At a time when there are still a number of voices calling for the Internet to remain a law-free zone, a whole bundle of conflicts have already emerged, many of which have found their way to lawyers and the courts in a substantial number of different jurisdictions. It surely now cannot be doubted that the Internet, like any other place in the world where people come together and follow their own interests, needs rules to be developed for the handling of such conflicts. Lawyers have already reacted and have created a new area of law, commonly called "law of the Internet" or "cyberlaw". This area, however, is far from being strictly defined. It touches on many existing areas of law, but at the same time it deals with a wholly new medium - cyberspace - which itself is subject to constant change and development. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that in a number of cases the predictions as to how this law will look at some selected moment in the future are vague and uncertain. This is particularly true for the commercial side of the Internet, for which the term "e-commerce" has been coined. So rapid have been the developments of e-commerce, that it is now frequently said that this is the future of any commerce and that it carries the potential for enormous growth - at least for the business to business ("B2B") sector. This text covers some important legal issues arising in e-commerce.

"The Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business", in its 2007 edition, treats two major topic areas: litigation and dispute resolution and banking and finance. The litigation and dispute resolution section examines various issues relating to international arbitration, such as the status of non-signatories, the employment of electronic discovery, the use of expert evidence, and costs. It further surveys the recognition of enforcement of foreign judgments in Italy, developments in litigation in Australia, Anton Pilar Orders and Internet defamation, and Italian conflict-of-law rules.The banking and finance section of the Yearbook examines Austrian capital maintenance rules, bank secrecy in Israel, and broker-dealer and investment banking strategies. Miscellaneous articles deal with Mexico's commercial bankruptcy law, Slovakia's new bankruptcy legislation, trade marks and the Madrid Protocol, trade mark registration in Hong Kong, franchising in Italy, data protection, Spanish antitrust legislation, and cartel enforcement in Australia.

ADR is not merely a substitute for court proceedings or arbitration, but a method of dispute settlement in its own right. In ADR proceedings, the parties call upon a third party not for a decision, but for assistance in reaching an agreement. As a result, ADR is not only less expensive and usually quicker than other methods, but it is capable of giving both parties some degree of satisfaction. The purpose of this book is precisely to look at ADR on its own terms as a way of resolving business disputes, particularly at the international level. Drawing upon diverse approaches, ADR experts from a variety of countries explore the situations to which ADR lends itself and the different permutations it offers to allow each dispute to be handled in the manner most fitting to the circumstances. The contributors also show how ADR serves such important considerations as the interests involved, the need to avoid a public display of differences, and the wish to anticipate problems. By throwing new light on the achievements of ADR and the possibilities it offers, this book will help to situate ADR amongst the panoply of dispute resolution methods now available to the international business community. Practitioners faced with drafting a dispute resolution clause in a contract, or dealing with a dispute which has arisen, will find expert guidance here when deciding which method of resolution to adopt, or whether a combination of procedures would be appropriate. Academics will discover a very useful volume which not only deals with many of the issues raised by ADR, in particular its relationship with arbitration, but also provides material for comparative study of how these issues have been approached and treated until now in various regions of the world, cultures and backgrounds.

For undergraduate courses in the Legal Environment of Business. The single most up-to-date text available for the Legal Environment course. The Legal Environment of Business and Online Commerce examines how the current legal environment, government regulation, and e-commerce environment impact today's business decisions. The cases in this text are cutting-edge, exciting, and engaging, and the reasoning of each case is presented in the language of the court. The seventh edition includes many new cases, statutes, and features.

For courses in Negotiation/Dispute Resolution. Complete and broad in coverage, this book addresses negotiations and dispute resolution in a wide variety of settings. Because skill development is an important part of becoming a masterful negotiator, concepts are augmented with numerous exercises, activities, role plays, and self-assessments. By combining theoretical foundations with experiential exercises, the book helps students develop their ability to negotiate and resolve conflicts in both personal and professional settings.

As a result of high levels of income and consumer spending, Poland has been an increasingly interesting destination for trade. It is particularly attractive to foreign investors seeking to establish a presence in the country with strong human resources and an ideal geographic location at the heart of Europe. An ambitious strategy of pre-accession to the European Union has charged the legal environment of business towards being more friendly towards foreigners and increased the capacity of the Polish market to cope with competitive pressure within the Union. Comprehensive in its coverage, this book is an excellent source of reference for practitioners and policy-makers, as well as a fundamental resource for lawyers involved in business. Polish Business Law is a guide providing information and best practice advice from outstanding lawyers of CMS Cameron McKenna.

