Pure economic loss is one of the most-discussed problems in the fields of tort and contract. How do we understand the various differences and similarities between these systems and what is the extent to which there is a common-core of agreement on this question? This book takes a comparative approach to the subject, exploring the principles, policies and rules governing tortious liability for pure economic loss in a number of countries and legal systems across the world. The countries covered are USA, Canada, Japan, Israel, South Africa, Japan, Romania, Croatia, Denmark and Poland, with the contributors taking a comparative fact-based approach through the use of hypothetical problems to analyze and then summarize the individual country's tort approach. Using a fact-based questionnaire, a tested taxonomy, and a sophisticated comparative law methodology, the authors convincingly demonstrate that there are liberal, pragmatic and conservative regimes throughout the world. The recoverability of pure economic loss poses a generic question for these legal systems - it is not just a civil law versus common law issue. It will be of interest to students and academics studying tort law and comparative law in the different countries covered.

A model is developed for analyzing criminal procedure across nations and cultures, and applied to the U.S., France, the U.S.S.R. and China. The model envisions common functions of arrest and detention, screening, charging and defending, trial, sanctioning and appeal. The comparison reveals significant differences between inquisitorial and adversarial systems, including the extent of court authority to control other criminal justice agencies, the defendant's role in the proceedings, and the court's role in the proceedings. Differences between noncommunist and communist inquisitorial systems involve personnel who perform each function, degrees of public participation, and the educative-rehabilitative function of the criminal justice process. Criminal Justice Abstracts The Structure of Criminal Procedure presents, for the first time ever, a detailed comparison of the criminal procedures of four major nations--France, the United States, China, and the Soviet Union. In addition, the author also develops his theory on the Morphology of Criminal Procedure which hypothesizes that there is a common structure in every modern procedural system no matter how different it may appear on the surface. He stresses six basic functions inherent in all systems--arrest and trial, detention, screening, charging and defending, trial, sanctioning, and appeal--and he successively analyzes each of them in depth. Practical ways to apply his model are provided along with encouragement for others to engage in new comparative studies, or studies of individual systems, in order to clarify the ways in which the practical demands of society, the legal profession, and legal institutions interact with the functional needs of the system to produce new ways of procedure or new ways of using old procedures.

Study compares the Swedish Child Welfare Board and the California Juvenile Court Systems. Primarily descriptive, it also surveys the international situation as to the competent organization and study of those factors which enhance the structural differentiation between juvenile and adult offenders.

This work is a comparative examination of the uniform application of the Brussels and Lugano Conventions by courts in the UK,France, Germany, and various other European countries. It analyses evidence of inconsistent or divergent interpretations of certain contentious articles of these Conventions and the experience of litigation under them in other (French- and German-speaking) jurisdictions. The book acts as a unique repository of information and offers a detailed examination of both academic commentary and case-law from the Convention jurisdictions together with a critical appraisal of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. It thus encompasses, in an accessible English form, the laws of Continental Europe, which would otherwise be out of the reach for lawyers. At appropriate points, it provides a bridge to the new regime under the Brussels I Regulation 44/2001 and Council Service Regulation 1348/2000, and the reforms underway in the draft Hague Worldwide Judgments Convention. The book will be invaluable to practitioners acting for clients on a pan-European basis who may need to know the likelihood of their clients' being sued under the Conventions in other Contracting States, their opponents' potential strategies before their own national courts, and the possible tactics that should be employed to plan for, avoid, or even block such manoeuvring. Of eventual concern to practitioners is the availability, or not, of a sympathetic recognition and enforcement regime in other Contracting States. The work highlights certain pitfalls in this regard, and most likely hurdles that certain Contracting State judgment debtors may place in the way of recognition and enforcement, and the chances of receptive or hostile treatment before certain Contracting State courts.

This book investigates the extent to which the European Union intervenes, and should intervene, in domestic labour law. It examines the stated and potential rationales for EU intervention, and argues that there are considerable merits to be derived from separating out the integrationist, economic and social arguments which have been deployed in defence of EU intervention. It critically considers the competence of the EU to act in this field, and seeks to demonstrate that proper regard for the subsidiarity and proportionality principles can contribute to the legitimacy of the EU. The book is informed by the ongoing debate on governance in Europe, and aims to provide insights into the implications of shifts in policy-making technique. From the governance perspective, labour law is a particularly useful focus of study, given the range of traditional and new approaches to governance which have been attempted, from harmonisation through framework measures to the open method of coordination, and the range of actors involved in the policy making process. The intention is not to provide an exhaustive account of European intervention in the labour law arena. Instead it provides a framework to enable the reader to think about the role that the EU has, and should, play in this field, and argues that European level intervention can make a valuable contribution to the making of labour law in European Member States.

