Modern Company Law for a Competitive South African Economy presents a progressive discussion of selected corporate law matters brought about by the new Companies Act 71 of 2008.

The book covers the areas of corporate formation and corporate finance, corporate governance and mergers and takeovers, business rescue, and the enforcement and regulatory regime.

This publication is almost certainly the first attempt to grapple rigorously with selected aspects of corporate law contained in the new Companies Act.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Focusing on the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in 2011, this timely book charts the field of business and human rights, finding that corporate responsibility to respect human rights is gradually evolving into a binding legal duty in both national and international law. Following the structure of the UNGPs, Peter T. Muchlinski also covers the state duty to protect against business violations of human rights, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and access to remedies for corporate violations of human rights. Key Features: A detailed, critical, appraisal of the UNGPs in their historical, legal and political contexts Coverage of developments in national law and policy to further the state's duty to protect against business violations of human rights An interdisciplinary perspective drawing on history, law, business ethics, politics, and ideas of corporate governance with a view to introducing the field to readers with diverse specialist backgrounds Coverage of new directions for business and human rights including calls for new mandatory corporate liability laws, a legally binding international treaty and new multi stakeholder initiatives for developing business and human rights standards This Advanced Introduction will be a key guide for students and researchers in the fields of business and human rights, international law and business ethics, as well as lawyers and business managers who need an accessible primer to business and human rights.

The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) constitutes a key pillar of the project of European integration, and the law serves as the infrastructure of the EU's system of economic governance. This comprehensive Research Handbook analyses and explains this complex architecture from a legal point of view and looks ahead to the challenges it faces and how these can be resolved. Bringing together contributions from leading academics from across Europe and top lawyers from several EU institutions, this Research Handbook is the first to cover all aspects of the Eurozone's legal ecosystem, including the fiscal, monetary, banking, and capital markets unions. In doing so, it offers an up-to-date and in depth assessment of the norms and procedures that underpin EMU, exploring the latest developments, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the existing framework, and making suggestions for necessary reform through policy and law. Scholars and advanced students with an interest in EU economic law will find this Research Handbook to be an indispensable guide. It will also prove valuable to policy-makers and legal advisors working in EU institutions, as well as practitioners in the field and officials in both EU and national administrations.

This book's eminent editors and contributing authors provide an accessible and engaging account of the 'new' politics of corporate taxation, highlighting the complex and multidimensional strategies used by activists to influence public opinion, formal regulation and corporate behaviour. While campaigning is successful at exposing tax avoidance, it presents significant governance challenges. As this book reveals, the battle to establish fair and sustainable corporate tax regimes has only just begun. Chapters offer readers a timely assessment of the emerging role of new tax justice NGOs, the media and whistleblowers, as well as new governance strategies and policies targeting multinational corporations. Through the lens of political science, the authors show how civil society organisations shape the agenda of tax practices of the world's largest and most powerful corporations, including examples such as Apple and Google. A detailed evaluation is given of new private governance initiatives in the international tax arena and their relationship with traditional forms of regulation. Looking closely at the wider significance of the debate in contemporary global governance, academics and graduates in the fields of international political economy, global governance, development studies and taxation will find this book a timely and thought-provoking read. Contributors: A. Christians, R. Eccleston, A. Elbra, F. Gale, L. Johnson, A. Kellow, L. Latulippe, J. Mikler, H. Murphy-Gregory, T. Porter, K. Ronit, L. Seabrooke, L. Smith, J. Van Alstine, D. Wigan, R. Woodward

Digital Platforms and Global Law focuses on digital platforms and identifies their relevant legal profiles in terms of transnational and international law. It qualifies digital platforms as private legal orders, which exercise the legislative, executive, and (para)jurisdictional power within them. Starting from this assumption, the author studies the relationship between these orders and state, transnational, and international orders. The book first explores the reasons for the inadequacy of the current regulatory matrix and goes on to detail the need for a new paradigm; a shift from the current matrix of market regulation to one of negotiation. The author then examines the lack of effectiveness of current tools and explores how better versions, tools of uniform law, are emerging. This unique exploration will appeal to governments, regulatory authorities, digital platforms, businesses, and students and will find further audience with policy makers and practitioners.

