With the New Approach, the EU has incorporated European standardisation in its regulatory approach to improve the free movement of goods. Such a New Approach does not exist for services. Nevertheless, a significant number of European services standards have been made. This book focuses on European standardisation of services and its impact on private law. Two services sectors are analysed: the healthcare sector and the tourism sector. The core chapters of the book contain a number of case studies based on empirical research in these sectors. The first part discusses how European services standards interact with existing legal regulation at the European and national level. It is shown that, at the European level, there is no clear legal framework in which European services standards are adopted. This has an impact on their application in private law, which is the main theme of the second part of the book. Moreover, there is a real risk that European services standards create obstacles to free movement. This will prevent their successful application in private law.

Despite the high hopes for EU-wide financial stability invested in the European Economic and Monetary Union, it is becoming more and more evident that the limited supervisory role of the European Central Bank has added to an already overcomplicated situation. Although European regulatory competences are now increasingly formalized through detailed rule making, they remain broad and widely discretionary. It is still the many different national authorities that are regulating or supervising banks and other financial institutions. The root issue what is the relationship between an effective European supervisor and the supervisory functions that remain at the Member State level has not yet been adequately addressed. Among the core issues of relevance analyzed in the book are the following: the increase in systemic risk that accompanies the introduction of the Euro; the inability of mere cooperation between national authorities to handle crises; the European Central Bank as an organizational model for the development of a single European regulator; the persistence of a traditional national character in surrounding areas of law such as contract law and company law; the heretofore intractable problem of the double burden of having to follow more than one set of national rules; and the apparent inertia of major business players, in spite of the obvious benefits for them of EU level regulation. Financial Markets in Europe offers a large and welcome measure of clear thinking to the entire professional community regulators, bankers, scholars, insurance professionals, securities managers engaged in the complex field of activity guided by monetary policy and supervision of financial markets. Becauseit raises broad issues and perspectives for a globalised world, it will be of value not only in Europe but to financial services specialists everywhere.

This book examines the attainment of complete free movement of civil judgments across EU member states from the perspective of its conformity with the fundamental right to a fair trial. In the integrated legal order of the European Union, it is essential that litigants can rely on a judgment no matter where in the EU it was delivered. Effective mechanisms for cross-border recognition and the enforcement of judgments provide both debtors and creditors with the security that their rights, including their right to a fair trial, will be protected. In recent years the attainment of complete free movement of civil judgments, through simplification or abolition of these mechanisms, has become a priority for the European legislator. The text uniquely combines a thorough discussion of EU legislation with an in-depth and critical examination of its interplay with fundamental rights. It contains an over-view and comparison of both ECtHR and CJEU case law on the right to a fair trial, and provides a great number of specific recommendations for current and future legislation. With its critical discussion of EU Regulations from both a practical and a theoretical standpoint, this book is particularly relevant to legislators and policymakers working in this field. Because of the extensive overview of the functioning of the EU's mechanisms and of relevant case law it provides, the book is also highly relevant to academics and practitioners. Monique Hazelhorst is Judicial Assistant at the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. She studied Law and Legal Research at Utrecht University and holds a Ph.D. in Law from the Erasmus School of Law at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

The Canadian Council on International Law was founded in 1972, with the aim of encouraging the study and analysis of international law issues in Canada. One of the Council's main activities is the organization of an annual conference dealing with contemporary subjects in international law. This book marks the 25th anniversary of the Council by bringing together 25 papers on international law, carefully selected from the proceedings of the annual conferences in the years since its foundation. The collection provides an overview of the issues considered by the Council in its first 25 years and highlights the significant contribution of Canadian experts to, and Canada's particular concerns in, the field of international law. The essays represent the work of leading international lawyers on issues concerning the theory and practice of public international law, including environmental law, human rights, the law of armed conflict and the issue of state succession. Le Conseil Canadien de Droit International a ete cree en 1972, dans le but de favoriser l'etude et l'approfondissement de questions de droit international au Canada. Une des principales activities du Conseil est l'organisation d'un congres annuel consacre a des sujets d'actualite en droit international. Cet ouvrage marque le 25e anniversaire du Conseil et regroupe 25 textes de droit international, choisis avec soin parmi les travaux des congres annuels organises depuis sa fondation. La collection illustre les themes qui ont fait l'objet d'etude par le Conseil durant ses 25 premieres annees d'existence et souligne l'importante contribution des specialistes canadiens dans les domaines du droit international qui sont d'un interet particulier au Canada. Ces articles representent la reflexion d'internationalistes de renom sur des sujets se rapportant a la theorie et a la pratique du droit international, y compris le droit de l'environnement, les droits de la personne, le droit relatif a la force armee et la question de la secession d'Etats.

