Case law on UNCITRAL texts (CLOUT)

CLOUT documents are available on the UNCITRAL website (http www.uncitral.org).

And how much clout could they bring to bear if they chose to engage on the issue?

But does their presence reflect their demographic weight (more than 51 per cent) and their electoral clout (55 per cent)?

They are growing in political clout, as the mullahs are isolating themselves with the exception of one group of mullahs, who are not well known to Americans.

The EU desperately needs a strategic and diplomatic partner that can significantly reinforce its clout in the Middle East. Europe also needs the dynamism of a youthful Turkey.

These examples reflect the same message America is losing clout around the world. The Bush administration is internationally exposed in both the arrogance of its concepts and the limits of its power.

Since the twenty second session of the Commission, it has become customary to hold, in conjunction with the Commission's sessions, informal meetings of national correspondents to consider the functioning of the CLOUT system.

The EU and the US should wield more of their clout at the World Bank and other international organizations to link development grants to progress on press freedom and human rights.

The CLOUT system relies on national correspondents designated by States that have become parties to an UNCITRAL convention or that have enacted legislation based on an UNCITRAL model law.

Some observers cite these episodes as evidence of decline in America s international clout. But there s a larger point so far, except for relatively small sums offered to the Kyrgyz, Russia and China haven t offered much help.

But, in large parts of Asia, a similar shift has occurred in just one generation. Meaty diets have created a global obesity problem, including, of all places, in China, whose expanding international clout is accompanied by expanding waistlines at home.

It is frequently argued that the size of the assistance packages is a testament to Europe s clout within the IMF. Perhaps, but the packages are, first and foremost, a consequence of the constraints to which Europeans were (and still are) subject.

What Cheney did was to feed and nourish the Bush prejudices, and to move ruthlessly and energetically to occupy the policymaking ground left vacant by the President s indolence and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice s lack of political clout.

We now live in a different world where developing countries are a fundamental source of growth, as well as being importers of capital goods and services from developed countries. When corruption hurts partners with that level of clout, it hurts you, too.

Its economic clout remains formidable, and its commercial and cultural ties to the West are broad and varied. Japan may have shied away for decades from sharing the task of maintaining international order, but a new awareness of international responsibility is steadily emerging.

Its impressive military strength is of limited use as an instrument of power, and its political clout has been overestimated, particularly in Syria. A rapprochement with Israel and, more important, a lasting peace with its Kurdish population, would boost Turkey s regional influence.

Nineteen years of experience with the Maastricht Treaty, which created both the EU and the euro, has shown convincingly that such limits are unenforceable. Countries with the clout to flaunt the limits will do so whenever it is politically convenient.

Small businesses will always complain that they do not have the organizational clout to extract public funds from governments. And bank bailouts, involving the direct use of public money to recapitalize failing institutions, are even more costly and politically unpopular.

Complicating matters further, America s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have limited its regional clout. The US now faces an unpredictable Middle East that is writing its own history as well or as badly as it can.

Pursuant to a decision by the Commission at its twenty first session, in 1988, the Secretariat established a system for collecting and disseminating information on court decisions and arbitral awards relating to normative texts emanating from the work of the Commission (CLOUT).

The result is that Berlusconi s supposed allies such as former Minister Gianfranco Micciche and current Governor of Sicily Raffaele Lombardo, are seriously thinking of setting up a Party of the South to ensure that Italy s southern regions have enough clout to withstand the Lega Nord s onslaught.

Similarly, those who speak of American hegemony after 1945 fail to note that the Soviet Union balanced US military power for more than four decades. Though the US had disproportionate economic clout, its room for political and military maneuver was constrained by Soviet power.

That saved the euro, but it also relieved the pressure on Germany to cede control of its oft distressed banks. Since then, the German government has used its clout to eviscerate the proposed banking union all that remains is a shell to keep up appearances.

Europeans like to talk about the values of peace and compromise, while US military might takes care of their safety. This has created a degree of dependency that should be redressed, if only to relieve the Americans of their burden and give Europe the political influence to match its economic clout.

America s inadvertent passivity in the Clinton years and the wrong directions of the Bush years coincided with the rise of China and India, as well as Russia s renewed international clout as a result of high oil prices. These developments ushered in the slow, imperfect return of an unbalanced multi polar system.

But now that interest rates are at zero, Germany s large savings are no longer doing it much good. And with the financial storm having largely abated, Germany lacks new opportunities to demonstrate its political clout, both within and outside the eurozone.

