Despite the enormous diversity and complexity of financial instruments, the current taxation of hybrid financial instruments and the remuneration derived therefrom are characterized by a neat division into dividend-generating equity and interest-generating debt as well as by a coexistence of source- and residence-based taxation. This book provides a comparative analysis of the classification of hybrid financial instruments in the national tax rules currently applied by Australia, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands as well as in the relevant tax treaties and EU Directives. Moreover, based on selected hybrid financial instruments, mismatches in these tax classifications, which lead to tax planning opportunities and risks and thus are in conflict with the single tax principle, are identified. To address these issues, the author provides reform options that are in line with the dichotomous debt-equity framework, as he/she suggests the coordination of either tax classifications or tax treatments.

This book explores the central problems underlying the insurance of aviation war and terrorism risks and associated perils. It critically analyses the reasons why conventional insurance markets are unwilling or unable to provide sustainable insurance coverage for aviation war and terrorism risks in the aftermath of catastrophic events such as the terrorist events of September 11, 2001. It also examines some of the prominent concepts proposed and/or implemented after 9/11 to determine whether and to what extent these concepts avoid identified pitfalls. Like many of life's essentials, the importance of insurance is most evident when it is not available. The sheer scale and magnitude of the insurance losses that followed 9/11 caused conventional insurance markets (which hitherto had been offering generous insurance coverage for aviation war and terrorism risks to air transport operators for little or no premium) to withdraw coverage forthwith. The ensuing absence or insufficiency of commercial insurance coverage for aviation war and terrorism risks has sparked a global search for viable and sustainable alternatives. Ten years have since elapsed, and despite numerous efforts, the fundamental problems remain unresolved. The book proceeds on the premise that the underlying issues are not entirely legal in nature; they have immense economic, psychological and policy implications that cannot be underestimated. A multidisciplinary approach is therefore used in examining the issues, drawing heavily upon analytical principles adapted from law and economics and behavioural law and economics. It is hoped that the resulting study will be beneficial not only to lawyers and those interested in aviation insurance but also to economists, air transport insurance program managers, capital market investors and governmental policymakers, both at the national and international levels.

Counterfeit products represent a growing problem for a wide range of industries. There are many estimates of the size of this problem most of which coalesce around $500-billion annually on a global basis. Overall, a wide range of industries agree that there is a severe problem with the global protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), yet, there have been virtually no attempts to describe all aspects of the problem. This book aims at giving the most complete description of various characteristics of the intellectual property rights (IPR) environment in a global context. The authors believe a holistic understanding of the problem must include consumer complicity to purchase counterfeit, actions of the counterfeiters (pirates) as well as actions (or inaction) by home and host governments, and the role of international organizations and industry alliances. Only after establishing how all the actors in the IPR environment relate to one another can we describe global protection of the intellectual property rights environment and the managerial response of IPR owners and/or industry associations to combat this ongoing problem. The book concludes with pragmatic recommendations for protecting intellectual property given the recent trends discussed in the previous chapters, making it of interest to practitioners and policy-makers alike.

The institutional and legal status of the WTO, with its integrated dispute settlement system, provides a framework for certainty, security and stability for trade as well as a coherent system to protect intellectual property rights. In all member countries and their respective enterprises, WTO regulations need to be considered when designing and implementing trade-related strategies for business operations in the integrated global market. This book aims at giving upper-level undergraduates and graduate students a comprehensive understanding of the public regulations related to international trade within the WTO mechanism and equip them, as potential policy makers and future practitioners in international trade, with the practical skills to interpret and apply the multilateral trade regulations as outlined by the WTO.

This book addresses the recent debate about copyright law and its impact on the distribution of scientific knowledge from an economic perspective. The focus is on the question whether a copyright regime or an open access regime is better suited to the norms and organizational structure in a purely global science community. The book undertakes a thorough economic analysis of the academic journal market and showcases consequences of a regime change. It also takes account of the Digital Divide debate, reflecting issues in developing countries. Finally, a comprehensive analysis of legal action in the light of international Intellectual Property (IP) agreements offers prospects on the future of academic publishing.

