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.

Virtually every jurisdiction is developing private international law rules to deal with trusts and similar ring-fenced structures. With the increasing impact of globalization, business interests throughout the world are intent on maximizing the potential of such structures for raising funds, lowering risks and cutting costs. As a result, numerous complex issues involving the traditional categories of settlor, beneficiary and fiduciary are being radically transformed. This text offers analyses, by 16 authorities in the field, of a broad range of trust-related issues. The many insights in this book reveal the workings of such issues as: the disappearing divergence between common law and civil law jurisdictions in the matter of trusts; using the segregated fund concept to manage the risk of insolvency; the demise of the "amateur trustee" in the charitable trust sector; why loss to the fund supersedes particular losses of beneficiaries; the legal dimensions of hiding ownership by "giving" property to trustees; the intervention of public policy in questions of perpetuity; the selective imposition of OECD and FTF transparency initiatives on offshore jurisdictions; and "policing" of trustee behaviour by beneficiaries. Lawyers, bankers and others dealing with investment and business finance should find much information as well as food for thought in this book, as should those involved in the traditional trust industry, whether as trustees or lawyers or fund managers. Most of the essays in this collection were originally prepared for presentation at a conference held in 2001 at King's College London.

The Review of the CISG is published once yearly and features articles written by prominent legal scholars in the field of international sale of goods from around the world. In addition to scholarly writings analyzing the various articles of the CISG, the book seeks to compile translations of recent decisions as well as commentaries of notable cases relating to the CISG. The Review of the CISG provides both a forum for legal discussion within the international legal community in the area of international sales law and as an authoritative source of reference for international scholars.

The 2006 edition of the "Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business" examines issues in three major topic categories: Litigation and Dispute Resolution, Investment Vehicles, and Secured Interests in Immovables. Lawyers from Nigeria, the United States, and Ireland review the settlement of investment disputes, the impact of claims on non-United States companies, and claim and dispute resolution under FIDIC. Practitioners from Israel, Panama, Hong Kong, and Belgium treat investment vehicles such as trusts, foundations, and joint ventures and investment visas. Contributors from Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, and Mexico review the use of security in real property in their respective jurisdictions. Finally, lawyers from Brazil, Canada, the United States, Germany, South Africa, Ukraine, and Romania treat issues ranging from trade mark counterfeiting, registered designs, and telecommunications to criminality in international business transactions, outsourcing, and business immigration.

This edition of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business provides a general examination of issues vital to the world's economic recovery. In the field of company law, practitioners examine changes in Russia's corporate law and the new Ukrainian law governing joint-stock companies. In the area of competition law, lawyers review Serbia and Bulgaria's new laws on the protection of competition and the private enforcement of Articles 101 and 102 in Europe's national courts. Dispute resolution occupies two chapters, one dealing with best practices for drafting arbitration clauses and the other set aside, recognition, and enforcement of private commercial arbitration awards. A further two chapters treat employment and labor matters relating to distribution and commercial representation, indemnity upon termination, and processing personal data in the employment context of Hungary. In the area of financial services, practitioners from five jurisdictions deal with fiduciary duty, the European Commission's proposed Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers, Swiss disclosure rules on significant shareholdings, restructuring and refinancing routes for mortgage-secured debt in Spain, and insurance laws and regulations in Nigeria. Foreign investment is examined by two authors, reporting on 2008 and 2009 developments in investment treaty disputes and foreign investment in Indonesia. Intellectual property issues are reviewed in chapters relating to the use of intellectual property as collateral in secured financing and intellectual property licensing in Canada. Finally, lawyers treaty a variety of other issues, including the tax law of Liechtenstein, European Union-Israel trade in the automobile sector, insolvency risk and creditors' rights in Peru, the modernizing of trust law in Hong Kong and bridging cultural differences in international Transactions.

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.

Nations in all regions of the world today share a common international sales law, the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The Convention was prepared by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and adopted by a diplomatic conference on 11 April 1980. Since then, the number of countries that have adopted the CISG account for over two-thirds of all world trade. The area of international sales law continues to grow as technology and development take us to a global economy. As such, the study of the CISG has become an integral component of this ever-growing area of international commercial law. "The Pace International Law Review edits the "Review of the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), a book published by Kluwer Law International. The Review of the CISG is published once yearly and features articles written by prominent legal scholars in the field of international sale of goods from around the world. In addition to scholarly writings analyzing the various articles of the CISG, the book seeks to compile translations of recent decisions as well as commentaries of notable cases relating to the CISG. The Review of the CISG provides both a forum for legal discussion within the international legal community in the area of international sales law and as an authoritative source of reference for international scholars.

