Both measures were immediately blocked in court, and the states undertook expensive battles to defend their laws.
Article 46 of the convention says, however, that member states "undertake to abide by the final judgment of the court in any case to which they are parties".
"Member states undertake to implement immediately the necessary systematic and coordinated checks at external borders, including on individuals enjoying the right of free movement [EU citizens]," the meeting decided.
The law itself clearly empowers Mr. Duncan to grant states waivers, but several experts have challenged his plan to demand that states undertake policies he favors to get the waivers.
Booming trade has failed to moderate territorial and historical disputes, highlighting that economic interdependence by itself cannot deliver regional stability unless rival states undertake genuine efforts to mend their political relations.
In the aftermath of that blaze, in New Mexico and elsewhere, the United States Forest Service, along with communities and states, undertook efforts to encourage fire defense in vulnerable areas on the edges of wildlands, including thinning of trees and reduction of flammable materials in proximity to structures.
The Contracting States undertook in Article 1 common to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 "to respect and to ensure respect" for these Conventions "in all circumstances".
This amendment was not adopted, but later that year the UN General Assembly did go so far as to recommend that all states "undertake combating 'defamation of religions,'" Favret-Saada writes.
The Energy Department -- which handed out NEPA exemptions to recipients with some of the nation's worst environmental compliance records -- has funded a $21.8 million wind farm project in Texas, as well as a $204 million electrical grid upgrade project in five additional states, undertaken by Duke Energy.
The deeper problem is that the 26 states undertook this political litigation with scant attention, much less analysis, of the overall best interests of their residents, including those families with members who might be eligible for the important, though temporary, relief afforded through deferred action.
The 2008 Baseline Survey of Education in the northern states, undertaken by the Federal Ministry of General Education, found that more than one-third of families who did not enrol children in school did so through choice, rather than because of any external obstacle.