There is considerable variation in the nature, scope and institutional forms of legal protection for valuable geographical brands such as Champagne, Colombian coffee and Darjeeling tea. While regional products are increasingly important for producers, consumers and policy makers, the international legal regime under the TRIPS Agreement remains unclear. Adopting a historical approach, Dev Gangjee explores the rules regulating these valuable geographical designations within international intellectual property law. He traces the emergence of geographical indications as a distinct category while investigating the key distinguishing feature of the link between regional products and their places of origin. The research addresses long-standing puzzles, such as the multiplicity of regimes operating in this area; the recognition of the link between product and place and its current articulation in the TRIPS definition; the varying scope of protection; and the extent to which geographical indications ought to be treated as a category distinct from trade marks.

The world of trade is changing rapidly, from the 'rise of the South' to the growth of unconventional projects like fair trade and carbon trading. Beyond Free Trade advances alternative ways for understanding these new dynamics, based on historical, political, or sociological methods that go beyond the limitations of conventional trade economics.

This book focuses on the analysis of liability rules of tort law from an efficiency perspective, presenting a comprehensive analysis of these rules in a self-contained and rigorous yet accessible manner. It establishes general results on the efficiency of liability rules, including complete characterizations of efficient liability rules and efficient incremental liability rules. The book also establishes that the untaken precaution approach and decoupled liability are incompatible with efficiency. The economic analysis of tort law has established that for efficiency it is necessary that each party to the interaction must be made to internalize the harm resulting from the interaction. The characterization and impossibility theorems presented in this book establish that, in addition to internalization of the harm by each party, there are two additional requirements for efficiency. Firstly, rules must be immune from strategic manipulation. Secondly, rules must entail closure with respect to the parties involved in the interaction giving rise to the negative externality, i.e., the liability must not be decoupled.

Since the beginnings of the GATT and the Bretton Woods institutions, and on to the creation of the WTO, states have continued to develop institutions and legal infrastructure to promote global interdependence. International economic law, a field dominated by legal regimes to liberalize international trade but that also includes international financial law and international law relating to economic development, has become a dense web of treaty commitments at the multilateral, regional, and bilateral levels. International lawyers are experts in understanding how these institutions operate in practice, but they tend to uncritically accept comparative advantage as the principal normative criterion to justify these institutions. In contrast, moral and political philosophers have developed accounts of global justice, but these accounts have had relatively little influence on international legal scholarship and on institutional design. What is needed is a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the economic fairness problems that societies face as they become increasingly interdependent, and the solutions that international economic law and institutions might facilitate. This volume reflects the results of a symposium held at Tillar House, the American Society of International Law headquarters in Washington, DC, in November 2008, which brought together philosophers, legal scholars, and economists to discuss the problems of understanding international economic law from the standpoints of rights and justice, in particular from the standpoint of distributive justice.

This book provides a unique comparative and global analysis of the regulation of disclosure in financial (securities) markets. It is written by two authors who represent both the new world (Australia) and the old world (Germany). The authors present their research in the global business context, with legal and regulatory perspectives including some references from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. After every "boom" and "bust", legislators pass new disclosure legislation, often in a heated environment fuelled by politics and the media. Little regard is paid to existing regulation or the lessons learned from earlier regulation. The result is the continuing enactment of redundant and overlapping disclosure laws. Since financial markets are often described as markets for information, the failure to ensure disclosure is at the heart of financial services regulation. This book argues that the solution to the failure of disclosure is a brief, easily understood, principles-based, plain English safety-net amendment to statute law such as "you must keep the financial market fully informed", a measure that would support effective mandatory continuous disclosure of information to financial markets. This book examines the reasons for disclosure regulation, and how the efficient operation of financial markets is dependent on disclosure. It examines the adequacy of common law and civil law concerning broker/client disclosure, and concludes that industry licensing in itself fails to keep the market informed. While recognizing the failures of securities commissions to achieve good disclosure in financial markets, it confirms the effectiveness of coregulation of disclosure by a commission with the support of the financial markets (such as the stock exchange). Coregulation builds on financial market self-regulation, and is best described in the words of one-time SEC Chairman William O. Douglas, who, in the 1930s, described it as a shotgun behind the door.

