Prescription is a major legal defence that bars civil actions on the claim after the expiry of a certain period of time. Despite its far-reaching practical effects on litigation and on society at large, and the fact that it is the subject matter of pervasive legal reforms in many countries, the law of prescription (limitation of actions) is rarely discussed, analysed and compared. To meet this challenge, this book canvases in-depth the law of 15 selected jurisdictions (covering Europe, South Africa and the US jurisdictions) and extensively analyses in comparative perspective the elements of prescription (accrual of the cause of action, prescription periods, rules of suspension, renewal, extension, etc), their interrelations, and the policy considerations (including economic analysis). Topics also covered include the notions of 'action', 'claim', and 'cause of action', subjective and objective prescription, statute interpretation and judicial discretion. The book concludes with how the present law can be improved and where suitable harmonised. While its main focus is the prescription of tort claims, the analysis, comparison and conclusions are highly relevant to most civil actions. Prescription in Tort Law is the result of a three-year research project lead by the European Group on Tort Law (EGTL) that brings together leading academics of the field. It is an invaluable resource for private lawyers. With contributions by Bjarte Askeland (Bergen Appeal Court Judge, Norway), Ewa Baginska (University of Gdansk, Poland), Jean-Sebastien Borghetti (University Paris II Pantheon-Assas, France), Giovanni Comande (Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy), Eugenia Dacoronia (University of Athens, Greece), Isabelle Durant (Universite catholique de Louvain, Belgium), Israel Gilead (Hebrew University, Israel), Michael D Green (Wake Forest University, United States), Ernst Karner (University of Vienna, Austria), Anne LM Keirse (Utrecht University, The Netherlands), Bernhard A Koch (University of Innsbruck, Austria), Frederic Krauskopf (University of Bern, Switzerland), Ulrich Magnus (University of Hamburg, Germany), Miquel Martin-Casals (University of Girona, Spain), Johann Neethling (University of the Free State, South Africa), Elena Occhipinti (University of Pisa, Italy), Ken Oliphant (University of Bristol, United Kingdom), Albert Ruda-Gonzalez (University of Girona, Spain), Stefan Rutten (University of Antwerp), Lubos Tichy (Charles University, Czech Republic) and Benedict Winiger (University of Geneva, Switzerland).

Preface International conferences are not organized overnight-especially not when high ranking personalities from politics, business and academia should be offered an adequate platform for addressing and discussing highly relevant contemporary issues. The conference on "The Role of Law and Ethics in the Globalized Economy," which took place on May 22 and 23, 2008 in the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Munich, was no exception. When the first preparations started at the end of 2006, neither the subprime crises nor the general crises of the global financial system, whose shock waves have rocked the financial businesses in subsequent months, were known; nor were they predictable or even imaginable. Based on our monitoring of the globalization process and its apparent impact-not only on the economic and technological environment, but also on the social en- ronment-it was appropriate for the conference to begin by serving as a platform for analysing the status quo of the process of globalization, as relevant to politics, business and academia, and for exploring how the interest groups in those domains cope with the challenges of globalization. In the end, however, the purpose of the conference was to produce proposals for conditions for "upwards" global compe- tion, meaning that minimum conditions should be worked out to enable people to live and labour humanely. Such conditions would be those which should help avoid otherwise inevitable frictions in society, both nationally and internationally.

Die Arbeit zeigt mit den Mitteln der Rechtsvergleichung Wege zum besseren Verständnis des Phänomens Rechtsmissbrauch, indem sie theoretisch und praxisorientiert die allgemeinen Schranken solchen missbilligten Verhaltens der Prozessparteien im deutschen und französischen Zivilprozess untersucht. Nach einer Funktionsbestimmung der gesuchten allgemeinen Rechtsmissbrauchsschranke werden die in Betracht kommenden nationalen Rechtsinstitute zunächst innerhalb ihrer jeweiligen Dogmatik rechtsvergleichend analysiert und an den Kategorien der Zweckmäßigkeit und Effektivität gemessen. Das so gewonnene Zwischenergebnis wird sodann einer kritischen Gegenprüfung in einer Reihe von Beispielsfällen der Praxis unterzogen. Auf diese Weise eröffnet sich im Ergebnis ein Blick hinter das systemverhaftete herkömmliche Verständnis von einer Konkordanz der Rechtsmissbrauchsschranken in den beiden Rechtsordnungen, der de lege ferenda im europäischen Kontext systembildend wirken könnte.

