This study will identify the extent in which American oil companies make billions daily from oil production, while local Nigerians suffer daily from poverty. The focus of this research will be on the population of Niger Delta, Shell Oil Company and the Nigerian government. I will define and establish an illustration of the poverty-structured environment that surrounds Niger Delta and the revenue success of Shell Oil Company and Nigerias government. This research will open the eyes of American oil companies, Nigerias federal government and people around the world to the revenue that is coming into Nigeria, but the communities are still living in poverty. Something needs to be done; if something is not done, some the people of Niger Delta will continue to retaliate.

Abstract. The extension of the American rules of procedure to foreign countries undertaken by US judges has led to conflicts of jurisdiction, which could become a threat to international trade. The essay compares the systems of civil procedure in the USA and Germany and also tries to analyse and evaluate them from an economic point of view. The investigation shows that the US-American rules of pre-trial discovery and the way that the procedural and lawyers’ costs are allocated are the source of various abuses within the American legal system and for this reason are rejected internationally. The American view that regulation of lawyers’ fees, like that applying in Germany, should simply be regarded as cartels, disregards the considerable damage to third parties that the American costs rules entail. In comparison with the European systems, the American rules of procedure give rise to too many unjustified and over-expensive legal disputes. Zusammenfassung. Die von US-Richtern vorgenommene Ausdehnung amerikanischer Prozeßregeln auf das Ausland hat zu internationalen Justizkonflikten geführt, die zu einer Bedrohung des internationalen Handels werden können. Der Aufsatz vergleicht die Zivilprozeßstrukturen zwischen den USA und Deutschland und versucht diese auch aus der Sicht der Wirtschaftswissenschaften zu analysieren und zu bewerten. Die Untersuchung zeigt, daß die US-amerikanischen Regelungen der pre-trial-Discovery und der Verteilung der Prozeß- und Anwaltskosten ursächlich für verschiedene Mißstaäde im amerikanischen Justizsystem und damit deren internationale Ablehnung sind. Die amerikanische Sicht, Anwaltsgebührenordnungen nach deutschem Muster als bloße Kartelle anzusehen, übersieht die mit den amerikanischen Kostenregelungen verbundenen erheblichen Schädigungen Dritter. Die amerikanischen Prozeßregeln vemrsachen im Vergleich zu den europäischen Systemen zu viele unberechtigte und zu teure rechtliche Streitigkeiten.

Historically, the drug industry has been one of the most profitable in the United States of America and has been attributed to the relatively high cost of drugs compared to other developed countries. The call on drug companies to reduce the costs has increased tremendously with the industry strongly resisting, claiming costs are justified to support research and development of newer and better drugs. This debate is currently ongoing in the legislature with strong lobbying from both sides of the divide.  Hence, the main objective of this research is to determine the reasons for the high cost of prescription drugs in the United States compared to other countries and suggest ways to make drugs more affordable. The solution to the problem will most likely come from a compromise by both sides involving government funded research and production of generic drugs by companies. This would bring down the cost of drugs while ensuring continuation of research and development and guarantee reasonable profits for the drug industry.

As called for under the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operation, 1990 (OPRC), “Parties to the OPRC convention are required to establish measures for dealing with pollution incidents, either nationally or in co-operation with other countries.” As a signatory to OPRC the U.S. Government (USG) has pledged to assist other countries in the development of their own oil spill response capabilities and while USG has many agreements that meet the guidelines of assisting other countries, there is no formal engagement strategy for developing further agreements, no agency championing this effort, and there are many still requiring assistance. However, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) is uniquely positioned to perform the role of drafting an engagement strategy and working with the global community to assist those countries that have yet to develop an adequate oil spill response system of their own due to the lack of resources, expertise or both. There are many hurdles to enabling USCG to assume the OPRC assistance banner that have been previously addressed (Adams, IOSC 2001), which this paper will not seek to readdress. However, if USG does decide to move forward with an integrated policy there remains the need to develop an adequate engagement strategy. This strategy is necessary to ensure the limited resources available for foreign assistance are expended in the most cost effective, ethical and responsible manner possible. There are three alternative strategies I will analyze in an effort to determine the best suited for implementation of this policy. These three strategies are based primarily on 1) environmental need, 2) geographical proximity, and 3) political/economic interests. The goal of this strategy is to effectively implement the oil spill assistance policy alluded to previously in support of the U.S.'s pledge under OPRC. This paper will analyze the success of each strategy making a recommendation on which one USG should pursue.

No abstract