To whom are international financial organizations accountable? This unusual book asks not only this searching question, but also examines the extent to which accountability is honoured - or evaded - by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank Group, and the regional development banks (collectively the international financial institutions, or IFIs). The fundamental recognition in this book is that the issue of what international legal principles are applicable to the operations of the IFIs is an important topic that would benefit from more rigorous study. Twelve deeply committed contributors - whose work spans the academic, policy, and activist spectrum - suggest that a better understanding of these legal issues could help both the organizations and their Member States structure their transactions in ways that are more compatible with their developmental objectives and their international responsibilities. Five essays set out the general principles of international law that are applicable to the IFIs and consider how these are or should be evolving to produce IFIs that are respectful subjects of international law and accountable to all relevant stakeholders for their compliance with international law. Six more focus on selected aspects of the IFIs' operations that both raise important and challenging international legal issues and that have substantial impacts on both the different stakeholders in the operations of the IFIs, and on the sustainability and success of the operations. Introductory and concluding essays frame the volume. The many issues raised include the following: * IFIs' impact on economic policies in Member States; * IFI operations as private financial transactions; * IFIs as key players in the creation of international law; * IFIs as promoters of the international capitalist system; * IFIs as bearers of human rights obligations under international human rights law or as participants in the UN system; * consequences of an IFI's breach of its own internal policies or directives; * IFI immunity; * IFI capacity to sue and to be sued in national courts; * ability of various claimants to sue IFIs in domestic courts; * environmental and social rights and interests of third parties affected by IFI financing; * right of indigenous people to give their free, prior, and informed consent to IFI operations that affect them; and * IFIs' treatment of workers' rights. Diverse perspectives in terms of experience, political viewpoint, and focus help define the topic with greater clarity and depth. In its detailed and critical overview, the book demonstrates that the IFIs have important responsibilities under international law and a powerful capacity to influence the development of international law in a number of areas. It is sure to stimulate thought, debate, research, and action on the topic, and encourage more rigorous engagement between the IFIs and international lawyers.

This book investigates under which circumstances vertical unbundling can lead to a more efficient market result. The assessment is based on an interdisciplinary approach combining law and economics. Drawing on the assessment, circumstances are subsequently presented under which unbundling might become necessary. Additionally, less severe means of regulatory intervention are suggested in order to protect competition. Given its scope, the book is chiefly intended for scholars and practitioners in the field of economic policy and regulation law; in addition, it will give interested members of the public a unique opportunity to learn about the underlying rationales of regulation law and regulation economics.

This book offers guidance for US-based IT businesses on both sides of the Atlantic when dealing with big data and government data, since transatlantic data flows are key to the success of these enterprises. It offers practical insights into many of the data-protection challenges US companies in various industries face when seeking to comply with US and EU data-protection laws, and analyses the potential conflicts in the light of their risks and the way in which US-based cloud providers react to the uncertainties of the applicable data-protection rules. The book particularly focuses on the insights derived from a qualitative study conducted in 2016 with various cloud-based IT businesses in the Silicon Valley area, which shows the diversity of views on data protection and the many approaches companies take to this topic. Further, it discusses key data-protection issues in the field of big data and government data.

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the new framework of relationship between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) applicable since 1st January 2021, following the end of the Brexit transition period and the entry into force of the EU-UK Trade & Cooperation Agreement (TCA), concluded on Christmas Eve 2020. The book contextualizes the new framework of EU-UK relations, including the ongoing challenges of implementing the Withdrawal Agreement (WA), and sheds light on the new mechanisms for EU-UK cooperation both in the economic domain including free movement of goods, financial services, and mobility of persons, and in the security domain including law enforcement, defence, and data protection. The work underlines the profound differences between the new status quo compared to the legal framework applicable when the UK was still an EU member state including end of free movement of persons, financial passporting, and cooperation in foreign affairs and defence, and reflects on what the latest stage in the Brexit process means for governance, sovereignty, and the future of European integration.

This book provides a comprehensive and systematic overview of the main topics of taxation in European law. The sequence of arguments follows an institutional logic, respecting the academic tradition of tax law. It first outlines the general framework of EU institutions, with a particular focus on the set of regulations regarding taxation with reference to the stage of formation of EU rules and the potential contrast with national legal systems. It then explores the general principles emerging from the European treaties that typically involve the taxation system, and examines in detail the fiscal importance of European freedoms, the principle of tax non-discrimination, the balance between national interest and EU values, tax harmonization, state aids and other general principles applicable in tax jurisdiction. Lastly, it offers an overall assessment of the development of the European integration process, with particular regard to the nexus between taxation power and sovereignty, in order to highlight the possible and desirable next stages of the evolution of "European tax law".

