Potential Investor Claims and Possible State Defences During the Covid-19 Emergency

Since it was announced as a public health emergency of international concern in 2019, Covid-19 has caused enormous loss of property and life. The country's emergency policies in responding to the Covid outbreak are numerous, such as closing public transportation and prohibiting the export of medical devices. These policies have potentially harmed the interests of investors. This study has three purposes: investors' potential claims to challenge state measures addressed to Covid-19, the legal defences of states, and the possibility of an international investment dispute. This study shows that investors' potential claims may be delivered based on violations of the principles of fair and equal treatment, full protection and security, and national treatment and the most favoured nations. While a state can defend itself based on the principles of force majeure and state necessity, states can also defence through Non preclude measures or right to regulate clause in international investment agreements. In addition, it would also be better to build international solidarity and cooperation to mitigate and defeat the Covid-19 pandemic than sue the government before ISDS. States need collective action to avoid a surge of investor-state Arbitration. Governments’ policy to combat Covid-19 is to be considered as acting in necessity and therefore cannot be found in breach of their investment treaty obligations as long as that policy meet the necessity, proportionate, and non-discrimination requirements.

The Legal Implication of Political Defection on Nigeria’s Democracy

The prevalence of cross-carpeting in Nigerian politics continues to threaten the consolidation of democracy in the country. It is strengthened by the proliferation of political parties devoid of entrenched ideology or political philosophy besides attaining political and economic powers. The unusually delayed justice in defection related matters sometimes occasioned by the pile of cases before the scanty judicial umpire in the country is another block of stumbling over. The technical approach of these umpires to cases of defection or constitutional matters may not be far from being a cloak on the wheel of justice. While the elected executives at the detriment of their electorates enjoyed the freedom of assembly and association in changing their political parties after the election, the exercise of the same right by the elected members of legislative houses are subjected to certain occurrences in justification or else vacate their seats on the pronouncement of their respective leaders in the house. This historical political menace persistently thrives in the country's fledgling democracy without adequate legal instruments for effective redress. Through the conceptual approach, the study reveals that the elected executives persistently swindle the mandate of their voters with impunity while the principal officers of the parliaments freely decide who remains or exits the house on the ground of defection. It is clear that the Nigerian Anti Defection Law is inadequate in the changing political landscape of the country. This paper recommends a law reform to affect some enactments, particularly in the Constitution whereby machinery for the vacation of a seat in the parliament after defection can be beyond the powers of the principal officers, which is necessary for the attainment of socio-political orders in the country.

Does the International Community Have Efforts to Protect the Marine Environment from Seabed Mining?

Through the United Nations, the international community is seriously paying attention to the use of seabed areas as regulated by the Law of the Sea Convention 1982, which states that the area and its resources are the common heritage of humankind. The 1994 Agreement has implemented chapter XI. The resources are relating to the state's interests in terms of energy exploration and environmental impact aspects. An increasing need for global electronic products by many countries in which of the components are rare minerals. Various minerals such as manganese, polymetallic nodules, and polymetallic sulphur are lying down in the seabed. However, seabed also had an essential role in keeping the marine ecosystem balanced. On the one hand, the human's need for those minerals also cannot be denied. Draft of regulations by the International Seabed Authority to manage deep-sea mining are still insufficient to prevent irrevocable damage to the marine ecosystem and loss of essentials species for the next. On the other hand, the spirit of Sustainable Development Goals 14 concerns life underwater. This paper examines deep-sea mining science from a legal perspective to protect and preserve seabed for the future generation using normative approach describing norms and principles in the Law of the Sea Convention 1982. As a result, the commercialisation of deep-sea mining violates the principle of the convention. Thus, it needs to encourage ISA to enhance the minimum requirements for all contracting parties in the future.

The Fraud Rules in the Letter of Credit under Jordanian Legal System

Letter of credit (L/C) has a massive role in expanding international trade operations. It is considered the most secure and stable banking service to finance foreign trade operations such as import and export. As an international contract, potential legal issues arise due to fraud practices. In this case, L/C users have to be aware of different approaches followed by domestic courts while dealing with fraud at the international level. This paper aims to identify the fraud means under the fraud rule governing L/C and its impact on Jordan's practice. By applying a qualitative and doctrinal legal approach, this paper analyses the lack of organization of the uniform customs and practice for the letter of credit (UCP No. 600). It also examines, via interviews with Jordanian judges, the perceptions of the Jordanian courts' policy regarding the fraud rule exception in L/C. The finding reveals that to protect the interests of all parties in a letter of credit transaction, Jordanian courts should extend the scope of fraud to cover sale contracts fraud in cases where bona fide holder is involved and when a confirming bank is absent, or when the credit amount has not been paid yet by the issuing bank. In respect of the bank practices, such special provisions implemented to commercial code must be issued due to the lack of legal provisions of the L/C in Jordan legislation.

Constitutional Rules on Waqf and Fiscal Policy Outcomes

Fiscal policy, inter alia, looks at the list of government revenues. The constitutional rules provide guidance on the list of revenues. However, the previous studies find that waqf is not considered as part of government revenues. In this study, we argue that waqf brings in a new list of government revenues. To prove this point, we select a sample of fifty-seven countries under the Organization of Islamic Countries. The constitution of each country is investigated by using content analysis. The study uses a combination of several keywords, namely “tax or taxes or fiscal obligations,” “revenues or budget or finance” and “waqf” in investigating the rules on revenues and waqf. The findings in this study are classified into five kinds of countries, namely countries that highlight government revenue and waqf in the constitution, countries that claim to recognize sharia law as the basis of the law but the waqf rules in the constitution are missing, countries that mention in their constitution that government revenues are placed under the government system, financial system, and parliament, countries that place waqf is ruled under the public finance matter, and countries that place waqf as the main policy. This finding implies that the constitutional rules lead to the view that waqf is a part of public finance that can be used as a fiscal policy tool and should be included in the state budget plan.

