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December 15, 2004
International Jurisdiction

Yukos thinks US civil law should reach from Houston to Moscow:
Yukos files for bankruptcy in the US

The embattled Yukos oil company has filed for bankruptcy in the United States and appealed for an injunction against the auction of its main production unit that is scheduled for Sunday.
…
"Yukos is asking the court for a temporary restraining order halting the planned Sunday auction of its Yuganskneftegaz subsidiary by Russian authorities," said the statement posted on Yukos’ Web site.

Others think, even in serious criminal cases, international reach of law and judicary independence should be restricted:

"If you get an adventurous prosecutor who might want to seize onto one of these frivolous lawsuits, it could affect the broader relationship. I think that’s probably safe to say,"

says  Lawrence DiRita, the Pentagon’s spokesman, about the criminal complaint filed in Germany against American servicemen US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other officials over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

If the Yukos case is invalid, is the case against Rumsfeld invalid too?

Posted by b on December 15, 2004 at 13:06 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Tiny Revolution has a nice catch:

“While condemning Iraq’s chemical weapons use… The United States finds the present Iranian regime’s intransigent refusal to deviate from its avowed objective of eliminating the legitimate government of neighboring Iraq to be inconsistent with the accepted norms of behavior among nations and the moral and religious basis which it claims.”

Posted by: b | Dec 15 2004 14:12 utc | 1

the teachings of school of thinking of the imperialists, to which yukos & dirita obviously adhere, can be summarized thus:
a) “if it’s good for us, who cares whether it’s good for you”
b) “anything that is good for you but isn’t good for us is very bad for your health”
c) “don’t do as we do, do as we say”
d) “all your resources belong to us. especially petroleum”
e) “you owe us money”
(in no special order of relevance)

Posted by: name | Dec 16 2004 10:54 utc | 2

Nevertheless, on Sunday, Yukos is going going gone.

Posted by: gylangirl | Dec 17 2004 3:19 utc | 3

Kremlin Reasserts Hold on Russia’s Oil and Gas

A ruling late Thursday in a federal bankruptcy court in Houston, however, raised some questions about the participation in the auction of banks that were expected to finance the deal. A federal bankruptcy judge in Houston, Letitia Z. Clark, issued a temporary restraining order intended to block the participation of lenders and Gazprom. The banks, analysts said, have extensive operations in the United States and might be concerned about ignoring the restraining order, which could put them in contempt of court.
But Judge Clark’s ruling did not apply to the government of Russia, and analysts said they expected the Russian authorities would go ahead with the auction on Sunday regardless of the ruling.

Posted by: b | Dec 17 2004 8:07 utc | 4

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