This volume offers a comprehensive and empirically rich analysis of regional maritime disputes in the South China Sea (SCS). By discussing important aspects of the rise of China's maritime power, such as territorial disputes, altered perceptions of geo-politics and challenges to the US-led regional order, the authors demonstrate that a regional power shift is taking place in Asia-Pacific. The volume also provides in-depth discussions of the responses to Chinese actions by SCS claimants as well as by important non-claimant actors.

There is a wide-spread consensus that UTPs occur throughout the food supply chain. Unfair trading practices (UTPs) can be defined as practices which grossly deviate from good commercial conduct, are contrary to good faith and fair dealing and are unilaterally imposed by one trading partner on its counterparty. Some Member States, such as France, Belgium and the UK, have already adopted legislation specifically prohibiting such practices (in the food and/or non-food supply chain). In addition, various self-regulatory initiatives exist. In April 2019, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Directive (EU) 2019/633 on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain. A Commission Proposal of April 2018 (COM(2018) 173 final) was substantially amended. To improve farmers' and small and medium sized businesses' position in the food supply chain, the Directive bans certain unfair trading practices including late payments for perishable food products; last minute order cancellations; unilateral changes to contracts; refusal to enter into a written contract; returning unsold or wasted products; payment for buyer's marketing. Each Member State has to designate a competent authority to enforce these rules and these authorities must have the power to both launch investigations and fine operators who break the rules. The Member States now have two years to implement the Directive.

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.

Among the specific issues researched and analysed here are:
- the U.S.-led return to a unilateralist and interventionist approach to global problems;
- the importance of the rules-based WTO system to developing nations as a crucial alternative to power politics;
- the failure to achieve enhanced access to developed world markets for agricultural products, textiles, clothing, and footwear;
- the relevance of GATS and TRIPS to the developing world;
- internal WTO governance issues, including the important role of the Secretariat as negotiator and mediator;
- the implementation phase of the dispute settlement understanding;
- the continuing resistance to linking trade and environment;
- the place of human rights in the international trading system; and
- the likely impact of the double scourge of AIDS and terrorism on flows of trade, capital, people, and knowledge.

The linkages between WTO rules governing trade and energy security with a certain degree of focus on India are the main subject of this book. The edited volume brings together the views of academics, policymakers and experts with extensive experience covering WTO and international trade issues. The issues examined include mapping the linkages between trade and energy security in the WTO agreements, case law, accession and Doha negotiations; assessing the issues that could be raised by energy deficit or energy surplus countries at the WTO; analyzing the provisions of the ECT and NAFTA vis-a-vis the Indian policy framework and examining the trade regimes of selected OPEC members and other major suppliers of fossil fuels to India. While the Indian perspective is evident in the contributions, this book will also be of interest to an international audience, as trade, the WTO and energy security are global concerns and of relevance to all practitioners and academics working on these issues."

This book offers guidelines for the upcoming discussions on reform, representing an attempt to work out conceptions for a better international competition order on the basis of the scientific approach 'law and economics'. It presents the dominant concepts of competition policy as a basis for an international competition order and formulates a synthesis. The result is a new neo-ordoliberal approach. Anti-dumping-measures are analysed of the effects on international competition and resource allocation, and alternatives and improvements are suggested. From national forms of competition policy a synthesis of international competition policies are derived. Currently reforms of the international competition order are heavily discussed and here a selection of the most important suggestions are presented, compared, and evaluated. Finally, this book offers strategies that might serve as second-best solutions, and though they may not be optimal for competition policy, they are politically feasible and an improvement on the current competition regulations. They would be a back-up in case the WTO competition regulations aren't realizable.

With issues such as immigration and globalization triggering social and legislative adjustments in all major legal systems, labor and employment law is particularly susceptible to change. In this special issue of the "Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business", practitioners who are specialized in labor and employment law provide reports on developments in national systems such as Australia, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, and New Zealand and examine selected issues in the Czech Republic (termination of employment), Latvia (transfer of undertakings), the United States (ranging from sexual harassment in the work place and the ability of partners and share holders to sue employers to employee dress code), and Ukraine (hiring and dismissal procedures).

The law of international trade raises questions of great intellectual depth. In Principles of Law Relating to International Trade, the author draws from his practical and teaching experience to give a comprehensive introduction to the key areas of law that apply in international business. For the benefit of readers unfamiliar with the English legal system and the many associated branches of English civil law, the book includes a brief introduction to, among other topics, constitutional, criminal, and employment law. The branches of law directly related to international trade, such as contract, insurance, competition, carriage of goods, and sale of goods, are concisely covered in the main text. Case studies and examples are used to clarify the issues for the non-specialist, making international trade law accessible to those taking professional examinations in this field, as well as business executives. The extensive use of footnotes and inclusion of case commentaries bring into clearer focus the many facets of this complicated subject and would be of benefit to the international trade law specialist.

