Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for more than 90 per cent of all businesses in the Asia-Pacific region - an area which is rapidly updating its competition laws and regulations to encourage greater enterpreneurship and open, dynamic economies. Yet SMEs are almost invisible when those competition policies and laws are developed and enforced. SMEs are often quite different businesses than large, multinational corporation, but their nature, significance and characteristics are often overlooked. This book seeks to rectify the relative neglect in research and policy discussions on the role of the SME sector in competition policy and law. Drawing on contributions from a wide range of competition regulators, lawyers, academics, consultants and advisers to the SME sector, it addresses such important issues as: - perceptions and views of small businesses about competition law; regulator engagement and education of the SME sector; - the link between competition law and economic growth; - franchising, SMEs and competition law; issues in enforcing competition law against SMEs; - the role of Chinese family firms; - trade, professional and industry associations; - country case studies from Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, South Korea, Hong Kong SAR, Japan and the Pacific Islands.

Andreas Schmidt gibt praktische Hilfestellung fur die zeitnahe Realisierung und Absicherung von Vergutungsanspruchen. Dies ist fur Bauunternehmen eine wesentliche Voraussetzung fur den Unternehmenserfolg, denn diese sind nach der gesetzlichen Konzeption des Werkvertragsrechts grundsatzlich vorleistungspflichtig - d.h. sie mussen das fur die Leistungserbringung erforderliche Personal, Material und Gerat zunachst vorfinanzieren. Der Autor zeigt, wie der Bauunternehmer die Regelungen im BGB und in der VOB/B betreffend die Abrechnung seiner Leistung sachgemass anwendet, um Zahlungsflusse zu beschleunigen. Zudem erfahrt der Unternehmer, wie er reagieren kann, wenn der Auftraggeber verspatet oder gar nicht zahlt und wie er seinen Vergutungsanspruch fur den Insolvenzfall absichern kann.

For all the turmoil that roiled financial markets during the Great Recession and its aftermath, Wall Street forecasts once again turned bullish and corporate profitability soared to unprecedented heights. How does capitalism consistently generate profits despite its vulnerability to destabilizing events that can plunge the global economy into chaos? The Great Levelerelucidates the crucial but underappreciated role of the law in regulating capitalism's rhythms of accumulation and growth. Brett Christophers argues that capitalism requires a delicate balance between competition and monopoly. When monopolistic forces become dominant, antitrust law steps in to discourage the growth of giant corporations and restore competitiveness. When competitive forces become dominant, intellectual property law steps in to protect corporate assets and encourage investment. These two sets of laws-antitrust and intellectual property-have a pincer effect on corporate profitability, ensuring that markets become neither monopolistic, which would lead to rent-seeking and stagnation, nor overly competitive, which would drive down profits. Christophers pursues these ideas through a close study of the historical development of American and British capitalist economies from the late nineteenth century to the present, tracing the relationship between monopoly and competition in each country and the evolution of legal mechanisms for keeping these forces in check. More than an illuminating study of the economic role of law, The Great Leveler is a bold and fresh dissection of the anatomy of modern capitalism.

China and International Commercial Dispute Resolution presents important contributions from eminent legal scholars from Europe, the United States, Australia, South America, and China in a variety of areas of international commercial law with relevance to China. The authors provide expert analyses from a number of perspectives - doctrinal, comparative, empirical, economic, and legal - on an array of issues, private and public, involved in or arising from international commercial dispute resolution in China.

Established author Anthony Thuillier, barrister-at-law, has teamed up with Catherine MacDaid, barrister-at-law, to pen a new book designed specifically for students of business law, entitled Business Law in Ireland and part of the successful 'Core d104 Series'. The unique and engaging writing style employed by the authors and their ability to simplify and explain complex legal topics such as tort, contract and company law, make the subject matter both accessible and interesting. Divided into six general parts, with 25 chapters, this book commences with an introduction to the law, designed for primarily for those who are new to the subject. Thereafter, each part explores the major requisite themes concerning business law, including the Company and Commercial Law, Employment Law, Law of Tort, the Law of Contract and European Union Law.