In the global era, controversies abound over temporary labour migration; however, it has not previously been subjected to a sustained socio-legal analysis on a comparative basis, critiquing the underpinning concepts conventionally accepted as fundamental in this area. This collection of essays aims to fill that void. Complex regulatory challenges arise from temporary labour migration. This collection examines these challenges and the extent to which temporary labour migration programmes can be ethical, equitable and efficacious and so deliver decent work for workers. Whilst the tendency for migration law to divide labour law's worker-protective mission has been observed before, the authors of the chapters comprising this collection seek not only to interrogate why and how this is so, but to go further in examining the implications and effects of a wide range of regulatory mechanisms on temporary labour migration.

The legal profession has undergone significant changes in the past few years. These have affected working structures and context within the profession, in turn affecting the wellbeing of individual practitioners. This book is the first to consider how these operate in practice and how they impact on the wellbeing of lawyers. This is significant because legal systems cannot operate without properly functioning lawyers. Changes considered include rapidly evolving technologies such as the internet, artificial intelligence and increasing digitisation, and innovations in legal practice. Such innovations include changes in the structures of law firms, changing requirements about whether lawyers must practice separately from other professions and changing employment practices in law firms.The Impact of Technology and Innovation on the Well-Being of the Legal Profession considers the impact of all of these developments on the legal profession. It begins with students and how their responses to questions about their attitudes to learning may provide clues as to why they and the professionals they become might be more vulnerable to depression and anxiety than the wider population. The analysis then extends to how both satisfaction and stress levels can be simultaneously high and the implications of this, considering the experiences of lawyers in private and public practice, as well as academics, and their responses to the interactions between all of these changes. Leading researchers assess the situation in Australia and the United Kingdom in these various domains, using empirical research as the foundation of the arguments put forth.Anyone who is interested in the future of the legal profession and the challenges currently faced as a consequence of the massive structural and environmental changes experienced should read this book.

The classic distinction in international relations between mutual assistance in criminal matters and mutual administrative assistance has become diffuse. A blurring of transnational policy issues in the struggle against fraud continues to hamper efficient cooperation between states, despite the increasing interaction of national enforcement agencies supported by automated systems and a growing number of supranational institutions with enforcement powers. Particularly among the member states of the European Union, the disparate law of international cooperation needs to be examined and clarified, in terms both of instruments and of legal guarantees. This book offers an English translation, updated to mid-2001, of a Dutch study which appeared earlier that year. The study was originally commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Justice, which recognized that the way to clear standards of cooperation lay through in-depth comparative research into the relevant law, practice, and recent experience of several major national jurisdictions. A five-member research group worked with the help of the Willem Pompe Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, the Foundation for the Promotion of Criminal Law Research, and the Utrecht Faculty of Law's Centre for Enforcement of European Law. In order to focus meaningfully on the theme of combating fraud in its most significant current manifestations, the researchers restricted their study to customs law, fiscal law, and agricultural law in four EC countries. Among the core legal matters investigated are the following: exchange of enforcement data; performance of acts of investigation; the "moment" in each legal system at which it is necessary to switch from administrative assistance to assistance in criminal matters; and the manner in which national systems of evidence deal with evidence from abroad. Based on a close study of legislation and case law in each of the four countries-in addition to numerous personal interviews-the analysis clearly identifies the legal problems, and makes recommendations as to how transnational administrative law and cooperation in criminal matters may be most effectively arranged.

Die Verletzung vorvertraglicher Aufklärungspflichten beim Franchising steht im Mittelpunkt gerichtlicher Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Franchise-Geber und Franchise-Nehmer. Gleichzeitig stellt sich bei internationalen Franchise-Systemen die Frage nach dem anwendbaren Recht, da die internationalprivatrechtliche Anknüpfung von Ansprüchen aus culpa in contrahendo immer noch umstritten ist. Mit dieser Arbeit werden die spezifischen Aufklärungspflichten des Franchise-Gebers beschrieben und mit dem Franchise-Recht des US-Bundesstaates Kalifornien verglichen. Den Schwerpunkt der Arbeit bildet jedoch die Frage der Qualifikation und des Statuts von Ansprüchen aus culpa in contrahendo bei der Verletzung vorvertraglicher Aufklärungspflichten. Durch eine eingehende Analyse des deutschen internationalen Deliktsrechts nach der IPR-Reform von 1999 zeigt der Verfasser auf, dass sich der Gesetzgeber für die deliktische Anknüpfung der culpa in contrahendo entschieden hat. Die vertragsakzessorische Anknüpfung bietet dabei das notwendige Korrelat, um das Spannungsfeld zwischen Delikts- und Vertragsstatut unter Berücksichtigung materiellrechtlicher Gerechtigkeit aufzulösen.