There is a fundamental reason, the authors of this text contend, why national financial systems falter and collapse: the failure of central banks and other supervisory authorities to deal promptly and decisively with insolvent banks. In "Preventing Financial Chaos" Ramsey and Head, both well-known to the international banking community for their restructuring services in developing and transitional economies, take a no-nonsense attitude and show exactly how to usher a problem bank out of the financial system in any country. Their clearly defined rules and procedures build disciplined, competent action that activates political will and successfully curtails systemic chaos.

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."

This book investigates whether legal reforms intended to create a market-friendly regulatory business environment have a positive impact on economic and financial outcomes. After conducting a critical review of the legal origins literature, the authors first analyze the evolution of legal rules and regulations during the last decade (2006-2014). For that purpose, the book uses legal/regulatory indicators from the World Bank's Doing Business Project (2015). The findings indicate that countries have actively reformed their legal systems during this period, particularly French civil law countries. A process of convergence in the evolution of legal rules and regulations is observed: countries starting in 2006 in a lower position have improved more than countries with better initial scores. Also, French civil law countries have reformed their legal systems to a larger extent than common law countries and, consequently, have improved more in the majority of the Doing Business indicators used. Second, the authors estimate fixed-effects panel regressions to analyze the relationship between changes in legal rules and regulations and changes in the real economy. The findings point to a lack of systematic effects of legal rules and regulations on economic and financial outcomes. This result stands in contrast to the widespread belief that reforms aiming to strengthen investor and creditor rights (and other market-friendly policies) systematically lead to better economic and financial outcomes.

"This book offers a well-argued and insightful critical assessment of the shortcomings of international trade and competition rules in tackling interventionist State measures in the context of an economic crisis. Dawar offers an evidence-rich account of the challenges that State protectionism creates for international trade liberalisation and for the protection of competition in international markets. Her insights will be particularly interesting in the context of current events leading to another surge of State economic interventionism, both for academics and for policy-makers with an interest in international trade." Dr Albert Sanchez-Graells, University of Bristol Law School "This book bursts the bubble of the self-congratulatory attitude that existing institutions, which were set up to discipline governments from a race to the bottom on economic policy, worked well after the financial crisis. These institutions may have prevented tariff wars, a big achievement compared to the time of the Great Depression. But they went along with the subsidies and state aid that governments put in place after 2007. Such flexibility on economic policy is essential in turbulent times. But these institutions are undermined if flexibility comes with a race to the bottom that shifts money away from policies for the more marginalized sections of society. At a time when the left behinds are changing the political landscape of the world, Kamala's book debunks the myth of the success of existing institutions in containing the economic fallout of the global financial crisis. It gives a sobering warning of what might unfold when institutions deal with economic challenges by turning a blind eye to their own rules for checking unfair competition." Dr Swati Dhingra, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics, London School of Economomics 'An impressive contribution to our understanding of the financial crisis. Dawar's reading of bailouts and buy national through the lens of competition law and government procurement law and policy is inspirational.' Professor Mary E Footer, University of Nottingham School of Law 'The diplomatic fiction that during the crisis years regional and global trade rules ensured a level commercial playing field is skewered by Dawar's trenchant legal analysis.' Professor Simon Evenett, University of St Gallen This book examines the international regulation of crises bailouts and buy national policies. It undertakes this research with specific reference to the crisis years 2008-2012. The book includes a comparative analysis of the regulation of public procurement and subsidies aid at both multilateral and regional levels, identifying the strengths and weakness in the WTO legal framework and selected regional trade agreements (RTAs). Ultimately, the aim of this work is to provide options for improving the consistency of these laws and the regulation of these markets. This is of immediate relevance for good economic governance, as well as for managing future systemic financial crises in the interests of citizens: as tax payers and consumers.

In the minds of some, complying with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and related laws is easy: 'you just don't bribe.' The reality, as sophisticated professionals should know, is not so simple. This book is for professionals across various disciplines who can assist in risk management and want to learn strategies for minimizing risk under aggressively enforced bribery laws. Written by a leading expert with real-world practice experience, this book elevates knowledge and skills through a comprehensive analysis of all legal authority and other relevant sources of information. It also guides readers through various components of compliance best practices from the fundamentals of conducting a risk assessment, to effectively communicating compliance expectations, to implementing and overseeing compliance strategies. With a focus on active learning, this book allows readers to assess their acquired knowledge through various issue-spotting scenarios and skills exercises and thereby gain confidence in their specific job functions. Anyone seeking an informed and comprehensive understanding of the modern era of enforcement of bribery laws and related risk management strategies will find this book to be a valuable resource including in-house compliance personnel, FCPA and related practitioners, board of director members and executive officers.

