This annual reference provides a platform for debate and comment on key issues affecting the world's capital markets. It comprises a selection of articles and commentary on developments, a year-in-review section, and special reports on seminars and other events. It presents a detailed overview and analysis of trends worldwide, particularly highlighting developments of more widespread interest. The book is published under the auspices of the Capital Markets Forum of the IBA's Section on Business Law.

There is a wide-spread consensus that UTPs occur throughout the food supply chain. Unfair trading practices (UTPs) can be defined as practices which grossly deviate from good commercial conduct, are contrary to good faith and fair dealing and are unilaterally imposed by one trading partner on its counterparty. Some Member States, such as France, Belgium and the UK, have already adopted legislation specifically prohibiting such practices (in the food and/or non-food supply chain). In addition, various self-regulatory initiatives exist. In April 2019, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Directive (EU) 2019/633 on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain. A Commission Proposal of April 2018 (COM(2018) 173 final) was substantially amended. To improve farmers' and small and medium sized businesses' position in the food supply chain, the Directive bans certain unfair trading practices including late payments for perishable food products; last minute order cancellations; unilateral changes to contracts; refusal to enter into a written contract; returning unsold or wasted products; payment for buyer's marketing. Each Member State has to designate a competent authority to enforce these rules and these authorities must have the power to both launch investigations and fine operators who break the rules. The Member States now have two years to implement the Directive.

Central Asia has emerged as potentially the most important new hydrocarbon province in decades. Among the countries whose natural resources are now the focus of world attention, Kazakhstan is very much in the front tank. The scale and strategic importance of its reserves mean that it is set to become one of the key players in the global market. Realizing that potential depends on many factors, not least its legal treatment of the oil and gas industry. The contributors to this volume consider the various dimensions of that legal treatment, including investment and contractual issues, dispute settlement, transport and refining, environmental issues, and taxation. The importance of the international context for Kazakhstan's domestic law is key feature of this book, as is a concern with identifying existing problems and suggesting the most fruitful direction for reform. The book will be of interest to practitioners and academics working in the specific field as well as in the more general area of legal relations between the oil and gas industry and transition economies. Ilias Bantekas is Reader in Law at the University of Westminster, London, UK. He has written widely in the field of international law and won the International Committee of the Red Cross Paul Reuter prize in 2000. Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School (2003-04). John Paterson is Reader in Law at the University of Westminster, London, UK. He has written on the regulation of the oil and gas industry and acts as a consultant to the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency. Maidan Suleimenov is Professor of Law at the Kazakh State Academy of Law and Adilet Higher Law School, Almaty, Kazakhstan. He was directly involved in Kazakhstan'saccession to the Energy Charter Treaty and has also been responsible for legislative drafting in the field.

Banks are entering a new environment. Regulation and supervision are becoming tougher, so that banks will be less likely to fail. If a bank does fail, bail-in rather than bail-out will be the new resolution regime, so that investors, not taxpayers, bear loss. Safe to Fail sums up the challenges that banks will face and how they can meet them.

Health and safety issues now impose upon almost every part of business life. The system of enforcement is managed and implemented in the UK by The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) - but at times it can be difficult to know exactly which bits of this elaborate spider s web should be applied in a given instance, and which are most important. This Quick Guide puts the subject into context, providing a rational overview and a valid starting point to applying health and safety in the workplace, and offers a concise and readily accessible interpretation of what health and safety legislation means in practice.
Puts health and safety in to contextProvides a rational overview and starting point to applying health and safety in the workplaceOffers a concise interpretation of health and safety legislation in practice"

The recent introduction of the Consumer Protection Act revolutionised consumer rights in South Africa. Along with that, it also fundamentally altered the way in which businesses are required to treat their clients, imposing a new set of obligations – or at least a formalised set of responsibilities – that had been easily circumnavigated or simply ignored before. Marketing campaigns, returns policies, contracts, quality issues, and a host of business practices had to be reviewed and reappraised. Some businesses have done this, while many blithely continue as if nothing has changed, little appreciating the risks of non-compliance and – perhaps more importantly – failing to appreciate that treating consumers fairly is simply a sound business practice. This new work provides a comprehensive overview of consumer law – not just the Act – in a way that follows the typical chain of consumer transactions. It serves to guide, educate and enlighten the professional, the business person and the consumer alike. No business or professional adviser should be without it. Written by a leading specialist in the field, it is simple, clear, comprehensive, authoritative and accessible.

