From our daily practice as scholars, consultants and entrepreneurs we know how critical it is to make the right decisions that can shape the future of a company. One of the earliest of such decisions is surely the selection of the appropriate legal form as it is hardly reversible and has major implications on the running business. Accordingly, we can nd a wealth of information about the pros and cons of speci c legal forms. However, so far there is only scarce information available once you decide to enter a foreign market. There are offerings, e.g. from the Chambers of Commerce and you can search the Internet. When information is provided in the local language, comprehension becomes dif cult. Furthermore, the material that is available today only seldom allows for a structured analysis and comparison of legal forms in different countries. From discussions with entrepreneurs we know that this situation has not only been cumbersome for us, but actually everybody who is thinking about starting up a business or widening the operations across country borders is faced with the complex task of deciding on a legal form.

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the world has witnessed increasing manifestations of eroding trust in the international trade regime, including Brexit and the Trump administration's unilateral trade policies. Restoring trust in the international trading system is essential to prevent the rise of economic nationalism and beggar-thy-neighbour policies, which as history has shown are a threat to global welfare and peace. As a scholar, counsellor of the WTO Appellate Body Secretariat, and, between 2009 and 2017, a member of the WTO Appellate Body, Peter Van den Bossche has addressed the challenges faced by the international trade regime and has tirelessly promoted trust in the multilateral governance model. This Liber Amicorum honours his contribution to the development of a 'trustworthy' rules-based multilateral trading system, which has left a lasting legacy. In this timely book, leading experts and friends of Peter Van den Bossche, including his mentors, colleagues and PhD candidates, come together to pay tribute to his work by exploring, from a legal perspective, what can be done to restore trust in trade, focusing on: (1) ensuring a robust institutional framework that promotes rule of law over power politics, (2) safeguarding the integrity and effectiveness of trade dispute settlement, and (3) ensuring that substantive international trade rules appropriately balance trade and non-trade interests.

This book reflects on constitutional balancing from the perspective of fundamental labour rights. It draws on neo-constitutional theories and builds on the assumption that fundamental labour rights, understood as rights aimed at protecting workers during their working life or after retirement, are the normative expression of founding values and can be balanced against equally axiological constitutional principles. The balancing of constitutional labour rights can be conducted by various institutional actors and by applying different techniques. This volume reviews the theoretical debates on judicial balancing and the approaches adopted by the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights, to proceed with a closer assessment of Italian and Spanish judicial traditions. In particular, it addresses the main profiles of the case law of the Italian and Spanish Constitutional Courts on labour and social law reforms adopted in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, where balancing takes place between labour rights and economic principles. The analysis is focused on four main aspects: the fundamental labour rights in the balance; the role of the Courts; the technique applied by the Judges; and the constitutional interests subject to the balancing. It ultimately reveals that the axiological nature of fundamental labour rights is preserved and the economic and financial contingencies confirm their factual character, although they are occasionally recognised a prominent role in the ratio decidendi. The book will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers working in the areas of labour law, social security law, legal theory and constitutional law.

This book opens up the secret world of tax havens and offshore finance centres (OFCs), a vast offshore business valued at over one trillion US dollars. It is a timely and original analysis of the role of OFCs in the emerging global economy. The book discusses who uses OFCs, how OFCs work and what drives their development. Extensive use of case study material from Jersey illustrates the growth of a successful OFC and its impact upon a small island.

This text is the result of a conference held in London in September 1999, jointly organized by Hammond Suddards Solicitors and the Centre for the Law of the European Union of University College, London. This conference addressed the issues surrounding the European Commission's White Paper published in April 1999. In this respect, the conference presented distinguished speakers with an opportunity to air their views in public on this important development in the evolution of competition law in the European Union. The authors have tried to cover as much ground as possible, giving the view of authoritative contributors and competition authorities from most of the major European countries and from the European Commission. The contributors naturally focus on the Commission's White Paper and view their national situation in this light. There is detailed treatment of the situation in the UK and the entry into force of the UK Competition Act.