This book assesses the role of the doctrine of insurable interest within modern insurance law by examining its rationales and suggesting how shortcomings could be fixed. Over the centuries, English law on insurable interest - a combination of statutes and case law - has become complex and unclear. Other jurisdictions have relaxed, or even abolished, the requirement for an insurable interest. Yet, the UK insurance industry has overwhelmingly supported the retention of the doctrine of insurable interest. This book explores whether the traditional justifications for the doctrine - the policy against wagering, the prevention of moral hazard and the doctrine's relationship with the indemnity principle - still stand up to scrutiny and argues that, far from being obsolete, they have acquired new significance in the global financial markets and following the liberalisation of gambling. It is also argued that the doctrine of insurable interest is an integral part of a system of insurance contract law rules and market practice. Rather than rejecting the doctrine, the book recommends a recalibration of insurable interest to afford better pre-contractual transparency to a proposer as to the suitability of the policy to his or her interest in the subject-matter to be insured. Providing a powerful defence for the retention of insurable interest, this book will appeal to both academics and practitioners working in the field of insurance law.

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the international law regime of jurisdictional immunities in employment matters. Three main arguments lie at its heart. Firstly, this study challenges the widely held belief that international immunity law requires staff disputes to be subject to blanket or quasi-absolute immunity from jurisdiction. Secondly, it argues that it is possible to identify well-defined standards of limited immunity to be applied in the context of employment litigation against foreign states, international organizations and diplomatic and consular agents. Thirdly, it maintains that the interaction between the applicable immunity rules and international human rights law gives rise to a legal regime that can provide adequate protection to the rights of employees. A much-needed study into an under-researched field of international and employment law.

"This book is a classic... its style and content remain invaluable." Entertainment Law Review This is the new edition of a unique book about intellectual property. It is for those new to the subject, both law students and others such as business people needing some idea of the subject. It provides an outline of the basic legal principles, educating the reader as to the shape of the law. Critically, it also gives an insight into how the system actually works. You cannot understand chess by merely learning the rules - you also have to know how the game is played: so too with intellectual property. The authors deliberately avoid technicalities: keeping things simple, yet direct. There are no footnotes to distract. Although cases are, inevitably, referred to, they are explained in a pithy, accessible manner. All major areas of IP - patents, trade marks, copyright and designs - are covered, along with briefer treatment of other rights and subjects such as breach of confidence, plant varieties and databases. A novice reader should come away both with a clear outline of IP law and a feeling for how it works. Students will be able to put their more detailed study into perspective. Users will be able to understand better how IP affects them and their businesses.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler." -Albert Einstein. The authors of this book firmly believe in this principle. This book aims to explain labour law as simply as possible without losing the essence and importance of labour law rules in the workplace.

This book uses plain and understandable language and practical examples to explain concepts. Visual aids such as tables or graphics and mind maps will explain difficult concepts further. In a nutshell, this book is an essential tool for any keen student or reader on the topic. This is a thoroughly revised new book, building on the foundations of the first three editions, but expanded and updated to meet the needs of the students using it.

The fourth edition has:

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business, and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This succinct Advanced Introduction delivers insights into the pressing technological, political, and legal challenges of cybersecurity. Exploring cybersecurity threats on both a national and global scale, it provides guidance on how countries use domestic and international law to counter crime, terrorism, espionage, and armed conflict in cyberspace. Key features: Centres cybersecurity law within the internet as a technology, cyberspace as a political and governance space, and transformations in international relations over the past twenty years Tracks how the development of policies on responding to different cyber threats, improving cyber defences, and increasing cyber deterrence affects the use and effectiveness of cybersecurity law Analyses whether the ongoing evolution of cyber threats changes, or should change, how countries apply domestic and international law to counter cybersecurity challenges concerning crime, terrorism, espionage, and armed conflict This Advanced Introduction is an invaluable resource for researchers and students of law, public policy, and international relations focusing on how digital technologies, the internet, and cyberspace affect world affairs. It also serves as an accessible entry point for government, corporate, and NGO staff concerned with cybersecurity law.