This book explores the normative and legal evolution of the Social Dimension - labour law, social security law and family law - in both the EU and its Member States, during the last decade. It does this from a wide range of theoretical and legal-substantive perspectives. The past decade has witnessed the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty and its emphasis on fundamental rights, a new coordination regulation within the field of social security (Regulation 883/2004/EC), and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the so-called Laval Quartet. Furthermore structural changes affecting demographics and family have also challenged solidarity in new ways. The book is organised by reference to distinct 'normative patterns' and their development in the fields of law covered, such as the protection of established groups, the position of market functional values and the scope for just distribution. The book represents an innovative and important interdisciplinary approach to analysing EU law and Social Europe, and contributes a complex, yet thought-provoking, picture for the future. The contributors represent an interesting mix of well-known and distinguished as well as upcoming and promising researchers throughout Europe and beyond.

This book is both a repertory guide to the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention) as well as a legal analysis of the provisions of the treaty. It traces action taken by the ICAO Assembly and the Council in the implementation of the Convention from the first ICAO Assembly in 1947 until 2012. Above all, the book offers a commentary on the functional and moral fabric of the Chicago Convention, which is not only a multilateral legal instrument that sets out basic principles of air navigation and air transport, but also serves as a moral compass that brings the people of the world together.

The teleological nature of the Chicago Convention is reflected from the outset from its Preamble which sets the tone and philosophy of the Convention that aviation builds friendship and understanding among all people, to its technical provisions that range from rules of the air to landing at airports and customs and immigration procedures. The book effectively demonstrates the Aristotelian principle that rules make people good by forming habits in them. Standardization, or in other words, compliance, is the driver of the Convention that keeps aviation safe, regular, efficient and economical. To that end, this book traces and details the sustained relevance of the Chicago Convention and the efforts of ICAO and the international aviation community towards keeping air transport on track and ready for its future exponential growth, both in letter and in spirit. "

Regulating subsidies in international trade is crucial to the efficient and equitable allocation of resources and ultimately to global welfare. Much of the serious instability that persists in today's interdependent world may be traced to government interventions that dilute or defy such regulation. In this in-depth analysis of subsidies and State aids, Gustavo Luengo details the regulatory elements that reveal how governments undertake the granting of support to their national industries. Although in theory such support is aimed at two overriding economic objectives - the elimination of harmful distortions, and the correction of market failures - he shows that in practice it is political contexts that determine the principles and objectives of the regulation of subsidies. The analysis focuses on two mature regulatory systems, those of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the European Communities (EC). The author describes both legal frameworks, and then proceeds to examine the differences and conflicts between the two systems, along with their reasons, consequences, and possible solutions. Significant aspects of the regulation of subsidies that emerge from the analysis include the following: the role of 'countervailing measures'; the EC notion of 'State aid' as developed by the European Commission and the European Court of Justice; procedures for controlling subsidies under both systems and the consequences of granting subsidies in violation of applicable rules; the elements of 'financial contribution' and 'benefit' under the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM); actionable and non-actionable subsidies; agricultural subsidies in both systems; and, the role of WTO dispute settlement procedures. Both for its clear and comprehensive overview of the regulation of subsidies and State aids and for its insightful recommendations, this book will be welcomed as a major contribution to the field of international economic law. Practitioners, policymakers, officials, and academics will all find it enormously valuable for its analytic depth and its direct applicability to the need to develop fair and enforceable regulation of subsidies and State aids.

