The principle of solidarity is particularly important now because it is in juxtaposition to some current self-centered trends in politics: the crises that have upset the world in recent years, such as migrations, hegemonic aspirations, pandemics, and wars, have made self-evident the inadequacy of such selfish politics. It therefore seems very useful to understand the role that solidarity could play in contemporary scenarios. This book thus collects various contributions on the principle of solidarity in international law. Firstly, it reconstructs the foundations of solidarity in law and investigates the origins of the principle. Subsequently, it tries to ascertain if solidarity exists as a principle in international law and, if so, what its scope is. The book then examines the eventual implementation of the principle of solidarity in regional organizations law: the question is whether solidarity is more effective and if it is actually better fulfilled when relationships between states get stronger, such as in regional and sub-regional organizations. Such implementation is notable in EU Law, but the analysis also involves other regional and sub-regional organizations, namely the African Union, ECOWAS, the League of Arab States, and MERCOSUR. This book takes into account not only some distinctive areas of solidarity, such as migration law, or specific institutional contexts where solidarity is a declared principle, objective or value, for example, the European Union, but it also considers whether, and to what extent, the manifestations of solidarity differ in disparate settings, trying to discover the reasons behind such divergences. The book will be of interest to researchers and academics in the areas of International Law, International Organizations Law, European Law, Human Rights Law, Business Law, and Constitutional Law.

The second half of the twentieth century saw the emergence of international economic law as a major force in the international legal system. This force has been severely tested by the economic crisis of 2008. Unable to prevent the crisis, the existing legal mechanisms have struggled to react against its direst consequences. This book brings together leading experts to analyse the main causes of the crisis and the role that international economic law has played in trying to prevent it, on the one hand, and worsening it, on the other. The work highlights the reaction and examines the tools that have been created by the international legal field to implement international cooperation in an effort to help put an end to the crisis and avoid similar events in the future. The volume brings together eminent legal academics and economists to examine key issues from the perspectives of trade law, financial law, and investment law with the collective aim of reform of international economic governance.

The European Union (EU) has emerged as a key actor in the global investment regime since the 1980s. At the same time, international investment policy and agreements, which govern international investment liberalisation, treatment and protection through investor-to-state dispute settlement, have become increasingly contentious in the European public debate. This book provides an accessible introduction to international investment policy and seeks to explain how the EU became an actor in the global investment regime. It offers a detailed analysis of the EU's participation in all major trade and investment negotiations since the 1980s and EU-internal competence debates to identify the causes behind the EU's growing role in this policy domain. Building on principal-agent and historical institutionalist models of incremental institutional change, the book shows that Commission entrepreneurship was instrumental in the emergence of the EU as a key actor in the global investment regime. It refutes business-centred liberal intergovernmental explanations, which suggest that business lobbying made the Member States accept the EU's growing role and competence in this domain. The book lends support to supranational and challenges intergovernmental thinking on European Integration. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners of European and regional integration, EU foreign relations, EU trade and international investment law, business lobbying, and more broadly of international political economy.

The corporate objective, namely, in whose interests a company should be run, is the most important theoretical and practical issue confronting us today, as this core objective animates or should animate every decision a company makes. Despite decades of debate, however, there is no consensus regarding what the corporate objective is or ought to be, but clarity on this issue is necessary in order to explain and guide corporate behaviour, as different objectives could lead to different analyses and solutions to the same corporate governance problem. In addition to the study on the corporate objective in Anglo-American jurisdictions, the discussion of this topic in the context of China is also very important on the grounds that China has become the second largest economy in the world and is playing an increasingly significant role in global affairs. Though a socialist state, China has also been relying heavily on the corporate vehicle as the most important business organisational form to ensure its rapid economic development since its market reforms in 1978. Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means's observation made over eight decades ago that large public companies dominate the world remains true today, not only in the West but also in China. The regulation and governance of such companies will have a material impact on the further development of the Chinese economy, which could in turn directly affect the world economy. Company law and corporate governance therefore receive much attention and have become a vital issue in China. Although the current focus is primarily on corporate performance, the fundamental question at the heart of corporate governance, namely the corporate objective, is still unresolved. Contrary to the widely held belief that the corporate objective should be maximising shareholder wealth, this book seeks to demonstrate that the shareholder wealth maximisation approach is both descriptively inaccurate and normatively unsuitable. As an antithesis to it, stakeholder theory generally develops to be a more suitable substitute. Justifications and responses to its main criticisms are offered from descriptive, normative and instrumental aspects, whilst new techniques of balancing competing interests and more workable guidance for directors' behaviour are brought forward as essential modifications. Along with the unique characteristics of socialist states, the stakeholder model is expected to find solid ground in China and guide the future development of corporate governance. This book will be important and useful to researchers and students of corporate law, corporate governance, business and management studies.