Challenges, Lessons, and Prospects for Operationalizing Regional Projects in Asia: Legal and Institutional Aspects is part of the World Bank Studies series. These papers are published to communicate the results of the Bank's ongoing research and to stimulate public discourse. For the past decade and a half, international development organisations have been making continual efforts to finance multi-country projects with regional goals. Despite their efforts, the structure of intervention through such projects has not been easy to design and implement. Experience shows that one of the reasons for this is the lack of clarity in the enabling legal framework and tools, both within the client countries as well as the development organisations. Against this backdrop, this study is born of a need for more precise and comprehensive information about the legal and institutional aspects involved in designing regional projects. Based essentially on desk research and with limited field consultation, it attempts to discuss - primarily from legal and institutional perspectives - the tools, prospects, and opportunities for designing and implementing regional projects. Paying particular focus on the emerging practice of the World Bank, and with a special reference to the Asia region, the study reviews the framework for regional projects in which international development organisations operate, the problems they face, and the possibilities they provide for countries that rely on international financing for their development. Challenges, Lessons, and Prospects for Operationalizing Regional Projects in Asia: Legal and Institutional Aspects outlines the general structures of regional projects and discusses the World Bank approach toward regional projects, the importance of political will and commitment, the general legal structures for regional projects, the uniqueness and challenges for Asia, and makes some proposals for consideration in developing regional projects. The study will be of particular interest to development professionals working in the context of regional projects and anyone interested in how legal and institutional structures impact project development.

The Changing Landscape of Global Financial Governance and the Role of Soft Law provides interdisciplinary perspectives on the changing landscape of global financial governance by exploring the impact and role of soft law, directly or as a precursor of hard law, pertaining to financial governance. Since the shaping of financial governance impacts national, regional and global levels of regulation, different views and arguments contribute to the ongoing discussions about financial regulation. Against this background, this book brings together perspectives of economists and lawyers who have not rallied to one or the other popular call for more regulation as a panacea for the prevention of future global financial crises, calls which have all but drowned out more nuanced scientific debates. Instead, their analysis of aspects of remedial regulatory policy prescriptions already made or proposed demonstrates that carefully designed soft law can be deployed as a valuable method or tool of mediation between the unrestrained autonomy of dysfunctional markets and overzealously crafted hard law.

Businesses exist to provide goods and services to customers, and in so doing they take risks. Among these risks is the possibility of losing money in lawsuits filed by customers, employees, or others negatively impacted by the business. Insurance provides some protection against these liabilities, but lawsuits still take their toll. This book covers the subject of economic damages and their role in lawsuits against businesses. In brief, economic damages are claimed losses that can be valued in terms of some market equivalent. As such, economic damages are a reasonably objective and predictable component of liability risk. Business managers and students working toward a business degree can and should get a handle on economic damages. The book shows readers how that can be accomplished by introducing them to relevant economic fundamentals and applying those fundamentals to a range of lawsuits, including tort claims of personal injury and wrongful death, wrongful termination of employees, and business contract disputes.

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Law - Civil / Private / Trade / Anti Trust Law / Business Law, grade: 1,3, University of Groningen, language: English, abstract: When examining the development of foreign direct investment and the effects of multinational corporations over the last decades, one has to come to the conclusion that the importance increased and grew significantly. Until the 1970s most of the countries were opposed to foreign direct investment due to a fear of losing economic and political independence by allowing foreign control over their economic resources and their key industries. Since the 1990s, there has been a positive turn towards foreign direct investment and its liberalization, because it is predominantly seen as requirement for economic growth, productivity increase, creation of export potential and technology transfer. As a result, the amount of foreign direct investment expanded faster than the world economy and the volume of international trade resulting in a need to control the investment flows and to regulate the area.1 By virtue of the rather sensitive topic of foreign direct investments, it was impossible in the past for the international community to agree upon an uniform and harmonized international regime setting out the standards for international investments. Hence, a multitude of national and international policy rules and principles govern the relevant aspects in this field resulting in a variety of international investment agreements. As an example, more than 2670 bilateral investment treaties and more than 270 other international investment agreements have been adopted globally until the end of 2008.2 Nevertheless, the plurality of the different international investment agreements with their different scopes, different types, different signatories have led to a patchwork of treaties resulting in a highly fragmented and incoherent international investment regime. As a result of this and the problems accompanying i

This report provides an overview of arguments explaining the risk of corruption. Corrupt acts are subject to decision making authority and assets available for grabbing. These assets can be stolen, created by artificial shortage, or become available as the result of a market failure. Assets that are especially exposed to corruption include profits from the private sector, revenues from the export of natural resources, aid and loans, and the proceeds of crime. Whether or not opportunities for corruption are exploited depends on the individuals involved, the institution or society they are part of, and the law enforcement circumstances. Corruption usually persists in situations in which players are aware of the facts but nonetheless condone the practice. Absence of reaction can result from information asymmetries (in which the people who are supposed to act are not aware of the need to act), coordination failure, patronage-determined loyalty, and incentive problems at the political level. This review of results and insights from different parts of the scholarly literature on corruption focuses on areas where research can guide anticorruption policy. The report also describes a number of corruption-related challenges in need of more attention from researchers.