Letters of credit have retained their role as an instrumentality for the financing of foreign trade. An understanding of the law and practice in point is imperative for lawyers advising business people and bank clients, as well as for the banking and trading communities. The book examines the topic on the basis of the common law system, primarily UK law, and adopts an approach that is analytical and not merely descriptive. Letter of credit transactions are, by their nature, international and most nations have adopted the Uniform Customs and Practices ("UCP") originally promulgated by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in 1933 and updated from time to time. Today, the UCP constitutes a code of internationally accepted rules governing letter of credit transactions. The authors have therefore selectively incorporated some comparative discussion, for instance, of the position in the USA and Europe. The book will be an essential work of reference for commercial lawyers in all the major financial centres of Europe, America and Asia.

This text makes detailed analyses and comments on the MAI from the perspective of a Chinese scholar. The author believes that the "behind closed doors" process of MAI negotiations is unacceptable for developing countries, NGOs, and civil societies, and is inadvisable for any future negotiations on investment rules. The substantive contents of the MAI which include the definition of investor and investment, treatment of foreign investors and investments, treatment for investment protection, and the dispute settlement mechanism are of high standards that render them unreachable and unacceptable for developing countries. The nine chapters of the book include: an introduction; An analysis of the background of the MAI negotiations which briefly reviews the process and results of the negotiations and makes the author's comments on the negotiations; an analysis and evaluation of the main features of MAI provisions and the approaches adopted by the MAI; An exploration of the scope of application of the MAI through the analysis of the respective definition of investor and investment in the MAI, and points out that the purpose of broad definition is to broaden the MAI's scope of application; An analysis and comment on the MAI's general principles of treatment accorded to foreign investors and their investments, and points out that the MAI's provisions in this regard have negative impacts on developing countries; An introduction to the MAI's specific rules of treatment accorded to foreign investors and their investments in such new areas of international investment as performance requirements, investment incentives, key personnel, privatization, as well as monopoly, state enterprises and concessions. There is also: an analysis and commentary on the MAI's treatment provisions on investment protection, that is, the fair and equitable treatment and full and constant protection and security treatment as the general treatment, and the specific treatment with regard to expropriation and compensation, protection from strife and transfers; an introduction to and evaluation of the MAI's dispute settlement mechanism: the state-state procedure and the investor-state procedure, and; a conclusion.

China's company and commercial law is still in formation, but its emerging patterns contain many practical elements that can be of immediate use to business people and their counsel. This guide presents not only the current disposition of such elements, but also an analysis, by two outstanding Chinese legal scholars with US, UK, and Canadian experience, of likely developments in the future. As well as providing an understanding of the legal issues affecting transactions in China, this book offers systematic treatment of such business factors as: procedural aspects of setting up a business in China; business incentives and restrictions; contracts; competition; taxation; property rights; protection of creditors; regulation of foreign trade and investment; regulation of financial markets; insolvency; and intellectual property rights.

This guide aims to be concise, but not superficial, practical, but fully alert to the hidden dangers lurking in the interstices of applicable law. A notable feature is the emphasis on particular Belgian practice in such specific areas as representations and warranties, purchasers' and sellers' protection. M&A in Belgium deals with all the elements of a merger acquisition or a joint venture transaction - shareholders' rights, compliance with foreign investment regulations and competition law, structuring, due diligence, financing, transfer formalities, documentation, and taxation. The authors pay close attention to the relevant demands of labour law and environmental law, and offer especially valuable guidance in helping the practitioner to recognize the environmental "red flags" that can make or break a deal. Whether the contemplated merger or acquisition is pure share, share-share, asset-share, or pure asset, private or public, friendly or hostile, this book should provide the exact procedural details that add up to a successful deal.

The book provides readers with an overview of the unique features of German business and enterprise law and an in-depth analysis of the organs of governance of German public limited companies (general meeting, management board, supervisory board). In addition, approaches for reforms required at the international level are also suggested and discussed, including, among others, the unique interplay and dynamics of the German two-tier board model with the system of codetermination, referring to the arrangement of employees sitting on the supervisory boards of German public limited companies and private companies employing more than 500 employees; also covered are significant recent legal developments in Europe.The book highlights the core function of valuation and financial reporting at the international, European and German levels, with accounting as the documentary proof of good corporate governance. Corporate governance encompasses the free enterprise system, which is treated comprehensively in this book from a German perspective. This distinguishes the book from other books written in English in this subject area, not only because of the comprehensive way it covers German corporate law and corporate governance, but also because of the fact that it provides international and European perspectives on these important topics.The book is addressed to researchers, practitioners and basically anyone with an interest in the complex, but intriguing areas of corporate law and corporate governance.

