This is the first book to present the law of the Baltic States in one comprehensive and coherent volume in English. The Baltic States region, which was incorporated by the Soviet Union for 50 years and now is the only such territory in the EU, continues to be characterized by a number of unique traits, problems and developmental trends. This book addresses these facets of law - the status quo, problems and trends - by adopting a comparative perspective structure for all three Baltic States (divided into three main parts - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). Each of these parts examines similar core aspects: General Frameworks, Public Law, and Private Law. Taking into account the peculiarities of each country, the individual chapters provide analyses of principles, problems and developments in specific legal branches. The authors of the book are recognized academics and professionals in the field of law. Taken together, their contributions offer a valuable tool and resource for anyone interested in the law of the Baltic States: students, legal practitioners, scholars, administrators, etc.

In the past decade the Rule of Law developments in the world have become contentious; its idea, concept, and global implementation have met growing resistance, which may soon shift the global balance of power, prompting international crisis. This book offers insights into the globally relevant Rule-of-Law ramifications for human rights, consitutional law, and philosophy of law in the time of such considerable challenges to it. From this legal perspective, the contributors analyze the questions of independence of judiciary, liberal education, freedom of mass media; populism, and corruption. They discuss global civic education, enhanced social inclusion, violence prevention, restorative justice and other methods of civic participation that can create larger opportunities for freedom in a UN world and help overcome increased ideological division between global North and South.

The volume explores the consequences of recent events in global Internet policy and possible ways forward following the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12). It offers expert views on transformations in governance, the future of multistakeholderism and the salience of cybersecurity. Based on the varied backgrounds of the contributors, the book provides an interdisciplinary perspective drawing on international relations, international law and communication studies. It addresses not only researchers interested in the evolution of new forms of transnational networked governance, but also practitioners who wish to get a scholarly reflection on current regulatory developments. It notably provides firsthand accounts on the role of the WCIT-12 in the future of Internet governance.

This Handbook showcases the rich varieties of legislatures that exist in Asia and explains how political power is constituted in seventeen jurisdictions in East, Southeast and South Asia. Legislatures in Asia come in all stripes. Liberal democracies co-exist cheek by jowl with autocracies; semi-democratic and competitive authoritarian systems abound. While all legislatures exist to make law and confer legitimacy on the political leadership, how representative they are of the people they govern differs dramatically across the continent, such that it is impossible to identify a common Asian prototype. Divided into thematic and country-by-country sections, this handbook is a one-stop reference that surveys the range of political systems operating in Asia. Each jurisdiction chapter examines the structure and composition of its legislature, the powers of the legislature, the legislative process, thereby providing a clear picture of how each legislature operates both in theory and in practice. The book also thematically analyses the following political systems operating in Asia: communist regimes, liberal democracies, dominant party democracies, turbulent democracies, presidential democracies, military regimes, and protean authoritarian rule. This handbook is a vital and comprehensive resource for scholars of constitutional law and politics in Asia.

The question of how to properly enforce against RPM has been a contentious debate for decades on both sides of the Atlantic. The catalyst is the acceptance that RPM can generate both anti-competitive effects and pro-competitive efficiencies that need to be properly balanced to ensure against Type I/Type II errors and to create viable legislation. Part I focuses on 100 years of US origins and the current legal approach to VR enforcement, which reveals the precedent responsible for the transition between per se illegality and the rule of reason thresholds at the federal level. Nine anti-competitive and 19 pro-competitive theoretical models are also introduced to clearly demonstrate the true nonconsensus existent between economists as to whether RPM is deleterious enough to justify a stringent approach to RPM regulation. Part II closely examines the EU origins and current legal structure, where RPM has maintained its hardcore by-object designation pursuant to Art. 101(1) TFEU with the consequence of having no safe harbours, no applicability of the De Minimus Doctrine, an onerous negative rebuttable presumption, non-severability of the agreement and almost no chance of obtaining an exemption under Art. 101(3). This is exacerbated by the EC’s lack of guidance on how to prove all conditions necessary for an Art. 101(3) exemption and when a vertical arrangement actually escapes Art. 101(1) applicability. The aim of this book is to examine the economic models, historical origins and legal structures of the US/EU regimes to develop proposals on how to modify the EU’s current legal structure to ensure proper enforcement of RPM behaviour that actually enhances legal certainty through a more aligned approach at the national level. Part III proposes five solutions which scrutinise the concepts of appreciability, hardcore and by-object restraints, to implement modifications to EU’s current legal framework to ensure RPM receives reasonable and equitable treatment in line with economic theory.