The 2003 volume of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business deals with a variety of topics in the field of commercial law. These range from mergers in Nigeria and joint ventures in Thailand and Hungary to the fight against corruption on an international level, as well as corporate fraud in the United States, with attention being focused upon the new Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Some authors have dealt with subjects that involve finance, such as foreign investment in e-commerce in China, employees' stock purchases and option plans in the United States, pension funds in Nigeria and preferential tax regimes in Madeira. There is also a review of the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures. Other popular areas of commercial law that are covered in this volume include consumer protection in Bulgaria and alternative dispute resolution. Arbitration in Paraguay is discussed, along with the conducting of mediation by legal professionals. In addition, European Union law arises in relation to the likelihood of association, with another chapter detailing the economic association between Mexico and the European Union. The Commentators in this book are leading professionals in their respective fields and the interesting mix of topics should be of value to those involved in business in the international arena and their legal advisers.

Constitutions are a product of history, but what is the role of history in interpreting and applying constitutional provisions? This volume addresses that question from a comparative perspective, examining different uses of history by courts in determining constitutional meaning. The book shows that there is considerable debate around the role of history in constitutional adjudication. Are, for example, historical public debates over the adoption of a constitution relevant to reading its provisions today? If a constitution represents a break from a prior repressive regime, should courts construe the constitution's provisions in light of that background? Are former constitutions relevant to interpreting a new constitution? Through an assessment of current practices the volume offers some lessons for the future practices of courts as they adjudicate constitutional cases. Contributors are: Mark D. Rosen, Jorge M. Farinacci-Fernos, Justin Collings, Jean-Christophe Bedard-Rubin, Cem Tecimer, Angel Aday Jimenez Aleman, Ana Beatriz Robalinho, Keigo Obayashi, Zoltan Szente, Shih-An Wang, and Diego Werneck Arguelhes.

The 2005 Special Issue of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business addresses issues relating to security in immovables. Each Chapter contains an overview of the security in immovables laws of a particular country. The laws vary widely among the countries; the word immovable (or real property in Common Law jurisdictions) even has different definitions in different countries. Crossborder transactions involving immovables are integral to international business dealings. This publication provides a general overview of the methods by which immovables are secured in various countries, and each chapter contains details such as the priority granted creditors and openness of the land registers. Each chapter contains a country-specific explanation of the method by which one obtains a mortgage, lien, or similar security, and an exploration of the possible problems that might arise during Such a process. In addition, special attention is given to the obstacles facing non-nationals interested in buying immovables. The book evidences the varied attitudes at governments towards the purchase of immovables by non-nationals. In some countries, such as The Philippines, non-nationals are prohibited from buying land. Other countries, such as the Slovak Republic, allow foreign acquisition of nearly any immovable, only forbidding purchase of items that no private citizen can own, such as the country's rivers. This publication reflects recent developments in security in immovables, especially in Eastern Europe. The chapter on immovables in Ukraine is based on the country's new property laws, passed in 2004. The chapters on the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic and Hungary all reflect thechanges brought by accession to the European Union, The acquisition of property in a foreign country is an integral facet of international business and practitioners will find this publication's in-depth instructions for the purchase of security in immovables useful as it pertains to individual countries. In addition to showing practitioners how transactions work for individual countries, readers will be able to compare diverse legal regimes to find the one most favorable for their particular business transactions.

In a number of important decisions such as Stovin v. Wise, X v. Bedforshire, Barrett v. Enfield London Borough Council and others, English courts have been forced to grapple with the important issue of tortious liability of statutory bodies. Following the Hill decision, they opted for a wide non-liability rule on a variety of policy and economic efficiency grounds. Yet many of their arguments have been considered and rejected by both German and French courts when deciding factually equivalent situations.

This study analyses five leading English cases in a comparative and economic way and questions the validity of their assumptions as well as their arguments in the light of the recent important decision of the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights in Osman v. UK.

