Unlike much analysis about regulation in Asia which focuses on globalisation and the transplant effect, leaving domestic influence over commercial regulation under-researched and under-theorized, this book focuses on how local actors influence regulatory change. It explores the complex economic and regulatory factors that generate social demand for state regulation and shows how local networks, courts, democratic processes and civil society have a huge influence on regulatory systems. It examines the particular circumstances in a wide range of Asian countries, provides transnational comparisons and comparisons with Western countries, and assesses how far local regulatory regimes increase economic value and convey competitive advantages.

Unlike much analysis about regulation in Asia which focuses on globalisation and the transplant effect, leaving domestic influence over commercial regulation under-researched and under-theorized, this book focuses on how local actors influence regulatory change. It explores the complex economic and regulatory factors that generate social demand for state regulation and shows how local networks, courts, democratic processes and civil society have a huge influence on regulatory systems. It examines the particular circumstances in a wide range of Asian countries, provides transnational comparisons and comparisons with Western countries, and assesses how far local regulatory regimes increase economic value and convey competitive advantages.

Effective regulation of consumer credit in modern society is an ever-changing challenge. As new forms of credit emerge in free societies, regulation often lags behind. This volume explores contemporary problems related to the regulation of consumer credit in market economies with a focus on credit extended to the most vulnerable and poorest members of the community. Written by experts in the field of consumer credit regulation from Europe, North America, Australia and South Africa, the book examines some of the most important consumer credit issues facing consumers today and proposes innovative ways to protect the consumer interest in those markets.

Consumer credit information systems are the tools used by the majority of lenders to manage credit risk, with lenders accessing credit reference databases managed by third party providers to evaluate a consumer's credit application. So far, the subject of consumer credit reporting has been left to the predominant attention of the economic and business management scholarship and little or no consideration has been paid by lawyers. This book aims to rectify this by examining the legal framework and compliance in the European Community (EC) of such consumer information sharing arrangements which have become increasingly integrated in the credit granting practices of the Member States. The book looks at the laws which surround and affect consumer credit reporting, including bank secrecy obligations. Consumer credit reporting and its relationship to human rights is also explored, as every individual is in the EC is entitled to informational privacy. The book asks questions such as to what extent should the privacy of consumers be balanced against the aims and functions of consumer credit reporting, and how do the financial information sharing arrangements comply with the positive law, particularly the European data protection legislation?

The Oxford Handbook of Pensions and Retirement Income is the only comprehensive review available of the latest research, policy-related tools, analytical methods and techniques, and major theoretical frameworks and principles of pension and retirement income. Featuring over forty contributions from leading academic and professional experts, the handbook draws on research from a range of academic disciplines to reflect on the implications for current and future provision of pension and retirement income of demographic ageing, the changing financial circumstances of nation states, and globalization. An indispensable desk reference for researchers and practitioners in the area, it is also essential for policymakers and those with broad interests which include this very important area. Contributors: William C. Apgar, Camila Arza, Anthony Asher, Vickie L. Bajtelsmit, Armando Barrientos, Rob Bauer, Gary Burtless, John Y. Campbell, Gordon L. Clark, Adam Creighton, E Philip Davis, Johan J. De Deken, Zhu Xiao Di, Richard Disney, Bernhard Ebbinghaus, Robin Ellison, Ewald Engelen, Gosta Esping-Andersen, Teresa Ghilarducci, Tryggvi Thor Herbertsson, Roy P.M.M. Hoevenaars, Tony Hope, Yu-Wei Hu, Paul Johnson, Andre Laboul, Florence Legros, David McCarthy, Warren McGillivray, Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Marilyn Moon, Alicia H. Munnell, John Myles, David Neumark, Naohiro Ogawa, J. Michael Orszag, Hanam S. Phang, John Piggott, Eduard Ponds, James Poterba, Neha Sand, Steven Sass, Julian Savulescu, Tom B.M. Steenkamp, Annika Sunden, Noriyuki Takayama, Patricia Thane, Ian Tonks, Bart van Riel, Steven F. Venti, Luis M. Viceira, Noel Whiteside, Geoffrey Whittington, David A. Wise, and Juan Yermo.

Blockchain Technology and the Law: Opportunities and Risks is one of the first texts to offer a critical analysis of Blockchain and the legal and economic challenges faced by this new technology. This book will offer those who are unfamiliar with Blockchain an introduction as to how the technology works and will demonstrate how a legal framework that governs it can be used to ensure that it can be successfully deployed. Discussions included in this book: - an introduction to smart contracts, and their potential, from a commercial and consumer law perspective, to change the nature of transactions between parties; - the impact that Blockchain has already had on financial services, and the possible consumer risks and macro-economic issues that may arise in the future; - the challenges that are facing global securities regulators with the development of Initial Coin Offerings and the ongoing risks that they pose to the investing public; - the risk of significant privacy breaches due to the online public nature of Blockchain; and - the future of Blockchain technology. Of interest to academics, policy-makers, technology developers and legal practitioners, this book will provide a thorough examination of Blockchain technology in relation to the law from a comparative perspective with a focus on the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