Trade liberalization has shaped international economic relations since the conclusion of the GATT 1947. The last few decades have seen a significant shift in the focus of this process: multilateralism seems to have reached its limits, giving way to regionalism, and the focus of trade liberalization has shifted to non-tariff barriers. While these developments have attracted considerable attention, exploring them from comparative perspectives has been largely neglected. Trading systems - the WTO, regional economic integrations and federal systems - are all based on the same dichotomy of free trade and local public interest: they generally prohibit the constituent parties (states) from restricting trade, but exempt them from this limitation if the restriction is warranted by a legitimate local end. The purpose of this volume is to contribute to filling the above-mentioned research gap by exploring central issues in regional economic integrations from a comparative perspective. It provides a general economic analysis of the costs and benefits of trade liberalization and the role and function of normative values in commercial policy. This is followed by a comparative analysis of the approaches used in various regional economic integrations (in North America, Europe and Latin America) and federal markets (the United States, Australia and India) regarding the balance between free trade and local public interest. Key issues in investment law, one of the most contentious elements of next-generation free trade agreements, are also addressed.

This new book contains a detailed analysis of the legal requirements in connection with the issuance and transfer of shares in a foreign country. The book discusses issues such as the mechanics of transfer, foreign stock ownership, registration and notification requirements, good faith acquisition of shares, transfer restrictions and lost or stolen shares under the laws of twenty-eight different countries. In addition, the book proposes, for each jurisdiction model, legal opinion language (and appropriate legal opinion backup) which counsel to the purchases should request in order to protect his client. The book is a valuable tool for anyone who purchases a company or a stake in a company in a foreign country. Reports from the following countries are included: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, S. Africa, Spain, Switzerland, UK, Hong Kong, Scotland, USA, Venezuela.

In a world of fading borders, the Internet has become a regular method of buying and selling. However, technological and legal means of guaranteeing secure electronic transactions lag behind the increasing flexibility required by a flourishing "virtual" economy. Furthermore, as virtual money circulates it is susceptible to interception, processing and channeling by any number of corporate interests and public authorities. The questions arise: who is going to control what and why? There are, as yet, no firm answers. This book sets the stage and takes the necessary first steps towards developing a reliable legal regime for virtual money. Its purpose is: to analyze the legal issues raised by internet payment systems, and to explain clearly the solutions already adopted; and to discuss policy issues, with available hypotheses, raised by the convergence of financial services and information technology, and by the advent of virtual money. The authors provide a rigorous assessment of the appropriateness of the relevant existing legal instruments that regulate Internet payment systems, and focus in particular upon the rapidly increasing use of "electronic cash" - on smart cards or in the form of dematerialized electronic tokens - which behaves like cash, in that it can circulate between parties without the intermediation of a financial institution. The text aims to help lawyers, policymakers and business people successfully negotiate the radical transformation under way in all sectors of business and industry.

There are already many papers and books on the causes and course of the current financial crisis, but this is the first and, for the moment, only such book to focus on the regulatory response to it. There are two main attributes that a bank needs to remain in business during a period of turmoil, liquidity to enable it to pay its debts when due, and capital, to absorb losses. Both have been insufficient. Charles Goodhart describes what went wrong and what needs to be done, alongside discussions of deposit insurance, credit rating agencies, prompt corrective action, etc. Charles Goodhart is the senior British economist specialising in financial stability issues. As the turmoil began, continued and exploded into crisis, he has kept up a series of commentaries, all since September 2007. These have been brought together, plus some new and additional material, to provide the reader with an overview of what went wrong in the regulatory framework for the financial system, and what now needs to be done to put that right. This will be required reading for financial regulators, practitioners in banking and finance, academics and students of finance, and those just wanting to know what went wrong and what to do now.

Bank failures, crises, global banking, megamergers, changes in technology--the effect of these world events is to weaken existing methods of regulating bank safety and soundness, and even to make some methods ineffective. Federal regulators are evaluating new ways to solve them. Dr. Gup and his panel of academics and regulatory professionals explore these problems and the difficulties in implementing solutions. They point out that global banking, megamergers, and changes in technology are drastically altering the way financial services are delivered. They also argue that existing methods of bank regulation, formulated in the United States and elsewhere as early as the 19th century, are not able to cope with these changes. The search now underway for new methods that are global in scope. Inevitably, they will involve cross-border supervision and international cooperation.