This book is the first monograph-form legal study on multilevel governance in the EU and represents a radical change in the approach to this topic. Particularly after the Treaty of Lisbon's entry into force, research on multilevel governance can no longer remain confined to the analysis of political dynamics or of soft law arrangements. Multilevel governance emerges as a constitutional principle in the European constitutional space, envisaging a method of governance based on the strong involvement of sub-national authorities in the creation and implementation of EU law and policy. Its foundation is in the mosaic resulting from the constitutional systems of the Union and its Member States. Multilevel governance arrangements play a fundamental part in achieving key Treaty objectives (such as subsidiarity, respect for the national identities of the Member States including regional and local self-government, openness, and closeness to the citizen). These arrangements lend legitimacy to EU decision-making, while also promoting constitutionalism and democracy in the EU.

Critically engages with theories of the recognition of states under international law. Departs from the restrictive economy of recognition that constantly recreates a paradoxical perception of sovereignty. Of interest to legal and political theorists, as well as scholars and students in international relations.

China Japan and South Korea's international relations are shaped by the fact that all three countries are significant importers of resources. This book brings together work on specific aspects of the politics of resources for each of these countries, regionally and internationally. There are some similarities in the approaches taken by all these three. For example, their development assistance shares a focus on infrastructure building and reluctance to purposefully influence domestic politics. However, there are also significant differences due in large part to the individual nature of the states as international actors. China has significant domestic supplies of resources while Japan and Korea are net importers. China's size also marks it out as different, as does its state socialist history and continuing authoritarian state. One of the key issues to understanding contemporary resource politics in Northeast Asia is that Western dominance of the world order is currently declining. In some cases Northeast Asian approaches to resources are seen as being mercantilist. In other cases Northeast Asian powers are seen as replacing Western powers in exploiting resource-rich developing countries. This book gives readers an informed view of this very important issue in contemporary international relations. This book was published as a special issue of Asian Studies Review.

Mobile technology offers an innovative and cost-effective channel for delivering a range of financial services, including mobile payments. In some jurisdictions, mobile payments simply provide a convenient option for facilitating payment transactions. In other jurisdictions, mobile payments are viewed as potentially transformative because they present an opportunity to expand access to financial services. However, as with other innovations, mobile payments raise consumer protection concerns and require robust regulatory mechanisms to address such concerns. Against this backdrop, the book adopts a typology of consumer policy tools which can be used to address the identified consumer concerns. This typology guides the enquiry into the existing consumer protection frameworks applying to mobile payments in selected jurisdictions (Canada, Kenya, and the United Kingdom). The main objective of this endeavour is to identify best practices that national authorities seeking to leverage mobile payments and similar innovations can emulate. This book will be of interest to policymakers, regulators, industry stakeholders, students and scholars interested in the regulation of innovative financial services, particularly from a consumer protection perspective.

This book examines the greening of civil codes from a comparative perspective. It takes into account the increasing requirements of supranational rules, which favour measures to reduce global warming and its negative environmental impacts; it discusses the necessity to expand distributive justice given the current ecological emergency; and it reflects on which private law legal tools potentially may be employed to defend nature’s interests. The work fills a gap in the growing literature on developing rights of nature and ecosystem in transnational law. While the focus is on the environmental issues pertaining to the new civil codes and new projects of civil codes, the book promotes interdisciplinary research applicable to a range of environmental and natural resources–focused courses across the social sciences, especially those related to comparative law systems, legal anthropology, legal traditions in the world, political science and international relations.