Lex Petrolea and International Investment Law: Law and Practice in the Persian Gulf offers readers a detailed analysis of jurisprudence on the settlement of upstream petroleum disputes between host states in the Persian Gulf and foreign investors. Dr Nima Mersadi Tabari considers the historical, political, and socio-economic roots of the existing frameworks and levels of protection offered to foreign investors. With particular focus on petroleum-related disputes, he initially delivers a comprehensive survey of the jurisprudence of international investment law and investment treaty arbitration. Following on from this, in three dedicated chapters, the author provides in-depth analysis of the legal regimes governing the matter in the major producers of the region: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran. A key resource for all professionals working on legal issues arising from foreign direct investments in natural resources, this book draws a detailed picture of the legal regime governing the upstream sector in the most important geographical region for the international oil and gas sector.

A clear and up-to-date textbook for students of Scots commercial law and business law. It will also be of use to practitioners. Scots Commercial Law is a collaborative work bringing together expertise from academia and practice.

China is engaged in a major evolutionary economic change. Foreign direct investment (FDI) participation has been and will continue to be the driving force behind this change well into the next century. This book presents to Western business and legal communities a comprehensive picture of the prevailing Chinese foreign investment climate. More important, it provides keen insight into the ways China must move to improve its laws and policies.

As the proverbial workhorse of international economic law, investment arbitration is heavily relied upon around the globe. It has to cope with the demands of increasingly complex proceedings. At the same time, investment arbitration has come under close public scrutiny in the midst of heated political debate. Both of these factors have led to the field of investment protection being subject to continuous changes. Therefore, it presents an abundance of challenges in its interpretation and application. While these challenges are often deeply rooted in the doctrinal foundations of international law, they similarly surface during live arbitral proceedings. International Challenges in Investment Arbitration serves not only as a collection of recently debated issues in investment law; it also deals with the underlying fundamental questions at the intersection of investment arbitration and international law. The book is the product of the 1st Bucerius Law Journal Conference on International Investment Law & Arbitration. It combines the current state of knowledge, new perspectives on the topic as well as practical issues and will be of interest to researchers, academics and practitioners in the fields of international investment law, international economic law, regulation and comparative law.

Information about Islamic finance in European countries is usually provided by professional-style reports, offering practical data on implementation of standardized products. However, precise developments about material legal provisions applicable to contracts and their actual legal regime are not often detailed. In order to fill this gap, 15 researchers from across Europe contributed to this project. They describe the state of actual Islamic finance in 10 European countries, as well as applicable EU law. By combining legal analysis with statistical description of existing practices and social demand, this book provides an exhaustive account of the current potential of Islamic finance in Europe.

Michael Collins was a pivotal figure in the Irish struggle for independence and his legacy has resonated ever since. Whilst Collins' role as a guerrilla leader and intelligence operative is well documented, his actions as the clandestine Irish government Minister of Finance have been less studied. The book analyses how funds were raised and transferred in order that the IRA could initiate and sustain the military struggle, and lay the financial foundations of an Irish state. Nicholas Ridley examines the legacy of these actions by comparing Collins' modus operandi for raising and transferring clandestine funds to those of more modern groups engaged in political violence, as well as the laying of foundations for Irish financial and fiscal regulation.

Financial Regulation presents an important restatement of the purposes and objectives of financial regulation. The authors provide details and data on the scale, nature and costs of regulatory problems around the world, and look at what sort of countries and sectors require special attention and policies. Key topics covered include: * the need to recast the form of regulation * incentive structures for financial regulation * proportionality * new techniques for risk management * regulation in emerging countries * crisis management * prospects for financial regulation in the future.

This book offers a simplified and straightforward introduction to the basics of Nigerian taxation. While discussing various laws, practices and procedures, it also addresses the latest amendments to Nigerian tax laws. The book begins by discussing the central issue of Islamic taxation and its legality under Nigerian law. Divided into four main sections, the book was designed for simplicity, and uses language that is accessible for all tax stakeholders.

This book contains, in a brief form, author's views a to the conduct of the principal strategical and tactical operations of war, and will be found to be a short and convenient introduction to a deeper study of the rules which should underlie the direction of the ever-varying incidents of modern fighting.

Every day around the globe, businesses seek out equity capital. From young, entrepreneurial growth companies to mature global businesses, working capital is required to run, sustain and grow your business. As the world shrinks due to enhanced communication through technology, the choices available to companies in search of equity expand. For the advisers guiding those companies, the alternative markets that can be recommended increase year on year. World Stock Exchanges: A Practical Guide, 2nd Ed seeks to assist those who may be interested in the equity markets in analysing the choices available to them. This new edition features fully updated contributions from leading practitioners in the field in a selection of major markets, including Australia, China, Dubai, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. Whether you are comparing the relative merits of floating a company on NASDAQ or the London Stock Exchange, in China or in Singapore, on Euronext or OMX, this new edition will be an extremely helpful source of information. Intermediaries, banks and corporate finance advisers, brokers, sponsors, lawyers and accountants will find it highly relevant and informative in analysing the key criteria applying to major stock exchanges around the world. For market practitioners, it will be an essential addition to their library.

