>> Eduardo Soares: Good afternoon. Welcome to the Law Library of Congress Foreign Comparative Law Webinar Series. I'm Eduardo Soares, Senior Foreign Law Specialist in the Law Library's Global Legal Research Directorate. This webinar will focus on some of the recently published Law Library Research reports prepared during to 2022 and discuss the trends in foreign law developments identified in the reports. Before I start talking about the reports, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the research products of the Law Library of Congress. Our research products are single country reports, multinational reports, and comparative studies. Legal opinions for federal agencies, country law studies. Reference assistance to our patrons and guides and databases. On the left hand side. You can see a list of similar reports. And on the right hand side, an example of what a multinational report looks like. Every year the law libraries teams create on average between three and 400 in-depth research reports and some more than a thousand congressional reference questions on U.S. law and legislation. In fiscal year 2022, our legal reference librarians processed and responded more than 10,000 reference and research requests from congressional and other legislative branch staff, federal courts and agencies and public veterans. Our Foreign Laws specialists responded to 993 in-depth research requests from all groups of clients, including 289 from congressional offices, 378 from executive branch agencies, and 227 from members of the bar. We published 291 articles in the Global Legal Monitor and 188 blog posts on the In Custodia Legis blog. On our website, as you can see, our reports can be found by topic region, date or author, which is highlighted on the left hand side. I'll give you a moment to go through the details show -- shown on this slide. The Global Legal Monitor is an online publication that covers legal news and developments worldwide, where you can browse by topic, jurisdiction or author, again highlighted on the left hand side. This is an example of a Global Legal Monitor article that I contributed last October on combating fake news during the recent Brazilian General Elections. Our blog title In Custodial Legas, which in Latin means in the custody of the law, is a nod to the fact that the Law Library of Congress is a custodian of law and legislation for both the nation and the world. Our team of bloggers covers current legal trends, developments and enhancements to Congress. .gov. The official website for U.S. Federal Legislative Information. It also covers issues in collecting for the largest law library in the world, legal history and [inaudible] and a range of international perspectives. In addition, the Legal Research Institute offers a wide variety of legal research classes to the general public on topics related to American legal research, as well as foreign comparative law. Some of our classes include our Orientation to Legal Research series, which covers research strategies and resource related to federal statutes, U.S. case law and federal regulations. Now focusing on the reports, I will briefly discuss some of the recently published ones. They are, Investment Migration Programs of Visa Waiver Program Countries, Economic Espionage Laws, Laws on Abortion, Genetic Consultation and Assisted Reproduction and Mass Timber Construction. The report on Investment Migration Programs of Visa Waiver Countries cover 40 jurisdictions. Let's start with the definition of the Visa Waiver Program, which is administered -- administered by the Department of Homeland Security in consultation with the State Department. The program allows citizens of these 40 countries to travel to the United States for business or tourism for stays of up to 90 days without a visa. In return, those countries must permit U.S. citizens and nationals to travel to their countries for a similar length of time without -- without a visa for business or tourism purposes. These are the countries that are part of the Visa Waiver Program. Within these 40 countries, our research identified 28 jurisdictions that offer investment migration programs. Such programs enable applicants who make investments in the country to obtain either a residence visa or more readily citizenship. Most of the programs specify the minimum amount and types of investment that must be made in order to qualify. Austria is the only country that offer an investor visa program that provides for immediate citizenship by investment. Malta also has a program that specifically enables citizenship to be granted to investors, but requires residence for a period that varies depending on the level of investment. Slovakia and Slovenia allow investor visa holders with significant investments to obtain citizenship in a shorter period than is otherwise required. The majority of the other jurisdictions with investor visa programs provide a pathway to citizenship if a minimum period of residence and other conditions for naturalization -- naturalization such as permanent residency status are met. The amount required to be invested varies from no minimum to up to $3.2 million in investments. In Chile, citizenship will be available after five years of residence with no requirement for a minimum investment. Germany does not specify minimum amounts. Instead, the level of capital investment is taken into account and citizenship is available after eight years of residence. In Slovakia, there is also no minimum investment