Schwartz provides a masterly exposition of administrative law through a comparative study of the French droit administratif, arguably the most sophisticated Continental model. As Vanderbilt points out in his introduction, this is an important field that involves much more than administrative procedure. It deals directly with some of the most crucial issues of modern government regarding the distribution of power between governmental units, the resulting effect on the freedom of the individual and on the strength and stability of the state. Reprint of the sole edition." T]his book represents a significant achievement.... Unlike so many volumes that roll off the press these days, it fills a real need; and, though perhaps not the definitive work in English on the subject, it fills it extremely well." --Frederic S. Burin, Columbia Law Review 54 (1954) 1016Bernard Schwartz 1923-1997] was professor of law and director of the Institute of Comparative Law, New York University. He was the author of over fifty books, including The Code Napoleon and the Common-Law World (1956), the five-volume Commentary on the Constitution of the United States (1963-68), Constitutional Law: A Textbook (2d ed., 1979), Administrative Law: A Casebook (4th ed., 1994) and A History of the Supreme Court (1993).

With a New Introductory Essay, Paradoxes of a Sharp Legal Mind: Professor Julius Stone and International Aggression by Benjamin B. Ferencz. Efforts to enforce world peace during the twentieth century through international organizations created a demand for a legal definition of aggression. A U.N. committee attempted to provide one in a 1956 report. Stone rejected it for two reasons. Citing a broad array of examples, he shows that the concept of aggression eludes definition. More important, he argues that a definition is not necessary for the goals of international peace-enforcement.

A comprehensive look at torture, this book examines societal understanding of its use, how we got here, and how it might be regarded in the future. Torture and Enhanced Interrogation: A Reference Handbook begins with an overview of the history of torture, beginning in Ancient Greece and continuing to Guantanamo Bay and beyond. After grounding the reader in the historical fundamentals, the work goes on to examine the key controversies that surround the use of torture, including but not limited to whether it should be used at all as an aid to interrogation or to procure testimony. Then, the book presents the views of several outside contributors with personal experience or special expertise in the area. The book achieves a balance of profiles of those persons and organizations that have played a role in the development of our understanding of torture, a data and documents section, and an annotated bibliography for future research, as well as an event timeline and glossary of key terms. This volume is aims to present facts in as objective a way as possible while providing readers with the resources they need for further study. Exposes the main myths about torture and its use Provides readers with a solid foundation in the topic Discusses the likely future of torture in the US and elsewhere Reflects the author's expertise in the form of informed and nuanced perspectives essays

Launched in 1991, the Asian Yearbook of International Law is a major refereed publication dedicated to international law issues as seen primarily from an Asian perspective, under the auspices of the Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA). It is the first publication of its kind edited by a team of leading international law scholars from across Asia. The Yearbook provides a forum for the publication of articles in the field of international law, and other Asian international law topics, written by experts from the region and elsewhere.

Its aim is twofold: to promote international law in Asia, and to provide an intellectual platform for the discussion and dissemination of Asian views and practices on contemporary international legal issues. Each volume of the Yearbook normally contains articles and shorter notes; a section on State practice; an overview of Asian states participation in multilateral treaties; succinct analysis of recent international legal developments in Asia; an agora section devoted to critical perspectives on international law issues; surveys of the activities of international organizations f special relevance to Asia; and book review, bibliography and documents sections. It will be of interest to students and academics interested in international law and Asian studies.

This book rethinks and transforms the current discourse on globalization and global justice. It expands the idea of globalization from an economic or corporate context to mean humanization and planetary realizations - moving beyond the boundaries of nation-states and other human-made demarcations. The author challenges the notion of human primacy and makes a fervent call to reconfigure the paradigm of anthropocentrism. Through a careful study of movements for justice and inter-faith dialogue from across the world, the book makes a unique contribution to the emerging study of global responsibility. It also helps us overcome our current civilizational crises and cultivate a new civilization of planetary care and co-responsibility. Part of the Ethics, Human Rights and Global Political Thought series, the volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of law and society, especially social movements, political theory and philosophy.

