Information and the marketplace are uneasy bedfellows. The dissemination of information via media can have many different and overlapping purposes, including entertainment, art, ideology, and research. It is particularly among groups that need to share information - the academic and scientific communities, for example - that viewing it as something that can be bought and sold is intrusive and even damaging. There are many other reasons why the commodification of information, which continues to move from strength to strength with the expansion of international free trade, must be carefully scrutinized. To this end, a conference of specialists with expertise encompassing the area of law and practice where intellectual property, communications, privacy, free speech, collaborative research, and international trade all intersect met under the auspices of the University of Haifa Faculty of Law in May 1999. This book presents the analyses and recommendations that emerged from that conference. As one might expect, a broad spectrum of views is expressed, from commercialism as the liberator of free speech to commodification as de facto censorship.

This is the first book that critically examines the reform of the Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in light of the current crisis resulting from the U.S. blocking of the appointment of its members. The reform of the AB is critical, as the appointment crisis could lead to the demise of "the jewel in the crown," which may even cause the dismantling of the WTO as a whole. This book covers various aspects of the crisis and its reform. Specifically, as the crisis cannot be fully understood without reviewing the role of the AB from the broader perspectives of the other functions of the WTO, the book examines the reform of the AB from the broader perspectives of the WTO governance. Additional focus is on the reform of the AB in relation to its specific functions. Available options are provided to address the AB crisis, as well as discussion of wider implications beyond the WTO. Contributed by world-renowned academics, experts, and practitioners in the field of international economic law, this volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the AB crisis and its solutions.

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.

The application of international law to state contracts with foreign private companies was the cause of continuing controversy throughout much of the twentieth century. State contractual undertakings with foreign investors raise a number of legal issues that do not fit well into the traditional pattern of international law as a law between states, but which also cannot be satisfactorily resolved by the exclusive application of the municipal law of the contracting state. In recent years the controversy has gained new prominence as a result of the advent of a new form of international dispute settlement, namely the mechanism of investment treaty arbitration. The main feature of this model of dispute resolution is that foreign investors are entitled to bring claims against states directly before international arbitral tribunals. This model, which emerged strongly in the late 1990s, has generated a rapidly expanding body of arbitral case law and in the process become one of the most significant new developments in modern international law. Many of the disputes subject to investment treaty arbitration have their origin in contractual commitments made by states toward foreign investors. At the same time international commercial arbitration continues to be the preferred means of dispute resolution in contracts between foreign investors and states or state entities. This book explores how contract claims against states are dealt with in the two parallel processes of treaty-based and contract-based arbitration. The book charts the development of commercial arbitration into an international legal remedy in this field, discusses the theoretical problems which it creates for international law, and outlines the most significant substantive features of the international law applicable to contract claims as developed by arbitral tribunals on the basis of treaty standards and customary law.

This book examines the effect of the adoption of the United Nations Committee on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency in five common law jurisdictions, namely Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. It examines how each of those states has adopted, interpreted and applied the provisions of the Model Law, and highlights the effects of inconsistencies by examining jurisprudence in each of these countries, specifically how the Model Law affects existing principles of recognition of insolvency proceedings. The book examines how the UNCITRAL Guide to enactment of the Model Law has affected the interpretation of each of its articles and, in turn, the courts' ability to interpret and hence give effect to the purposes of the Model Law. It also considers the ability of courts to refer to amendments made to the Guide after enactment of the Model Law in a state, thereby questioning whether the current inconsistencies in interpretation can be overcome by UNCITRAL amending the Guide.

'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.

NAFTA has initiated a procedure for addressing transborder economic problems in a more adequate and predictable fashion, potentially encouraging policy convergence between three disparate political cultures. Rather than addressing economic, social and environmental policy issues separately, trade policy now serves as a vehicle for negotiating policy convergence. Consequently trade officials are being forced to deal with an expanded array of domestic policy isues. This text presents a detailed examination of the initial NAFTA experience and evaluates its long-term implications beyond those of ending trade and tarriff barriers. In particular, it examines the cultural implications of this international arrangement. In addition, environmental protection and conservation issues are increasingly at the forefront of the international political agenda. NAFTA's environmental side agreement has created a way of addressing environmental concerns whilke protecting local standards, illustrating the attempt to achieve policy convergence by means of a trade apparatus. NAFTA now represents the continuing tension between integration and the maintenance of national autonomy.

This book argues that the trade-distorting effects of advantages associated with SOEs are more severe from an economic perspective, and the behavior of SOEs after receiving advantages is of more concern, compared to private-owned enterprises (POEs). The premise is that the existence of SOEs per se is not the essential problem; rather, the underlying problems are (i) the disproportionate granting of advantages to SOEs (compared to POEs) and (ii) the behavior of SOEs once they receive advantages. The book offers a systematic analysis focusing on the various advantages granted to SOEs and their subsequent behavior. Its detailed analysis reveals the inadequacy of current WTO rules and is complemented by a number of concrete proposals.