This study investigates whether the existing regulatory framework governing the telecommunications sector in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa effectively deals with emerging competition-related concerns in the liberalised sector. Using Uganda as a case study, it analyses the relevant provisions of the law governing competition in the telecommunications sector, and presents three key findings: Firstly, while there is comprehensive legislation on interconnection and spectrum management, inefficient enforcement of the legislation has perpetuated concerns surrounding spectrum scarcity and interconnection. Secondly, the legislative framework governing anti-competitive behaviour, though in line with the established principles of competition law, is not sufficient. Specifically, the framework is not equipped to govern the conduct of multinational telecommunications groups that have a strong presence in the telecommunications sector. Major factors hampering efficient competition regulation include Uganda's sole reliance on sector-specific competition rules, restricted available remedies, and a regulator with limited experience of enforcing competition legislation. The weaknesses in the framework strongly suggest the need to adopt an economy-wide competition law. Lastly, wireless technology is the main means through which the population in Uganda accesses telecommunications services. Greater emphasis should be placed on regulating conduct in the wireless communications markets.

From the nation-building of Alexander Hamilton to the trade wars of Donald Trump, trade policy has been a key instrument of American power and wealth. The open trading system that the United States sponsored after the Second World War serves US interests by promoting cooperation and prosperity, but also allows the allies to become more independent and China to rise. The case studies in Trade and American Leadership examine how the value of preferential trade programs is undercut by the multilateral liberalization that the United States promoted for generations, and how trade sanctions tend either to be too economically costly to impose or too modest to matter. These problems are exacerbated by a domestic political system in which the gains from trade are unevenly distributed, power is fragmented, and strategies are easily undermined. Trade and American Leadership places special emphasis on today's challenges, and the rising danger of economic nationalism.

This book provides practical solutions for addressing energy efficiency as a clause term within a charter party contract. For this, upon a reflection of the regulatory craft, it analyzes key concepts of case law, and discusses them together with commercial and economic principles. In this way, the book aims at offering a comprehensive, interdisciplinary view of the chartering process, together with a new approach for safeguarding energy efficiency investments. A special emphasis is given to the maritime industry. Here, the newly developed framework, based on game theory, has been successfully applied to demonstrate the importance of including a clause term in contract negotiation to achieve protection against both an uncertain market and an even more challenging shipping environment. The book not only fills a gap in the literature, covering a topic that has been largely neglected to date, yet it offers researchers and practitioners extensive information to change the chartering process radically.

In recent years, there has been a decentralisation of the enforcement of the EU competition law provisions, Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Consequently, the national application of these provisions has become increasingly more common across the European Union. This national application poses various challenges for those concerned about the consistent application of EU competition law. This edited collection provides an in-depth analysis of the most important limitations of, and the challenges concerning, the applicability of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU at national level. Divided into five parts, the book starts out by examining how the consistent enforcement of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU operates as a general EU competition policy. It then discusses several recent landmark cases of the European Court of Justice on Articles 101 and 102 TFEU, before proceeding to analyse certain additional, unique jurisdictional challenges to the uniform application of the EU competition law provisions. Subsequently, it focuses on one of the most important instruments that can help to achieve the uniform application of EU competition law in cases handled by the national courts: preliminary rulings. Finally, it provides selective examples of how Articles 101 and 102 TFEU are effectively applied at national level, thereby providing additional input into how problematic the issue of consistent application of EU competition law is in practice.

This book seeks to answer the questions: how do the rules of international treaties on trade and investment apply to the new laws and policies relating to energy-related trade, and do the rules of the multilateral system contribute to or detract from sustainable development? An emerging set of new problems in the law of international trade is how to reconcile the rules of the multilateral trading system with shortages of certain natural resources and the necessity to develop renewable energy resources. The chapters in this book provide a comprehensive analysis of the international trade issues presented by national trade laws and policies with regard to natural resources and energy. This book is about the extent to which we are interpreting existing rules to cover emerging problems and how the rules of the multilateral trading system can be adapted to achieve sustainable development in natural resources and energy. The book begins with a survey of selected national laws relating to recent restrictions on the export of natural resources, both resources used to produce energy as well as natural resources essential for industrial production. After examining the range of such laws in selected important countries, we turn to the application of the rules of the multilateral trading system to such export restrictions. We discuss the major rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as the natural resources rules in selected regional preferential free trade agreements. While there is not a comprehensive global legal regime on competition law, we believe it is also important to examine how selected national competition laws impact export restrictions on natural resources. This book will be a major contribution to the international dialogue on international economic law issues with respect to trade in natural resources and energy.

