August 31, 2016 nº 1,785 - Vol. 13
"Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names."
John F. Kennedy
Read Migalhas LatinoAmérica in Spanish every Tuesday and Thursday. Visit the website at www.migalhas.com/latinoamerica
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Rousseff makes impassioned speech in an effort to remain as president
Dilma Rousseff, the suspended president of Brazil, appeared before the Senate on Monday to make a final appeal to lawmakers before they vote on whether to remove her from office. In her speech, Dilma claimed she is innocent of the accusations against her and that the evidence against her is only a pretext to overthrow a legitimate government. She criticized the government of the acting president, Michel Temer, for ignoring women and minorities in the ministries. Further, she referred to her impeachment as unlawful, a misuse of power, and a blow to democracy and to social progress of the last 13 years. She also made references to the years she spent jailed under military rule. If lawmakers vote to remove Rousseff, Temer would finish the term as president.
Prosecutor closes case in Roussef trial
The main prosecutor in the impeachment trial of suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has said the country has had enough of her government's corruption and mismanagement. Closing the case for the prosecution, Miguel Reale Junior urged senators to vote to dismiss her on Wednesday. "The country doesn't want that anymore," he said. The impeachment process, he said, "is a big demonstration of democracy to the world". Her impeachment "will mark the beginning of a new era" for Brazil, said Reale Junior. Rousseff has been accused of illegally manipulating the budget. Her lawyer said she was being persecuted for daring to challenge the country's political elite. If two-thirds of senators vote against Rousseff she will be permanently removed from office.
Europe's 'unfair' Apple tax ruling sparks US anger
There has been widespread criticism in the US of the European Commission's ruling that Apple should pay up to €13bn in back taxes. The US Treasury said that such tax investigations were "unfair" and undermined the tax rules of individual states. Charles Schumer, a senior Democrat senator, called the move a "cheap money grab". The White House said the ruling could cost US taxpayers. White House spokesman Josh Earnest argued that if Apple paid the back taxes, it might offset that amount against tax due in the United States, which would be unfair for American taxpayers. Earlier the European Commission said Ireland had enabled Apple to pay substantially less than other businesses, in effect paying a corporate tax rate of no more than 1%. Ireland and Apple both said they disagreed with the record penalty and would appeal against it. "Member states cannot give tax benefits to selected companies - this is illegal under EU state aid rules," said Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. The standard rate of Irish corporate tax is 12.5%. The Commissions's investigation concluded that Apple had effectively paid 1% tax on its European profits in 2003 and about 0.005% in 2014. Last week the Treasury warned that the European Commission was in danger of becoming a "supranational tax authority".
Escrow account
In this exclusive article, Gabriel Rios Corrêa and Vitor Silva Clark Nunes, of Lobo & Ibeas Advogados, explain that the escrow account is the new mechanism for securing the payment of indemnities. (Click here)
1 - EU orders Apple to pay up to 13 billion euros tax to Ireland (Click here)
2 - Bangladesh court upholds death sentence in war-crimes case (Click here)
3 - UN under pressure to set up inquiry into Syria aid programme (Click here)
4 - China charges U.S. woman with espionage (Click here)
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China's Foreign Devil
Perhaps China's problem is its lenders rather than its borrowers. Deep in the nonperforming loan details of Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China, the nation's two most international lenders, was a large spike in overseas soured debt. That could slow Chinese companies' acquisition spree, which has largely been fueled by cheap advances from domestic financial institutions. What has caused the sudden change is unclear, but both ICBC and Bank of China have been very aggressive in lending to Beijing-and Shanghai-based firms that have been buying up businesses from Seoul to New York. With bankruptcies escalating, some of the foreign debt seems to be going bad as well.
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Justice Department gave high court incorrect data in case
The Justice Department said it provided the Supreme Court with erroneous information that helped it win a 2003 case upholding a blanket policy of denying bail to immigrants imprisoned while appealing deportation orders.
TTIP in further doubt as Hollande questions timing
The TTIP trade deal was dealt another blow on Tuesday as the French president cast doubt on when an agreement would be reached. Francois Hollande said it would not be finalized before Barack Obama left office later this year. Meanwhile, Germany's economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said it had no chance of being agreed before the US presidential election in November. The Americans were unwilling to compromise with Europe, he said. Gabriel, who said over the weekend that the talks had in effect failed, also questioned whether the deal had any chance after the election. "But if the Americans don't move towards the Europeans, then Europe can't agree to a 'TTIP light'. And with this, the project - at least how it was all planned for this year - has failed," he said.
Donald Trump to visit Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto
US Republican candidate Donald Trump is to visit Mexico on Wednesday, after repeatedly disparaging the country during his campaign. Trump tweeted that he was looking forward to meeting President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has invited both him and Democrat Hillary Clinton. Pena Nieto said dialogue would help "protect Mexicans wherever they are". Trump has condemned Mexican migrants during his campaign and vowed to build a wall between the two countries.
Federal appeals court dismisses AT&T data throttling case
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday dismissed a 2014 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) case against AT&T Mobile, which took issue with AT&T's disclosures regarding the reduction of a customer's data speed. The process, known as "data throttling," involves an Internet service provider (ISP) slowing data speed once customers reach a certain usage threshold. The FTC claimed AT&T was deceptive and did not notify customers that this would occur, alleging that speeds were reduced by almost 90 percent in some cases. However, the court of appeals found that these claims could not hold up under the FTC Act due to an exemption for "common carriers." The FTC expressed their dissatisfaction with the result but have not stated whether they will appeal.