This book focuses on recent developments in consumer law, specifically addressing mandatory disclosures and the topical problem of information overload. It provides a comparative analysis based on national reports from countries with common law and civil law traditions in Asia, America and Europe, and presents the reports in the form of chapters that have been drafted on the basis of a questionnaire, and which use the same structure as the questionnaire to allow them to be easily compared. The book starts with an analysis of the basic assumptions underlying the current consumer protection models and examines whether and how consumer models adapt to the new market conditions. The second part addresses the information obligations themselves, first highlighting the differences in the reported countries before narrowing the analysis down to countries with a general pre-contractual information duty, particularly the transparency requirements that often come with such a duty. The next part examines recent developments in the law on food labelling, commercial practices and unfair contract terms in order to identify whether similar traits can be found in European and non-European jurisdictions. The fourth part of the book focuses on specific information obligations in the financial services and e-commerce sectors, discussing the fact that legislators are experimenting with different forms of summary disclosures in these sectors. The final part provides a critical appraisal of the recent developments in consumer information obligations, addressing the question of whether the multiple criticisms from behavioural sciences necessitate abandonment or refinement of current consumer information models in favour of new, more adequate forms of consumer protection, and providing suggestions.

Can war be justified? Pacifists answer that it cannot; they oppose war and advocate for nonviolent alternatives to war. But defenders of just war theory argue that in some circumstances, when the effectiveness of nonviolence is limited, wars can be justified. In this book, two philosophers debate this question, drawing on contemporary scholarship and new developments in thinking about pacifism and just war theory. Andrew Fiala defends the pacifist position, while Jennifer Kling defends just war traditions. Fiala argues that pacifism follows from the awful reality of war and the nonviolent goal of building a more just and peaceful world. Kling argues that war is sometimes justified when it is a last-ditch, necessary effort to defend people and their communities from utter destruction and death. Pulling from global traditions and histories, their debate will captivate anyone who has wondered or worried about the morality of political violence and military force. Topics discussed include ethical questions of self-defense and other-defense, the great analogy between individuals and states, evolving technologies and methods of warfighting, moral injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, broader political and communal issues, and the problem of regional security in a globalizing world. The authors consider cultural and religious issues as well as the fundamental question of moral obligation in a world saturated in military conflict. The book was written in the aftermath of the war on terrorism and includes reflection on lessons learned from the past decades of war, as well as hopes for the future in light of emerging threats in Europe and elsewhere. The book is organized in a user-friendly fashion. Each author presents a self-contained argument, which is followed by a series of responses, replies, and counter-arguments. Throughout, the authors model civil discourse by emphasizing points of agreement and remaining areas of disagreement. The book includes reader-friendly summaries, a glossary of key concepts, and suggestions for further study. All of this will help students and scholars follow the authors' dialogue so they may develop their own answer to the question of whether war can be justified. Key Features Summarizes the debate between pacifism and just war theory Considers historical and traditional sources as well as contemporary scholarship and applications Models philosophical dialogue and civil discourse, while seeking common ground Discusses issues of concern in contemporary warfighting and peacemaking, while offering an analysis of the war on terrorism

A judgment in a civil matter rendered in a foreign country is not automatically recognized in Israel. Before a judgment will be recognized or enforced, it must first undergo a domestic integration process. A declaration that a foreign judgment is enforceable in Israel is dependent upon its meeting certain conditions specified by statute, irrespective of whether recognition of the foreign judgment is indirect or direct. These conditions serve as the main route for giving validity to foreign"in rem"judgments and to personal status judgments, which cannot otherwise be enforced; recognition of a judgment as enforceable, however, enables it to be executed.

The book integrates lucid, theoretical analysis of the issues of enforcement and recognition of foreign judgments with practical instructions. It thus serves as a valuable guide for anyone seeking answers to the questions examined in the book, whether in the context of international commerce or to resolve transnational legal disputes. Despite the complexity of the questions addressed in the book, they are given accurate and easily understandable answers.