The IMF s involvement was necessitated only by America s unwillingness to provide support. Furthermore, US President Dwight Eisenhower went so far as to use America s clout within the IMF to force Eden to withdraw British troops from Egypt in exchange for the loan.

In the longer term, however, the attention the decision has attracted could spur wider use of the SDR. More important, at least for now, the decision amounts to an endorsement by the IMF of the progress China has made toward renminbi internationalization, while reflecting and reinforcing China s growing economic clout.

Of course, while the German right threatens to become more nationalistic, history will not repeat itself, because today s Germany has changed, and so has its political environment. Still, an increasingly Euro skeptic Germany in the heart of the EU could, given its great economic clout, seriously endanger the European integration process.

Lastly, the African Group welcomed the establishment of legislative and technical assistance units within the Commission's secretariat, applauded the continuing work of the system established for the collection and dissemination of case law on UNCITRAL texts (CLOUT), and welcomed the publication of the digest on the case law of the United Nations Sales Convention.

I hope to see Korea assume more responsibility in the world, commensurate with its growing economic clout especially in the area of development, one of the three pillars of the UN Charter. Koreans need to step up, speak out, and do more, and that should start with more generous official development assistance.

The PLA s growing political clout has been manifest in the sharpening power struggle within the Party. In recent weeks, an unusual number of senior military officers have published articles in official newspapers calling for Party discipline and unity, and alluding to the military s role in containing the infighting.

While some accused the security apparatus of outright involvement in threatening politicians, others said that the dominant culture was one in which politicians were expected to protect themselves by their own means or where, at best, the security agencies did not have enough clout to protect the threatened.

The aftermath of the 1907 crash drove the hegemonic power of the time Great Britain to reflect on how it could use its financial clout to enhance its overall strategic capacity. That is the conclusion of an important recent book, Nicholas Lambert s study of British economic planning and the First World War, entitled Planning Armageddon.

It must be a desire for world balance, not financial clout within the Organization, that should determine the direction to be followed in the United Nations otherwise, the power of money will prevail over the power of justice and the rights of peoples, which would dangerously thwart the noble mission of the United Nations.

SEOUL China already the world s largest exporter, manufacturer, and international reserve asset holder is poised to overtake the United States as the world s largest economy (measured according to purchasing power parity) this year. Now, it is using its growing clout to reshape global economic governance.

It remains for the US, working with Israel and the international community, to break this logjam and press forward toward a settlement. But the ultimate failure of Abbas s diplomatic strategy the absence of tangible benefits even if it succeeds will damage what is left of his credibility among the Palestinians and strengthen Hamas s political clout.

As China seeks to translate its economic clout into major geopolitical advantages in Asia, a country that once boasted of having friends everywhere finds that its growing power may be inspiring awe, but that its actions are spurring new concerns and fears. Which states will accept China as Asia s leader?

Along with their political clout, unions intellectual respectability is also experiencing a renaissance. After decades of vilification by economists for raising unemployment and strangling growth, the union movement is now receiving backing from thought leaders such as Paul Krugman, who argues that stronger unions are needed to counter globalization s worst excesses.

How Erdoğan behaves will not only determine the intensity of domestic political conflict it will also greatly affect Turkey s potential to regain the regional clout that it once enjoyed. If Erdoğan believes that a higher level of antagonism is necessary to retain power, he may remain oblivious to the harm done to Turkey s international standing.

These are the Ayatollahs, mostly based in Qom, who have great clout in the religious community, have been quiet on politics and are going to be getting louder, because they see Iran going in an unhealthy direction, a direction contrary to what Khomeini had in mind.

BERKELEY Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao s forthcoming trip to India, following hard on the heels of President Barack Obama s recent visit, will provide another opportunity for the media to gush about the growing global economic clout of China and India. We can be sure that the soft underbellies of both economies will be kept hidden from view.

How do we cope with this growth of economic and political clout? While China may have started to throw a bit of its weight around for example, in its own neighbourhood in pursuit of maritime reach and undersea oil the main threat that it poses is that the country falls apart, not that it continues to thrive.

World famous but controversial, Blair is capable of rallying public opinion and giving the European project the high profile that the EU craves. But he s also liable to turn a 30 month ceremonial post as the EU s figurehead into one with much more political clout than its 27 national leaders might like.