Involved with the development of the English Arbitration Act at various stages, the authors of this work have provided a publication of the Act with a detailed, non-English language commentary. Enacted in June 1996, the 1996 English Arbitration Act only came into force on 31 January 1997. Unlike other materials published or prepared before the Act's effective date, this book is current to January 1998 and takes account of the significant, last-minute decision to remove the distinction between international and domestic arbitration in English law. The authors present the material in English, French, German, and Spanish, with each version consistently arranged for easy access. Arbitration experts from the relevant countries prepared the translations under the guidance of experts in the field. The authors have conveniently set out the commentary in footnotes on a section-by-section basis. Through this work the reader should gain an opportunity to study this important and complex legislation in his or her own language with expert guidance.

This book on the legal aspects of aerospace activities from government procurement to insurance, financing, communications, space transportation, intellectual property, trade, antitrust and technology transfer is comprehensive yet self-contained and practical. The rational distribution of materials among 11 chapters makes topics of specific interest easy to find. This guide is essential reading for executives of aerospace companies and their contractors as well as government agencies, lawyers and other professionals.

The specific materials contained in the book are introduced by a general description of the entities involved in aerospace activities and the main laws and regulations. Contracts relating to space activities are described and discussed in the second chapter which is complemented by a description of government and international agency procurement in the following chapter. The insurance needs of commercial space are discussed in chapter four. Satellite communications, a major component of commercial space, are dealt with in chapter five. The next chapter describes financing techniques for space ventures which, by their very nature, require enormous amounts of capital and are notoriously risky. Chapter seven and eight deal with launch services and space transportation both in terms of business aspects and regulatory issues. The trade issues involved in launch and other space activities are dealt with in chapter nine. Intellectual property is discussed in chapter ten. The last chapter deals with technology transfer and spinoffs. The topic is discussed in detail since it has enormous practical importance in the defense reduction environment of the nineties.

The vast expansion of international trade has greatly increased the incidence of cross-border ownership of assets, both tangible and intangible. It is not uncommon, for instance, for a business to own both physical plant and intellectual property in two or more jurisdictions. Under these circumstances, it is vital for business persons and their counsel to have some knowledge of a variety of relevant domestic legal regimes, particularly in regard to available remedies. This text provides the essential details of such knowledge for 14 important commercial jurisdictions: Argentina, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, England and Wales (United Kingdom), and the US. Each country survey is presented by an experienced business law practitioner in his or her particular jurisdiction. Each chapter's coverage includes discussion of remedies under such security interests as: real estate; fixtures; movables; patents; trademarks; and industrial models and designs. Each author also explains important procedural aspects of many typical phases of ownership, including registration, transfer, sale of an ongoing concern or stock in trade, taxation, trusteeship, and injunction orders. Remedies under private international law are also considered.

Twenty years of experience have inevitably brought to light challenges and tensions in the enforcement of the European merger control system. Some of these challenges have been faced, some have been solved and some remain latent. This very valuable study starts from the proposition that the EU has never fully acknowledged those fundamental challenges which relate to the rationale behind merger control in Europe. The author shows how the Commission's focus on adapting the rules of merger control to the economic realities of the future business environment, although designed with a view to facilitating European integration, has compromised attainment of legal certainty, transparency and welfare enhancement. In its detailed evaluation of the 'future market structure prediction process' embedded in European merger control policy, this book approaches two rock-bottom, far-reaching questions: * In what ways does merger control promote consumer and societal welfare? * Is the Commission able to correctly predict the outcome of any given concentration transaction? These considerations take the reader through a deep and searching analysis that calls into question the very credibility and transparency of the system, leading to alternatives which promise a new clarity of purpose and procedure. The author describes how these recommendations can be integrated into the functioning framework of the European project. Taken fully into account along the way is a wide spectrum of relevant source material, including the following: * applicable articles and chapters of the founding and subsequent European Treaties; * secondary European legislation concerning competition and merger activity; * domestic competition laws; * guidelines, notices and action plans; * competition law reviews, statements of intentions; * draft legislative attempts; * speeches on the enactment and purpose of merger control; * Member States' views concerning European merger control as expressed during Council negotiations; * officially available concentration-related statistics; and * a wide-ranging literature review covering both the legal and economic sides of merger control. Throughout, the author substantiates theoretical assertions with case law examples, clearly exposing doctrines arising from such cases as Continental Can, Phillip Morris/Rothmans and the Airtours, Schneider and Tetra Laval trilogy. A unique feature of the analysis draws on the author's personal experience while working for a Brussels competition law firm. This book is a remarkable compound of academic guide to the roots and rationales of the European Merger Control System, practical guide to the day-to-day intricacies of merger control enforcement, and 'raw' guide for decision makers and merger control law enforcers. It will be of immense value in all three contexts.