In light of the 20th anniversary of the ruling in Francovich, Michael Haba analyzes the principle of Member State Liability, which provides a right to damages whenever EU law is breached by Member States. His research ascertains that the doctrine evolved through three stages before becoming the unified approach that it is today. The author emphasizes that the principle's base lay at the outset of the EEC, when the ECJ sought means to foster the enforcement of EC law. He shows that although State Liability was introduced in Francovich, there was not enough guidance on its application. He highlights that these matters were resolved in Brasserie/Factortame III, which refined the assessment of culpability, but was inconsistent and had to be further clarified in case law. He illustrates that the doctrine was expanded to breaches of EC law by last instance courts in Koebler. Finally, the author examines if breaches of European competition rules could lead to a right to damages under the principle, but concludes that no fourth stage of State Liability can be established.

This book examines the labour standards provisions in a number of Regional and Bilateral Trade Agreements, and assesses the potential of using the relevant clauses in these trade agreements as a benchmark for a multilateral approach. Based on the lessons learned from the Regional model, the book proposes a Global Labour and Trade Framework Agreement (GLTFA) combined with a joint ILO/WTO enforcement mechanism to resolve the contentious issue of the link between the CLS and international trade. The history of the linkage between the Core Labour Standards (CLS) and international trade dates back roughly 150 years, and has recently become one of the most vexing issues facing policy-makers. At the heart of the debate is the question whether or not trade sanctions should be imposed on countries that do not respect the CLS as embodied in multilateral conventions administered by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Concretely, this would entail inserting a social clause in the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, and would trigger the imposition of sanctions on those countries that do not adhere to the CLS.

On 1 August 2008 the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law entered into force, introducing a comprehensive framework for competition law to the Chinese market. One set of the new rules pertains to merger control. China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) was nominated as the authority responsible for enforcing merger control in China and has been actively doing so ever since. Recent years have established China as one of the most important merger filing jurisdictions for cross-border mergers alongside the EU and USA. This work evaluates the Chinese merger control law regime and MOFCOM's decision-making practice after more than five years of application. In particular, it assesses which policy goals (competition policy goals or industrial policy considerations) prevail in the written law and its application and provides suggestions for a further improvement of the law - with the aim to develop a transparent merger control regime that promotes long-term economic growth in China.

This book brings together the 2009 output of the American Law Institute (ALI) project on World Trade Organization Law. Each chapter focuses on a different dispute from the adjudicating bodies of the WTO. Each case is jointly evaluated by well known experts in trade law and international economics. ALI reporters critically review the jurisprudence of WTO adjudicating bodies and evaluate whether the ruling 'makes sense' from an economic as well as a legal point of view, and, if not, whether the problem lies in the interpretation of the law or the law itself. The studies do not always cover all issues discussed in a case, but they seek to discuss both the procedural and the substantive issues that form, in the reporters' views, the 'core' of the dispute. This paperback will be an invaluable resource for students, lecturers and practitioners of international trade law.