Covering a wide range of topics, from the rationale of banking regulation to optimal banking regulation in the new world environments, this book examines the innovative tools needed to cope with these problems. Greater reliance on market discipline; the use of internal controls based on statistical models, such as Value-at-Risk; and subordinated debt are discussed. This timely, probing analysis of one of the hottest topics in bank regulation today, is an important resource for professionals and their academic colleagues in the fields of banking, finance, investment, and world trade.

This timely book brings clarity to the debate on the new legal phenomenon of environmental border tax adjustments. It will help form a better understanding of the role and limits these taxes have on environmental policies in combating global environmental challenges, such as climate change. The book is structured around three main topics: the rationale, the tax design and the legal framework of environmental border tax adjustments. This three-fold analysis gives an overview of the legal issues that should be considered before the adoption of environmental border taxes, including carbon tax adjustments. Alice Pirlot's critical approach to the arguments surrounding traditional and environmental border tax adjustments allows for detailed legal analysis going beyond the question of their compatibility with WTO law, while also reviewing the economic argument. This book will prove to be essential reading for legal scholars and professionals alike, as well as benefitting environmental NGOs, stakeholders in energy-intensive industries and policymakers looking for in-depth insight into environmental border tax adjustments.

Cryptography is essential for information security and electronic commerce, yet it can also be abused by criminals to thwart police wiretaps and computer searches. How should governments address this conflict of interests? Will they require people to deposit crypto keys with a `trusted' agent? Will governments outlaw cryptography that does not provide for law-enforcement access? Can the police require suspects to hand over keys, thus infringing the privilege against self-incrimination? Or should law enforcement forget about wiretapping and computer searches altogether? This is not yet another study of the crypto controversy to conclude that this or that interest is paramount. This is not a study commissioned by a government, nor is it a report that campaigns on the electronic frontier. "The Crypto Controversy" is neither a cryptography handbook nor a book drenched in legal jargon. "The Crypto Controversy" pays attention to the reasoning of both privacy activists and law-enforcement agencies, to the particulars of technology as well as of law, to "solutions" offered both by cryptographers and by governments. The author proposes a method to balance the conflicting interests and applies this to the Dutch situation, explaining both technical and legal issues for those interested in the subject.

This book offers a valuable guide to one of the most challenging areas of commercial law, now frequently referred to as secured transactions, with a focus on Nigerian, Canadian and United States perspectives. A debtor's ability to provide collateral influences not only the cost of the money borrowed, but also in many cases, whether secured lenders are willing to offer credit at all. The book proposes that increasing access to, and indeed, lowering the cost of credit could tremendously boost economic development, while at the same time arguing that this would best be achieved if the legal framework for secured transactions in Nigeria, and of course, any other country with similar experiences, were designed to allow the use of personal property and fixtures to secure credit. Similarly, the creation, priority, perfection, and enforcement of security interests in personal property should be simplified and supported by a framework that ensures that neither the interests of secured lenders nor debtors are hampered, so as to guarantee the continuous availability of affordable credit as well as debtors' willingness to borrow and do business. The book further argues that in addition to the obvious preference for real property over personal property by secured lenders due to the unreformed secured-transactions legal framework in Nigeria, its compartmentalized nature has also resulted in unpredictability in commerce and the concomitant effects of poor access to credit. Through the comparative research conducted in this book utilizing the UCC Article 9 and Ontario PPSA as benchmarks, the author provides reformers with a repository of tested secured-transactions law solutions, which law reformers in the Commonwealth countries in Africa and beyond, as well as the business community will find valuable in dealing with issues that stem from secured transactions.

The book provides an analytical exposition of the law concerning directors' liability for the losses sustained by their companies' creditors, when the directors' companies are in financial distress or become insolvent. It is a detailed one-stop resource for obtaining a good understanding of the law which has developed from legislation and case law. In particular, there is a detailed consideration of what needs to be proved, what defences there are, and what might be the issues of concern for all parties. A doctrinal method is adopted and there is extensive analysis of the relevant legislation and case law. Rather than merely referring to cases to support propositions the discussion considers many of the cases in context and in depth and their relevance to the aim of the book. The book also endeavours to provide views, in a practical way, on aspects of the law and it identifies problems and how they may be addressed. Of interest to legal practitioners and insolvency practitioners alike, the book will in addition be useful to directors, government officials and academics.