Could democracy do better? This book presents a vision on optimal democracies and a set of new rules to help achieve them. The monograph follows on the author's successful book "Designing Democracy" from 2005 and further develops its ideas. While liberal democracies are the best systems of self-governance for societies, they rarely provoke great enthusiasm. Democracies have been known to fail in achieving efficient outcomes and fair distributions of wealth. Moreover, many citizens take the democratic system for granted, simply because they have yet to experience an alternative. This book argues that the potential offered by democracies has not yet been exhausted, and that optimal democracies are both the Utopia for societies and the aim that scientists should commit themselves to making a reality. Furthermore, the book suggests a number of insightful rules to improve the functioning of democracies. "We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected after we have done it." This famous quip by Jean-Claude Juncker perfectly encapsulates the challenge this book takes on: how to redesign our democratic institutions to overcome political short-termism and make our democracies more efficient. Several radical but highly relevant proposals are explored, ranging from long-term incentive contracts for politicians, prediction markets over the outcomes of the next election that could be useful for incentive purposes, minority voting, initiative group constitutions, and so on. All these highly innovative proposals are rigorously grounded in standard economic analysis. I highly recommend this book to anyone concerned about the state of our democracies and looking for constructive reforms. Patrick Bolton, Columbia University, USA In a time of reeling democracies, it is urgent to explore how to improve on the electoral system for the benefit of society. Hans Gersbach has developed a most innovative and thought-provoking research agenda at the intersection of political theory, social choice and mechanism design. He uncovers the potentially positive effects of political contracts between candidates and society, of new rules for agenda setting and of mechanisms compensating the minorities. Marc Fleurbaey, Princeton University, USA

This Handbook comprehensively addresses the breadth of law encompassed by the EEA Agreement, which extends the European Union's Single Market to three EFTA countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The Handbook is first and foremost intended for practitioners and legal scholars, but its approachable style makes it readily accessible for students. The Handbook provides the reader with a thorough grounding in the EEA Agreement, detailing how secondary EU law becomes applicable in the EFTA pillar, and the roles played by the EFTA Surveillance Authority and the EFTA Court. It considers the EEA Agreement from the respective perspectives of the national authorities, courts, and the legal professions of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The book meticulously examines substantive EEA law, beginning with the general principles and the four freedoms, through competition law and State aid to such aspects as the precautionary principle, tax law and mutual administrative and legal assistance. Emphasis is placed on jurisprudence and especially that of the EFTA Court. Each chapter has been written by a judge, noted practitioner or eminent academic in their respective fields and the book is divided into twelve parts: Part I History and main features of the EEA Agreement Part II Genesis of EEA Law Part III Institutions and Procedure Part IV National Authorities in the EFTA Pillar Part V National Courts in the EFTA Pillar Part VI The Practicing Bar in the EFTA Pillar Part VII General Principles and Prohibition Part VIII The Fundamental Freedoms Part IX Competition Law and Related Matters Part X Further Areas of Economic Law Part XI Law of Natural and Economic Resources Part XII Social Protection and Public Health

This book adopts an international perspective to examine how the online sale of insurance challenges the insurance regulation and the insurance contract, with a focus on insurance sales, consumer protection, cyber risks and privacy, as well as dispute resolution. Today insurers, policyholders, intermediaries and regulators interact in an increasingly online world with profound implications for what has up to now been a traditionally operating industry. While the growing threats to consumer and business data from cyber attacks constitute major sources of risk for insurers, at the same time cyber insurance has become the fastest growing commercial insurance product in many jurisdictions. Scholars and practitioners from Europe, the United States and Asia review these topics from the viewpoints of insurers, policyholders and insurance intermediaries. In some cases, existing insurance regulations appear readily adaptable to the online world, such as prohibitions on deceptive marketing of insurance products and unfair commercial practices, which can be applied to advertising through social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as to traditional written material. In other areas, current regulatory and business practices are proving to be inadequate to the task and new ones are emerging. For example, the insurance industry and insurance supervisors are exploring how to review, utilize, profit from and regulate the explosive growth of data mining and predictive analytics ("big data"), which threaten long-standing privacy protection and insurance risk classification laws. This book's ambitious international scope matches its topics. The online insurance market is cross-territorial and cross-jurisdictional with insurers often operating internationally and as part of larger financial-services holding companies. The authors' exploration of these issues from the vantage points of some of the world's largest insurance markets - the U.S., Europe and Japan - provides a comparative framework, which is necessary for the understanding of online insurance.

