Love Thy Neighbor: The Tampere Convention as Global Legislation
The Internet, 24-hour news sources, and a host of other telecommunications advances have allowed global citizens to become instantaneously informed. With the privilege of real-time updates and acute awareness of the world’s events comes the responsibility of being more than a passive observer. Specifically, this Note focuses on the technological improvements in communication during natural disasters—improvements that can be used to assist and aid the victims of catastrophes. In the aftermath of a natural disaster, the country affected is rarely able to provide for its citizens; tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes can (and often do) cripple an entire nation. This Note argues that a global responsibility exists to step in and help an affected country when it cannot help itself.  For instance, the 1998 Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations is the first global attempt to concretely define relief efforts by other nations, without demanding compliance or a singular rigid course of action. Instead, the Convention creates a flexible framework that each member nation can adapt to its own telecommunications infrastructure. In legislating on a global scale, the Convention acknowledges the interconnectedness of the world’s people, and presents ways in which global citizens can improve one another’s existence in the hours following a natural disaster—arguably when they need help most.
Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies: An Introduction
The Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies is a faculty-edited, peer reviewed interdisciplinary journal focusing on the intersections of global and domestic legal regimes, markets, politics, technologies, and cultures. "Globalization" means different things in different contexts, and we offer this journal as a forum for communication and exchange among the many research agendas that now involve this concept. In our view, "globalization" refers to complex, dynamic legal and social processes; it is not?or at least not necessarily?a synonym for "universality" or "homogeneity." Nor is "global" necessarily a synonym for "world-wide." Global processes can be intensely local or regional. They may result, for example, from economic or political forces that create markets for goods, capital, or labor that are beyond the control of any one nation-state. Similarly, global processes can be the result of problems such as ozone depletion, global warming or reductions in biodiversity that create issues transcending the boundaries of nation-states. Some of these transnational forces and issues generate transnational law and global legislation such as the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer; however, different localities and different domestic legal regimes may and often do respond to such global forces in different ways. Domestic law?local, state, or federal?may thus be affected significantly by a variety of forces outside the control of any of the local decision-makers involved. Global forces may encourage new forms of economic and legal integration or harmonization across local legal and economic systems. On the other hand, such global forces may also trigger local, domestic reactions that deepen tensions between multinational and
A single amino acid substitution in elongation factor Tu disrupts interaction between the ternary complex and the ribosome
Elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu).GTP has the primary function of promoting the efficient and correct interaction of aminoacyl-tRNA with the ribosome. Very little is known about the elements in EF-Tu involved in this interaction. We describe a mutant form of EF-Tu, isolated in Salmonella typhimurium, that causes a severe defect in the interaction of the ternary complex with the ribosome. The mutation causes the substitution of Val for Gly-280 in domain II of EF-Tu. The in vivo growth and translation phenotypes of strains harboring this mutation are indistinguishable from those of strains in which the same tuf gene is insertionally inactivated. Viable cells are not obtained when the other tuf gene is inactivated, showing that the mutant EF-Tu alone cannot support cell growth. We have confirmed, by partial protein sequencing, that the mutant EF-Tu is present in the cells. In vitro analysis of the natural mixture of wild-type and mutant EF-Tu allows us to identify the major defect of this mutant. Our data shows that the EF-Tu is homogeneous and competent with respect to guanine nucleotide binding and exchange, stimulation of nucleotide exchange by EF-Ts, and ternary complex formation with aminoacyl-tRNA. However various measures of translational efficiency show a significant reduction, which is associated with a defective interaction between the ribosome and the mutant EF-Tu.GTP.aminoacyl-tRNA complex. In addition, the antibiotic kirromycin, which blocks translation by binding EF-Tu on the ribosome, fails to do so with this mutant EF-Tu, although it does form a complex with EF-Tu. Our results suggest that this region of domain II in EF-Tu has an important function and influences the binding of the ternary complex to the codon-programmed ribosome during protein synthesis. Models involving either a direct or an indirect effect of the mutation are discussed.