requirement, but visas are issued on a case by case basis upon the government's approval of a business plan and company investments. Ten years of residence are required to become a citizen, and in Switzerland, although there is no requirement for a minimum investment, the amount must further substantial or significant capital fiscal interests and the investor must have ten years of residence before applying for citizenship. The Czech Republic has the highest minimum investment requirement of about $3.2 million and ten years of residence are required to qualify for it's citizenship. The types of investment also vary from country to country. Andorra, for example, does not specify the type of investment that must be made if a person is willing to invest about $443,000 and reside in the country for ten years to become a resident or to become a citizen sorry. Croatia requires proof of ownership of at least 51% in a business with investment projects and a minimum investment of -- of about $110,000. Citizenship is available after eight years of residence. A minimum investment of about $73,000 is required in Estonia or about 17,000. If the person is self-employed. To acquire citizenship, the investor must reside in the country for eight years, and five of which, as a permanent resident, Latvia requires a minimum amount of about 280,000 for investment in real estate. Small amounts of investments starting at about $90,000 are possible for company investments under specific conditions. The minimum residence period is ten years. Permanent residency is available after five years of temporary residency. No physical presence requirement for investors receiving a temporary residence permit. However, physical presence in the country is required for those who apply for permanent residency or citizenship. In Singapore, the minimum investment is about $1.840 thousand and two years of residence to acquire citizenship. As you can see in the jurisdictions that offer migration programs, the requirements for an investor to become a citizen vary a lot. I invite you to read our full report on investment migration programs of visa waiver program countries so that you can see for yourself the difference and similar -- similarities of all the programs. Now let's take a look at the report on economic espionage. This report addresses economic espionage laws and the regulation of fraudulent filing of corporate import, export, and banking documentation in 16 countries. These are the countries discussed in the report. In the United States, Section 1831 of the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 defines economic espionage. To summarize, U.S. law defines economic espionage as the commission of various activities, such as stealing, unauthorized taking, copying and photographing trade secrets with the intent to benefit a foreign government for instrumentality or foreign agents. Let me give you a moment to read this Section 1831. The country surveyed do not have standalone comprehensive legislation on economic espionage. Instead, they subject certain related unauthorized activities to criminal or civil penalties, or both. Offenses that may be relevant to commercial espionage are espionage an offense against state secrets, filing fraudulent corporate registration information, filing fraudulent import export documentation, filing false cross customer information with banking entities, violating trade secrets and technology protections and unfair competition. A number of the country surveys specifically regulate the use and export of defence technology and impose penalties on violators. In the absence of specific legislation on economic espionage, the countries refer to their penal codes, civil codes and specific legislation to address violations related to trade secrets or acts of espionage. To mention just a few of the countries covering the report. The penal code of Afghanistan, for example, contains a number of offences concerning espionage involving military defense of -- or security secrets, treason, disclosure of nuclear secrets, disclosure of secrets related to a job or occupation and disclosure of commercial and industrial secrets. Azerbaijan also makes use of the Penal Code to criminalize unauthorised procurement, disclosure or dissemination of confidential economic information. While in Georgia, the Penal Code defines espionage as the collection, storage, transfer or extortion or stealing of items, documents, information or other data containing state secrets for the purpose of handing them to a foreign country, foreign organization, or its representatives, or collection or transfer of other information to the detriment of Georgia upon instructions of a foreign intelligence service or of a foreign organization. Punishments for espionage in the surveyed countries involve the payments of fines, time in prison. In the United Arab States. any person who assists the enemy or a country or a hostile group or a group with intent to harm the security of the state by giving information or assists as a guide thereof shall be sentenced to death. In general, economic espionage related offenses require the prosecution to prove allegations against the defendants beyond a reasonable doubt. In most of the jurisdictions official information, arrests and convictions is limited to media reports. The exception is Israel, with decisions rendered by the Israel Supreme Court, magistrate and district courts. If you'd like to have more details, I again invite you to read