One of the hallmarks of the present era is the discourse surrounding Human Rights and the need for the law to recognise them. Various national and supranational human rights instruments have been developed and implemented in order to transition society away from atrocity and callousness toward a more just and inclusive future. In some countries this is done by means of an overarching constitution, while in others international conventions or ordinary legislation hold sway. Contract law plays a pivotal role in this context. According to many, this is done through the much-debated 'civilising mission' of the contract, a notion which itself constitutes the canon of the Western liberal principle of 'civilised economy'. The movement away from the belief in the absolute freedom of contract, which reached its zenith in the nineteenth century, to the principles of fairness and justice that underpin contract law today, is often deemed to be a testament to this civilising influence. Delving into the interplay between human rights policies, constitutional law, and contract law from both theoretical and practical perspectives, this first volume of a two-book collection offers a totally new reappraisal of the subject by gathering a collection of essays written by contract law scholars from Europe, South Africa, Canada, and Australia. Instead of providing the reader with a sterile compilation of positivistic norms and policies on the impact of fundamental rights and constitutional law issues on contract law's development, the authors build on their personal experience to analyse specific topics related to contracting that include a constitutional dimension. The book fills an important void in comparative law scholarship and in so doing represents the starting point for further debate on the subject.

'This starkly lucid and timely book absorbs the nuances of the largest festival - the elections - of the world's largest democracy. Hailing from a political family, the author conveys his passion and knowledge on the intricacies, as well as the heat and dust of his national fete. All data and events have been methodically examined in this absorbing analytical work which is an indispensable and scholarly book on the Indian elections.'- Thankom Arun, Professor at the University of Essex, UK This book provides a quantitative analysis of eight elections and an insight into voting patterns, detailing the election result for each candidate, for all the constituencies, in every Lok Sabha (the lower house of India's Bicameral-Parliament) general election from 1962 to 2014. The central purpose of this interrogation of data is to give shape to the notion of 'electoral efficiency', or the capacity of a party to convert votes into parliamentary seats. Parliamentary elections in India - and also elections to its state assemblies - are conducted under the First Past the Post (FPTP) system whereby a single representative for each of the 543 constituencies is elected as a Member of the Lok Sabha, on the basis of obtaining the largest number of all the candidates contesting that constituency. In brief, Votes, Parties, and Seats provides an in-depth study of the results of parliamentary general elections in India, and sheds light on why some parties are more efficient than others.

This book addresses the lack of binding multi-lateral international agreement on cartels, through analysis of trials and failures. It also suggests strategic approaches to overcome current standstills. In addition, the book contrasts international agreement on cartels with inter-governmental commodity agreement which has been developed separately through international law. Through this project, the author puts forth that successful international law on cartels needs to reflect the interests and arguments of developing countries.

Since its accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in December 2001, China has been committed to full compliance with the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. This text considers the development of intellectual property in China, and offers an interdisciplinary analysis of China's compliance with the TRIPS Agreement using theories originating in international relations and law. It notes that despite significant efforts to amend China's substantive IP laws to prepare for WTO accession and sweeping changes to domestic legislation, a significant gap existed between the laws on paper and as enforced in practice, and that infringements to the agreement are still prevalent. The book examines how compliance with international rules can be promoted and encouraged in a specific jurisdiction. Making a case for a wider, more interdisciplinary and global outlook, it contends that compliance needs to align with the national interests of relevant countries and jurisdictions, as governments' economic interests support the greater enforcement of the IP laws.

This book addresses emerging legal and economic issues in competition and investment in air transport, against the backdrop of the role governments and airlines should play in avoiding protectionism and encouraging innovation and creativity. It evaluates current trends in air transport and the direction the industry is taking in the twenty first century. There are discussions on key aspects of air transport, such as safety assurance and environmental protection, as they are impacted by competition. The rapid evolution of aerospace transport and its effect on competition in air transport is also examined. A recurring theme of the book is the influence of creative destruction and disruptive innovation on air transport. This is addressed through an in-depth study of the contentious areas of law relating to the abuse of dominant positions and state aid, as reflected in the ongoing claim by the three largest US carriers against Gulf carriers such as Emirates Airlines, Etihad and Qatar Airways. The US carriers claim that Emirates and Etihad - which operate air services into the United States by virtue of an open-skies agreement between the US and The United Arab Emirates - are using generous subsidies given to them by their g overnments to illegally capture the "legitimate" market belonging to the US carriers. These issues are clarified in the book using analyses of competition law and investment law as they apply to air transport, free-trade-agreement analogies and an open-skies case study.