Improving the returns to labour for low-paid workers is a key policy challenge, especially in low-income countries (LICs) where earnings increases are the single most important source of poverty reduction and an important engine of shared prosperity. Yet, the understanding of individual earnings dynamics remains limited. The small - but growing - body of empirical literature on the factors leading to larger and faster pay increases points to strong persistence in earnings over time. However, it remains unclear to what extent this is due to differences in individual endowments rather than to the fact that being in low-paying jobs itself undermines future earnings prospects, and to what extent determinants of earnings vary across types of activities and sectors. The knowledge gap is particularly large for LICs due to the limited availability of reliable panel data. This study uses unusually rich longitudinal data from Ghana and Tanzania to identify engines of, and barriers to, earnings and earnings mobility. It examines the relative role of individual endowments - such as gender, age, and skills - and characteristics of the job, but also focuses on the role of job switches - for example, moves into and out of self-employment. The analysis also zooms in on the drivers of transitions between low-paying and high-paying jobs and addresses questions such as whether being low paid is a transitory or permanent phenomenon, and whether it has a scarring effect on an individual's employment prospects. The extent to which earnings dynamics differ for women and young adults is also discussed in detail. Tanzania and Ghana provide a particularly relevant context in which to examine these issues and the cross-country comparison helps shed light on the institutional factors that promote labor market mobility and entrepreneurship. The audience for this report is broad: it is an important read for policy makers, academics, and development practitioners interested in reducing poverty and promoting shared prosperity in Ghana and Tanzania. However, its relevance spans well beyond the two countries analysed to include all developing countries where self-employment in small-scale activities accounts for a very large proportion of all employment.

Knowledge of business laws is very important for the survival and growth of any organisation. This comprehensive and well-written book provides a sound understanding of the fundamentals of business laws. The book presents a thorough discussion of various legal topics such as contract laws, corporate laws, labour legislations, taxation laws and the related acts including the Sale of Goods Act, 1930, the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, the Insurance Act, 1938, the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008, the Companies Act, 1956, the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Environment Protection Act, 1986, and other important acts. The subject has been made more interesting and authentic by the inclusion of many practical examples and studies of different law cases. In addition, the book provides Review Questions at the end of each chapter. Mind maps have also been provided in most of the chapters to give readers a brief idea about the concepts discussed. In the Second Edition, new acts such as Right to Information Act and Right to Education Act have been added. More practical exercises in the form of case studies have been added in the questions section. Formats of a number of documents have also been included in this edition. The book is primarily designed for undergraduate and postgraduate students of management and other related courses to Business Law. Professionals and legal practitioners will also find the book very useful.

This evaluation is about the nature and magnitude of the cost savings and other benefits of business license simplification in one of the central districts of Lima, Peru. IEG asked whether the project s license simplification reform reduced costs and operating procedures and whether it increased business registration. The project was implemented from 2005 to 2007. Two evaluations done in 2007 and 2008 11 examined, respectively, whether the project led to reductions in time and procedures and whether it led to improved business outcomes. This evaluation reviewed both of those, collected additional data, and drew lessons for future operations. The evidence points to significant reductions in time, monetary costs, and business procedures for businesses that registered to obtain licenses. However, the greater formality of the business environment did not improve the enterprises access to financing, facilitate investment, or remove invisible barriers to business growth. These results have policy implications for formal business environments. Although there were not large positive effects for enterprise outcomes, enterprise owners and society overall gained through owners spending less time away from their firms to certify and register their firms. Such projects are sometimes promoted as a way to foster dynamic businesses, but the evidence in this report suggests that the more mundane time and cost savings are a significant part of the benefits. These results offer the promise of sharpening the understanding of the circumstances under which reforms may be viewed as a growth engine for a society; they also enable IFC to provide a more focused understanding of reasonable expectations for such projects. Based on these findings, IEG s evaluation offers several recommendations about follow-up evaluations, investment in data collection, and developing a base of evidence to aid in setting expectations for projects."

When all parties involved in the construction process fully understand their roles and are able to anticipate potential points of conflict, disputes and delays will be minimised.

"The Employer's and Engineer's Guide to the FIDIC Conditions of Contract" sets out the essential administrative requirements of a FIDIC based contract by reference to the FIDIC 1999 Red Book.