Italian banks and financial intermediaries are subject to extensive regulation which has evolved throughout the country's history. There has also been much change to the country's financial regulation in recent years in response to the globalization of markets and intermediaries. The Italian administrative and regulatory system is often perceived as a major obstacle to economic productivity, and some causes of this ineffectiveness are deeply rooted and date back to the Italian unification and juridical culture. This book provides an overview of the Italian regulation of banking and financial activities, and tracks the evolution of its 'economic Constitution' and market trends. It explores a range of topics within Italian regulation, including the regulation of banking activities, investment services and collective portfolio management. It examines in detail the relationship between intermediaries and customers, public offerings of financial instruments and products, public takeover bids, listed companies, insurance and reinsurance business. Among other current topics the authors discuss the link between investor protection and confidence in the financial markets; and assess the financial markets as a source of financing for companies.

This volume gathers together chapters that address the theme of implementing fundamental labour rights in China. It explores the legal framework as well as key institutions and other actors along with the socio-economic context involved in interpretation, implementation, enforcement and overall promotion of fundamental labour rights in China. As a collection of chapters, it assembles comparative and mutually complementary perspectives and insights by distinguished scholars from China, Europe and the United States. With its broad perspective on implementation, the book discusses the most topical challenges to realizing fundamental labour rights in China. China was among the founding members of the ILO. With the regulatory approach of the ILO, fundamental labour rights have gained a new foothold as a key pillar in managing the social dimension of globalization. The development of fundamental labour rights protection in China can be viewed as part of a larger development within China's domestic economic and social transition as well as its integration into the global economic system. While China has ratified four of the eight ILO core conventions, the challenge of effective implementation and enforcement in the domestic context remains. With its in-depth research on fundamental labour rights in the particular cultural context of the Chinese experience, this book studies Chinese labour law from multiple perspectives, at the same time examining the wider role of international labour standards in developing Chinese law and society. This volume is a remarkable enlargement of existing scholarship on international labour standards, on the one hand, and fundamental labour rights in China on the other. These chapters thoroughly analyse the legal and institutional framework for implementing labour law in China. Among the topics covered are fundamental labour rights including freedom from forced labour, prohibition of use of child labour and non-discrimination. In addition, this volume benefits from socio-historical observations on the cultural logics that inform implementation of fundamental labour rights in China in which the history and current development of Chinese labour law are equally reflected with substantive depth.

Litigator, teacher, and scholar Stephen Kohn presents a comprehensive, unified examination of the 35 federal laws that protect whistleblowers and their rights, plus the common law protections available in each of the 50 states. For the first time in one easily accessed volume, readers will find the basic principles upon which all whistleblower law is premised. Mr. Kohn lays out the basic legal principles applicable to almost every whistleblower case, such as the scope of protected activity and who qualifies for protection. He shows what constitutes discriminatory conduct, what type of evidence demonstrates that improper retaliation occurred, the burdens of proof on both the employee and employer, how to calculate damages and attorney fees, common settlement and fundamental procedural issues, and much more, all in meticulously documented detail and a readable, engaging style.

Built upon Mr. Kohn's extensive practical experience and his scholarly research and teaching, not only is the book an essential resource for study and analysis of whistleblowing issues, but it is also a step-by-step guide for conceptualizing and litigating them. Attorneys with specialties in a wide range of fields involving whistleblower law and related policy issues will find a thoughtful, comprehensive examination, and an immediately applicable courtroom aid. It will also be important for human resource executives, labor union officers and attorneys, government contractors, and recipients of government grants, university and government libraries, federal agency executives and specialists, public interest and good government organizations--and many others who have become fascinated by this relatively new, but long-time coming, branch of the law, how it developed, and how it is being applied today.