This thought-provoking book, written by two English academics from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, in collaboration with two leading authorities from the Universities of Paris and Munich, should provide food for thought for judges, practitioners, academics and students for years to come.

This book will be essential reading for scholars and practitioners interested in public law, human rights, comparative methodology, and tort law.

Locating assisted suicide within the broader medical end-of-life context and drawing on the empirical data available from the increasing number of permissive jurisdictions, this book provides a novel examination of the human rights implications of the prohibition on assisted suicide in England and Wales and beyond. Assisted suicide is a contentious topic and one which has been the subject of judicial and academic debate internationally. The central objective of the book is to approach the question of the ban's compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights afresh; freed from the constraints of the existing case law and its erroneous approach to the legal issues and selective reliance on empirical data. The book also examines the compatibility of the ban on assisted suicide with rights which have either been erroneously disregarded or not considered by either the domestic courts or the European Court of Human Rights. Having regard to human rights jurisprudence more broadly, including in the context of abortion, the research and analysis undertaken here demonstrates that the ban on assisted suicide violates the rights of a significant number of individuals to life, to freedom from torture or inhuman or degrading treatment and to private life. Such analysis does not depend on a strained or contrived approach to the rights at issue. Rather, the conclusions flow naturally from a coherent, logical application of the established principles governing those rights. While the focus of the book is the Suicide Act 1961, the conclusions reached have implications beyond England and Wales, including for the other devolved jurisdictions and international jurisdictions. Beyond courts and legislators, it will be a valuable resource for students of human rights and medical law, as well as medical and legal practitioners and academics working in human rights and end-of-life care.

--The first edition is an essential reading for planning students as it is the only text available that focuses on planning law and practice in Northern Ireland. --Updated to address consequences of BREXIT, the impact of COVID-19 on planning procedures, and the emergence of Local Development Plans within the new 2-tier planning system of Northern Ireland

The use of "auction-styled" procedures in the mergers and acquisitions field is gaining increased prominence. This volume is the result of a questionnaire circulated to lawyers in both Europe and North America. It tests the level of awareness of auction bids, the level of sophistication of practices and procedures which have grown up around auction bids, and the level of regulatory control in this field. As well as a compilation of the reports received from lawyers, the text includes a final report attempting to draw together the findings.

Professor Stazi's volume on biotechnological inventions is an excellent work that any scholar or practitioner in this complex area of law should not only read, but also frequently consult. This detailed, systematic and comprehensive explanation of the provisions on 'patentability of life' - both in the EU and the USA - is combined with the related theories and constructions as well as the relevant case law. In this regard, the author offers a balanced overview of the relevant provisions and their explicit or implied exceptions.' - Alberto Musso, University of Bologna, Italy'The appropriate protection of biotechnological inventions and the so-called 'patentability of life' are one of the most crucial questions of modern intellectual property. It is also one of the most debated, as it involves not only complex legal issues but raises high social, ethical and even sometimes religious concerns. Professor Stazi's book is thus a very timely contribution, managing the 'tour de force' of combining serious and comparative doctrinal analysis of the criteria (and the limits) of patentability, while at the same time offering a good overview of the challenges with regard to bioethics and fundamental rights. Without any doubt, this volume will enrich the already excellent series on New Directions in Patent Law.' - Christophe Geiger, CEIPI, University of Strasbourg, France In today's technological world, biotechnology is one of the most innovative and highly invested-in industries for research, in the field of science. This book analyzes the forms and limitations of patent protection recognition for biotechnological inventions, with particular regard to patentability of life. The author expertly compares the United States model, traditionally based on technical evaluations, with the European model, inspired by fundamental rights and bioethics. He highlights how the regulation of biotechnological inventions should guarantee a fair balance between protection of investment and access to information, which is essential for further research and innovation. Academics and practitioners dealing with intellectual property, patent law and biotechnological inventions will find this book to be of interest. The topics discussed will also be useful for patent offices and medical institutions, as well as medical researchers.

A significant part of the world's population lives under some sort of federal arrangement. And yet, the concepts of federalism and federation remain under-theorised. Federalist theorists have, for the most part, defined their object by opposition to the unitary state. As a result, they have not developed public law theories that capture the specificity of this type of polity. Bringing together contributions from leading public law theorists and intellectual historians, this volume explores the foundations of federalism. It develops novel perspectives on the core problems of traditional federalist theory and charts new departures in federalist theory and federal power-sharing. At a time when we look for more inclusive ways of ordering public life, the volume fills an urgent theoretical and political need.