The obligations and duties of the Employer and the Engineer are identified and discussed. Potential pitfalls are highlighted and likely consequences pointed out.

The importance of the Employer's role in the preparation of tenders, which fully reflect his requirements and duties and obligations arising in the execution of the works, is emphasised. The key role of the Engineer in the effective administration of contracts after award is examined and commentary provided.

Included in the guide are a number of appendices, including model letters which will be of value to less experienced staff (particularly those whose mother-tongue is not the English language).

Engineers, quantity surveyors and project managers engaged in the contractual administration of international projects using FIDIC forms of contract will find the concise guidance in simple and jargon-free language provided here invaluable.

This, together with the author's earlier book, "Contractor's Guide to the FIDIC Conditions of Contract - "which describes the duties, rights and responsibilities of the Contractor - represents the totality of supervision, design and execution of construction projects executed under the FIDIC Conditions of Contract.

This book's companion website offers invaluable resources to freely download, adapt and use: Model letters for use by the EmployerModel letters for use by the ContractorSample Interim Payment CertificateModel Form for Submissions to the EngineerModel Form of Engineer's Order for Varied WorksModel Form of Daywork/Daily Record Sheets

The purpose of these guidance notes is to explain the background of the NEC3 Supply Contract, the reasons for its provisions and to provide clear yet comprehensive guidance on how to use it. Construction Clients' Board endorsement of NEC3 The Construction Clients' Board (formerly Public Sector Clients' Forum) recommends that public sector organisations use the NEC3 contracts when procuring construction. Standardising use of this comprehensive suite of contracts should help to deliver efficiencies across the public sector and promote behaviours in line with the principles of Achieving Excellence in Construction.

These guidance notes explain the usage of the contract, procedures for appointing an Adjudicator, the nature of the form of agreement. Explanations are then provided on the individual clauses and worked example of contract data is provided. The second part of the book contains flow charts which set out the procedural logic of the 5 clauses that can be presented with benefit by flow charting

Fully revised and updated for 2010 to include the new NEC3 Supply Contract. this unique addition to the NEC3 suite of documents provides guidance for users of NEC in determining the procurement and contract strategies to meet project objectives and in the application of contracts from the NEC3 family in meeting these strategies. Construction Clients' Board endorsement of NEC3 The Construction Clients' Board (formerly Public Sector Clients' Forum) recommends that public sector organisations use the NEC3 contracts when procuring construction. Standardising use of this comprehensive suite of contracts should help to deliver efficiencies across the public sector and promote behaviours in line with the principles of Achieving Excellence in Construction.

Where the client's requirements include the provision of a building information model (BIM), the technical requirements will need to be set out in the contract documentation. This should clearly establish who is to provide what information, in what timescale and to what format and detail. This guide sets out some practical steps on using BIM with NEC3 Contracts, dealing with the contractual and technical matters that arise.

The Framework Contract is an entirely new NEC document and is intended for use in the appointment of one or more suppliers to carry out construction work or to provide design or advisory services on an 'as instructed' basis over a set term. This document contains the core clauses and the contract data forms. Construction Clients' Board endorsement of NEC3 The Construction Clients' Board (formerly Public Sector Clients' Forum) recommends that public sector organisations use the NEC3 contracts when procuring construction. Standardising use of this comprehensive suite of contracts should help to deliver efficiencies across the public sector and promote behaviours in line with the principles of Achieving Excellence in Construction.

These guidance notes place the new Term Service Contract into context with the rest of the NEC suite of documents. They then set out the background to the contract, its provisions and guidance on when and how to use it. The procedure for setting up a contract is covered and explanations are given on the meanings of individual clauses. Worked examples are provided of contract data. Finally appendices cover the clause numbering system, sample form of tender, sample form of agreement, use as a subcontract, form of performance bond and price list. ENDORSEMENTS Construction Clients' Board endorsement of NEC3 The Construction Clients' Board (formerly Public Sector Clients' Forum) recommends that public sector organisations use the NEC3 contracts when procuring construction. Standardising use of this comprehensive suite of contracts should help to deliver efficiencies across the public sector and promote behaviours in line with the principles of Achieving Excellence in Construction. Facilities Management Board support for the NEC3 Term Service Contracts The Facilities Management Board of the Cabinet Office UK recognises that the NEC3 Term Services Contracts support good practice in FM Procurement in the public sector. BIFM supports the NEC3 Term Service Contracts