To be an effective manager in today's library, you must know and comply with numerous federal and state laws and regulations. This handbook offers how to information on academic library management and provides a single, up-to-date source for laws, regulations, executive orders, guidelines, and court decisions on employee and employer rights and responsibilities. It includes information on laws relating to recruitment and selection of personnel; the employment relationship; wages and hours; employee benefits; health, safety, and privacy; and income replacement (e.g., disability, workers' compensation). In addition, potential management problems (e.g., discipline and discharge) are discussed and case studies are presented with suggestions for problem resolution. This material will keep administrators and human resources staff apprised of the actions of such organizations as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Office of Federal Cont

This book provides, for the first time in a single publication, a collection of basic documents relating to the international law of nuclear energy. The series of introductions facilitate the understanding of the documents and their context. They embrace the four concerns associated with the safe and peaceful use of nuclear energy, i.e. to ensure: that nuclear energy is used in conformity with basic safety standards; that nuclear material and nuclear facilities are protected against theft and sabotage; that nuclear facilities are not subject to attack during armed conflict; and that nuclear material and facilities are not used for military purposes. The book is an invaluable reference work for all those working in the field of international nuclear law and the regulation of the use of nuclear energy as well as for teachers and students of law.

This book focuses on various problems arising as a result of China's e-business development. These include e-commerce aspects of the internet industry and e-governance aspects of the presiding agencies. E-privacy and online IPR protection will be of particular interest to readers, as these are important international problems that China has been trying its best to deal with for many years. Each paper in this book presents valuable guidelines and suggestions to allow readers to form a sound understanding of China's e-business development.

More and more multinational companies are deploying key employees around the globe to serve the increasing international business needs of the multinational, its global markets, and its customers. The ability to relocate employees quickly from one location to another, and the ability of those employees to quickly focus on the business objectives of the company once they are relocated, can often determine the success of a new regional operation or an entire global strategy. It is crucial for employers to avoid unexpected barriers or difficulties in the form of employment-related issues. This enormously valuable handbook is the ideal solution to such problems, both in the anticipation and in the event. With 32 chapters each written by local experts, it provides a practical, country-by-country guide to employee relocation issues among the world's most active or fast-developing economies. Each chapter offers a handy reference to relevant issues under each particular country's laws regarding employment status, compensation and benefits, related tax issues, and more. With its reliable guidance, both employers and employees can proceed confidently with their cross-border plans and commitments. The writers of each chapter answer important questions on a wide range of employment issues. Among the many relevant matters covered - in the same order in each chapter, for easy cross-reference - are the following: types of employment visas and related qualification requirements; expenses and time frame for obtaining visas; income taxation of foreign nationals; employer's tax withholding requirements; filing and reporting requirements; eligibility for employee or retirement benefits; continuation of home country benefits; wealth, capital, estate or death taxes; taxable presence of foreign corporate employers; vicarious liability for acts of employees; privacy laws relating to employees; employment termination provisions under local law; enforceability of non-competition and non-solicitation agreements; and, protection of confidential or trade secret information. The Handbook has been meticulously produced under the auspices of member firms of the World Law Group, a leading network of 48 independent law firms located in most of the world's major commercial centers. A peerless source of information and guidance to employers in expatriate relocation planning, it will greatly help to foresee potential pitfalls and benefit from local advantages, so both employers and expatriate employees will be free to concentrate on the business goals at hand.

Rescuing companies is becoming more and more an alternative to merely liquidating a company in financial difficulties on the basis of a bankruptcy procedure. The goal of rescuing a company is to preserve the healthy parts of a company in trouble and to put the company back on a sound track. This book reports on practical experiences of rescues and describes in particular transactional aspects. The resource material of this book is useful for further academic research into the subject, especially for comparative legal analyses. The book comprises 24 national reports out of 23 jurisdictions and the General Report summarizing main differences, peculiarities and common principles of the various jurisdictions.