What is more paradoxically democratic than a people exercising their vote against the harbingers of the rule of law and democracy? What happens when the will of the people and the rule of law are at odds? Some commentators note that the presence of illiberal political movements in the public arena of many Western countries demonstrates that their democracy is so inclusive and alive that it comprehends and countenances even undemocratic forces and political agendas. But what if, on the contrary, these were the signs of the deconsolidation of democracy instead of its good health? What if democratically elected regimes were to ignore constitutional principles representing the rule of law and the limits of their power? With contributions from judges and scholars from different backgrounds and nationalities this book explores the framework in which this tension currently takes place in several Western countries by focusing on four key themes: - The Rule of Law: presenting a historical and theoretical reconstruction of the evolution of the Rule of Law; - The People: dealing with a set of problems around the notion of 'people' and the forces claiming to represent their voice; - Democracy and its enemies: tackling a variety of phenomena impacting on the traditional democratic balance of powers and institutional order; - Elected and Non-Elected: focusing on the juxtaposition between judges (and, more generally, non-representative bodies) and the people's representation.

Changes in banking and securities regulation in many countries since 1980 have allowed banks to expand their range of financial services far beyond mere lending, an opportunity banks have been eager to grasp. This business development entails a responsibility; offering informed advice on the choices that customers must make. If we are to judge by a steadily increasing stream of lawsuits, as well as the clear results of customer surveys, most banks fail this part of the challenge. Should the law intervene? That is the basic question posed by this important book. In examining and evaluating the complex answer, and its critical implications for the banking industry, the author uses a comparison of legal systems, developments, and events in two major banking jurisdictions, England and Germany, investigating the relations in each system between the relevant legal rules and actual business practices.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century the term 'privacy' gained new prominence around the world, but in the legal arena it is still a concept in 'disarray'. Enclosing it within legal frameworks seems to be a particularly difficult task in the employment context, where encroachments upon privacy are not only potentially more frequent, but also, and most importantly, qualitatively different from those taking place in other areas of modern society. This book suggests that these problems can only be addressed by the development of a holistic approach to its protection, an approach that addresses the issue of not only contemporary regulation but also the conceptualization, adjudication, and common (public) perception of employees' privacy. The book draws on a comprehensive analysis of the conceptual as well as regulatory convergences and divergences between European, American and Canadian models of privacy protection, to reconsider the conceptual and normative foundations of the contemporary paradigm of employees' privacy and to elucidate the pillars of a holistic approach to the protection of right to privacy in employment.

The German Ministry of Defense decided in 2000 to commission a study comparing various European systems of military law. The present book contains not only the original study but also all national reports in English. It provides a comparative analysis of different European military law systems on the basis of national reports.

Environmental regulation came of age towards the end of the 20th century as the blunt methods of command-and-control were subjected to trenchant criticism from both economists and lawyers in the United States and Europe. As a result of this intellectual development, as well as continuing and increasing severity of environmental problems, there is a need for fresh thinking about regulatory methods that are rational from both economic and legal points of view. This text focuses on the viability of one particular regulatory innovation - the use of agreements or contracts for environmental regulation - as it has been practised in the United States and Europe. The various contributions explore the general idea that certain kinds of environmental problems may best be addressed through contracts among interested parties, including representatives of various levels of government, business, local community and employment representatives, and public interest groups. The parties get together to discuss a particular problem and then agree to an agreement or contract designed to address key issues and interests. At least in some situations, this approach may yield greater flexibility, stronger commitment, and more creative outcomes than traditional command-and-control regulation. Experiments in the use of environmental contracts have begun on both sides of the Atlantic, a fact which makes the comparative study offered here especially timely and valuable.

The subject of this Conference concerns the impact the enlargement of the Euro pean Union has on the constitutional provisions of both levels of European ad ministration, the national and the European level. This subject is the more attractive because the 'constitutional' impact of en largement is an essential element in the context of the 'rule of law' as one of the 1 general principles of the Union. Here a relationship does exist with objectives such as a good and transparent system of governance, a democratic legislative process, an independent judiciary and an adequate system of legal protection. As to the national level, the implications membership of the Union has for the constitutional texts of the (candidate) member States have a connection with the fundamental characteristics of Community law such as priority of European law (over national law), direct applicability and direct effect. These principles reflect the interest in ensuring that European law, once applied in the national context by the public authorities or the judiciary, is made fully effective, for the benefit not only of the public authorities but also of the ordinary citizen."