Shedding new light on the foundations of European competition law, this volume is a legal and historical study of the emerging law and its evolution through the 1980s. It retraces the development and critical junctures of competition law not only at the level of the European Economic Community but also at the level of major Member States of the EEC. Intensely researched and rich with insights, the chapters in this volume reflect a close collaboration among an expert group of lawyers and historians and capitalize on previously unavailable source materials. The book examines several key themes including: the influence of national and international competition law on the development of EEC competition law; the drafting of the regulations that lead to the development of modern EU competition law; the role of the European Court of Justice in establishing the protection of competition as a central pillar of the Common Market; the internal dynamics, ideologies and tensions within the Competition Directorate General (DG IV) of the European Commission; and the role of industrial policy in European integration. Combining legal analysis with a meticulous excavation of historical evidence to reveal the forces driving key actors and the interactions among them, this volume rediscovers a past largely forgotten but essential to understanding the genesis of competition law in Europe, its role in Europe's construction, its hybrid institutional traits, and its often unique substance.

It is widely assumed today that the "welfare state" is contracting or retrenching as an effect of the close scrutiny to which entitlement to social-security benefits is being subjected in most developed countries. In this book, 15 authorities from nine different countries - the UK, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Norway and the US - investigate to what extent this assumption is warranted. The papers were originally presented at a Conference on "The Future of Social Security" held at the University of Stirling in June 2000. Taking into account developments and initiatives at every administrative level from sub-national employment agencies to the OECD and the World Bank, they draw on both data and theories in a broad spectrum of related disciplines, including political science, economics, sociology and law. Detailed materials allow the reader to formulate well-defined responses to such questions as: is there indeed waning public support for social security?; is the "demographic time bomb" of an ageing population as serious a problem as we are often led to believe?; how seriously do supranational reform proposals tend to underestimate cross-national differences? to what degree is "activation policy" merely rhetorical?; to what extent do employment-office staff reformulate and redefine policies "on the ground" to accommodate specific case-by-case realities? Specific criteria for entitlement (such as disability) and such central issues as "gendered" assumptions, access to benefit programmes and the involvement of trade unions are examined in a variety of contexts. As an authoritative assessment of the current state of social-security reform - its critical issues, its direction, and its potential impacts - this book should prove to be of value to all professionals and officials concerned with social programmes at any government level.

This book explores how the EU's enforcement of competition law has moved from centralisation to decentralisation over the years, with the National Competition Authorities embracing more enforcement powers. At the same time, harmonisation has been employed as a solution to ensure that the enforcement of EU competition rules is not weakened and the internal market remains a level playing field. While employing a comparative law argument, the book, accordingly, analyses the need for harmonisation throughout the different stages of development of the EU's competition law enforcement (save Merger control and State Aid), the underlying rationale, and the extent to which comparative studies have been undertaken to facilitate the harmonisation process from an historical perspective. It also covers the Directives, such as the Antitrust Damages Directive and the ECN+ Directive. Investigating both public and private enforcement, it also examines the travaux preparatoires for the enforcement legislation in order to discover the drafters' intent. The book addresses the European and the Member States' perspectives, namely, the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, as harmonisation proceeds through dialogue and cooperation between the two levels. Lastly, it explores the extent to which harmonisation of the competition law enforcement framework has been accepted and implemented in the Member States' legal systems, or has led to the fragmentation of the national systems of the CEE countries.

The number of hedge funds and the assets they have under management has increased in recent years. This increase became significantly more pronounced after the market downturn in 2001. Hedge funds can help investors to benefit from volatile and even sinking stock markets. However, despite the prominent use of the word "hedge" in their name, such funds rarely offer a safe hedge against risk, given that they depend heavily on skill-based investment techniques and often invest in highly speculative financial instruments. Nevertheless, such funds received no specific treatment in the legislation of such major markets as Germany and the United States for years. Against the backdrop of international regulatory concern for hedge funds, the Institute for Law and Finance (ILF), in cooperation with Deutsches Aktieninstitut e.V. (DAI), brought together leading scholars, lawyers and bankers, to assess the risks, opportunities and regulatory challenges that hedge funds present. At the time of the conference, German lawmakers were still discussing the need and possible content of a new law. The fruit of their discussions was the German Investment-Modernization Act (Investmentmodernisierungsgesetz), which entered into force on January 1, 2004, and increased the attractiveness of offering hedge fund products in the German market. This inaugural volume of the Institute for Law and Finance Series contains the proceedings of the ILF/DAI May 2003 conference entitled "Hedge Funds: Risks and Regulation," and presents papers discussing the economic characteristics of and regulatory strategies for addressing hedge funds. The first two papers examine hedge funds from an economic perspective. Alexander M. Ineichen, Managing Director and Global Head of AIS Research at UBS, reveals the economic reality of hedge funds from the myths that has surrounded them. Then Franklin R. Edwards, Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of Futures Markets of the Columbia Business School in New York explains how the regulation of hedge funds should be tailored to their core economic reality and the goals of financial stability and investor protection. Next, Marcia L. MacHarg, a partner of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, Ashley Kovas, a Manager in the Business Standards Department of the Financial Services Authority, London, and Edgar Wallach, a partner of Hengeler Mueller, present the state of the relevant regulatory structures in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, respectively. The book then closes with an analysis of corporate structures used for German hedge funds, offered by Kai-Uwe Steck, a member of the German Asset Management practice group of Shearman & Sterling LLP.

