Legal Counseling

Being administered at local centres throughout the world in 120 countries, IELTS is one of the most widely used large-scale ESL tests that also offers a direct writing test component. Because of its popularity and its use for making critical decisions about test takers, the present article finds it crucial to draw attention to some issues regarding assessment procedures of IELTS. Therefore, the present paper aims to provide a descriptive and critical review of the IELTS writing test by focusing particularly on various reliability issues such as single marking of papers, readability of prompts, comparability of writing topics, and validity issues such as the definition of the "international writing construct," without considering variations among rhetorical conventions and genres around the world. Consequential validity-impact issues will also be discussed and suggestions will be given for the use of IELTS around the world and for future research to improve the test.

Evidence-based practice has become an important approach to social work practice. This paper highlights some of the ethical dilemmas which may be implicated by this approach, and encourages social workers and social work researchers to carefully consider these potential quandaries.

At the top of the assessment pyramid are multinational testing corporations, best known by the names of their standardized tests, such as IELTS, TOEIC, TOEFL, BULATS, TKT, Cambridge ESOL main suite, or G-TELP (there are many other aspirants). In some ways these testing companies can be thought of as the Big Pharma corporations (i.e. drug companies) of the educational world. Like Big Pharma they are subject to constant challenges to their ethics and reliability from within and without, and like Big Pharma they are rather prone to corrupt the issues which they were designed to assist with. The possible corruption of language learning by the requirements of testing is known as wash-back. Wash-back is not always malignant. The analysis in this paper is a tentative attempt to manipulate the wash-back from an international test in a manner which actually assists genuine language acquisition. This material is drawn from some Masters degree work (2005) and comes to 138 pages.

A reference work for specialists in student counselling and for those who employ counsellors in mental health services. It provides an analysis of research in this area and provides useful information on the extent and severity of student mental health problems and the effectiveness of counselling and psychotherapy across the student population. This is the first publication to systematically identify, assess and review research in this area.

This brochure was developed to summarize the author's experience of work as a corporate counsel in multinational companies. The handbook describes the role, tasks, and challenges of an in-house lawyer.

The corporate counsel's handbook contains recommendations on optimization of law department work. It clarifies techniques to mitigate legal risks for the business, including in area of competition and anti-corruption law.

Published in April, 2014

Dr. Jann M. Contento has been an institutional researcher in at Estrella Mountain Community College's Office of Planning and Institutional Effectiveness since 2002. He provides strategic planning and research analysis in support of student success and oversees a variety of projects related to educational evaluation and assessment. He earned a baccalaureate degree in economics from Illinois Benedictine University and a master's degree in Higher Education and a Ph.D. in Educational Research and Policy Studies from Arizona State University. He has a broad range of experiences in higher education student affairs administration, strategic planning, and policy formation within state and institutional settings. He has served as an academic advisor, counselor, academic program manager, instructor, athletic administrator, and student development practitioner at Arizona State University from 1989-2000. He has contributed to a number of published articles, and co-authored a book chapter. His primary area of research focuses on the complex social-political factors that influence education policy. This includes awareness of internal and external forces that can enable or inhibit effective leadership.

Considering the Interpretation of Article XI of the US-Argentina BIT according to the VCLT; Considering that the Tribunal's award erroneous held that Argentina had breached the fair and equitable standard and the Umbrella clause of the BIT; Considering the Tribunal's failure to apply the defence of 'necessity' under Article XI of the BIT, equating it with the 'necessity' contained in Article 25 of the ILC's Articles on State Responsibility for Internationally Wrongful Acts (customary international law), manifestly ignoring the rules of primary and secondary norms; Considering that the Tribunal manifestly exceeded its powers in failing to apply the applicable law: Article XI of the BIT; and Considering that the proper application of the "necessity" clause remains uncertain; this party request the annulment of the Tribunal's award of September 28, 2007, concerning the appropriate interpretation of the words "measures necessary for… the protection of its essential security interests" in Article XI of the US-Argentina BIT, as follows.

This article explores the role of counsel before the International Court of Justice, taking into account their tasks under the Statute of the Court and the legal value of their pleadings in international law. Pleadings of counsel constitute State practice for the formation of international customary law and treaty interpretation, and that they are attributable to the litigating State under the law on State responsibility. Accordingly, in principle, counsel present the views of the litigating State, which in practice approves in advance the pleadings. This consideration is relevant in discussing the role of counsel assisting Sates in politically sensitive cases, where there is no necessary correspondence between the views of the States and that of their counsel. Especially when less powerful States are parties to the relevant disputes, the availability of competent counsel in politically sensitive cases should not be discouraged since it advances the legitimacy of the international judicial function.