The essentials of mergers and acquisitions (M & A) practice can best be examined from a buyer's perspective. In a corporate transaction, it is the buyer who typically faces the more substantial risks. In many instances, legal problems exist of which the buyer must be aware before deciding to purchase the target company. The book features a collection of reports by experienced young practitioners from seventeen different jurisdictions, along with a general report for a working session organised by the Corporate Acquisitions and Joint Ventures and Tax Law Commissions of l' Association international des jeunes avocats (AIJA) for the AIJA Annual Congress in Lisbon in August 2002. Each national report follows the same structure as the general report, but from a local perspective.

This year, the "Yearbook Commercial Arbitration" has reached the milestone of thirty years of documenting the law and practice of international commercial arbitration. The Yearbook provides up-to-date and informative material to arbitration scholars and practitioners in the form of arbitral awards and court decisions, as well as newly adopted or amended arbitration rules. An indispensable feature of the Yearbook is the reporting on the 1958 New York Convention, which in this volume includes the greatest number of cases yet - 79 court decisions from 12 countries throughout the world. These cases are indexed and linked to the General Editor's earlier-published Commentaries on the New York Convention, facilitating research on any aspect of the Convention. The Yearbook also contains recent court decisions applying the 1961 European Convention, the 1975 Inter-American Arbitration Convention and the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, as well as leading cases on topical issues from a variety of jurisdictions. Austrian, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish decisions are translated into English, giving the reader access to material which might otherwise be inaccessible. Arbitral awards made under the auspices of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, the German Maritime Arbitration Association and the Hamburg Friendly Arbitration deal with procedural and substantive issues of general interest to the business and legal communities. New and amended rules adopted by the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), the China Maritime Arbitration Commission (CMAC) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) are reproduced and information is provided on arbitration legislation recently enacted in Chile, Denmark, Norway, Philippines and Poland. A Bibliography and List of Journals keep the reader up-to-date on relevant literature. The worldwide scope and variety of the materials of the Yearbook assure the reader of a comprehensive annual overview of international commercial arbitration.

Legal Do's and Don'ts in Venture Capital Transactions goes a long way to fulfilling the need of practitioners and entrepreneurs to structure cross-border venture capital transactions that are not only initially successful but enjoy continued profitability with the strength to overcome inevitable obstacles. It will be warmly welcomed by the venture capital and private equity community throughout the world.

This book explores current developments in transnational commercial and consumer law. It features essays written by leading experts, many of who have taken part in the negotiation and formulation of the international instruments they discuss here. The contributors look at issues arising from the profound changes that globalization is having on the legal norms governing commercial and consumer transactions, both domestic and transnational. They consider how relations between private actors, state regulators, and national courts are being completely reconfigured. This, in turn, generates pressures for legal harmonization and creates opportunities for new national and transnational legal norms and procedures to develop. The contributions address both the dynamics and the substance of these developments. Topics included are the UNCITRAL Model Law on secured transactions and on cross-border insolvency, the ICC Uniform Customs and Practices of Documentary Credits (UCP 600), and the dispute resolution mechanism and practices of the World Trade Organization. The content was formerly presented as papers at the 18th Biennial Meeting of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law (the International Academy) at Kyushu University, Japan. Overall, this book provides readers with a solid theoretical foundation and strong familiarity with the practice of law and international commerce, offering realistic and practical conclusions.

In response to pirate attacks in the Western Indian Ocean, countries worldwide have increasingly authorized the deployment of armed guards from private military and security companies (PMSCs) on merchant ships. This widespread trend contradicts states' commitment to retain a monopoly on violence and discourage the presence of arms on civilian vessels. This book conceptualizes the extensive use of PMSCs as a form of institutional isomorphism, combining the functionalist, ideational, political and organizational arguments used to account for the privatization of security on land into a synthetic explanation of the commercialization of vessel protection.

This text contains chapters covering a variety of legal issues. The first section deals with contractual matters, including joint venture contracts, agreements relating to agency, distribution, licensing and franchising, time sharing and preliminary agreements regarding the buying and selling of property. The second section deals with the privatization of former state-owned companies and monopolies, such as media organizations. Under the heading of "Corporate Law", joint stock companies, sub-chapter S corporations, takeovers and new company legislation are discussed. The section on securities and investment deals, in particular, with the area of foreign investment, including tax incentives and the regulation of investments. There is also a section on taxation, which concentrates on offshore jurisdictions, and a section on general commercial issues. The topics covered in this final section vary to include technology transfer, evidential procedures, free trade areas, the regulation of resources, anti-trust matters, dispute resolution and new commercial legislation.

This book addresses the various sustainability issues that the tourism industry has faced over time like the trend from over-tourism to under-tourism or from tourism in increasingly distant destinations to a new local tourism with new needs. It also highlights how contracts, both between businesses and those with consumers, can represent tools for the financial, ecological and social sustainability of the tourism industry.