This book is a comparative study of the tax systems of Germany and Japan. It is a considerably expanded version of Iizuka's previous monograph, Veritable Bookkeeping Records, which was important enough a contribution to comparative tax studies that it was serialized and published in twenty-six parts over three years ('79-'82) in the Japan Society of Accounting's journal, "Accounting."

The present volume includes a good deal of new, revised and updated material not included in the first monograph. Here Iizuka boldly puts forward counterarguments to the opinions of several hundred Japanese, European and North American scholars. One of his chief messages is that Japan needs to look to Germany, to the United States and to other EC nations for guidance in developing fairer accounting principles.

Compensation funds are used in vastly different ways across jurisdictions and legal traditions. They are an alternative to traditional tort, insurance and social security structures, and change or eliminate ordinary liability rules for certain classes of victims. Compensation funds have been established to solve liability problems in the domains of traffic accidents, financial deposits, crime victim redress, industrial and environmental damage, natural disasters and healthcare damage. They are popular with lawmakers, but their undefined nature (and sometimes incoherent status) raises important legal questions that have not yet been fully answered.The way that compensation funds have developed in different jurisdictions has not always been consistent with the rest of the legal system within that jurisdiction. The contributions in this book consider the way in which these funds have been used in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom. Focusing on their functions, purpose, funding and quantum of compensation, new conclusions are drawn on the objectives of compensation funds and how they differ from insurance and social security.Compensation Funds in Comparative Perspective is useful for all comparative law, liability law and insurance law scholars and practitioners seeking to understand contemporary issues in the operation of compensation funds and introduces novel ideas for future development.

This volume analyses the legal grounds, premises and extent of pecuniary compensation for violations of human rights in national legal systems. The scope of comparison includes liability regimes in general and in detail, the correlation between pecuniary remedies available under international law and under domestic law, and special (alternative) compensation systems. All sources of human rights violations are embraced, including historical injustices and systematical and gross violations. The book is a collection of nineteen contributions written by public international law, international human rights and private law experts, covering fifteen European jurisdictions (including Central and Eastern Europe), the United States, Israel and EU law. The contributions, initially prepared for the 19th International Congress of Comparative law in Vienna (2014), present the latest developments in legislation, scholarship and case-law concerning domestic causes of action in cases of human rights abuses. The book concludes with a comparative report which assesses the developments in tort law and public liability law, the role of the constitutionalisation of the right to damages as well as the court practice related to the process of enforcement of human rights through monetary remedies. This country-by-country comparison allows to consider whether the value of protection of human rights as expressed in international treaties, ius cogens and in national constitutional laws justifies the conclusion that the interests at stake should enjoy protection under the existing civil liability rules, or that a new cause of action, or even a whole new set of rules, should be created in national systems.

In Deutschland und Frankreich herrscht breiter Konsens, wirtschaftlich motivierte Spenden von Körpersubstanzen zu verhindern. Das Buch stellt die Unterschiede in der gesetzlichen Umsetzung dieses gemeinsamen Bestrebens rechtsvergleichend dar und stellt einen Kriterienkatalog auf, mit dessen Hilfe die Rechtsnatur von und die Rechte an Körpersubstanzen bestimmt werden können. Darauf basierend stellt der Autor die Legitimität eines allgemeinen Kommerzialisierungsverbotes in Frage und fordert zu einer Differenzierung nach Körpersubstanz, Art ihrer Gewinnung und konkreten Weiterverwendung auf. L'Allemagne et la France visent à protéger le corps humain et ses substances corporelles détachées des pratiques mercantiles. La présente étude consiste en une analyse comparative des différences dans la transposition légale de cet objectif commun. En outre, elle élabore des critères permettant d'établir le statut et le régime juridique des substances corporelles. Sur la base de ces constatations, l'auteur remet en question la légitimité du principe général de l'extra-commercialité des substances corporelles. Diese Arbeit enthält eine ausführliche Zusammenfassung in französischer Sprache.

Constitutional litigation in general attracts two distinct types of conflict: disputes of a highly politicized or culturally controversial nature and requests from citizens claiming a violation of a fundamental constitutional right. The side-by-side comparison between the U.S. Supreme Court and the German Federal Constitutional Court provides a novel socio-legal approach in studying constitutional litigation, focusing on conditions of mobilisation, decision-making and implementation. This updated and revised second edition includes a number of new contributions on the political status of the courts in their democratic political cultures.