This book analyses the fast spread of free trade agreements (FTAs) across the globe, their content and their economic impact. In the wake of Brexit and the new protectionism of President Trump, Melchior offers a timely assessment of key issues relating to FTAs. Dividing the world into seven major regions, he analyses world trade, the globalisation of FTAs and their role within and between the regions. Using a new world trade model, he then presents new evidence on the impact of trade agreements, the value of trade, the impact of China's growth and the West's industrial decline, and the role of reciprocity in trade policy. Covering rich and poor countries, commodity exporters and all of the world's regions, he offers new and original insights about a number of pertinent issues facing today's world.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of "Mega-Regionals", the new generation of trans-regional free-trade agreements (FTAs) currently under negotiation, and their effect on the future of international economic law. The main focus centres on the EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), but the findings are also applicable to similar agreements under negotiation, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).The specific features of Mega-Regional Trade Agreements raise a number of issues with respect to their potential effect on the current system of international trade and investment law. These include the consequences of Mega-Regionals for the most-favoured-nation (MFN) principle, their relation to the multilateral system of the World Trade Organization (WTO), their democratic legitimacy and their interaction with existing bilateral investment treaties (BITs).The book is intended for academics and practitioners working in the field of international economic law.

This book reviews and presents antitrust law compliance programmes from different angles. These programmes have been increasingly implemented and refined by firms over recent years, and various aspects of this topic have been researched. The contributions in this book extend beyond the treatment of legal issues and show how lawyers, economists, psychologists, and business scholars can help design antitrust law compliance programmes more effectively and run them more efficiently.

This work focuses on the EU's participation in the Dispute Settlement Proceedings (DSP) of the WTO for matters of non-conferred competences. The underlying thesis is that the joint membership of the EU and its Member States is fallacious, in that it could cause the EU to become responsible for violations of the WTO regulations on the part of the Member States. Such fallacies are rooted in the blurred nature of the distribution of powers in the EU polity.In order to tackle the issue of international responsibility, the analysis is based on the facts of a real-world case. Based on the tenets of public international law, the law of mixed agreements and the EU constitutional principles, the book puts forward a model for the EU's participation in the DSP, and for the reallocation of burdens to the respective responsible entity. This proposition deconstructs the joint responsibility regime and endorses a solution that could address the issue of responsibility in mixed agreements without a declaration of powers.

This book examines the impact of multinational enterprises (MNEs) on local economies, and presents selected case studies of MNEs operating in low income countries. By balancing external social and environmental costs against its corresponding benefits, the book demonstrates that MNEs can have a positive net-impact on local development if they build up social capital by embedding themselves in local economies and engaging responsibly with local stakeholders. By doing so MNEs contribute to inclusive growth, a central pillar of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In this context, the book challenges popular narratives in civil society and academia that frame foreign direct investment (FDI) merely as a threat to human rights and sustainable development. Moreover, it offers practical guidance for globally operating businesses seeking to establish progressive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies of their own.

This volume examines the controversy surrounding the use of competition law to combat excessive pricing. While high or monopolistic pricing is not regarded as an antitrust violation in the US, employing abuse of dominance provisions in competition laws to fight excessive pricing has gained popularity in some BRICS jurisdictions and a number of EU-member states in recent years. The book begins by discussing the economic arguments for and against the prohibition of excessive or unfair prices by firms with market power. It then presents various country studies, focusing on developed countries (such as the UK and Israel) and on the BRICS countries, to highlight various practical challenges involved in recognizing excessive prices as abusive conduct on the part of dominant firms, including how to define, measure and identify excessive prices. The contributors also discuss other policy options that can be used to fight excessive prices in order to protect consumer welfare.

The book presents contributions from Brazilian experts on the regulation of different energy sources. Focusing on describing and discussing the fundamental issues related to the legal regulation of each of the sources that compose Brazil's energy matrix, it also analyzes economic and strategic aspects and identifies the main current problems related to the exploration for and production of each energy source. The book offers a clear and detailed overview of energy law and regulation for policymakers, foreign investors and legal professionals dealing with energy projects in Brazil.