Research Briefing
In July 2010 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Kosovo's declaration of independence on 17 February 2008 did not breach international law. The legal scope of the Opinion is extremely narrow, but its political implications could be very wide.
Research Briefing
This Note looks at some of the criticism of the European Court of Human Rights, in particular the procedure for selecting and electing judges to the Court, the quality and experience of those judges and proposals for reforming the selection criteria and method of appointment.
Research Briefing
This Research Paper series summarises the main economic indicators currently available for the UK, along with comparisons with other major OECD countries. The ONS’s first estimate of Q1 2011 GDP showed that the economy grew by 0.5% compared with the previous quarter. Growth in Q1 came from the manufacturing sector (up by 1.1%) and the services sector (up by 0.9%). However, overall GDP growth was reined in by a steep decline in construction output (down by 4.7%). The Q1 outturn followed a 0.5% decline in GDP in Q4 2010 when bad weather was blamed for the contraction in activity. Taking the two quarters together, economic output remained unchanged over the six month period October 2010-March 2011.
Research Briefing
This note collects together useful sources on this question in the immediate aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan
Research Briefing
This note sets out the definition and causes of obesity, the health problems caused by obesity, recent government policy on the issue and related statistics.
Research Briefing
The purpose of this note is to outline the current debate on funding for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses and to summarise changes in policy in this area. ESOL funding has been subject to a series of changes since 2007 when automatic fee remission was removed. This note provides background on these changes, comments on the relevance of proposed changes with regard to the ongoing debate on social cohesion and integration and highlights Parliamentary debate on this issue.
Research Briefing
This note gives the present and previous governments' policies towards British Waterways; information on Defra's 2004-05 policy review of BW in which concluded that it was largely doing a good job; and summarises the pressing issues of recent years - the funding of BW, the effect of cuts to its budget, and its future institutional status.
Research Briefing
This note sets out official information from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the nuclear power plants in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami, 11 March 2011, with comments about what is happening and why.
Research Briefing
This Note looks at the term "Acquis Communautaire", what it means and how the European Court of Justice has interpreted it.
Research Briefing
This Bill makes a small number of technical amendments to the advertising and trading, ticket touting and traffic management provisions of the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006. These amendments cover the seizure of articles which contravene advertising and trading regulations; the parliamentary procedure and notice periods required when new advertising and trading regulations are introduced; the penalty for unauthorised sales of Olympic tickets; and traffic regulation and enforcement during the Games.
Research Briefing
The Government aims to change the way in which EU law is transposed into national law in order to avoid 'gold-plating' and to minimise the burden of over-regulation on UK businesses. This Note looks at the main elements of the Government's principles for the implementation of EU law.
Research Briefing
This Note looks at European Court of Human Rights rulings on prisoner enfranchisement and what the UK Government might do in response to the Court's decisions in the cases of Hirst 2 and Greens and MT
Research Briefing
This paper presents labour market data for Parliamentary Constituencies. A summary of the latest national and regional labour market data is given, along with a selection of relevant constituency-level indicators including the latest Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) claimant count data. The latest data show: Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) claimant count unemployment increased by 700 in March 2011 to 1.45 million. The wider ILO-based measure of unemployment was 2.48 million in the period December-February 2011, a fall of 17,000 from the last quarter. The number of people in employment aged 16 and over rose by 143,000 over the last quarter to 29.23 million (December-February 2011). This edition of Unemployment by Constituency contains a special section on long-term unemployment, as well as the regular monthly analysis of the national figures, and maps and tables with unemployment statistics for every constituency
Research Briefing
This Note looks at the history of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Court of Human Rights, the Court's principles and requirements for implementation of its rulings, the supervision of judgments by the Committee of Ministers and reform measures to tackle the Court's shortcomings.
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