Whereas many modern works on comparative law focus on various aspects of legal doctrine the aim of this book is of a more theoretical kind - to reflect on comparative law as a scholarly discipline, in particular at its epistemology and methodology. Thus, among its contents the reader will find: a lively discussion of the kind of 'knowledge' that is, or could be, derived from comparative law; an analysis of 'legal families' which asks whether we need to distinguish different 'legal families' according to areas of law; essays which ask what is the appropriate level for research to be conducted - the technical 'surface level', a 'deep level' of ideology and legal practice, or an 'intermediate level' of other elements of legal culture, such as the socio-economic and historical background of law. One part of the book is devoted to questioning the identification and demarcation of a 'legal system' (and the clash between 'legal monism' and 'legal pluralism') and the definition of the European legal orders, sub-State legal orders, and what is left of traditional sovereign State legal systems; while a final part explores the desirability and possibility of developing a basic common legal language, with common legal principles and legal concepts and/or a legal meta-language, which would be developed and used within emerging European legal doctrine. All the papers in this collection share the common goal of seeking answers to fundamental, scientific problems of comparative research that are too often neglected in comparative scholarship.

The creation of a culture of Judicial Independence is of a central significance both in national domestic legal systems, as well as for the international courts and tribunals. The main aim of this volume is to analyze the development of a culture of Judicial Independence in comparative perspectives, to offer an examination of the conceptual foundations of the principle of judicial independence and to discuss in detail the practical challenges facing judiciaries in different jurisdictions. The proposed volume is based on the papers presented at the five conferences held in the framework of The International Project on Judicial independence. The editors of this volume and the contributors to it are leading scholars and distinguished experts on judicial independence and judiciaries.

Etwa seit Ende der sechziger Jahre wird auf internationaler Ebene eine lebhafte Diskussion über eine Krise des strafrechtlichen Sanktionensystems geführt. Einhergehend mit dem bereits in den späten siebziger Jahren erkennbaren Bemühen um eine stärkere Opferorientierung im Strafrecht hat die Thematik des Täter-Opfer-Ausgleichs und der Schadenswiedergutmachung gerade in den letzten Jahren neue Aktualität gewonnen. Der Gesetzgeber hat dem 1994 durch den neu eingefügten § 46 a StGB Rechnung getragen. Nach einem Überblick über die Entstehungsgeschichte der Norm untersucht die Abhandlung die mit der Auslegung und Anwendung des § 46 a StGB verbundenen Probleme und die Rezeption der Vorschrift in der Rechtsprechung. Der Verfasser gelangt zu dem Ergebnis, daß die derzeitige Gesetzesfassung, insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Anwendungsrelevanz der Norm, der Modifizierung bedarf. Er stellt einen eigenen Reformvorschlag für § 46 a StGB de lege ferenda zur Diskussion.

This index of the "Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business" is organized for ease of use according to well-recognized subject categories. It lists all articles published from the inception of the Yearbook and provides information about the authors, the main topic headings that appear within each article, and the volume and page number where the articles can be found. The "Cumulative Index" also contains a table of contents and an authors' index. It facilitates research on all subject matter covered in this series. This is the second Cumulative Index. It covers all published articles from its inception in 1977 (then known as the Comparative Law Yearbook) to 1996. A new edition will be published in approximately three years.

An important step towards European legislation pertaining to product liability is the EU Directive of 25 July 1985 or the "Council Directive on the Approximation of the Laws, Regulations, and Administrative Provisions of the Member States concerning Liability for Defective Products". While its significance cannot be denied in the pressure it places upon European governments: to enact product liability laws, it still leaves room for diverging domestic interpretations and postponement of genuinely effective legislation by the individual Member States. As a result there exist considerable differences among the Member States with respect to a number of its provisions and the wording of the exact legislation on product liability. Furthermore, contrary to US legislation, the liability is limited to the "producers" and not to the "sellers" of the defective product, as defined in Article 3 of the EU Directive. This book presents the reader with an overview of the product liability law of ten of the EU members and all seven EFTA countries, who have passed strict product liability legislation since 1985, including the English translation.