The growing use of U.S. and multilateral economic sanctions -- and the increasing and controversial attention such measures are attracting internationally -- create a need for a detailed legal analysis of the subject and its policy implications for both U.S. practitioners and their counterparts in other countries. The expanding field of sanctions is especially worthy of close scrutiny as it generates significant (and often inadvertent) influence on finance and trade. Increasingly, lawyers and business people involved in international transactions must take account of the risks, both actual and potential, inherent in compliance with economic sanctions on trading partners. This major new work, a completely revised successor edition to the author's much-cited Economic Sanctions and U.S. Trade, shifts the main emphasis from the mechanics of applying foreign policy objectives to a careful and complete articulation of what those goals are or ought to be -- an approach that leads inevitably to a concrete methodology for assessing the effectiveness of sanctions. In the process the book examines such salient characteristics of the current and developing sanctions regime as the following: + the growing prominence of U.S. Congressionally-mandated sanctions programs; + the complex interaction of economic sanctions and trade policy; and + the marked increase in multilateral sanctions programs in which the U.S. is a participant. In-depth analysis of major U.S. sanctions programs (those imposed on Cuba, Libya, and Iraq, as well as several other lesser programs) presents numerous hypothetical but realistic international scenarios, demonstrating their working-out under the practical application of specific elements of each sanctions program. In this way U.S. Economic Sanctions: Theory and Practice provides the clearest, most explicit view of the legal contours and effects of this enormously significant aspect of international relations today.

This book provides law-based governance which is one of the basic policies that underpins our endeavors to uphold and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Law is the key to governing the country,and the rule of law is an important support for the national governance system and governance capacity. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC,China has implemented the four-pronged comprehensive strategy and created an unprecedented new situation for law-based governance. Further progress has been made in ensuring China's legislation is sound,law enforcement is strict, the administration of justice is impartial,and the law is observed by everyone. China's efforts to build a country, government,and society based on the rule of law have been mutually reinforcing) the system of distinctively Chinese socialist rule of law has been steadily improved) public awareness of the rule of law has risen markedly. In recent years, China has adhered to the correct handling of the relationship between deepening reform and law-based governance,ensuring that major reforms are justified by law and providing solid guarantees of the rule of law for reform and opening-up. China has adhered to combine law-based governance of the country and rule-based governance over the party and exercised law-based governance at every point in the process and over every dimension of full and rigorous governance over the party and has made remarkable achievements in the construction of a clean and honest government and the struggle against corruption.

Recent decades have witnessed an impressive process of normative development in international law. Numerous new treaties have been concluded, at global and regional levels, establishing far-reaching international legal and regulatory regimes in important areas such as human rights, international trade, environmental protection, criminal law, intellectual property, and more. New political and judicial institutions have been established to develop, apply and adjudicate these rules. This trend has been accompanied by the growing consolidation of treaty norms into international custom, and increased references to international law in domestic settings. As a result of these developments, international relations have now reached an unprecedented level of normative density and intensity, but they have also given rise to the phenomenon of 'fragmentation'. The debate over the fragmentation of international law has largely focused on conflicts: conflicts of norms and conflicts of authority. However, the same developments that have given rise to greater conflict and contradiction in international law, have also produced a growing amount of normative equivalence between rules in different fields of international law. New treaty rules often echo existing international customary norms. Regional arrangements reinforce undertakings that already exist at the global level; and common concerns and solutions appear in many international legal fields. This book focuses on such instances of normative parallelism, developing the concept of 'multisourced equivalent norms' in international law, with contributions by leading international law experts exploring the legal and political implications of the concept in a variety of contexts that span the full spectrum of international legal norms and institutions. By concentrating on situations governed by a multitude of similar norms, the book emphasizes the importance of legal contexts and institutional settings to international law-interpretation and application.

