Law Firm

Donald Trump vs. The MQD

Ironically, a conservative legal doctrine might block some of his excesses.

Trump hasn’t been at all secretive about plans for a possible second term. He has plans, big plans. So big, in fact, that they may collide with a conservative judicial rule called the Major Question Doctrine (MQD). Since the Court has mostly used the MQD to block initiatives by Democratic presidents, it would be more than fair to apply it to Trump. What’s sauce for the goose, after all, is sauce for the gander.

The exact contours of the MQD are still unclear, but the upshot is a restriction on dramatic administrative actions that lack clear congressional authority. The underlying theory is that Congress probably would want to decide rather than delegate “an issue of vast economic and political significance” to the executive branch. Applying that theory, the Supreme Court struck down an Obama

ICANN’s next new gTLDs application round may be closer than we thought, after a policy working group dramatically reduced the timetable for completing its work.

The Internationalized Domain Names Expedited Policy Development Process team has managed to shave a whopping 13 months off its schedule, potentially leading to a similar period being shaved off the runway to the next application window.

The IDNs EPDP had expected to deliver its final deliverables — policy recommendations on how IDNs are handled in gTLD applications — in November 2025, meaning the earliest they could be adopted by the ICANN board would be March 2026.

Because the IDNs policy was seen as a critical gating factor to the next round of comments, the date ICANN penciled in for the next application window was May 2026.

But now the IDNs EPDP group has revised its deadline down to October 2024, member Donna Austin told the

Family Law FAQs: What is my wife entitled to post-separation in Australia?

When couples are separating or divorcing, financial and parenting questions can cause a lot of frustration. The answer to what your wife is entitled to during a divorce will depend on a variety of factors. These factors will ultimately impact the division of assets, child custody arrangements and special maintenance. This is a general guide on the confusing question of what your wife is entitled to.

Property division post-separation

In Australia, the Family Law Act 1975 legislations divorce and property settlements. The division of assets and liabilities, such as property, real estate, investments, and even superannuation, must be divided in a manner that the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia will consider “just and equitable”. This does not necessarily mean that it is divided equally. “Equitable” means “fair”, which doesn’t always (and often won’t) translate to a

Hearings in the Supreme Court are now shown live on the Court’s website.

On Wednesday 19^th July the Court will hand-down judgment in Jones v Birmingham City Council and another [2023] UKSC 27. The Court will determine whether Part 4 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 is incompatible with Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The hand-down will begin at 9:45am in Courtroom 1.

From Wednesday 19^th July – Thursday 20^th July the Court will hear the case of Commissioners for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs v Fisher and anotheron appeal from [2021] EWCA Civ 1438. The Court will consider what is the correct construction of the anti-avoidance provisions in section 739 and following of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 (and its successors in Chapter 2 of Part 13 of the Income Tax Act 2007)? in particular:

1. When does an

Comparing the Risks of Climate Change and Geoengineering

The OSTP has adopted a ‘risk-risk’ framing in its report on geoengineering research: will this help or hinder a sound climate policy?

Last month’s report on solar geoengineering research from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) consolidated a shift in the discourse on this controversial technology. Over recent years advocates for more research have increasingly adopted a ‘risk-risk’ framing. As Gernot Wagner puts it in ‘Geoengineering: the Gamble’: “The decision is all about risk-risk tradeoffs”. He urges us to put the risks of potentially pursuing solar geoengineering against “the risks of unmitigated climate change.”

The National Academy of Sciences adopted a ‘risk-risk’ framing in its 2021 report. So too did the UN Environment Program earlier this year. And the same framing now features centrally in the OSTP report. Here it is often linked to a concern that continued

• On Thursday, North Korea’s defense minister made a veiled threat about a nuclear first strike.

• He said the US’ latest actions could possibly fall under conditions Pyongyang set for a nuke launch.

• Kang Sun-nam was responding to the USS Kentucky, a nuclear-armed sub, docking in Busan.

North Korea’s defense minister warned on Thursday that recent US military actions could “fall under the conditions” set by Pyongyang to launch a preemptive nuclear strike.

Kang Sun-nam made the threat in response to Washington stationing an Ohio-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine, the USS Kentucky, in Busan on Tuesday. It’s the first time

A Los Angeles film production company and its domainer CEO have objected to Epik’s request to transfer its ICANN accreditation from the discredited former registrar Epik Inc to mystery new registrar Epik LLC.

Todd Ryan, CEO of American Business Capital Corporation and a domain investor, has written to ICANN to say that transfers should be blocked until “all outstanding debts” are paid.

He’s particularly concerned with customers that may have been left out of pocket by Masterbucks, the payments service that has been described as a PayPal clone or simply a jumped-up Epic store credit system.

“The financial losses incurred by customers who used Masterbucks, a payment method provided by Epik registrar, are a matter of significant importance,” Ryan wrote.

“It is crucial that ICANN, as the governing body responsible for overseeing the domain registration industry, takes decisive action to ensure that all debts owed to these affected customers are

On appeal from: Mrs Philipp: [2022] EWCA Civ 318

In 2018 Mrs Fiona Philipp and her husband, Dr Robin Philipp, fell victim to a fraud. They were deceived by criminals into instructing Barclays Bank (the Bank) to transfer £700,000 in two payments from Mrs Philipp’s current account with the Bank to bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates. The instructions were carried out and the money was lost.

In these proceedings Mrs. Philipp claims that the Bank is responsible for this loss. She contends that the Bank owed her a duty under its contract with her or under common law not to carry out her payment instructions if – as is alleged – the Bank had reasonable grounds for believing that she was being defrauded.

The Bank applied to have the claim summarily dismissed on the ground that, as a matter of law, it did not owe Mrs Philipp