In Rethinking EU Consumer Law, the authors analyse the development of EU consumer law on the basis of a number of clear themes, which are then traced through specific areas. Recurring themes include the artificiality of the EU's consumer image, the problems created by the drive towards maximum harmonisation, and the unexpected effects EU Consumer Law has had on national law. The book argues that EU Consumer Law has the potential of enhancing the protecting of consumers throughout the EU and could offer a model for consumer law elsewhere in the world, but in order to unlock this potential, there needs to be a rethink with regard to the EU's approach to consumer law and policy.

The relationship between environmentally sustainable development and company and business law has emerged in recent years as a matter of major concern for many scholars, policy-makers, businesses and nongovernmental organisations. This book offers a conceptual analysis of the principles of sustainable development and environmental integration in the EU legal system. It particularly focuses on Article 11 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which states that EU activities must integrate environmental protection requirements and emphasise the promotion of sustainable development. The book gives an overview of the role played by the environmental integration principle in EU law, both at the level of European legislation and at the level of Member State practice. Contributors to the volume identify and analyse the main legal issues related to the importance of Article 11 TFEU in various policy areas of EU law affecting European businesses, such as company law, insurance and state aid. In drawing together these strands the book sets out the requirements of environmental integration and examines its impact on the regulation of business in the EU. The book will be of great use and interest to students and researchers of business law, environment law, and EU law.

How can you be sure you are buying the company you think you are? Are you sure it is as good as the seller says? How can you be certain unexpected costs and obligations will not suddenly appear once you are the owner and responsible for them? How best can you arm yourself for the negotiations? Have you worked out precisely what you are going to do with it once it is yours? How do you set the priorities for change to recoup the premium you have paid for it? The answer to all these questions, and many more, lies within a series of three comprehensive yet concise volumes by Peter Howson. The Essentials of M&A Due Diligence, the first in the series, is a must for anyone who needs to master the essentials of due diligence with the minimum effort and in the minimum amount of time. Straightforward and unbiased, it sets out the fundamentals of pre-acquisition investigations, showing which are appropriate and why.

First published in 1983, Modern Partnership Law departs from the traditionally stale treatment of the subject. The amount of effort being made to encourage small businesses has made partnership law particularly relevant. This book contains chapters on partnership finance; employees; partnerships between spouses and legal intervention in partnership law. In an attempt to move away from citing hackneyed nineteenth century English authorities on this subject, greater prominence is given to Commonwealth cases. This book should be a stimulating addition to the list of all law students.

This volume addresses the central tension in debates between 'mainstream' and 'critical' tax theorists which reflects a clash of perspectives: is taxation primarily a matter of social science or of social justice? Should tax policy debates be grounded in economics or in critical race, feminist, queer, and other outsider perspectives? With contributions from leading mainstream and critical tax scholars, this volume takes the first step toward bridging the gap between these differing perspectives on tax law and policy.

Intellectual assets - including documents, designs, know-how, software, data, patents and trademarks - are critical to the delivery of innovative, and cost effective, products and services. Despite this many organizations seek to manage their intellectual assets using a range of bolt-on, stand-alone business processes, often divorced from the processes used to manage their services and products. Integrated Intellectual Asset Management explains how to take full advantage of your organization's intellectual assets by integrating their management in six key areas: c decision making systems c strategy c policy and accountabilities c knowledge management c people and behaviour c targets and metrics You can only hope to develop, protect, exploit, and realize the value of your key intellectual assets when you integrate the way you manage them into existing business processes and culture. Integrated Intellectual Asset Management guides you through this process.