our full report on the economic espionage law. Now, let's take a look at the report on abortion, genetic consultation and assisted reproduction -- Reproduction loss. This report discussed loss on abortion, genetic consultation, assisted reproduction in 11 countries. These are the countries discussed in the report. In all of these countries, abortion is allowed. However, the circumstances under which abortions may be performed vary. Some of these countries have enacted specific legislation to regulate genetic consultations and assisted reproduction. In most of the countries, abortion is allowed for up to 12 weeks, as is the -- as is the case in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic and up to 14 weeks in France, Romania and Spain. While no justification for an abortion is required in the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. In Bulgaria, a woman seeking an abortion must first consult with a doctor. In the Netherlands, a legal requirement determines that an abortion must only take place when a woman's emergency situation makes it unavoidable -- unavoidable. This is also the case in Poland, which only allows an abortion if the life or health of the pregnant woman is at risk or the pregnancy is the result of a crime. As for medically assisted reproduction amongst the countries that have issued regulations, gender selection or cloning is prohibited. In Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania, other requirements exclude the participation of homosexuals or single persons. Abortions are complex subject subjects as it is -- its regulation. For more information, please take a look at the full report for more details. Now let's take a look at the reports on Mass Timber Construction. These two reports discuss mass timber construction. The first one provides a broader survey of ten jurisdictions, while the second performs a more summarized survey of 33 jurisdictions, which encompasses the ten jurisdictions of the first one. These are the 33 jurisdictions covered in both reports. The ten countries highlighted in red are part of the -- of the broader survey. These reports provide an overview of global jurisdictions and their legislative and policy frameworks concerning the use of mass timber in construction. Couple seconds for you to take a look at the countries. Thank you, Barbara. Okay, let's go. Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom have not adopted national mandates for the use of timber in building construction. European Union aims to increase the use of wood in construction to help reduce gas emissions. The European Union plans to develop a 2050 road map for reducing road home life cycle carbon emissions in buildings, as well as a methodology to quantify the climate benefits of wood construction products and other building materials. In general, timber construction products that are marketed in the European Union must conform to the requirements of the directly applicable regulation to ensure the safety of construction products. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Gibraltar, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway and Sweden follow European Union regulations. Austria, Bermuda, Canada, Croatia, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland and Ukraine have enacted some type of regulation of the subject. The Austrian parliament, for example, has enacted the Foreign Fund Act to promote the use of raw material wood for construction as an active contributing -- contribution to climate protection. Bermuda does not appear to have any specific restriction on the use of mass timber in its building laws. The building code provides for innovative or alternative materials to be used, provided that they are at least the equivalent of that prescribed in the code in quality, strength, effectiveness, fire, resistance, durability and safety to other materials prescribed in the code. Japan enacted the actual promotion of use of timber in buildings to contribute to the realization of decarbonized society. It gives a significant and basic direction of promoting the use of wood in public buildings. In Switzerland, The Forest Ordinance emphasized that the use of timber and timber products must be promoted in the planning, construction and operation of federal buildings and installations. It seems that the use of mass timber is a work in progress and that advances have been made in several jurisdictions. For some details on mass timber constructions, please visit our website. You can see the hyperlinks on both of the report, so feel free to take a look and get more familiar with mass timber construction in these jurisdictions. As we come to the end of this presentation, I'd like to thank Barbara Davis for her support in the background that made this presentation possible. In this webinar, we highlight some of the work we have been doing, discussed trends in foreign law, developments identified in the reports and the different approaches undertaken by countries to resolve their particular challenges. At this time, we will entertain some questions. Please feel free to use the Q and A feature to send your questions. Any remaining questions or those that cannot be addressed at this time should be forward to the contact information that appears in the next slide. As we did not have any questions, thank you for attending today's presentation. We ask that you - Please complete the exit survey that will appear when you leave the webinar room. Thank you for listening.