Contains 13 national reports and the general report on Money Laundering and Banking Secrecy. The reports were written for the XIVth Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law which was held in 1994 in Athens, Greece. As narcotics trafficking exploded in the 1980s, it was realized that money laundering had become a threat to the entire integrity of the financial system. The international trend to regard money laundering as a serious threat to the stability of democracy and the rule of law found expression in the adoption of the 1988 United Nations Drugs Convention. Gradually, the international community diverged from its traditional, narrow approach whereby only the laundering of drug proceeds was considered a threat. In order to combat money laundering efficiently, it soon became clear that criminal law was not sufficient and that it was necessary for banks and other financial institutions to co-operate with law enforcement agencies. The banking community is now obliged to report suspicious transactions, which they often regard as going beyond their role as bankers. The issue of bank secrecy has played an important role in the discussion between law enforcement agencies and the banking community.

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.

The Chinese market is appealing, but its legal environment is very complicated and full of nooses that await investors. This book intends to provide an in-depth analysis of the legal environment and its hidden risks for foreign investment. It covers two basic investment modes which are green-field and M and A, and almost all concrete legal issues including political risk, tax, land use rights, labor etc. Among them, three chapters focus on the legal system and its risks for the foreign investment in three special industries as private education, water market and insurance. The detailed analysis is based on the newest laws and regulations.

In Agriculture, Price Stabilisation and Trade Rules, Irene Musselli offers a comprehensive doctrinal and historical analysis of stabilisation tools and approaches in agriculture. Using her extensive practical experience in the field, she takes up the interface of the tools discussed with trade rules and offers the first comprehensive analysis of WTO rules from the perspective of stabilisation policies. This volume offers a fresh look at the tool box of managed trade in agricultural commodities and develops new and refined solutions that take into account the legal role of equity and of graduation. Musselli offers new insights and is able to invigorate a debate caught in overly ideological entanglements between market oriented and interventionist schools.

This work presents a detailed analysis of the application of the WTO rule on regional arrangements to the current attempts at co-operation in the Asia Pacific region and makes recommendations for an institutional framework for economic integration in the region. The author argues that a framework for regional co-operation must be flexible in allowing for differential sub-regional arrangements and for a development-oriented trade policy, which has been common in some countries in the region. This thesis is based on a comprehensive account of the history and development of regional co-operation, and of the region's diversified economies and export-oriented development needs. The work concludes with a suggested institutional structure for an Asia Pacific regional arrangement, with particular regard for the compatibility with GATT/WTO rules, including specific recommendations regarding trade and investment liberalization, economic harmonization and dispute settlement.

Competition policy is in the process of adoption in dozens of nations worldwide, at a time when competition laws have necessarily become applicable to such new fields as trade, investment, intellectual property rights, information technology, and global consumer protection. Although vigorous enforcement - especially across borders - remains the most serious challenge to global success, it is also important to recognize that the established American-European model of competition policy may not be the "right thing" for countries with radically different cultural traditions, especially less-developed countries. This book explores the prospects for competition policy, its likely development, and its ever-more-central role in the world trade regime. With this book, interested parties may benefit from the perspectives of scholars and policymakers representing Asia Pacific, Europe, and North and South America. Issues investigated include: the costs of absorbing a new technology; distinct and evolving national competition policies and the fabric of world trade; extraterritorial enforcement and co-operation agreements; criteria for "material injury" in international trade rules; collusive technology transfer barriers; the re-emergence of transnational cartels; and the tendency of anti-dumping rules to foster cartelization. The major competition policy issues on the international agenda - the harmonization of national policies and international trade rules; the integration of intellectual property rights, technology transfer, and investment; and enforcement co-operation across borders - are all analyzed in depth from many different angles. This is a valuable book for practitioners, government officials, and academics in this critical area of contemporary law and policy.