This book explores the legal implications of China's state-directed economic model for the existing international economic order. It first reveals the close links between the market and the state in contemporary China by profiling an emerging triple role of the state in the economy. It then explores how the domestic legal system underpins the distinctive market-state relationship, before analysing whether essential norms of international economic law, which bracket the international economic order, are able to adapt to China's innovative market-state relationship. The book argues that the international economic order is inherently limited since it tends to adhere to an orthodox dichotomy, with a clear boundary between the market and the state. It also suggests that China's new state-market relationship has challenged the dichotomy - the state does not intend to eliminate the functioning of the market but, conversely, utilises a market mechanism and makes itself more integrated into the market. Lastly the book proposes a fresh perspective to comprehend the 'market-state' question, which does not to take for granted that all market-state relationships are mutually exclusive.

The digital economy, broadly defined as the economy operating on the basis of interconnectivity between people and businesses, has gradually spread over the world. Although a global phenomenon, the digital economy plays out in local economic, political, and regulatory contexts. The problems thus created by the digital economy may be approached differently depending on the context. This edited collection brings together leading scholars based in Asia to detail how their respective jurisdictions respond to the competition law problems evolving out of the deployment of the digital economy. This book is timely, because it will show to what extent new competition law regimes or those with a history of lax enforcement can respond to these new developments in the economy. Academics in law and business strategies with an interest in competition law, both in Asia and more broadly, will find the insights in this edited collection invaluable. Further, this volume will be a key resource for scholars, practitioners and students.

EUCOTAX (European UniversitiesCooperating on TAXes) is a networkof tax institutes currently consisting ofeleven universities: WirtschaftsuniversitatWien in Austria, KatholiekeUniversiteit Leuven in Belgium, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, Universite Paris-I Pantheon-Sorbonne in France, UniversitatOsnabruck in Germany, Libera, UniversitaInternazionale di Studi Socialiin Rome (and Universita degli Studidi Bologna for the research part), in Italy, Fiscaal Instituut Tilburg atTilburg University in the Netherlands, Universidad de Barcelona in Spain, Uppsala University in Sweden, QueenMary and Westfi eld College at theUniversity of London in the UnitedKingdom, and Georgetown University inWashington DC, United States ofAmerica.

This book presents a hotly debated issue concerning the ownership of trust property in China. The book describes various conventional interpretations of Chinese Trust Law submitted by legal scholars and compares diverse approaches regarding the ownership of trust property provided by jurisdictions globally. The book does not directly answer the question "Who is the owner of trust property in China?" Instead, using a social capital perspective, it develops a more practical perspective to explain why Chinese trust business has grown rapidly even in lack of legal certainty regarding the location of ownership of trust property. The book also further predicts under what conditions is the time ripe to clarify the location of the ownership of trust property in China. By employing those sociological concepts often used to depict and analyze society, this book outlines the structure of the Chinese trust business and related social relations in different stages, i.e., the current rapid development stage, and the possible transitional stage in the near future. The focus is on how the social network structure affects the behavior of actors (such as the settlor, the trustee, and the beneficiaries, and/or their potential candidates) within the relevant section of Chinese society. The book provides readers with an intensive analysis of the impacts of historical, cultural, and social elements on the legislation and development of trust law in China. It will appeal both to lawyers interested in the Chinese trust business and to comparative law researchers and social scientists.