Corporate crime in China has garnered worldwide attention and in the recent years we have witnessed positive legislative and administrative efforts by the Chinese government to prevent corporate misconducts. This book first defines the meaning of corporate crime in China and answers the basic questions of what corporate crime is through real life cases. Then, it introduces the history of corporate crime and reviews academic studies through these key questions. The book also discusses the scope of corporate crime, the basis of corporate criminal liability, the criminal liability of State organizations, the corporate compliance programs and corporate criminal liability and the procedural issues. The book also provides suggestions from a comparative perspective by referring to the latest global developments on corporate crime. In the concluding chapter, the book discusses the goals of corporate crime prevention policy and comes up with feasible reform proposals with a brief summary on the existing problems of the current policies through a macro perspective. There is no existing book that deals with the legislation and criminal justice practices of corporate crime in China and this book will help to shed insight into the subject.

Corporate governance regulation has been through numerous cycles of reform, and yet we still see instances of companies collapsing suddenly. Codes of corporate governance have been implemented in most developed countries, recommending detailed governance frameworks for publicly listed companies and their boards, but our understanding of how these codes influence behaviour is still limited. In this book, Alice Klettner draws on the domains of law and business to explore the effectiveness of corporate governance codes. Using interview evidence from company directors and officers, as well as published evidence of companies' corporate governance systems, she discusses the theory and practice of corporate governance and its regulation - with a focus on how corporate governance codes can affect board behaviour and company performance. This interdisciplinary book will be valuable reading for advanced students and researchers of corporate governance, and will also be directly relevant to governance practitioners and policymakers.

The statutory duty of public service ombudsmen (PSO) is to investigate claims of injustice caused by maladministration in the provision of public services. This book examines the modern role of the ombudsman within the overall emerging system of administrative justice and makes recommendations as to how PSO should optimize their potential within the wider administrative justice context. Recent developments are discussed and long standing questions that have yet to be adequately resolved in the ombudsman community are re-evaluated given broader changes in the administrative justice sector. The work balances theory and empirical research conducted in a number of common law countries. Although there has been much debate within the ombudsman community in recent years aimed at developing and improving the practice of ombudsmanry, this work represents a significant advance on current academic understanding of the discipline.

Divided into three parts, this edited volume gives an overview of current topics in law and ethics in relation to intellectual property. It addresses practical issues encountered in everyday situations in politics, research and innovation, as well as some of the underlying theoretical concepts. In addition, it provides an insight into the process of international policy-making, showing the current problems in the area of intellectual property in science and research. It also highlights changes in the fundamental understanding of common and private property and the possible implications and challenges for society and politics.

This volume advances the claim that the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) adopted in 2001 is the only existing international agreement with the potential to promote food security, conservation of biodiversity and equity. However, for germplasm-rich countries, national interests come into conflict with the global interest. This work shows that the pursuit of national interests is counterproductive when it comes to maintaining genetic resources, food-security and rent-seeking and that optimally, the coverage of the FAO Treaty should be widened to apply to all crops.

This book provides a clear overview of the legal rules relating to directors' disqualification in Australia, Germany, South Africa, the UK and the US, and to highlight the differences in the disqualification regimes of these jurisdictions. The book seeks to determine whether disqualification on application should be developed further as a corporate law and corporate governance tool to ensure that individuals who have a proven record of posing a particular risk to the business community, shareholders and creditors, are indeed disqualified from being directors. The book is unique as it provides a single source where the disqualification regimes of all these jurisdictions are explored and compared. The book will appeal to scholars of corporate law, regulators and policy-makers. The book will also be of particular interest to senior managers and directors to determine precisely what the laws regarding disqualification of company directors are, and what type of behaviour might expose them to potential disqualification.

Written by leading experts in the field of business, finance, law and economics, this edited volume brings together the latest thoughts and developments on turnaround management and business rescue from an academic, judiciary and turnaround/insolvency practitioner perspective. Turnaround Management and Bankruptcy presents different viewpoints on turnarounds and business rescue in Europe. Presenting a state-of-the-art review of failure research in finance, such as on bankruptcy prediction, causes of decline, or distressed asset valuation. It also presents the latest insights from turnaround management research as well as giving a contemporary insight into law debates on insolvency legislation reform, cross-border judicial issues, bankruptcy decision-making by judges and competition policy in distressed economies. Finally, the book provides a regional and sector perspective on how the current crisis affects Europe, its government policies and industry performance. In this way, the volume presents a modern, interdisciplinary and scholarly overview of the latest insights, issues and debates in turnaround management and business rescue, developing a European perspective in an attempt to redress the predominance of an American orientation in the academic literature. It aims at a wider audience interested in turnarounds and failure, such as faculty and students in the fields of law, business, economics, accountancy, finance, strategic management, and marketing, but also at judges, insolvency practitioners, lawyers, accountants and turnaround professionals, as well as the EU and government officials, staff of trade unions and employer's associations.