'El libro de S.I. Strong, Katia Fach Gomez y Laura Carballo Pineiro sigue la estructura de algunos textos clasicos de Derecho Comparado, como los de Rudolf Schelsinger y John Henry Merryman, cotejando los elementos generales de los dos grandes sistemas juridicos del Derecho Civil y el Common Law, analizando las semejanzas y diferencias de ambos sistemas con un fin eminentemente practico: atender a las necesidades de aquellos que trabajan cruzando las fronteras linguisticas para analizar un analisis comparado.' - Rodrigo Polanco Lazo, Universidad de Chile and Universidad de Berna, Suiza Comparative Law for Spanish-English Lawyers (Derecho Comparado para Abogados Anglo- e Hispanoparlantes) provides lawyers and law students who are conversationally fluent in both Spanish and English with the information and skills needed to undertake comparative legal research in their second language and facilitate communication with colleagues and clients in that language. Key features include: fully Spanish-English bilingual enables lawyers to develop the broad practical skills critical to success in today's increasingly international legal market covers a variety of substantive and procedural areas of law and includes information on legal and business practices in a number of English- and Spanish-speaking jurisdictions contextualizes information about foreign legal systems and develops readers' linguistic and legal skills through both immersion and instruction. Suitable for use by both individuals and groups, helping practitioners, academics and law students at any stage of their professional development, this book is perfect for anyone who wishes to move from conversational fluency in a second language to legal fluency. Comparative Law for Spanish English Lawyers / Derecho comparado para abogados anglo- e hispanoparlantes, escrita en ingles y espanol, persigue potenciar las habilidades linguisticas y los conocimientos de derecho comparado de sus lectores. Con este proposito, terminos y conceptos juridicos esenciales son explicados al hilo del analisis riguroso y transversal de selectas jurisdicciones hispano- y angloparlantes. El libro pretende con ello que abogados, estudiantes de derecho y traductores puedan trabajar en una segunda lengua con solvencia y consciencia de las diferencias juridicas y culturales que afectan a las relaciones con abogados y clientes extranjeros. La obra se complementa con ejercicios individuales y en grupo que permiten a los lectores reflexionar sobre estas divergencias.

The book is the result of a joint research project on the tax treaties concluded between the People's Republic of China and European countries. Each chapter was jointly prepared by European and Chinese experts. A particular focus of the work is an analysis of the extent to which Chinese tax treaties follow the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and Capital, the UN Income and Capital Model Convention or an emerging "Chinese Model"; and the rationale behind the deviations. The book also considers differences in Chinese tax treaty policy between EU and Non-EU member states as well as relevant policy changes over time. Among the topics covered are the following:;Treaty entitlement (Art 1 and Art 4 OECD Model);Business Profits (Art 6, 7, 8, 9 and 14 OECD Model);Passive Income (Dividends, Interest, Royalties: Art 10, 11 and 12 OECD Model);Capital Gains (Art 13 OECD Model);Employment Income (Art 15 and 16, 18, 19 and 20 OECD Model);Artistes and Sportsmen (Art 17 OECD Model);Methods to Avoid Double Taxation (Art 23);Non-Discrimination (Art 24 OECD Model Convention);Mutual Agreements, Exchange of Information, Collection of Taxes (Art 25, 26 and 27 OECD Model)

This book explores the ambit of the notion of persecution in international law and its relevance in the current geopolitical context, more specifically for refugee women. The work analyses different models for interpreting the notion of persecution in international refugee law through a comparative lens. In particular, a feminist approach to refugee law is adopted to determine to what extent the notion of persecution can apply to gender related forms of violence and what are the challenges in doing so. It proposes an interpretive model that would encourage decision makers to interpret the notion of persecution in a manner that is sufficiently protective and relevant to the profiles of refugees in the 21st century, most particularly to refugee women. The book will be of interest to academics and students in the field of public international law, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, immigration law, European law, and refugee law as well as those working in the areas of international relations.