Over the last ten years mobile payment systems have revolutionised banking in some countries in Africa. In Kenya the introduction of M-Pesa, a new financial services model, has transformed the banking and financial services industry. Giving the unbanked majority access to the financial services market it has attracted over 18 million subscribers which is remarkable given that fewer than 4 million people in Kenya have bank accounts. This book addresses the legal and regulatory issues arising out of the introduction of M-Pesa in Kenya and its drive towards financial inclusion. It considers the interaction between regulation and technological innovation with a particular focus on the regulatory tools, institutional arrangements and government decisional processes through the examination as a whole of its regulatory capacity. This is done with a view to understanding the regulatory capacity of Kenya in addressing the vulnerabilities presented by technological innovation in the financial industry for consumers after financial inclusion. It also examines the way that mobile payments have been regulated by criticising the piecemeal approach that the Central Bank of Kenya has taken in addressing the legal and regulatory issues presented by mobile payments. The book argues there are significant gaps in the regulatory regime of mobile banking in Kenya.

This short monograph examines the tense relationship between central bank independence and democratic legitimation, which has changed as the European Central Bank (ECB) has been entrusted with new tasks and faced unprecedented challenges. The financial and sovereign debt crisis, in particular, has affected the ECB's position within the Economic and Monetary Union without substantial changes in the Union's legal framework. However, the evolution of an institution primarily obligated to maintain price stability into an actor involved in sustaining financial stability, performing banking supervision and supporting economic policy raises the question of whether the high level of autonomy granted to the ECB is justified with regard to the principle of democracy that demands adequate accountability and control. This book identifies requirements for the democratic legitimation of central bank action in relation to specific tasks. Further, it analyses other scales of independence encountered in EU law in order to allow readers to gain a better conceptual understanding of central bank independence.

This impressive volume presents a detailed comparative analysis of merger remedies in the EU and US, motivated by the fact that a growing number of mergers are being scrutinised and reviewed under both jurisdictions. Merger remedies on either side of the Atlantic play an increasingly important role in the implementation of public policy with regard to the economic concentration of industry. The book provides an understanding of merger remedies in general, and of procedural and substantive differences in the approach of the EU and the US. The editors have gathered together leading European and American practitioners and scholars to comprehensively discuss this issue. They aim to help policymakers decide if, and how, current practices can be improved, and to help firms and their counsel better prepare cases and predict outcomes. This volume sets forth an agenda for future research by providing a critical overview of merger remedies and their implementation in the EU and US. It will become the requisite study in the field for scholars of industrial organisation, law and economics, and for legal practitioners and policymakers working in the realm of competition law.

The book examines the potential for regional competition law systems as enforcement tools in developing countries, based on a case study of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, the Andean Community and the Caribbean Community. It analyses the allocation of enforcement competences between the regional/supranational and the national level and formulates detailed guidelines on the optimal degree of centralization or decentralization. The book addresses all readers that are interested in the enforcement of competition law in developing countries. Moreover, it provides practical insights for public institutions that wish to identify or prevent possible misallocation of competences within regional competition law systems.

In the last two decades the Tokyo Stock Exchange implemented several important reforms in regulations, market trading mechanisms, and IT trading systems. In this book we analyze the impact of the evolution of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), at the same time discussing reforms in stock trading by related accounting standards and legal regulations. With daily stock return and market microstructure data, we analyze how these reforms have significantly influenced the pricing structure and price discovery process of traded stocks, as well as the trading style of institutional investors, individual investors, and high frequency traders. The research methodology we employ is primarily standard market microstructure tests as well as methods used in conventional empirical financial economics. We simultaneously use the most relevant concepts in these fields for our empirical tests and provide a comprehensive picture of trading, price discovery, pricing structure, and public vs. private information dissemination.

This book focuses on Fintech regulation in Asian, situating local developments in broader economic, regulatory and technological contexts. Over the last decade, Fintech - broadly defined as the use of new information technologies to help financial institutions and intermediaries compete in the marketplace - has disrupted the financial services sector. Like other 21st century technological developments, Fintech is a global phenomenon that plays out in local economic, political and regulatory contexts, and this dynamic interplay between global trends and local circumstances has created a complex and fast-changing landscape. Diverse stakeholders (most obviously incumbent financial service providers, tech start-ups and regulators) all pursue a competitive edge against a background of profound uncertainty about the future direction and possible effects of multiple emerging technologies. Compounding these difficulties are uncertainties surrounding regulatory responses. Policymakers often struggle to identify appropriate regulatory responses and increasingly turn to policy experimentation. Such issues add to the challenges for the various actors operating in the Fintech space. This situation is particularly fluid in Asia, since many jurisdictions are seeking to establish themselves as a regional hub for new financial services.