Economic debates about markets and freedom from the late 1940s onwards focused increasingly on how laws and regulation affected economic behavior, and how economics influenced legal decision-making. By the late 1950s the term "law and economics" came into use to refer to the application of economic analysis to legal problems. The overlap between legal and political systems also led to issues in law and economics being raised in political economy, constitutional economics, and political science. Concepts in Law and Economics: A Guide for the Curious provides a comprehensive integration of the fields of law and economics. In clear prose, Jim Leitzel challenges traditional approaches to law and economics and uncovers common themes that cut across the two fields, providing readers with a means of integrating their knowledge to examine problems through both a legal and economic lens. This book covers the major methods of law and economics and applies those methods to various issues, including art vandalism, sales of human kidneys, and the ownership of meteorites. Compact yet comprehensive, this is an ideal introduction to a vast number of concepts and controversies in the fields of law and economics. Economics students, law students, and those with a general interest in the social sciences will find Concepts in Law and Economics an interesting and engaging read, and will emerge with the necessary skills for thinking like a law and economics practitioner.

On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, the EFTA Court held a conference at which speakers were asked to reflect on the case law of the Court and its role in the European Economic Area (EEA). In the course of its work, the Court has acted as a driving force of integration under the EEA Agreement, by establishing general principles such as state liability and giving landmark judgments in several areas of European law. The essays in this volume, by leading experts and high-ranking representatives of national and European courts, cover areas such as the relationship between the principle of free movement and national or collective preferences on the EU/EEA and WTO levels, the relationship between the European courts and the Member States in European integration, homogeneity as a general principle of European integration, and the importance of judicial dialogue. In this regard, the sentence from President Skouris of the Court of Justice of the European Communities, who called the dialogue between the EFTA Court and the EC Court 'a shining example of judicial cooperation', could also serve as a motto for the present book.

It has been clear for some time that commercial law has been undergoing a "transnationalization" process, with various sets of rules (often referred to collectively as Lex mercatoria or the New Law Merchant) supplanting national and local laws governing the mechanisms by which cross-border agreements are entered into and disputes settled. In order to clarify the nature and extent of this process, a scientific survey, sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation and using empirical methodology, was designed by a Research Team from the Centre for Transnational Law (CENTRAL) of Munster University, Germany. A questionnaire was sent out to more than 2,700 practitioners from major companies and international law firms in 78 countries asking for the addressees' experience with transnational law in international contract negotiations, contract drafting, and international commercial arbitration. The results of this enquiry, along with analysis and commentary from several well-known authorities in the fields of international commercial arbitration and private international law, were presented at a conference in Munster on May 4 and 5, 2000. This book is a record of that conference. "The Practice of Transnational Law" provides a comprehensive and realistic evaluation of how transnational commercial law is used in international legal practice today. The contributions of the speakers - including Yves Derains on the CC Arbitration Rules and Michael Joachim Bonell on the UNIDROIT Principles, as well as commentary by Emmanuel Gaillard, Friedrich K. Juenger, Norbert Horn, and Klaus Peter Berger - add an insightful and lively dimension to the empirical data presented in the annexes. Commercial law practitioners and business people all over the world should appreciate the new level of discussion initiated by this book.

