All articles — page 5

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Licensing a Launch and a Reentry

No person may launch a launch vehicle or reenter a reentry vehicle from United States territory, and no United States citizen may do so anywhere, without an FAA license or permit. A vehicle operator license issues only after policy, payload, safety, environmental and maximum probable loss determinations are complete. The licensee must then carry liability insurance in the amount the agency calculates and must sign reciprocal waivers of claims.

7 min readFederal law

Space & Satellite Law

Licensing an Earth Station and Where It May Be Built

Transmitting earth stations require an authorization; receive-only stations do not, though registration buys interference protection in shared bands. Applications are streamlined where the antenna meets the off-axis emission limits and are otherwise supported by a coordination showing. In bands shared with terrestrial services, frequency coordination is required, and siting is constrained by environmental, historic preservation, radiofrequency exposure, structure and land use requirements.

6 min readFederal law

Mining & Mineral Rights

Locating an Unpatented Mining Claim on Federal Land

A mining claim is created by discovering a valuable mineral deposit on land open to location, marking the boundaries so they can be readily traced, and recording the notice of location both under state law and with the Bureau of Land Management. No agency approves the location. The claim conveys a possessory right to the minerals and to surface use reasonably incident to mining, and it remains valid only while the discovery holds.

6 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

Losing Citizenship by an Expatriating Act

Section 349(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act lists the acts by which a national may lose United States nationality, including foreign naturalization, an oath of allegiance to a foreign state, service in a foreign military, accepting foreign government employment, and formal renunciation. Loss occurs only where the act was performed voluntarily and with the intention of relinquishing nationality. The party asserting loss carries the burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence.

6 min readFederal law

Antitrust & Competition

Market Definition and the Hypothetical Monopolist Test

Both the merger provision and the monopolization provision require a relevant market with a product dimension and a geographic dimension. Product markets are drawn by reasonable interchangeability of use and cross-elasticity of demand, tested by asking whether a hypothetical sole seller of a candidate group could profitably impose a small but significant non-transitory price increase. If it could not, the next-best substitute is added and the question is repeated.

7 min readFederal law

Trade & Customs

Marking Imported Goods With Their Country of Origin

Section 304 of the Tariff Act requires every article of foreign origin imported into the United States to be marked conspicuously, legibly, indelibly and as permanently as the article permits, in English, with the country of origin, so that the ultimate purchaser is informed. Exceptions in the regulations cover articles that cannot be marked, containers marked instead of contents, and goods the importer will further process. Unmarked goods attract an additional duty of ten percent of value.

6 min readFederal law

Mining & Mineral Rights

Mill Sites and Tunnel Sites Beside a Mining Claim

A mill site is a parcel of nonmineral public land, not exceeding five acres, held for mining or milling use rather than on a discovery. A tunnel site secures the veins cut by a tunnel driven to develop a lode, for a stated distance from the face, and is lost by six months of inactivity. Both are recorded like claims and both carry the annual maintenance fee.

7 min readState law

Mining & Mineral Rights

Mine Safety Citations and How They Are Contested

The Mine Act requires regular unannounced inspections of every mine, four times a year underground and twice at surface operations. An inspector who finds a violation issues a citation fixing a time for abatement, and may escalate to a withdrawal order for failure to abate, for unwarrantable failure, or for imminent danger. Operators contest the enforcement action or the proposed penalty within thirty days, before an independent commission rather than the enforcing agency.

6 min readFederal law

Antitrust & Competition

Monopolization: Power Plus Exclusionary Conduct

A monopolization claim requires possession of monopoly power in a relevant market and the willful acquisition or maintenance of that power, as distinguished from growth resulting from a superior product, business acumen or historic accident. Power is shown by a high share in a market protected by entry barriers, or by direct evidence. Attempted monopolization substitutes a dangerous probability of success plus specific intent for actual power.

7 min readFederal law

Art & Cultural Property

Nazi-Era Looted Art and the Statutory Revival of Claims

The Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act supplies a uniform federal accrual rule for civil claims to recover property lost between 1933 and 1945 because of Nazi persecution. A claim may be brought within six years of the claimant's actual discovery of the identity and location of the property and of a possessory interest in it, notwithstanding contrary state law. The Act creates no cause of action, decides no ownership question, and leaves sovereign immunity untouched.

5 min readFederal law

Immigration & Naturalization

Notarial Services at an American Consulate

Consular officers may administer oaths, take depositions and perform notarial acts having the same force and effect as acts performed by a notary public within the United States. Posts execute acknowledgments and affidavits, certify copies against originals presented to them, and authenticate the seal and signature of a foreign official on a public document. They will not draft or advise on documents, certify the accuracy of a translation, act on an incomplete instrument, or perform marriages.

6 min readFederal law

Space & Satellite Law

Orbital Debris Mitigation and Post-Mission Disposal

An application for a space station authorization must include an orbital debris mitigation plan covering debris released in normal operations, the probability of accidental explosion, collision risk with large objects, and post-mission disposal. Low Earth orbit spacecraft must be removed from orbit promptly after the mission ends, geostationary spacecraft must be raised into a disposal orbit above the arc, and uncontrolled reentry must satisfy a human casualty risk ceiling.

6 min readFederal law

Fields of law

This journal

All articles — page 5

Licensing a Launch and a Reentry

Licensing an Earth Station and Where It May Be Built

Locating an Unpatented Mining Claim on Federal Land

Losing Citizenship by an Expatriating Act

Market Definition and the Hypothetical Monopolist Test

Marking Imported Goods With Their Country of Origin

Mill Sites and Tunnel Sites Beside a Mining Claim

Mine Safety Citations and How They Are Contested

Monopolization: Power Plus Exclusionary Conduct

Nazi-Era Looted Art and the Statutory Revival of Claims

Notarial Services at an American Consulate

Orbital Debris Mitigation and Post-Mission Disposal