This book identifies institutional mechanisms that can be used to promote consumer confidence in direct online sales with businesses (B2C e-commerce). It argues that enhancing the access to justice in a multidimensional sense can potentially offer an effective means of boosting consumer confidence. It introduces a conceptual framework for a multidimensional approach to access to justice in the context of consumer protection, describing the various reasonable criteria needed to satisfy consumer demands in B2C e-commerce. The framework, which reflects all essential aspects of consumers' expectations when they engage in online transactions, provides a benchmark for the evaluation of various consumer protection mechanisms. Based on an analysis of different mechanisms and using the framework's criteria, the practice of private ordering, which does not rely on the creation of rules of law but rather on the use of technology as a solution, appears to offer a meaningful way to enhance access to justice in B2C e-commerce. However, though private ordering holds considerable potential, certain weaknesses still need to be eliminated. This book demonstrates how private ordering can be successfully implemented with the help of an intermediary, a neutral third party that plays an integral part in the collaborative task of facilitating various aspects of private ordering, thus helping to limit the risks of failure and ensuring a fairer market setting. In order to move forward, it argues that the state, with its wealth of material resources and incentive options, is the institution best suited to acting as an intermediary in facilitating private ordering. This promising proposal can improve consumer protection, which will in turn boost consumer confidence.

This book is a major work that focuses exclusively on ship finance and includes contributions on the increasingly complex field of ship finance, which has over the last two decades become a key aspect in the world of shipping and ship owning. The book offers an enlightening mix of theoretical analysis and well-founded practical insights into the daily markets. Given that ship finance continues to develop dynamically around the world, the book covers subjects ranging from the German KG market to Islamic Finance, from loans to legal aspects and from asset pricing to risk management.

Professor Folke 0lander celebrates his 70th birthday the 21st of July 2005. With this "Festschrift", Folke 01ander7s colleagues and collaborators over the years want to honour him and to express their appreciation of his life-long contribution to - search, especially research within the themes reflected in the title of this volume: Consumers, Policy and the Environment. Having established close collaboration with European economic psychology's grand old man, Karl-Erik Warneryd, already during his PhD study, Folke 0lander became an active contributor to the development of economic psychology as a - search field in Europe. When the International Association for Research in E- nomic Psychology (IAREP) was founded in 1982, Folke Olander was present, and he was president of IAREP in 1989- 199 1. Folke 0lander has played an equally - fluential role in European and international consumer policy research. Together with Gerhard Scherhorn and Norbert Reich, he was a founding editor of the Journal of Consumer Policy in 1977, a position he has held until 2005. Folke 0lander has also been very active in Nordic consumer policy and in Nordic consumer research since the 70s. He played a crucial part in the Nordic workshop "Consumer and - ciety" in 1978 and organized the workshop on "Road to consumer influence" in Helsinki in 1986. He has been a member of the Nordic Consumer Committee under the Nordic Council of Ministers since 1994.

This book examines the role of The International Maritime Organization (IMO) in the prevention and control of pollution of the marine environment from vessels with a particular reference to the current north-south tensions regarding the strategy for combating climate change in the maritime sector as well as the prevention of marine pollution from the ship-breaking industry. The IMO, a United Nations specialized agency, has been entrusted with the duty to provide machinery for cooperation among governments for the prevention and control of pollution of the marine environment from vessels. The organization is responsible for drafting legal instruments as well as for facilitating technical cooperation for the protection of the marine environment. Although IMO legal instruments are mainly targeted at the prevention of pollution of the marine environment from vessels, there is a trend towards a liberal interpretation of this, and the organization has expanded its work to areas like shipbreaking, which is essentially a land-based industry.

Improving Healthcare: A Dose of Competition systematically examines the American health care system from a competition-oriented perspective. The volume surveys the performance of each major sector of the health care system, and identifies impediments to more effective competition. Improving Healthcare examines such issues as competition v. regulation, public and private sector approaches to health care financing, cross-subsidies, licensure, provider market concentration, financial and clinical integration, payment for performance, quality, pharmacy benefit managers, direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals, certificates of need, mandates, unionization, the significance of organizational status (nonprofit v. for-profit), and the role of antitrust and consumer protection in health care. It offers concrete recommendations to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of the American health care marketplace.

