exchange. Therefore, Ecuador should develop policies and norms that exclusively regulate tax information exchange to facilitate practical information exchanging with other tax authorities.

Foreign languages communicative skills in Secretarial Studies

The aim of the foreign languages teaching is to enable students to further develop and use English language skills in general and specific contexts and this aim is always achieved through the practice of the four skills - reading, writing, listening and speaking. As far as speaking skills are concerned, oral assessment and role-play situations are often used by English teachers to assess students’ skills. Students pursuing a degree in Secretarial Studies and Administrative Assistance at ESTGL and want to become successful administrative professionals must be aware of the importance of English in their future jobs and must be prepared to communicate in real contexts. This paper, using a descriptive humanistic-interpretative methodology, aims to acknowledge that role-play is one technique a language teacher can explore and to substantiate the Communicative Language Teaching approach used in the Bachelor of Secretarial Studies and Administrative Assistance. We concluded that it boosts students’ confidence and their personal interaction skills. and a maximum of 150 words.

Is the All-Subjected Principle Extensionally Adequate?

This paper critiques the All-Subjected Principle. The All-Subjected Principle is one of the most prominent answers to the Boundary Problem, which consists in determining who should be entitled to participate in which democratic decision. The All-Subjected Principle comes in many versions, but the general idea is that all people who are subjected in a relevant sense with regard to a democratic decision should be entitled to participate in that decision. One respect in which versions of the All-Subjected Principle differ concerns how to best understand ‘subjectedness’. One view spells out ‘subjectedness’ in terms of legal bindingness. Another view understands ‘subjectedness’ in terms of coercion. I argue that the All-Subjected Principle is extensionally inadequate on both views in that it yields verdicts that are at odds with our considered judgements about certain cases. These cases involve legal norms of referral or international administrative assistance.

Conventional Regulation of International Cooperation within OECD

A characteristic trend in the development of international law in the second half of the XX century and early XXI century is thesignificant expansion of the law-making function of international intergovernmental organizations, which are obtaining an increasinglyimportant role each year in resolving common issues in the political, economic, social, educational and other spheres, acting on behalfand in the interests of the states that formed them. In the system of international organizations of economic nature, an important placebelongs to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which unites 36 industrialized countries as at 2020. Duringalmost 70 years of the OECD existence, the organization has developed and adopted a wide variety of legal instruments aimed ataddressing the widest range of issues related to various sectors of the economy, the fight against corruption, education and science, theenvironment, etc., recommendations, declarations, international agreements, ad hoc instruments. Based on a purely quantitative indicator,legally binding international treaties have a relatively small percentage of the entire normative body of acts adopted under theOECD. In total, 13 conventions were adopted within its framework, 10 of which are in force today. However, the conventions, deve -loped under the aegis of the OECD, are quite successful examples of codification and progressive development of international law inthe fields of: anti-corruption (Convention to Combat Bribery of Foreign Officials in International Business Transactions of December17, 1997); administrative assistance in the field of taxation (Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters of January25, 1988 and Protocol amending the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters of May 27, 2010); counteractionto the tax base erosion and profit shift (Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosionand Profit Shifting of November 24, 2016); nuclear safety, liability for damage caused by nuclear incidents (Convention on theEstablishment of a Security Control in the Field of Nuclear Energy of December 20, 1957, Convention on Third Party Liability in theField of Nuclear Energy of July 29, 1960 (Paris Convention, 1960), Convention of 31 January 1963 Supplementary to the Paris Conventionof July 29, 1960 (Brussels Supplementary Convention).