In the wake of the failure of the OECD draft Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), it has become clear that any attempt to regulate investment at the global level must pay serious attention to the position of developing countries. This collection of essays sheds light on this and other legal, political, and economic issues affecting the intense international debate on this important subject. The result of a symposium sponsored in April 1999 by the E.M. Meijers Institute of Legal Studies at Leiden University, Multilateral Regulation of Investment presents the incisive views of nine outstanding authorities, both academics and practitioners, in disciplines related to investment and development. The authors agree in seeing the objectives of the multilateral regulation of investment, both direct and portfolio, as not only reducing risk but also enhancing trust between investors and states, as host states must be sure that foreign investors will genuinely contribute to sustainable development and the well-being of their populations.

The issue of ownership is a vital one in international trade and one which is barely covered by existing international conventions. Although domestic rules may be familiar to local businesses, practical difficulties and legal uncertainty occur when foreign businesses try to ascertain the rules regulating ownership abroad and when the goods are being shipped by the seller to the buyer. This new, expanded edition is a unique comparative study of domestic laws in 23 major trading nations and a highly practical guide. Its in-depth analysis of the legal issues arising in connection with transfer of ownership will provide invaluable assistance to practitioners and anyone drafting or interpreting international sales contracts. Each country chapter is structured in the same way, so readers may easily compare national solutions to the same problems.

This book deals with set-off in international arbitration proceedings. In these proceedings, set-off is frequently the tool relied upon to resist a claim. At the same time, the legal intricacies make it hard to use. The first part of the book provides a survey of set-off, including its definition, significance, and functions. The second part offers a thorough comparative analysis of selected European laws of set-off and reveals the dramatic differences between them. The third and final part of the book deals with the problematic consequences of these differences and shows the limits and the inadequacy of the traditional choice-of-law doctrines. While demonstrating how to overcome the practical hurdles of the present situation, the third part also offers normative alternatives that may offer significant help in the adjudication of commercial disputes. This will be an invaluable reference for arbitration and commercial practitioners.

This book adds to the debate on the effects of covenants on third-party creditors (externalities), which have recently become a focus of discussion in the contexts of bankruptcy law, corporate law and corporate governance. The general thrust of the debate is that negative effects on third-party creditors predominate because banks act in their own self-interest. After systematising the debated potential positive and negative externalities of covenants, the book empirically examines these externalities: It investigates the banks' factual conduct and its effects on third-party creditors in Germany and the US. The study's most significant outcome is that it disproves the assumption that banks disregard third-party creditors' interests. These findings are then interpreted with the tools of economic analysis; particularly, with the concept of common pool resources (CPRs). Around the aggregated value of the debtor company's asset pool (as CPR) exists an n-person prisoner's dilemma between banks and third-party creditors: No creditor knows when and under what conditions the other creditor will appropriate funds from the debtor company's asset pool. This coordination problem is traditionally addressed by means of bankruptcy law and collaterals. However, the incentive structure that surrounds the bilateral private governance system created by covenants and an event of default clause (a CPR private governance system) is found to also be capable of tackling this problem. Moreover, the interaction between the different regulation spheres - bankruptcy law, collateral and the CPR private governance system has important implications for both the aforementioned discussions as well as the legal treatment of covenants and event of default clauses. Covenants alone cannot be seen as an alternative to institutional regulation; the complete CPR private governance system and its interaction with institutional regulation must also be taken into consideration. In addition, their function must first find more acceptance and respect in the legal treatment of covenants and event of default clauses: The CPR private governance system fills a gap in the regulation of the tragedy of the commons by bankruptcy law and collateral. This has particularly important implications for the German 138 BGB, 826 BGB and ad hoc duties to disclose insider information.

From human trafficking to smuggling small arms to looting antiquities, illicit trade poses significant threats to international order. So why is it difficult to establish international cooperation against illicit trade? Governing Guns, Preventing Plunder offers a novel, thought-provoking answer to this crucial question. Conventional wisdom holds that powerful criminal groups obstruct efforts to suppress illicit trade. In contrast, Asif Efrat explains how legitimate actors, such as arms manufacturers or museums that acquire and display looted antiquities, often act to hinder policing efforts. However, such efforts to evade regulation often fuel intense political conflicts between governments that demand action against illicit trade and others that are reluctant to cooperate. The book offers a framework for understanding the domestic origins of this conflict-and how the distribution of power shapes the conflict's outcome. Through this framework, Efrat explains why the interests of governments vary across countries, trades, and time. In a fascinating empirical analysis, he solves a variety of puzzles: Why is the international regulation of small arms much weaker than international drug control? What led the United States and Britain to oppose the efforts against plunder of antiquities and why did they ultimately join these efforts? How did American pressure motivate Israel to tackle sex trafficking? Efrat's findings will change the way we think about illicit trade, offering valuable insights for scholars, activists, and policymakers.