Far from regarding the law as supreme, corporations approach law as an element of executive thought and action aimed at optimizing competitiveness. The objective of this book is to identify, explore and define corporate legal strategies that seek advantage in the opportunities revealed when the Law is perceived as a resource to be mobilized and aligned with the firm's business and economic agendas.

This book, first entitled Principles of Law Relating to Overseas Trade, has been expanded, revised, repackaged and re-titled in this edition to provide a more accessible and relevant textbook on the subject. Commentary and references to new and classic cases are now in footnotes in the main text, for ease of reading. Imbued with careful research and practical experience it presents an attempt to form a concise and authoritative statement of the law affecting international trade.

This volume contains papers presented in a workshop of international experts in September 2008 in Berlin. The experts discussed how environmental consequences of EU legislation can be incorporated in a more effective way. In other words, this contribution focuses on the question of which measures can strengthen the cons- eration of environmental effects in the EU impact assessment procedure and in the subsequent legislative decision-making process. This allows drawing conclusions for the impact assessment process in Germany. This volume begins with an introductory paper (Bizer/Lechner/Fuhr) which served as the basis for discussion in our workshop. The questions raised in this paper are addressed by the authors of the subsequent chapters. Stephen White (DG Environment, EU-Commission) discusses the impact assessment from an int- nal perspective within the Commission. Pendo Maro (European Environmental Bureau) reviews the impact assessment practice from the perspective of an en- ronmental NGO. Martin Schmidt et al. discuss the potential for more formalism to strengthen environmental issues within impact assessments and favour a checklist.

Patent laws are different in many countries, and inventors are sometimes at a loss to understand which basic requirements should be satisfied if an invention is to be granted a patent. This is particularly true for inventions implemented on a computer. While roughly a third of all applications (and granted patents) relate, in one way or another, to a computer, applications where the innovation mainly resides in software or in a business method are treated differently by the major patent offices in the US (USPTO), Japan (JPO), and Europe (EPO). The authors start with a thorough introduction into patent laws and practices, as well as in related intellectual property rights, which also explains the procedures at the USPTO, JPO and EPO and, in particular, the peculiarities in the treatment of applications centering on software or computers. Based on this theoretical description, next they present in a very structured way a huge set of case studies from different areas like business methods, databases, graphical user interfaces, digital rights management, and many more. Each set starts with a rather short description and claim of the "invention", then explains the arguments a legal examiner will probably have, and eventually refines the description step by step, until all the reservations are resolved. All of these case studies are based on real-world examples, and will thus give an inexperienced developer an idea about the required level of detail and description he will have to provide. Together, Closa, Gardiner, Giemsa and Machek have more than 70 years experience in the patent business. With their academic background in physics, electronic engineering, and computer science, they know about both the legal and the subject-based subtleties of computer-based inventions. With this book, they provide a guide to a patent examiner's way of thinking in a clear and systematic manner, helping to prepare the first steps towards a successful patent application.

The Dispute Settlement Reports of the World Trade Organization (WTO) include Panel and Appellate Body reports, as well as arbitration awards, in disputes concerning the rights and obligations of WTO members under the provisions of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. These are the WTO authorized and paginated reports in English. An essential addition to the library of all practising and academic trade lawyers and needed by students worldwide taking courses in international economic or trade law. DSR 2010: VI reports on Australia - Measures Affecting the Importation of Apples from New Zealand (WT/DS367).

The Dispute Settlement Reports of the World Trade Organization (WTO) include Panel and Appellate Body reports, as well as arbitration awards, in disputes concerning the rights and obligations of WTO members under the provisions of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. These are the WTO authorized and paginated reports in English. An essential addition to the library of all practising and academic trade lawyers and needed by students worldwide taking courses in international economic or trade law. DSR 2010: I and DSR 2010: II report on China - Measures Affecting Trading Rights and Distribution Services for Certain Publications and Audiovisual Entertainment Products (WT/DS363).