First published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book offers a commentary on the responses to white collar crime since the financial crisis. The book brings together experts from academia and practice to analyse the legal and policy responses that have been put in place following the 2008 financial crisis. The book looks at a range of topics including: the low priority and resources allocated to fraud; EU regulatory efforts to fight financial crime; protecting whistleblowers in the financial industry; the criminality of the rogue trader; the evolution of financial crime in cryptocurrencies; and the levying of financial penalties against banks and corporations by the US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fraud, corruption and bribery in and around public services have become an increasing concern in recent years. The reported level of fraud and corruption affecting the public sector has remained unacceptably high despite numerous national and international initiatives intended to tackle these crimes and their consequences. Fraud and Corruption in Public Services is a definitive, practical guide to the diverse risks that arise in central and local government. There is guidance on civil and criminal law around fraud, bribery and corruption as well as the national and international governmental measures and initiatives for countering this form of criminality. Most importantly of all, the book offers advice, practical examples and strategies for preventing and combating fraud, bribery and corruption. The text is readable, well-informed and intensely practical; illustrated throughout with real-life examples from the author's 40 year career.

As the radical reforms contained in the Enterprise Act 2002 have come fully on-stream, Personal Insolvency Law has become a major focus of attention. At the same time, all evidence points to increasing levels of personal debt with the consequential rise in bankruptcies. Personal Insolvency Law, Regulation and Policy therefore provides a timely evaluation of the current state of English law in this important area. The volume presents a critical analysis of the regimes of bankruptcy and individual voluntary arrangement in the context of current policy goals. It examines the impact of the Insolvency Act 2000 and the Enterprise Act 2002, and discusses the treatment of bankruptcy within the global economy. The book will be a valuable guide for students and academics engaged in the study of this increasingly important branch of private law. The study will also be of value to practitioners and policy makers.

It is increasingly held that international commercial arbitration is becoming colonized by litigation. This book addresses, in a range of ways and from various locations and sites, those aspects of arbitration practice that are considered crucial for its integrity as an institution and its independence as a professional practice. The chapters offer multiple perspectives on the major issues in play, highlighting challenges facing the institution of arbitration, and identifying opportunities available for its development as an institution. The evidence of arbitration practice presented is set against the background of practitioner perceptions and experience from more than 20 countries. The volume will serve as a useful resource for all scholars and practitioners interested in the institution of arbitration and its professional practices.

This book develops an analysis of the historical, political and legal contexts behind current demands by NGOs and the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold corporations accountable for their human rights violations. Based on an analysis of the range of mechanisms of accountability that currently exist, it argues that that those demands are a response to the failure of neo-liberal policies that have dominated the practice of politics and law since the emergence of this debate in its current form in the 1970s. Offering a new approach to understanding how struggles for hegemony are refracted through a range of legal challenges to corporate human rights violations, the book offers a fresh perspective for understanding how those struggles are played out in the global sphere. In order to analyse the prospects for using human rights law to challenge the right of corporations to author human rights violations, the book explores the development of a range of political initiatives in the UN, the uses of tort law in domestic courts, and the uses of human rights law at the European Court of Human Rights and at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. This book will be essential reading for all those interested in how international institutions and NGOs are both shaping and being shaped by global struggles against corporate power.

This book addresses the viability of the EU economic and social model within and after the global economic crisis. It identifies four key issues which warrant further discussion: (1) the asymmetry of the legal and policy framework of the euro and potential recalibration; (2) substantive tensions between the EU 'economic constitution' and its normative aim of social justice and impacts on national policy; (3) the role of civil society, including the two sides of industry in overcoming these tensions; and (4) the EU's global aspirations towards the creation of a viable socio-economic model. Its chapters offer two perspectives on each of the four main issues. In drawing these debates together, the book provides a broad understanding as well as starting points for future research. Bringing together different disciplinary approaches, ranging from legal studies to political economy, sociology and macroeconomics, it is a valuable contribution to the debate on the European social model and introduces new insights by focusing on legal and political tensions, the impact of the financial crisis and other economic contexts as well as global dimensions.