This Handbook examines the regulatory, social, financial, and technological issues pertaining to energy communities in smart cities. Evidencing the emergence of new imperatives at the intersection of sustainability, resilience, innovation, and legal issues, energy communities embody the thrust of the user-centred digital transformation our societies are subjected to today. By bridging the energy communities’ debate with smart cities research, this Handbook positions itself at the heart of the conversation on energy sustainability, climate action, and ‘just transition’. Drawing on contributions from across the globe, this book offers both a birds-eye and a detailed inter- and multidisciplinary insight into the emergence of energy communities and their evolution in the smart city context. Technological and regulatory aspects of this transition are explored from a variety of conceptual and empirical perspectives. Case studies evidencing developments in the Global South and the Global North embellish the conversation. Questions of climate change, energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, emissions’ reduction, and corresponding policy frameworks are discussed. Dedicated to all those interested in climate action, energy transition, sustainable development, and smart cities, this Handbook will be of interest to policymakers, lawyers, energy and urban experts, researchers, and students.

This book shows how to design labour rights to effectively protect digital platform workers, organise accountability on digital work platforms, and guarantee workers' collective representation and action. It acknowledges that digital work platforms entail enormous risks for workers, and at the same time it reveals the extent to which labour law is in need of reconstruction. The book focusses on the conceptual links - often overlooked in the past - between labour law's categories and its regulatory approaches. By explaining and analysing the wealth of approaches that deconstruct and reconceptualise labour law, the book uncovers the organisational ideas that permeate labour law's categories as well as its policy approaches in a variety of jurisdictions. These ideas reveal a lack of fit between labour law's traditional concepts and digital platform work: digital work platforms rarely behave like hierarchical organisations; instead, they more often function as market organisers. The book provides a fresh perspective for international academic and policy debates on the regulation of digital work platforms, as well as on the purposes and foundations of labour law. It offers a way out of the impasse the debate around labour law classification has reached, by showing what labour law could learn from digital law approaches to platforms - and vice versa.

In a short time, Blockchain has gained a spectacular success. Since its inception, it has been on the headlines and evolved to be one of those trending technologies that would make a huge impact on the fast-paced digital world. It has been a game-changing technology with it's increased efficiency and different kinds of security features. This book will focus specifically on blockchain for digital governance. It will provide information on the impact and challenges of adopting Blockchain in Digital Governance and will consolidate the current open issues and future research trends of Blockchain which will have a societal impact. It not only introduces and explores blockchain technology in Digital Governance but will demonstrate applications of blockchain in Digital Governance as well. This book addresses the impact and future trends of Blockchain especially for Digital Governance, therefore this book has spectrum of audience which includes under-graduate and post-graduate students, researchers, academicians, industry professionals, scientists working in research laboratories, and more. Hence, the book will be recommended as an instant research reference in college/university libraries. Apart for these audiences mentioned above, the book will be informative for general readers, economists, decision makers in the Government Sectors, and all interested individuals.

This introductory-level textbook provides a clear and concise overview of commercial law for undergraduate law students. Covering all the key areas of law that may be included in a commercial law module, including agency, sale of goods, bailments, carriage of goods, commercial financing, and conflict of laws, it also introduces relevant elements of related fields such as banking and insolvency law and touches on emerging issues such as cryptocurrencies. Key Features: Accessible and conversational prose A tight focus on core knowledge with manageable levels of detail Important concepts, cases and legislation are highlighted for ease of reference Student-friendly layout with key lessons and learning objectives clearly identified Principles of Commercial Law is perfectly suited to law students studying undergraduate commercial law modules in their second or third years. It will also be beneficial as an accessible introductory text on higher level courses for students who are newer to the topic.

International energy law is an elusive but important concept. There is no body of law called 'international energy law', nor is there any universally accepted definition for it, yet many specialized areas of international law have a direct relationship with energy policy. The Research Handbook on International Energy Law examines various aspects of international energy law and offers a comprehensive account of its basic concepts and processes.Adopting a practical approach, the Handbook traces the wide and somewhat informal notion of international energy law and covers the latest developments in the field. The expert contributors offer original research and analysis on pertinent topics such as energy investment, international energy disputes and energy trade. In addition to examining public international law issues and their application to energy activities, the Handbook also includes studies focused on private contractual arrangements and provides an angle on the human rights aspects of energy. This book will be a valuable tool for the expert audience - both academics and practitioners - and will provide students and early career practicing lawyers with a good understanding of what 'international energy law' really means. Contributors: R.J. Battaglia, A.V. Belyi, P. Cameron, M. Galligan, A.M.-Z. Gao, T.P.Gormley, K. Hober, L. Holt, S. de Jong, A. Konoplyanik, L.A. Low, R. Maalouf, T. Martin, M. Naseem, S. Naseem, Y. Omorogbe, S.-L. Penttinen, P. Roberts, A. Sabater, S.W. Schill, Y. Selivanova, I.A. Siddiky, M. Stadnyk, K. Talus, R.P. Tscherning, A. Wawryk, J. Wouters, K. Yafimava