The idea for this book came about following the International Bar Association's annual conference that was held in Prague in September of 2005. One of the sessions at this conference co-chaired by Pascale Lagesse and Mariann Norrbom was entitled "Restrictive covenants in employment contracts and other mechanisms for protection of corporate confidential information." International panelists consisted of members of the legal profession, corporate representatives and a court justice. The discussions focused on key issues and the concerns companies have when seeking to protect their confidential information, and insight was given into what employers can do in order to ensure that their employees do not take valuable company information with them upon leaving the company. Using a case study as a basis, particular emphasis was placed on non-solicitation and non-compete covenants, and the extent to which an employer can rely on such covenants when protecting his interests. The specific situation of a key employee who left her employer to join a competitor was addressed, and the types of action the employer could take in order to avoid the solicitation of his clients and staff and prevent his employees from competing against him were discussed. This book picks up where the session left off, and consists of no less than 13 contributions from individuals from 5 continents. Each country representative has been asked to respond to a series of pertinent questions on the subjects of restrictive covenants and protection of confidential information, in order to give a comparative overview of how these issues are treated in different jurisdictions. This comprehensive publication will be a valuable resource tool for legal practitioners, employers, HR professionals and anyone interested in the field of employment law.

The enhancement of e-commerce nowadays is one of the important policy issues in the European Union. To this purpose the laws of the EU Member States should be further harmonised. The European Union has adopted a number of Directives relating to different aspects of e-commerce which should be implemented in the laws of the Member States. eDirectives: Guide to European Union Law on E-commerce provides article-by-article comments on four Directives central to the regulation of electronic commerce in the European Union (EU), viz. 97/7/EC on distance selling; 1999/93/EC on electronic signatures; 2000/31/EC on electronic commerce; and, 2001/29/EC on copyright in the information society. In addition, a separate chapter deals with e-commerce and privacy protection, while the opening chapter discusses all other EU initiatives relevant for the regulation of e-commerce. This volume is meant as comprehensive legal source of e-commerce legislation for both academics (LLM-students and academic staff) and practitioners (attorneys, company lawyers, consultants). It is not only of interest for readers in the EU-Member States (because their national law is or is about to be adapted to the EU Directives), but also for readers in aspirant Member States of the EU, as well as for readers in other countries where e-commerce has emerged, like the Unites States of America.

This book investigates the tensions between EU law and international commercial arbitration, i.e. tensions between two phenomena at opposite ends of the public to private ordering continuum. It focuses on the Commercial Agents Directive's regime for indemnity and compensation as one of the most frequent source of these tensions. To mitigate the consequential problems, the book proposes and describes a comprehensive framework for a preferable system of reviewing arbitration agreements and arbitral awards. To this end, it explores the prerequisites of this system through comparative legal analysis of the German, Belgian, French and English systems of review, an assessment of the observable aspects of arbitral practice, game theoretical analysis of the arbitral process, and microeconomic analysis of the cross-border market for commercial agency.

Taxation of Legal Costs in South Africa provides clear and practical guidance on taxation of costs, which will assist in determining reasonable costs in line with the existing legal system. Taxation is about the quantification of legal costs and therein lies the crux of any costs issue. The book explains how the process of taxation exercises control over costs that are legally recovered so that fees and costs are reasonable. Taxation of Legal Costs in South Africa identifies the key aspects of costs and all aspects of taxation. It records and integrates the practices, rules, tariffs and judgments of court to provide a practical resource. The discretion that is applied in taxing bills of costs and the principles relied upon in reviewing taxations are discussed extensively. The book analyses maximum tariffs that legal practitioners may charge, which have a significant impact on both the public and the legal profession. The author also offers practical suggestions for solutions to challenges that arise in practice.