Despite its growing significance, the legal scrutiny of RTAs remains an underdeveloped academic field. This book considers how the interplay between multilateral and preferential liberalisation of trade in services increasingly raises concerns, both from the perspective of the beneficiaries of such liberalisation and that of regulators. With the application of a thorough article-by-article analysis, the author shows how these concerns lead to vast underutilisation of, and often prejudice against, the benefits of services liberalisation. The book meticulously analyses and compares the EU's obligations under the GATS and the services chapters of several RTAs to finally assess the merits of the various concerns. This book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of law and related subjects. It will also be of interest to government officials looking for a detailed analysis of the topic, and practitioners looking for a framework for analysing RTA provisions.

This book discusses the relationship between democracy and the financial order from various legal perspectives. Each of the nine contributions adopts a unique perspective on the legal and political challenges brought to the fore by the Global Financial Crisis. This crisis and the ensuing sovereign debt crisis in Europe are only the latest in a long series of financial crises around the globe in recent decades. By their very existence, but also as a result of the political turmoil they have created, these financial crises testify to the well-known tensions between democracy and a market-based economic and financial order. However, what is missing in this debate is an analysis of the role of law for reconciling democracy with a market-based financial order. To fill this lacuna, the book focuses on the controversy surrounding the concept of law, thereby adding another variable to the debate on the relation between democracy and capitalism. Each chapter addresses the concept of law from a particular theoretical angle, be it a full-grown legal theory or an approach in political economy that has a particular view of the law.

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 highlights the critical importance of laying, quick relinking, and protecting submarine cables with timely approval for carriers and cable repairing ships and how these are most challenging in many jurisdictions. It identifies that a dedicated national instrument on submarine cable as a way forward is yet to be appreciated by many States, and presently, there is no model legal framework for national instruments on submarine cables available. To bridge these gaps, the book undertakes a systematic inquiry and analysis of submarine cable regimes' and relevant authorities. It consults existing knowledge on international law on cables and analyzes specific principles and provisions on laying repair and maintenance of submarine cables and states' obligations towards protecting cables from vulnerabilities. It touches upon cable regulation in the deep sea concerning the International Seabed Authority and proposed biodiversity agreement. It indicates suitable measures on cable laying, etc., and security risks in the marine space beyond the national jurisdictions. To map States' response, it explores the domestic cable regimes, including both the selected jurisdictions and Australia and New Zealand, analyses specific legal provisions and institutional set-up, and demonstrates state practices, approaches, and loopholes in the governance of the cable system within national jurisdictions. The book suggests adopting the spatial ocean management approach, dedicated regulatory authority, a competent enforcement agency, strict liability with exemplary punishment on cable damage, and the cable system to strengthen the cable system's management. Finally, it arranges the fundamental premises of a common minimum framework for national instruments seeking coastal states' deliberations in implementing initiatives towards a robust law and policy for reliability, resiliency, and security of the cable system. The cable industries, pipeline, fishing, shipping industries, academicians, government authorities, international bodies, and the maritime community worldwide are looking at the issues and challenges of submarine cable regimes, particularly national regimes and suggestive remedial measures. These stakeholders will find the book a useful reference.

The case of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) illustrated the many existing gaps in the international rules and standards governing bank supervision. This book deals with these rules and advocates how they should develop. It is based on the thesis that the rules essentially "percolate" from the national, regional and international levels and that these areas have become integrally interconnected. The book concludes with proposals suggesting ways of better interconnecting the national, regional and international levels through more formal, legalistic and transparent structures. The work is aimed at the financial institutions community, legal practitioners and academics. This is the third volume of a series which has been designed to provide a broad foundation for comparative analysis of changes and reforms occurring worldwide in international banking regulation and practice. It should prove a valuable tool in the comprehension of both policies and practicalities reflected by these rapid changes and reforms.

This important new book deals with the formation and regulation of regional trade agreements in the context of the WTO legal regime and Eastern and Southern African countries, specifically those nations that make up the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Despite a poor track record, regional integration has for a long time been, and remains, the preferred path to economic development and poverty alleviation among developing countries in Africa. Regional integration undoubtedly holds great promise for developing nations in Africa.Many African countries stand to gain from pooling their meager resources and thus being able to participate more meaningfully in the international arena. However, the rhetoric surrounding integration has not been matched by actions and the record of trade liberalization has been weak. Substantive action appears to be taking a back seat to formal statements and declarations. This book consequently addresses four related critical issues: compliance with rules and regime design, the relationship between regionalism and multilateralism, the legal regime created by Article XXIV and the Enabling Clause of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and the COMESA legal regime. Product highlights: it provides readers with expert perspective on regional trade agreements, an area of growing concern to practitioners, academics, and government officials.