In a digitally connected world, the question of how to respect, protect and fulfil human rights has become unavoidable. Uniting research from scholars and practitioners, this contemporary Handbook offers new insights into well-established debates surrounding digital technologies by framing them in terms of human rights. An international group of expert contributors explore the issues posed by the management of key Internet resources, the governance of its architecture, the role of different stakeholders, the legitimacy of rule-making and rule-enforcement, and the exercise of international public authority over users. Highly interdisciplinary, the Handbook draws on law, political science, and international relations, as well as computer science and science and technology studies in order to engage with human rights aspects of the digitally connected world. The chapters examine in depth current topics relating to human rights and security, internet access, surveillance, automation, trade, and freedom of expression. This comprehensive and engaging Handbook will be vital reading for both researchers and students in law, human rights, international politics, international relations and technology studies. Policy-makers seeking an understanding of the state of human rights in technology will also find this book a highly useful resource. Contributors include: W. Benedek, D. Bigo, D. Brodowski, G. Contissa, P. de Hert, M. Dunn Cavelty, T. Engelhardt, B. Farrand, M I. Franklin, M.I. Ganesh, M. Graham, S. Horth, L. Jasmontaite, R.F. Jorgensen, C. Kavanagh, M.C. Kettemann, D. Korff, G. Lansdown, E. Light, S. Livingstone, A. Millikan, J.A. Obar, G. Sartor, G. Sobliye, A. Third, M. Tuszynski, K. Vieth, B. Wagner, T. Wetzling, M. Zalnieriute

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Over recent years, the inability of social security protection to reach workers without a formal employment contract has become an inconvenient reality in both the global north and south. This book explores how provisions for income security can be revised to effectively meet the needs of the labour force in varying economies. In developing economies, informal employment has traditionally accounted for a high proportion of overall employment and this trend looks set to continue. In the global north, the increasing use of flex-contracts and 'dependent self-employment' has led to a rise in the number of workers with limited income protection. An additional challenge for countries in both hemispheres is the rise of the 'gig' economy. This book is the first to open up a dialogue about social security coverage in the developed and developing world. Authors from both sides of the divide have contributed chapters and present a variety of insights, experiments and practices with the aim of identifying better ways to combat the growing social security challenge. Academic researchers with an interest in labour law and social policy will find this book to be an engaging source of innovative research. Practicing lawyers and policy makers will also benefit from the insights and examples provided from a number of different jurisdictions. ntributors include: C. Barnard, A. Blackham, E. Fourie, A. Govindjee, T. Gyulavari, D. Hofmeyr, L. Jianfei, A. Johansson Westregard, L. Lamarche, J. Li, J. Masabo, M. Olivier, P.A. Ortiz, A. Paz-Fuchs, M. Westerveld, M. Wynn

Workers, Collectivism and the Law offers a captivating historical account of worker democracy, from its beginnings in European guild systems to present-day labor unions, across the national legal systems of Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Analysing these legal systems in light of a Habermasian concept of participatory democracy, Laura Carlson identifies ways to strengthen individual employee voice in claims against employers. Carlson highlights how employee voice and democracy, both collective and individual, assume different guises in each of these four labor law models. By tracing voice and democracy as components in the history of collective worker organizations, from guilds to journeymen associations to modern labor unions, Carlson demonstrates how history has shaped today's national labor law models. In the context of modern labor law's central focus on human rights, Carlson articulates the need for stronger legal defence of mechanisms of transparency and procedural due process, to enhance voice and democracy for union members in invoking rights and asserting protections for workers. This insightful book is indispensable reading for labor law academics and for those practicing in employment law, while those interested in the history of labor law will revel in its penetrating survey of the materials.