The ICC Rules of Arbitration constitute one of the world's oldest and most widely used sets of rules for the resolution of international commercial disputes. In 1998, shortly after the entry into force of the current version of the Rules, the First Edition of this book appeared and quickly became an indispensable resource for all those involved or interested in ICC arbitrations, including arbitrators, counsel, and parties. In this updated and revised edition, the authors two of the world's leading experts on ICC arbitration have revised the Guide in order to take stock not only of the evolution in ICC practice over the last seven years, but of new arbitral and judicial decisions bearing on the interpretation and application of the Rules and of developments in international arbitration practice generally. The Guide s notable features include: article-by-article commentary on the ICC Rules, enriched by the authors personal involvement in their drafting and years of experience as arbitrators, counsel, and former Secretaries General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration; ample and greatly expanded references, in respect of the Rules individual provisions, to relevant national court judgments and arbitral awards, together with extensive bibliographical sources; and up-to-date statistics on ICC arbitration and copies of all ICC rules on dispute resolution mechanisms in addition to arbitration. A truly comprehensive reference work on ICC arbitration practice, the Second Edition of the Guide will be of immeasurable value to corporate counsel, international lawyers, and business people, as well as to all those interested in the international arbitration process.

This book provides a highly accessible yet practical guide to all aspects of arbitration, from the drafting of an arbitration agreement through to the award, including enforcement and appeals. Being comprehensive in its approach, every stage of the arbitral process under the Arbitration Act 1996 is covered including a separate chapter covering special types of arbitration such as consumer schemes and arbitrations under statute. Written in simple non-legalistic language and intentionally general in its coverage, it should be of relevance to arbitration matters whatever trade or profession practised.

As more and more transnational businesses invest in China, the spectre of commercial disputes looms larger and larger. This book, a deeply knowledgeable introduction to the law and practice of commercial dispute settlement in today's China, is especially valuable because such disputes raise a plethora of issues that challenge the expertise of non-Chinese lawyers. Written by senior lawyers with rich practical experience in China, "Duelling with Dragons" uses a hypothetical scenario to highlight the kinds of disputes that can arise in the course of initiating and operating a Chinese joint venture. After introductory chapters setting out the background and the disputes facing "Ricepower" and its investors, subsequent chapters deal with an overview and evaluation of the various options available to the parties to resolve their conflicts. These include such mechanisms as the following: arbitration inside China; arbitration outside China; litigation in the People's Courts; administrative appeals; and investor-state arbitration. Specialized themes include intellectual property disputes, employment and labour disputes, criminal law aspects of business disputes, and enforcement of dispute outcomes both inside China and abroad. The book also features a detailed table of legislation and cases, and statistics on arbitration and litigation in China. With its practical, problem-solving approach, "Duelling with Dragons" provides corporate counsel, international lawyers, and business people, as well as students of dispute resolution, with a realistic picture of dispute settlement practices in business transactions in China today.

In the event that damage is caused as a result of the Year 2000 problem, who will be responsible for compensating the victims of such damage? Should the developers, vendors or licensors of non-compliant software be held liable if their products do not continue to function correctly through the change in the millennium? Should those who provide "fixes" to the Bug which do not work properly be accountable for damage caused? Do end-users have a duty to ensure that their software is Year 2000 compliant? These questions, among others, will not be answered fully until the courts have had an opportunity to rule upon disputes which will no doubt arise. Other matters to be considered include the type of agreement that has been entered into between the parties, which rules will therefore apply and what defences, if any, may be available to the defendant. Insurance is also a big issue. Many insurance companies are stating that damage resulting from the Millennium Bug will not be covered by existing policies, and defences such as force majeure and act of God have been raised. What will happen when these issues come to litigation remains to be seen. This special issue of the "Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business" discusses the legal implications of the Millennium Bug in various countries. It describes the way in which agreements relating to software are viewed by different jurisdictions and the possible attribution of liability for damage caused by the Bug.

This yearbook reviews significant legal developments in international commerce and offers an important forum for legal practitioners to address and compare practical legal issues of direct interest to their areas of specialization. Each volume of the yearbook features a comprehensive range of articles written for and by leading practitioners and advisers working within the international business sector. The topics covered in Volume 17, the new volume for 1995, range from the ethical issues for lawyers involved in cross-border transactions to insider trading. Several of the chapters make reference to the growing European Union (EU), with one chapter focusing particularly on the free movement of goods throughout the EU's Member States. Competition within the EU is also dealt with, the provisions of Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty of Rome being of particular relevance due to the large amount of recent case law in this area. There is a large section dealing with company law matters, including the emergence and development of new types of corporation, privatization and the westernization of companies in countries such as China. The recovery of monies and the enforcement of judgments in this respect are always issues of high priority in business. The volume thus discusses these matters in a separate section on debt recovery. The remainder of the book is divided into parts dealing with finance and mergers and acquisitions, together with a general commercial law section. This yearbook has been prepared by specialist practitioners from all corners of the world for the use of international business lawyers and their clients.