Prohibition of pollution of marine environments: challenges and prospects

In South Africa, the right to a clean environment is constitutionally guaranteed. However, this right is being violated on a daily basis by the mining companies who degrade and harm the environment in the communities they operate. Even though laws have been put in place to regulate, protect and deter degradation, the reality is that the mining companies have been found wanting several times in discharging their constitutional obligations not to degrade and harm the environment. This paper examines impacts and effects of the mining activities. It also looks at the legislative interventions that have been put in place to serve as checks against the mining companies and provides insights on how they are being used to regulate harmful mining practices.

Municipal bonds are an option available to many cities to raise long-term financing to finance the infrastructure projects. This study aims to develop and find local measures of creditworthiness that are suitable and applicable for local government units in Palestine. Different variables are recognized to see the effect on the issuance of municipal bonds, macroeconomic variables measured by revenues and expenditures per capita, cost of capital, and unemployment rate. Municipal status variables have subgroup variables of municipality size, financial reporting quality, outstanding debt, and financial distress. Various financial ratios, comparative and cross-sectional analysis, horizontal and vertical analysis were used. These ratios and analysis have been used to determine the municipal status variable. The results of the study were limited to the largest 11 sample municipalities; each is the central local government unit at the governorates and was not generalized for all municipalities in Palestine. The study found that macroeconomic and municipality status affects the issuance of municipal revenue bonds. Based on the study results, municipal bonds are highly recommended. Also, instructions from the Ministry of Local Government need to be established and to enforce municipalities about the declaration date of publishing audited financial statements.

An effective system for combating banking crimes can ensure the stability of the Ukrainian banking sector. Developing such a system requires an analysis of public policy institutional instruments to counter threats to the banking system stability. The article proposes the crime counteraction concept for the Ukrainian banking system based on the analysis of scientific articles dealing with the issue, relevant provisions of legal acts and on the study of functions of law enforcement agencies, individual executive bodies, central public authorities, state collegial bodies, territorial NBU departments, Ukrainian banks and their branches, the Deposit Guarantee Fund, international institutions, and bank clients.
It has been established that the stability of the Ukrainian banking system can be ensured by effective interaction of all actors in combating crime in the banking business. Overlapping of their functions and some conflict rules negatively affect ensuring the banking system stability by entities engaged in banking crime counteraction. Therefore, an algorithm of cooperation between relevant counteraction entities should be developed and reflected in the Banking and Financial Security Strategy on the legislative level. Optimization of statistical reporting on crime in the Ukrainian banking sector in a more informative format requires data on both individual types of banking crimes and on the persons who commit them. As part of the work of the National Bank of Ukraine’s Public Council, it is necessary to organize regional public councils and ensure cooperation between bank clients and local banking institutions. It is assumed that the development of effective mechanisms for protecting rights and legitimate interests of depositors and creditors, as well as combating criminalization in the banking sector will be the main functions of these regional public councils. The relevant innovations require amendments to the Regulation on the NBU Public Council.

Acknowledgment
The article was prepared as part of a project for young scientists of Ukraine in 2017 (state registration number – 0117 U 006531), Improving the Legislation of Ukraine Regarding the Protection of Banking Activities in the Context of European Integration: Economic and Legal Aspect, by Alyona M. Klochko, Ph.D. (Law), Sumy National Agrarian University, Head of the Chair of International Relations.