On 13 June 2002 the Framework Decision on the European Arrest Warrant and Surrender Procedures between Member States of the European Union (EAW) was adopted by the Council of the European Union. The Framework Decision must be implemented by all current and future members of the European Union in their respective legal systems. This handbook offers an introduction to the EAW, its origin and its implications. It sets out the history of extradition as a legal system and compares the EAW with the old system. It includes the full text of the EAW with commentaries per paragraph. Attention is paid to procedural rules as well as to special issues, such as the principles of reciprocity and mutual trust, ne bis in idem, verdicts in absentia and the double criminality rule. The relation of EAW with other relevant legal instruments, including those concerning human rights and procedural safeguards, is also covered.

The book focusses on the enforcement of consumer law in order to identify commonalities and best practices across nations. It is composed of twenty-eight contributions from national rapporteurs to the IACL Congress in Montevideo in 2016 and the introductory comparative general report. The national contributors are drawn from across the globe, with representation from Africa (1), Asia (5), Europe (15), Oceania (2) and the Americas (5). The general report proposes a general introduction to the question of enforcement and effectiveness of consumer law. It then proceeds to identify the variety of ways in which national legislatures approach this question and the diversity of mechanisms put in place to address it. The general report uses examples drawn from the reports to illustrate common approaches and to identify more original or distinct unique approaches, taking into account the reported strengths and weaknesses of each. The general report consistently points readers to particular national reports on specific issues, inviting readers to consult these individual contributions for more details. The national contributions deal with the following areas: the national legal framework for consumer protection, the general design of the enforcement mechanism, the number and characteristics of consumer complaints and disputes, the use of courts and specialized agencies for the enforcement of consumer law, the role of consumer organizations and of private regulation in the enforcement of consumer law, the place of collective redress mechanism and of alternative dispute resolution modes, the sanctions for breaches of consumer law and the nature of external relations or cooperation with other countries or international organizations. These enriching national and international perspectives offer a comprehensive overview of the current state of consumer law around the globe.

This volume contains 14 national reports and the General Report on the use of comparative law by courts, which were presented at the XIVth International Congress of Comparative Law in Athens. It provides a general survey of the frequency and methods of a comparative recourse to foreign law by courts, describing both the methods of such recourse and the typical fields in which it is undertaken. The reports offer a cross-section of contemporary court practice from a wide variety of countries around the world - large and small, unitary and federal, and with differing historical backgrounds. All these varied elements have an impact on the needs of national courts to look to foreign law for inspiration or as a model for dealing with new, unsettled issues of national law, and the reports illustrate well the impact of divergent traditions, attitudes and surrounding circumstances. Of special interest are both the role of comparative law and the comparative method employed in the practice of a supranational court, such as the European Court of Justice. In addition to the General Report, this volume contains national reports from the following countries: Canada, European Union, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States of America.

Prof. Dr. H. C. Klaus Vogel turned 70 in December 2000. For his students, colleagues and friends all around the world he has been not only a teacher and academic, but also a researcher and mentor, and this occasion provided the opportunity to honour him with a Festschrift. This celebratory volume, with contributions in German and in English, is published under the title Staaten und Steuern (States and Taxes) by C.F. Muller Verlag in Heidelberg. With the permission of the publisher, the present volume contains the English language contributions as a separate publication. The following articles are included.

A Guide to Documents on the Arab-Palestinian/Israeli Conflicts: 1897-2008, is a comprehensive non-partisan compilation designed to provide relevant legal and historical source material pertaining to this conflict. Each document is summarized for the reader's benefit. The compilation contains all United Nations Resolutions and Reports, Treaties and Agreements, as well as historic documents that are difficult to obtain. To put the conflict into perspective, a chronology of events is provided, followed by an objective analysis of the historical background, including discussion of the various phases of the conflict, strategic considerations, and an analysis of the prospects for peace. The 690 documents summarized with official citations are the most extensive compilation covering the period from 1897 through 2008, including some key texts on Jerusalem dating back to earlier times. The documents are organized according to the conflict's major topic areas with introductory notes for each part and section. M. Cherif Bassiouni and Shlomo Ben Ami have had a long history of involvement in the peace process. Their combined expertise and personal experiences add a unique dimension to this book that will provide anyone interested in the conflict with a distinct easy-to-use comprehensive compilation of relevant documents.

This important new work examines fundamental, but hitherto neglected, issues of national criminal law. Where and to whom does that law apply? When can domestic law apply to conduct that takes place abroad? The author examines the territorial and extraterritorial application of the criminal law, identifying defects, lacunae, and historical accidents, and suggests possible reforms.