British corporate execs oppose EU constitution News
British corporate execs oppose EU constitution

[JURIST] A new opinion poll released Monday by the Financial Times shows that almost 70 percent of Britain's finance directors are opposed to the country adopting the new European constitution [official website; treaty text]. Thirty percent of business managers responding to the FT poll said they "strongly oppose" Britain adopting the EU constitution, and another 38 percent said they are "generally opposed" to its adoption "but could be persuaded in favour of it if I thought it would be good for Britain." Only four percent indicated that they "strongly support Britain adopting the new European constitution." Finally, 26 percent said they generally supported Britain adopting the treaty, but said they "could be persuaded against it if they thought it would be bad for Britain." A British referendum on the EU constitution [JURIST report] is expected to be held next year, although an exact date has not yet been set. The Financial Times has more. Elsewhere in Europe, France is scheduled to hold a referendum on the EU constitution in May, but the government there is warning of an EU constitution crisis [JURIST report] in the face of rising voter opposition [JURIST report] to the document.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Bank of England granted political independence

On May 6, 1997, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announced that the Bank of England would be granted political independence for the first time in the three-hundred year history of the Bank. This policy was statutized in the subsequent Bank of England Act of 1998 gave the Bank independent control of British monetary policy effective June 1, 1998. Read the Bank of England Act of 1998.

Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese laborers from US

On May 6, 1882, President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring Chinese laborers from entering the United States and prohibiting courts from bestowing US citizenship on Chinese. Connecticut Senator Joseph Hawley spoke out against the Act in these words: Let the proposed statue be read 100 years hence, dug out of the dust of ages and forgotten as it will be except for a line of sneer by some historian, and ask the young man not well read in the history of this country what was the reason for excluding these men and he would not be able to find it in the law. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and its successors were abolished in 1943 at the insistence of President Franklin Roosevelt.