This volume provides an in-depth approach to issues and problems currently confronted by multi-national enterprises ("MNEs") and other large foreign investors in China at the beginning of the 21st century. The volume examines legal, business, and strategic issues for foreign investors that are seeking to enter the China market and for those foreign investors already in China and seeking to expand or reorganize their operations. The volume takes an overall approach of the large foreign investor with a long term business plan for China and proposes a basic corporate structure for this investor. The structures involves a series of wholly foreign owned enterprises, joint ventures, and representative offices all under the control and ownership of one or more investment holding companies. Each of the entities in this structure are discussed individually and as part of an overall corporate conglomerate. The volume also examines the protection of intellectual property as a basic corporate business problem that should be part of the initial planning process as the foreign investor makes its initial move into China. Too often protection of intellectual property is not considered to be a priority until violations occur in China. Some prior planning and an emphasis on protecting intellectual property rights can be advantageous and help to avoid the serious problems that can later arise. This volume is written for those business and legal managers who are given heavy responsibilities for managing a China business but who lack a background in China. Because of the great interest in China by many MNEs, many business and legal managers are moving to China or are given additional responsibilities in the US for the MNE's new China operations. Many of these persons are expected to make decisions about a China operation even though they may lack even basic knowledge about the Chinese political, legal, and business environment. This is the first book written by an American lawyer designed to address this need.

Franchising has long been an integral part of the globalization of business and an important tool in the spread of investment.
In this special issue of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business, practitioners who are specialized in franchising -- its potentials as well as its pitfalls -- provide reports on franchising developments in national systems such as:
- Australia,
- Austria,
- Canada,
- Chile,
- China,
- the Czech Republic,
- Denmark,
- France,
Germany,
- Greece,
- India,
- Indonesia,
- Israel,
- Malaysia,
- Mexico,
- Norway,
- Russia,
- Singapore,
- Spain,
- Thailand, and
- Turkey.

This edition of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business surveys issues involved in post-employment employer-employee relations and the ability of employers to control the conduct of a former employee. The survey's introductory chapter provides a general review of issues in the context of multiple jurisdictions, followed by countryby-country analyses of 17 jurisdictions, encompassing reports on Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, Gibraltar, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, the Slovak Republic, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

This book is available digitally as an Open Access resource at www.boomdenhaag.nl. Click here to access the content. In recent years there has been significant growth in international business courts in Europe and across the world. They have been established as expert dispute resolution forums offering procedures in English for international commercial parties. Governments have promoted their development as an integral aspect of broader public policy agendas with the aim to enhance the rule of law and the attractiveness of their jurisdictions as legal and economic hubs. While these courts can be lauded for facilitating international commercial dispute resolution and boosting justice innovation, the development of competition in the international litigation market is a remarkable trend that merits discussion. International Business Courts provides a comprehensive critical evaluation of the institutional design and procedural rules of established and emerging international business courts. It focuses on major European and global centres. It assesses to what extent these courts, the competition between them and their inter relationship with arbitration, contribute to justice innovation. It considers their impact on access to justice and the global litigation market, as well as their effect on the rule of law. This book is of interest to legal practitioners, academics and policy makers in the area of civil justice and international business litigation.

This book focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, delineating the evolving dynamics of foreign investment in the region. It examines the relationship between efforts to increase foreign direct investment (FDI) and efforts to improve governance and inclusive growth and development. Against a background of rapidly developing international investment law, it emphasises the need to strike a balance between these domestic and international legal frameworks, seeking to promote both foreign investment and the laws and policies necessary to regulate investments and investor conduct. Foreign investments play a pivotal role in most countries' political economies, and in order to encourage cross-border capital flows, countries have taken various steps, such as revising their domestic legal frameworks, liberalising rules on inward and outward investment, and creating special regimes that provide incentives and protections for foreign investment. Alongside the developments in domestic laws, countries have also taken bilateral and multilateral action, including entering into trade and/or investment agreements. Further, the book explores regional investment trends, highlights specific features of Asia-Pacific investment laws and treaties, and analyses policy implications. It addresses four overarching themes: the trends (how Asia-Pacific's agreements compare with recent global trends in the evolving rules on foreign investment); what China is doing; current investment arbitration practice in Asia; and the importance of regionalising investment law in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, it identifies and discusses the research and policy gaps that should be filled in order to promote more sustainable and responsible investment. The book offers a valuable resource not only for academics and students, but also for trade and investment officials, policy-makers, diplomats, economists, lawyers, think tanks, and business leaders interested in the governance and regulation of foreign investment, economic policy reforms, and the development of new types of investment agreements.