EU's net neutrality guidelines get published
The EU is taking a tough line on net neutrality. The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (Berec) - which represents all the EU's communications regulators - has finally published guidelines clarifying how telecom companies should treat the data they handle, months after a law concerning the matter was published. Berec says only a limited number of services will be able to ask for special treatment, and then only so long as it is not to the detriment of others. The new rules also set out consumers' right to be free to access and distribute information and content, run applications and use services of their choice, so long as they are not illegal. The publication has been welcomed by digital rights experts.
Google to expand ride-sharing service in San Francisco
Google plans to expand a ride-sharing service in San Francisco using its Waze app, setting up a potential showdown with market leaders Uber and Lyft. Waze gives traffic conditions and driving directions in real time. Since May Google has been running a pilot carpooling service, which uses Waze to connect drivers and passengers near its California headquarters. But by the end of the year anyone in the Bay Area will be able to request a ride, using the Waze app. If successful, Google may look to expand the service to other cities. The move may undercut its rivals, as Waze charges cheaper rates. Under the pilot program, Waze charged riders a maximum of 54 cents a mile with no booking fee.
Korean business braces for corruption crackdown
Extravagant dinners with whiskey and wine, golfing weekends, pricey beef and seafood gift sets. South Korean companies are trying to figure out how to do without these common forms of business hospitality before the nation’s toughest-ever anti-graft law takes effect next month. The law will weaken practices referred to in South Korea as "jeopdae," which focus on entertaining business colleagues, government officials and journalists. Passage of the legislation came after public anger boiled over when ties between regulators and the shipping industry were exposed in the wake of the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster.
Another ignition switch win for GM
Another victory for General Motors in its ongoing ignition-switch related litigation: a Texas jury decided that the car maker wasn’t liable for a 2011 accident that left a driver with brain injuries. While this verdict is only the latest in a string of victories for GM, the legal battle could likely stretch on for years.
Harvard is digitizing nearly 40 million pages of case law
Historically, libraries have been collections — books, multimedia materials and artwork. But increasingly they're about connections, linking digital data in new and different ways. The Caselaw Access Project is a state-of-the-art example of that shift. Harvard Law's collection, second only to the one kept by the Library of Congress, includes the civil and criminal case law decisions from every state and federal court. Adam Ziegler is the managing director of the Library Innovation Lab at Harvard. He is leading a team of legal scholars and digital data workers in the lab's Caselaw Access Project. "I think for court decisions, law books are becoming obsolete and even to some some degree a hindrance," he says. "We want the law, as expressed in court decisions, to be as widely distributed and as available as possible online to promote access to justice by means of access to legal information," Ziegler said. "But also to spur innovation, to drive new insights from the law that we've never been able to do when the law was relegated to paper."
Albania passes a judicial reform law, key to EU efforts
Albania's parliament has approved a law to check the personal and professional backgrounds of judges and prosecutors in a move to convince the European Union to launch membership negotiations. An extraordinary session of the 140-seat parliament passed the law, part of the country's judicial reform efforts, with 88 votes in favor and one abstention on Tuesday. The opposition boycotted the vote. The law, prepared with help from EU and US experts and reviewed by the Council of Europe's Venice Commission, allows authorities to check the incomes and property holdings of judges and prosecutors and their professional backgrounds. The justice system will be restructured to ensure that judges and prosecutors are independent from politics, and to root out bribery.
Both sides urge US Supreme Court to resolve credit-card law
A group of Florida businesses agrees the US Supreme Court should resolve questions about the constitutionality of a state law that has barred merchants from imposing surcharges on customers who pay with credit cards, but the answer might ultimately come in a case from New York. Attorney General Pam Bondi in June asked the Supreme Court to take up the dispute, after a federal appeals court ruled that the law violated the First Amendment. The US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit said the law allows businesses to offer discounts to customers who pay with cash but does not allow surcharges for credit-card purchases, a situation the ruling likened to "distinctions in search of a difference." Lawyers for four Florida businesses that challenged the law filed a document this month agreeing that the case is worthy of a Supreme Court decision. But they urged the justices to resolve the issues through a New York case, which involves a similar law and was filed earlier.
Law clerk accused of pretending to be judge is fired
Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans, who has come under criticism for his handling of allegations that one of his law clerks put on a robe and heard cases, has fired the clerk. In a terse, three-paragraph statement, Evans' office said that Rhonda Crawford "is no longer employed as a law clerk/staff attorney" assigned to the south suburban Markham courthouse. The statement said that judicial rules prevented Evans from commenting further on the matter.
New York Court redefines parenthood to protect gay couples
New York’s highest court upended how the state legally defines parenthood, reversing course on a ruling that blocked many same-sex couples from seeking the court’s help in custody disputes.
Intellectual-property-law firm reorganization
The number of law firms in the US devoted exclusively to intellectual-property matters has been shrinking. Intellectual-property lawyers—both litigators and those who process patent applications—typically have technical backgrounds, with many holding advanced degrees in engineering or the sciences. That has made poaching existing intellectual-property specialists or scooping up entire boutiques even more attractive to larger firms trying to get into the practice. Rather than a merger, deals are structured in a way that has become popular lately: hire the lawyers but leave the struggling firm’s liabilities behind.
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