This book addresses the need for deeper understanding of regulatory and policy regimes around the world in relation to the use of water for the production of 'unconventional' hydrocarbons, including shale gas, coal bed methane and tight oil, through hydraulic fracturing. Legal, policy, political and regulatory issues surrounding the use of water for hydraulic fracturing are present at every stage of operations. Operators and regulators must understand the legal, political and hydrological contexts of their surroundings, procure water for use in the fracturing and extraction processes, gain community cooperation or confront social resistance around water, collect flow back and produced water, and dispose of these wastewaters safely. By analysing and comparing different approaches to these issues from around the globe, this volume gleans insights into how policy, best practices and regulation may be developed to advance the interests of all stakeholders. While it is not always possible to easily transfer 'good practice' from one place to another, there is value in examining and understanding the components of different legal and regulatory regimes, as these may assist in the development of better regulatory law and policy for the rapidly growing unconventional energy sector. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach and includes chapters looking at water-energy nexus security in general, along with issue-focused and geographically-focused case studies written by scholars from around the world. Chapter topics, organized in conjunction with the stage of the shale gas production process upon which they touch, include the implications of hydraulic fracturing for agriculture, municipalities, and other stakeholders competing for water supplies; public opinion regarding use of water for hydraulic fracturing; potential conflicts between hydraulic fracturing and water as a human right; prevention of induced seismic activity, and the disposal or recycling of produced water. Several chapters also discuss implications of unconventional energy production for indigenous communities, particularly as regards sustainable water management. This volume will be of interest to scholars and students of energy and water, regulators and policymakers and operators interested in ensuring that they align with emergent best global practice.

This book presents a comparative study on access to public information in the context of the main legal orders worldwide(inter alia China,France,Germany,Japan,Russia,Sweden,United States).The international team of authors analyzes the Transparency- and Freedom-to-Information legislation with regard to the scope of the right to access, limitations of this right inherent in the respective national laws, the procedure, the relationship with domestic legislation on administrative procedure, as well as judicial protection. It particularly focuses on the Brazilian law establishing the right of access to information, which is interpreted as a benchmark for regulations in other Latin-American states.

Although much information is available about the trade provisions of NAFTA, little has been written on its provisions governing the international transfer of labor. For multinationals to remain competitive in the world market, they not only must access international markets for their products, but also the labor force to help them "provide" products. This book is a review of the immigration provisions of NAFTA and a step-by-step guide to help corporate management utilize them in their hiring practices. It also provides a reference source for legal material not easily found elsewhere, a description of the laws and the procedures they govern, a detailed description of how to complete INS forms, and checklists and suggestions to help do so. A unique guide for human resource executives and for their colleagues in the academic community interested in international business practices.

Part I provides a brief overview of the standard immigration provisions that relate to all NAFTA visas. Part II discusses the legal requirements for business persons, treaty traders and investors, and intracompany transferees who enter the United States to conduct business. Part III describes in detail how the United States businesses can hire Canadian and Mexican professionals. Step-by-step descriptions note important differences in the procedures for professionals from Canada and Mexico. The authors describe what professionals qualify, how to complete INS form, obtain TN status for professional employees, apply for extensions, and change or end employment. One chapter is devoted to issues relating to the professional's family. Part IV discusses supplementary issues of the effect of strikes, employer legal obligations, and obtaining permanent residence. The Appendixes include the full text of chapter 16 of NAFTA, relevant laws, INS forms, and checklists and addresses that businesses will find useful for preparing and filing INS petitions.