Most of the world s redundant ships are scrapped on the beaches of the Indian sub-continent, largely by hand. As well as cargo residues and wastes, ships contain high levels of hazardous materials that are released into the surrounding ecology when scrapped. The scrapping process is labour-intensive and largely manual; injuries and death are commonplace.

Ship breaking was a relatively obscure industry until the late 1990s. In just 12 years, action by environmental NGOs has led to the ratification of an international treaty targeting the extensive harm to human and environmental health arising from this heavy, polluting industry; it has also produced important case law.

Attempts to regulate the industry via the "Basel Convention" have resulted in a strong polarization of opinion as to its applicability and various international guidelines have also failed because of their voluntary nature. The adoption of the "Hong Kong Convention" in 2009 was a serious attempt to introduce international controls to this industry."

This book addresses the role of public policy in regulating the autonomous artificial intelligence and related civil liability for damage caused by the robots (and any form of artificial intelligence). It is a very timely book, focusing on the consequences of judgment proofness of autonomous decision-making on tort law, risk and safety regulation, and the incentives stemming from these. This book is extremely important as regulatory endeavours concerning AI are in their infancy at most, whereas the industry's development is continuing in a strong way. It is an important scientific contribution that will bring scientific objectivity to a, to date, very one-sided academic treatment of legal scholarship on AI.

This work provides a comprehensive analysis of the role of non-judicial dispute settlement in international financial transactions. Whereas arbitration and non-judicial dispute settlement mechanisms are of growing importance in international economic transactions, their present and future role in financial transactions is not yet fully explored. This publication aims to fill this gap in the literature and includes analyses of bank remedies, direct negotiation and mediation in financial and business conflicts, debt renegotiations, restructuring of syndicated loans, arbitration in project financing, and the roles of the ICC, NAFTA and OAS. Some of the expert papers focus in particular on the role of arbitration and dispute resolution in Latin America, Greater China and Russia. The text is based on the edited and revised papers of an international conference - part of a global series of conferences held in 1999 on the "New International Financial Architecture" - organized by the Law Centre of European and International Cooperation (R.I.Z., Cologne), the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (London), the Asian Institute of International Financial Law (Hong Kong), and the SMU Institute of International Banking and Finance (Dallas).

The book provides a comprehensive and practical overview of arbitration in the People's Republic of China. The process of arbitrating a dispute is described from the perspective of a non-Chinese individual or business. Readers are guided through the typical course of events in an arbitration process. By avoiding both excessive technicality and undue simplification, the book appeals to both law professionals and business managers, and is useful for practitioners and non-experts alike. Recent developments in Chinese law on the matter, up to the first quarter of 2015, has been taken into account in order to provide readers with a pragmatic, up-to-date presentation of the topic. For the same reasons, illustrative reference is made to the Shanghai FTZ Arbitration Rules. The relevant provisions are noted throughout the text; the three appendices at the end of the book allow for easy referencing of the main legislation and regulations. The appendices include English versions of the most important PRC Statutes and Interpretations of Statutes on arbitration, the Arbitration Rules of the main Chinese arbitration institutions and the official Model Arbitration Clauses suggested by those institutions.

The exponential growth of disruptive technology is changing our world. The development of cloud computing, big data, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, and other related autonomous systems, such as self-driving vehicles, have triggered the emergence of new products and services. These significant technological breakthroughs have opened the door to new economic models such as the sharing and platform-based economy. As a result, companies are becoming increasingly data- and algorithm-driven, coming to be more like "decentralized platforms". New transaction or payment methods such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, based on trust-building systems using Blockchain, smart contracts, and other distributed ledger technology, also constitute an essential part of this new economic model. The sharing economy and digital platforms also include the everyday exchange of goods allowing individuals to commodify their surplus resources. Information and innovation technologies are used in order to then match these resources with existing demand in the market. Online platforms such as Airbnb, Uber, and Amazon reduce information asymmetry, increase the value of unused resources, and create new opportunities for collaboration and innovation. Moreover, the sharing economy is playing a major role in the transition from exclusive ownership of personal assets toward access-based exploitation of resources. The success of online matching platforms depends not only on the reduction of search costs but also on the trustworthiness of platform operators. From a legal perspective, the uncertainties triggered by the emergence of a new digital reality are particularly urgent. How should these tendencies be reflected in legal systems in each jurisdiction? This book collects a series of contributions by leading scholars in the newly emerging fields of sharing economy and Legal Tech. The aim of the book is to enrich legal debates on the social, economic, and political meaning of these cutting-edge technologies. The chapters presented in this edition attempt to answer some of these lingering questions from the perspective of diverse legal backgrounds.