This book is one of the first to link company law to the law of succession by concentrating on family businesses. It shows that, to understand the legal framework underlying the daily operations of family businesses, one needs legal analysis, empirical data, psychological and sociological knowledge. The book works on the premise that, since many businesses have been founded by families, practitioners need to develop an understanding of the legal background of such businesses and build up experience to be able to create contracts, trusts, foundations and other legal mechanisms to give shape to systems and procedures for the transfer of shares and control within the family. Comparing the national legal order, techniques, and mechanisms in a range of countries, the book examines parallel developments in these fields of law across the world. Finally, it demonstrates the room for companies, shareholders and the members of a family to develop individual solutions within the legal framework for transferring businesses and shares to the next generation.

First Published in 1991. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Following the recent global financial crisis there is a growing interest in alternative finance - and microfinance in particular - as new instruments for providing financial services in a socially responsible way or as an alternative to traditional banking. Nonetheless, correspondingly there is also a lack of clarity about how to regulate alternative financial methods particularly in light of the financial crisis' lessons on regulatory failure and shadow banking's risks. This book considers microfinance from a legal and regulatory perspective. Microfinance is the provision of a wide range of financial services, particularly credit but also remittances, savings, to low-income people or financially excluded people. It combines a business structure with social inspiration, often resorts to technological innovations to lower costs (Fintech: e.g. crowdfunding and mobile banking) and merges with traditional local experiences (e.g. financial cooperatives and Islamic finance), this further complicating the regulatory picture. The book describes some of the unique dimensions of microfinance and the difficulties that this can cause for regulators, through a comparative analysis of selected European Union (EU) countries' regimes. The focus is in fact on the EU legal framework, with some references to certain developing world experiences where relevant. The book assesses the impact and validity of current financial regulation principles and rules, in light of the most recent developments and trends in financial regulation in the wake of the financial crisis and compares microfinance with traditional banking. The book puts forward policy recommendations for regulators and policy makers to help address the challenges and opportunities offered by microfinance.

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.

How effectively can governing mechanisms forged before the surge of activist investment continue to protect shareholders and efficiently order capital markets? This is a pressing question for scholars and practitioners of corporate law, as well as for market participants generally. In order to illuminate the extent to which the growing trend of shareholder activism calls for a new understanding of the kind of shareholder-corporate relations the law should facilitate, this book introduces the concept of shareholder-driven corporate governance. This concept refers to the evident phenomenon of shareholder involvement in corporate governance and offers a normative endorsement of this development. In order to secure the benefits of investors' increasing involvement in corporate affairs, regulatory regimes must grapple with a number of considerations. This book is based on the idea that shareholder corporate governance is a welcome development, but that it does not come without regulatory challenges. For one, it requires rejecting the idea that well-ordered capital markets can be achieved through corporate law which is subservient to private ordering. The mandatory character of, for example, securities regulation is vital to fostering shareholder involvement in corporate affairs. Defenders of shareholder corporate governance must also confront the matter of "wolf packs," or loosely formed bands of investors who defy existing regulatory categories but nonetheless exert collective influence. Regulation that is sensitive to both the inadequacies of past approaches to corporate-shareholder relations and the novel challenges posed by increasing shareholder activism will be able to harness activism, allowing capital markets to flourish.

State pensions are the largest item in the UK social security budget, costing GBP96.7 billion in 2017/18. In the same year, 45.6 million people were members of UK occupational pension schemes (out of a total population of 66.4 million) and the total amount saved into workplace schemes in 2018 was GBP90.4 billion. A consequence of the pensions sector's large size has been that pensions law and social security law have become increasingly specialised areas of practice. Yet despite their social and economic importance and the fascinating legal issues they generate, pensions have not been the subject of sustained academic attention. This book starts to fill this gap by initiating a dialogue between practitioners and scholars working on pensions law and policy, groups who have much to learn from one another.

This book introduces and contextualizes the revised and strengthened legislation on the laundering of criminal funds mandated by the European Union on the 20th May 2015. The authors provide fresh and new insight into the EU's fourth directive 2015/849, with a specific focus on topics such as: beneficial ownership and effective transparency, the risk-based approach, the issue of supervision of payment institutions that operate across borders by agents, the new method of risk assessment, tax crimes inclusion in "criminal activity" definition, and the effects of new rules on the gambling sector. The authors present the new laws in the context of their legal genealogy and demonstrate the benefits they bring in raising the standards for anti-money laundering regulation and counter-terrorism financing. The book's comprehensive exploration of this new legislation will appeal to policy-makers, students and academics hoping to understand the changes more clearly.

State aid policy is based upon the principle of European Community supervision of assistance granted by the Member States, or through State resources in whatever form. It threatens to distort competition by favouring certain undertakings or the production of certain goods. This volume deals with the question how an appropriate balance can be struck between trade liberalization and the role of the State in the economy.