In the context of the continuous advance of information technologies and biomedicine, and of the creation of economic blocs, this work analyzes the role that data protection plays in the integration of markets. It puts special emphasis on financial and insurance services. Further, it identifies the differences in the data protection systems of EU member states and examines the development of common standards and principles of data protection that could help build a data protection model for Mercosur. Divided into four parts, the book starts out with a discussion of the evolution of the right to privacy, focusing on the last few decades, and taking into account the development of new technologies. The second part discusses the interaction between data protection and specific industries that serve as case studies: insurance, banking and credit reporting. The focus of this part is on generalization and discrimination, adverse selection and the processing of sensitive and genetic data. The third part of the book presents an analysis of the legislation of three EU Member States (France, Italy and UK). Specific elements of analysis that are compared are the concepts of personal and anonymous data, data protection principles, the role of the data protection authorities, the role of the data protection officer, data subjects' rights, the processing of sensitive data, the processing of genetic data and the experience of the case studies in processing data. The book concludes with the proposal of a model for data protection that could be adopted by Mercosur, taking into account the different levels of data protection that exist in its member states."

China Development Research Foundation is one of the leading economic think tanks in China, where many of the details of China's economic reform have been formulated. Its work and publications therefore provide great insights into what the Chinese themselves think about economic reform and how it should develop. This book sets out the general objectives, principles and framework of a proposed new social welfare system for China, putting forward relevant policy recommendations. It provides a comprehensive overview of China's current welfare services, including retirement pensions, education, health, employment, housing and social security payments, and goes on to cost the proposed new social welfare system and assess the government's capacity for implementing it. It shows how the new system will, within an integrated framework, provide comprehensive welfare for all, including rural and urban citizens, migrant workers and disadvantaged groups such as rural and urban poor. It also shows how the new system will aim to balance economic and social development whilst maintaining China's high economic growth rate, increasing domestic demand and promoting economic restructuring.

The present collection of essays offers the reader a broad range of original perspectives on democracy and the rule of law in the European Union, approaching the existing policy area from new points of view. Leading experts from different countries and backgrounds focus on how democracy and the rule of law are related to topics like security, pension rights, judicial cooperation and human rights protection. Their expert views are based on a combination of theory and knowledge acquired in their practice as academics or practitioners in the field of European integration.. The issue of the rule of law and democracy is close to the heart of Professor Jaap de Zwaan, a true European, building bridges between countries and peoples. He has written extensively on the subject of European integration. Therefore, this collection of expert views is not only an original and valuable contribution to the literature and discussion on the development and enlargement of the European Union, but at the same time it is a tribute to Jaap de Zwaan, whose academic and diplomatic career can be characterized as always serving "an ever closer Union". Flora Goudappel is Jean Monnet Professor of EU Trade Law in the Overseas Territories at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and a consultant on European Union law Ernst Hirsch Ballin is Professor of Dutch and European Constitutional Law at Tilburg University and Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Amsterdam.

This book shows how, with the increasing interaction between jurisdictions spearheaded by globalization, it is gradually becoming impossible to confine transactions to a single jurisdiction. Presented in the form of a compendium of essays by eminent academics and practitioners in the field, it provides a detailed overview of private, international law practice in South Asian nations, addressing contemporary discourse within this knowledge domain. Conflict of laws/private international law arises from the universal acknowledgment that it is difficult to govern human transactions solely by the local law. The research presented addresses the three major threads of private international law - jurisdiction, choice of law and enforcement - within each of the South Asian countries in the areas of family law and commercial law. The research in family law domain includes traditional areas such as marriage, divorce and maintenance, as well as some of the contemporary concerns in this region - inter-country child retrieval, surrogacy, and the country statement on accession to the Hague Conventions related to this domain. In commercial law the research explores the concerns raised with regard to choice of law issues in transnational contracts, and also enforcement of foreign judgment/arbitral awards in the nations of this region.