The impact of the European Community and European Community law on taxation is becoming increasingly important. EC law influences not only national tax law but also tax treaties. This book focuses on the question of whether anti-abuse provisions in tax treaties may be in conflict with EC law, especially the fundamental freedoms contained in the EC Treaty. This issue is dealt with from the perspective of Austria, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. Though most problems arise with regard to the limitation on benefits clauses contained in the tax treaties concluded between EC Member States and the United States, the book also addresses the compatibility with EC law of other anti-abuse clauses and assesses the consequences of a possible conflict. EUCOTAX (European Universities Cooperating on Taxes) is a network of fiscal institutes of European universities - nine in 1998. This network aims at initiating and co-ordinating both comparative education and comparative research on taxation. The comparative education is structured by various means, e.g. organizing winter courses and guest lectures. Comparative research is realised by means of joint research projects, international conferences and exchange of researchers from various countries.

This provocative study investigates the question of whether, and to what extent, stringent EC process or production standards affect regulatory standards in the US and Canada through their effects on trade. Four highly controversial issues - animal trapping methods, beef growth hormones, genetically modified foods and food products, and protection of personal information in data transfers - are examined in great detail. The author combines legal research (EC regulations and directives, WTO cases, national and international regulatory standards and exceptions, records of negotiation and arbitration, and other sources), political and economic analysis, and information and insights gained from 67 personal interviews with officials and representatives of several types of interest groups. The result is a forceful and convincing portrayal of how the major powers are dealing with this most fundamental and complex problem affecting international trade today. This timely study is of extraordinary value in its potential to elucidate comparable manifestations of this fundamental problem in a wide variety of cases, issue areas, and countries, and in its interdisciplinary approach. As such it will be valuable to all lawyers, policymakers, and scholars in the field of international trade and regulatory politics.

This book explores the future of cyber technologies and cyber operations which will influence advances in social media, cyber security, cyber physical systems, ethics, law, media, economics, infrastructure, military operations and other elements of societal interaction in the upcoming decades. It provides a review of future disruptive technologies and innovations in cyber security. It also serves as a resource for wargame planning and provides a strategic vision of the future direction of cyber operations. It informs military strategist about the future of cyber warfare. Written by leading experts in the field, chapters explore how future technical innovations vastly increase the interconnectivity of our physical and social systems and the growing need for resiliency in this vast and dynamic cyber infrastructure. The future of social media, autonomy, stateless finance, quantum information systems, the internet of things, the dark web, space satellite operations, and global network connectivity is explored along with the transformation of the legal and ethical considerations which surround them. The international challenges of cyber alliances, capabilities, and interoperability is challenged with the growing need for new laws, international oversight, and regulation which informs cybersecurity studies. The authors have a multi-disciplinary scope arranged in a big-picture framework, allowing both deep exploration of important topics and high level understanding of the topic. Evolution of Cyber Technologies and Operations to 2035 is as an excellent reference for professionals and researchers working in the security field, or as government and military workers, economics, law and more. Students will also find this book useful as a reference guide or secondary text book.

Was the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) designed as a definitive trade agreement, or as a stepping stone? This book reviews NAFTA's performances on trade, investment, intellectual property rights, dispute-settlement, as well as environmental and labor side-agreements within a theoretical construct.

The European system of insurance supervision under Solvency II constitutes a parallel to supervision of credit institutions under Basel III. At the heart of this new European insurance supervisory regime are the Solvency II Directive, the attendant regulation, and the EIOPA Regulation. The present volume, "Treatises on Solvency II", includes articles on the bases of European insurance supervision and the associated three pillars of solvency, governance, and disclosure, all viewed predominantly from a legal standpoint.

Protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) has become a global issue. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Agreement outlines the minimum standards for IPR protection for WTO members and offers a global regime for IPR protection. However, the benefits of TRIPS are more questionable in poorer countries where national infrastructure for research and development (R&D) and social protection are inadequate, whereas the cost of innovation is high. Today, after more than a decade of intense debate over global IPR protection, the problems remain acute, although there is also evidence of progress and cooperation. This book examines various views of the role of IPRs as incentives for innovation against the backdrop of development and the transfer of technology between globalised, knowledge-based, high technology economies. The book retraces the origins, content and interpretations of the TRIPS Agreement, including its interpretations by WTO dispute settlement organs. It also analyses sources of controversy over IPRs, examining pharmaceutical industry strategies of emerging countries with different IPR policies. The continuing international debate over IPRs is examined in depth, as are TRIPS rules and the controversy about implementing the 'flexibilities' of the Agreement in the light of national policy objectives. The author concludes that for governments in developing countries, as well as for their business and scientific communities, a great deal depends on domestic policy objectives and their implementation. IPR protection should be supporting domestic policies for innovation and investment. This, in turn requires a re-casting of the debate about TRIPS, to place cooperation in global and efficient R&D at the heart of concerns over IPR protection.