"Haggai Carmon s book grapples with the range of issues arising from the recognition of foreign judgments and their enforcement, i.e., the declaration that they are enforceable judgments. The book thoroughly and methodically examines these issues Haggai Carmon has outstanding expertise in international law. He has a breadth of legal knowledge and extensive experience in both the theoretical and practical aspects of both private and public international law. He serves as legal counsel to commercial entities as well as foreign governmental agencies; amongst others, he is an outside legal counsel to the government of the United States. As this text reflects, Haggai Carmon is also a first-rate scholar and he shares his knowledge in a style that is suitable to every reader.
"-Eliezer Rivlin, Deputy Chief Justice, the Israel Supreme Court

This edited volume presents research and policy insights into the theory and practice of dispute systems reform in diverse jurisdictions. It highlights how important extra-judicial mechanisms are for resolving cross border disputes, as evidenced both by the breadth of scholarship dedicated to the issue and proliferation of parties resorting to non-litigious dispute resolution mechanisms in recent years. Drawing on selected case studies, the book examines the impact of comparative research and policy analysis in advancing reform of dispute resolution institutions at both the regional and global levels. It explores the challenges and opportunities of understanding and assessing developments in systems of dispute resolution in diverse social and political contexts through comparative research. With growing number of disputes which have come to involve cross-border issues, anyone interested in transnational and comparative dispute resolution will find this book a useful reference.

This edited volume presents research and policy insights into the theory and practice of dispute systems reform in diverse jurisdictions. It highlights how important extra-judicial mechanisms are for resolving cross border disputes, as evidenced both by the breadth of scholarship dedicated to the issue and proliferation of parties resorting to non-litigious dispute resolution mechanisms in recent years. Drawing on selected case studies, the book examines the impact of comparative research and policy analysis in advancing reform of dispute resolution institutions at both the regional and global levels. It explores the challenges and opportunities of understanding and assessing developments in systems of dispute resolution in diverse social and political contexts through comparative research. With growing number of disputes which have come to involve cross-border issues, anyone interested in transnational and comparative dispute resolution will find this book a useful reference.

This book deals with the fundamental semantics of images of Europe, which consist of valences, mirror beliefs and affectivities. This is why it relaunches the importance of the European discourse in its symbolic dimension. As such, it explores the many images of Europe, or rather the many images through which European discourse is actually constituted in daily life, in search of their enunciative responsibility in today's world for determining the current "State of the Union". The identity of the European continent is based on a millenary tension between universalism and particularism: images of Europe have in fact been alternately inspired, over the centuries, by a model of homogeneity - Roman and Carolingian imperial disposition - on the one hand, and by a model of fragmentation - a Europe of city-states, municipalities, regions and small fatherlands - on the other. In the European Union, a political and economic organism, this issue has recently been amplified to the point that it has reentered public debate, and political parties that are only recognizable for being Europeanists or anti-Europeanists are now ubiquitous. In this regard, one major bone of contention is how to portray the quintessential aspects of the European territory, which are either interpreted as "thresholds" to be overcome in the name of a model of United Europe - "integral totality" - or are instead regarded as insurmountable obstacles for a Europe that is irreparably and perhaps, according to anti-Europeanists, fortunately fragmented - "partitive totality". Further, this is to be done without excluding the possibility of contradictory and complementary solutions to these binary visions. In this context the book analyzes various texts in order to obtain a more precise picture of the clash, reveal its semiotic forms, and by doing so, identify a way out of the crisis.

This book discusses China's tax system, presenting a comprehensive and systematic research based on a multidisciplinary approach involving economics, finance, political science, sociology, law, public administration, history, and econometrics.With China moving toward the rule of law, this book proposes reforms to the tax laws and the stratified governance with a view to achieving tax neutrality, law-based taxation, tax equality and tax burden stability. It focuses on clarifying the implications, extension, nature, and features of a law-based tax system as well as the logical relationships between the optimization of the tax system structure, modern governance, law-based tax administration, as well as the tax-sharing system of tax collection and the rule of tax law. It suggests that optimizing the tax structure, reforming the tax-sharing system, improving local taxes, and restructuring the tax collection and management system will push China's tax system toward sound design and rule of law.This book is intended for scholars specializing in China's tax system and general readers interested in China's economy.