Divorce has long been viewed as a single phenomenon affecting two individuals without considering the framework conditions in which it occurs. Due to the increase of divorce rates in the past decades researchers have changed their perspective and have concentrated on the view of divorce as a personal experience that is greatly affected by the socials and economic environment. The aim of this thesis is to investigate divorce that has become a mass phenomenon in our present society. The assumption is that in order to understand the grounds for divorce and its consequences, we have to view divorce as a phenomenon that occurs at the intersection of personal, socio-economic and legal factors. Family disputes involve persons who have interdependent and continued relati- ships and arise in a context of distressing emotions. Separation and divorce affect all the members of the family, especially children. The study presents a comprehensive analysis of divorce as a psychological process that is situated within a social and a legal context. It presents a comprehensive view of divorce as a psychosocial, economic and legal phenomenon and contains a review of the research literature about divorce and its consequences for parents and children. Moreover, it describes divorce by proposing conceptual frames and explanatory models.

This monograph provides a contemporary analysis of the frictions between peacemaking and international human rights law based on the cases of postconflict power-sharing in Lebanon and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In this context it evaluates the long-standing debate in the United Nations and human rights bodies about the 'imperfect peace'. Written from a practitioner-scholarly viewpoint and drawing from new authentic sources, the book describes the mechanisms used in peace agreements and post-conflict constitutions for managing ethnic or religious diversity, explains their legal limits under international human rights law, and provides a conceptual framework for analysing the nexus between law and peacemaking. The book argues that the relationship between the content of peace agreements and post-conflict constitutions, their negotiation process and the element of time, needs to be untangled to better understand the legal limits of statebuilding in the aftermath of armed conflict. It is a key resource for scholars in human rights law and peace and conflict studies, advisers in peace processes, constitution-makers, and peace mediators.

This book provides a detailed analysis of the contributions, constraints and opportunities available for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in peacemaking and peacebuilding. This book will critically appraise both NGO assets, such as their typical idealism, organizing talents and mediation capabilities, as well as their deficits (including the NGO tendency to polarize and to politicize, to disorganize and to destabilize, and to delegitimate and at once to legitimate) and to make recommendations for more effective interventions.

This book describes how non-profit organisations (NPOs) communicate what they constitute, signal success and display sustainability in order to convince stakeholders to provide essential resources. Reports on intellectual capital offer a worthwhile approach. Based on empirical research, the book highlights the essential resources for NPOs and on the demand imposed on organisations, as well as the dependencies of those resources and demands. This insight helps NPOs to provide necessary information while keeping the disclosure to a minimum and thus not giving away possible competitive advantages. Further, the status-quo of IC disclosure in Germany is presented and a theoretical framework for the motivation for NPOs to disclose information on their IC is presented. Researchers will find these findings a solid foundation for further research. Finally, a framework for the disclosure of intellectual capital is provided to support practitioners.

Normative texts are meant to be highly impersonal and decontextualised, yet at the same time they also deal with a range of human behaviour that is difficult to predict, which means they have to have a very high degree of determinacy on the one hand, and all-inclusiveness on the other. This poses a dilemma for the writer and interpreter of normative texts. The author of such texts must be determinate and vague at the same time, depending upon to what extent he or she can predict every conceivable contingency that may arise in the application of what he or she writes. The papers in this volume discuss important legal and linguistic aspects relating to the use of vagueness in legal drafting and demonstrate why such aspects are critical to our understanding of the way normative texts function.

This book focuses on the reality of China's modern judiciary, systematically demonstrating and discussing the judicial philosophy and judicial ethics as applied by Chinese courts and judges. In order to illustrate the methods of jurisprudence and sociology of law in the context of China's judicial practice and practicability of applicable laws, it also addresses judicial methodology and Chinese judges' trial methods. Based on comparative study and aiming at global judicial reform, the book provides valuable guidance and insights for readers pursuing a detailed understanding of modern Chinese judiciary, Chinese judges and Chinese rule of law. The book is intended to primarily serve the need of legal professionals around the world, in particular those who are interested in China's judicial system.