The Problematics of Management Personal Protection Equipment Waste related to Covid-19 in Indonesia

Medical Waste for Covid-19 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is classified as B3, which can potentially be a medium for spreading the virus. Therefore, management must be carried out, consisting of collection, sorting, transportation, temporary storage, to processing (destruction) based on the Circular of the Minister of Environment and Forestry Number 2 of 2020 using the incinerator and problematic autoclave methods. The purpose of this study is to find out how the law regulates the management of Covid-19 PPE waste in Indonesia and how it should be. The research method used is normative legal research. The results showed that based on the Circular Letter of the Minister of LHK No. 2 of 2020, it is determined that the destruction of Covid-19 PPE waste as B3 waste must go through an incinerator facility with a minimum combustion temperature of 800⁰ C and an autoclave equipped with a shredder. This method is considered overkill and incurs high costs. The conclusion of this study is to provide input for the Government to review or revise the Circular regarding safer Covid-19 PPE B3 waste management, including through the pyrolysis method.

The Implementation of Waqf as ‘Urf in Indonesia

As a tradition that has been practised for a long time, waqf or endowment is clear evidence that Muslims in Indonesia are developing through this worship. However, what if the waqf is in the form of a mosque, Islamic school, and grave (3M’s waqf). It is an unusual thing in the contemporary Islamic tradition, but its existence persists. Meanwhile, 'Urf as one of the legal propositions in establishing Islamic law has known the concept and has been practised for generations in suburban areas where most of the population is Muslim. This tradition is then accommodated in Law Number 41 of 2004 concerning endowment, which contains land endowment and endowment organiser (nazhir). This paper examines the tradition of endowment in Indonesian society to benefit mosques, Islamic schools, and graves. By using the historical and analytical-conceptual approaches, this paper will analyse waqf in these three forms. The results of this study can be taken into consideration by stakeholders in developing strategies for strengthening and empowering 3M's donated land to create benefits for the Indonesian since 3M’s endowment is commonly found in Indonesian society.

The Fishing Rights Conflict in the South China Sea between Vietnam and China

This research aims to understand and clarify the international legal perspec-tive relating to the current dispute and how they are resolved according to international law between Vietnam and China over fishing rights in the South China Sea. This paper has adopted a normative legal research with a statutory and historical approaches. The data will be analysed by using de-scriptive-analytical analysis. This paper reveals that there are two legal is-sues in the fishing rights conflict between Vietnam and China. First is the legality of the Nine-dashed Line by China to claim the disputed water. Sec-ond, the legality of unilateral fishing ban policy by China over the disputed water, which both has no legality under international law. Although China claims over SCS using Nine-dashed Line and unilateral fishing ban policy under international law has no legal basis, the dispute over SCS including fishing rights continued until today. The solutions offered to solve these problems include a resolution on SCS dispute must be made legally and di-plomacy to build confidence-building measures. Ideally, both states should honour the accepted negotiation steps to agree upon compensation for the effects of the disputes and be sincere and earnest in their attempts and com-mitment to resolving their dispute.

The Legal Impact of Plea Bargain in Settlement of High Profile Financial Criminal Cases in Nigeria

Plea bargain has been globally accepted as a useful criminal prosecutorial tool in accelerating the prosecution of minor criminal cases. However, it has been observed that the introduction of a plea bargain into the Nigerian criminal justice system tends to aid the ruling class in looting from the public treasury and escaping justice. Given these legal anomalies, the study used online survey questionnaires sent to four hundred and five respondents (randomly selected) residing in Nigeria in ascertaining the Nigerian citizens view on the legal effect of using a plea bargain in resolving high profile financial crime cases. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used to analyse the respondents’ responses. The study, therefore, found that though plea bargain is a useful criminal prosecutorial tool in resolving minor criminal cases, it is unsuitable in resolving high profile criminal financial cases as it tends to involve a hide and seek game which makes a mockery of the Nigeria Legal System. It is, therefore, concluded and recommended that the concept of a plea bargain in Nigeria legal system should not be used in resolving high-profile criminal financial cases, as it tends to give leverage to those looting public funds.

The Criticism of Land Procurement Law to Improve Landowners Welfare in Indonesia

This study is to conduct a juridical analysis of the implications of Law No. 2 of 2012 on Land Procurement for Development for the Public Interest to improve the welfare of landowners after the release of land rights. The focus of the study is on the arrangement of indemnity from the aspects: assessors, indemnity assessment, and deliberation on the determination of indemnity. The research approach uses normative juridical, with secondary data sourced from primary legal materials and secondary legal materials from March to July 2020. The data was analysed using content analysis combined with prescriptive analysis. As a result, this research proposes the arrangement of compensation in the Law on Land Procurement for the Development of the Public Interest. These arrangements are included the material determination of assessors, the value of compensation, deliberationof the determination of compensation, and the custody of compensation (consignment) in the Law on Land Procurement which is inconsistent with the principles and principles of land procurement that should be as the basis and guidelines for the formulation of norms.