Legal, Economic & Regulatory Affairs News by GLG Council Members

Novartis' rhetoric seems not to be supported by the published data.  Novartis probably lags behind Merck and Sanofi-Pasteur in vaccine R&D.

Iran is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons, Iran is pursuing the development of more advanced missile delivery systems, Iran is in violation of the UN Security Council and the IAEA

Let's start with a joke: a ten dollar bill lies on the crossroad. To the north there's Santa Claus. To the west, the Tooth Fairy. To the east a radical Muslim. To the south, a moderate Muslim. Who reaches the ten-dollar bill first? Answer: the radical Muslim. All others are mythical creatures. You don’t believe it? A high school student in Canada, Nada Farooq and sixteen  men were arrested...

Fiduciary responsibilities apply to many facets of all businesses.Transparency has become a greater focus for our legal system.

Under the Third Geneva Convention ( Article 4 )  a fighter or belligerent in an international armed conflict who wanted lawful combatant status (and therefore prisoner of war status if captured), would have to meet certain criteria including: (1) That of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates; (2) That of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance; (3) That...

The requirement to satisfactorily prove additionality as part of any CDM application limits the extent to which projects that would have happened anyway slip through to benefit from the CDM process. However, it is almost certain that the inherent difficulty in proving (or disproving) additionality has seen some misuse of the system. On the other hand, CDM has encouraged low-hanging-fruit CDM projects...

The Wegman’s NAS Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics, believes that Mann’s assessments - Dr. Mann started the infamous “hockey stick” hypothesis - going under the label MBH 98 and MBH 99,making, in turn,  Al Gore of Kyoto "fame" an idol of “greens” -cannot be supported by his analysis.  It says:"....MBH98 and MBH99 were found to be ‘somewhat obscure and incomplete’...

How is it that the country that literally invented cell phones is now lagging behind other countries in making them more convenient and accessible to consumers?  For twenty years, Americans have been forced to live by "take-it-or-leave-it" contracts with service providers.  It was only a few years ago that an American could change their service provider AND bring their old number with...

Until the housing mortgage markets are no longer under severe stress, the federal government will do whatever it takes to ensure the solvency of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Therefore, rating agency downgrades of these government-sponsored entities are irrelevant for the foreseeable future.

There is a misconception in America that lobbyists are bad and that any information provided by them is tainted.  As the Federalist Papers demonstrate, this view is myopic - if not downright dangerous - if one considers how the American process of government works.  Government works best when it hears from the broadest base of constituents that would be affected by its actions.  Lobbyists...