This book provides an unprecedented analysis and appraisal of party autonomy in private international law - the power of private parties to enter into agreements as to the forum in which their disputes will be resolved or the law which governs their legal relationships. It includes a detailed exploration of the historical origins of party autonomy as well as its various theoretical justifications, and an in-depth comparative study of the rules governing party autonomy in the European Union, the United States, common law systems, and in international codifications. It examines both choice of forum and choice of law, including arbitration agreements and choice of non-state law, and both contractual and non-contractual legal relations. This analysis demonstrates that while an apparent consensus around the core principle of party autonomy has emerged, its coherence as a doctrine is open to question as there remains significant variation in practice across its various facets and between legal systems.

The proliferation of new international courts and tribunals in recent years has given rise to concerns of jurisdictional overlaps between the new and existing judicial bodies. The book examines what would happen when the same dispute falls under the jurisdiction of more than one forum. This raises both theoretical and practical issues of coordinating between the various jurisdictions and identifies rules of law which ought to apply in such circumstances.

Problems regarding the nature of consent are at the heart of many of today's most pressing issues. For example, the #MeToo movement has underscored the need to move beyond viewing consent as a simple matter of yes or no. Consent is complex because humans and their relationships are complicated. Humans, as a result of cognitive limitations and emotional and physical vulnerabilities, are susceptible to manipulation and mistakes. Given the potential for regret, are there some things to which one should not be permitted to consent? The consentability quandary becomes more urgent with technological advances. Should we allow body hacking? Cryonics? Consumer travel to Mars? Assisted suicide? In Consentability: Consent and Its Limits, Nancy S. Kim proposes a bold, original framework for evaluating consentability, which considers the complexities surrounding consent.

This timely book reviews the changes in legal reform around the constitutional protection of private property in China since 1949. Using a comparative approach, it analyses the development of property theories and the various constitutionalisation models and practices of private property in representative countries including the United States, Canada, Germany, India and China. It also explores the interwoven social forces that have been driving the evolution of the constitutional protection of private property in China. By comparing China with the United States, Germany and India, the author reveals the unfairness, unjustness and insufficiency in China's application of three constitutional doctrines - public use, just compensation and due process or procedure. The book concludes by predicting future progress and suggests feasible measures for gradual reform that will be compatible with China's existing political system.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) play an increasingly prominent role in addressing global development challenges. United Nations agencies and other organizations are relying on PPPs to improve global health, facilitate access to scientific information, and encourage the diffusion of climate change technologies. For this reason, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights their centrality in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the same time, the intellectual property dimensions and implications of these efforts remain under-examined. Through selective case studies, this illuminating work contributes to a better understanding of the relationships between PPPs and intellectual property considered within a global knowledge governance framework, that includes innovation, capacity-building, technological learning, and diffusion. Linking global governance of knowledge via intellectual property to the SDGs, this is the first book to chart the activities of PPPs at this important nexus.

Each generation of lawyers in common law systems faces an important question: what is the nature of equity as developed in English law and inherited by other common law jurisdictions? While some traditional explanations of equity remain useful - including the understanding of equity as a system that qualifies the legal rights people ordinarily have under judge-made law and under legislation - other common explanations are unhelpful or misleading. This volume considers a distinct and little noticed view of equity. By examining the ways in which courts of equity have addressed a range of practical problems regarding the administration of deliberately created schemes for the management of others' affairs, modern equity can be seen to have a strongly facilitative character. The extent and limits on this characterisation of equity are explored in chapters covering equity's attitude to administration in various public and private settings in common law systems.

The taking of private property for development projects has caused controversy in many nations, where it has often been used to benefit powerful interests at the expense of the general public. This edited collection is the first to use a common framework to analyze the law and economics of eminent domain around the world. The authors show that seemingly disparate nations face a common set of problems in seeking to regulate the condemnation of private property by the state. They include the tendency to forcibly displace the poor and politically weak for the benefit of those with greater influence, disputes over compensation, and resort to condemnation in cases where it destroys more economic value than it creates. With contributions from leading scholars in the fields of property law and economics, the book offers a comparative perspective and considers a wide range of possible solutions to these problems.

This volume of essays draws together research on different types of collective actions: group actions, representative actions, test case procedures, derivative actions and class actions. The main focus is on how these actions can enhance access to justice and on how to balance the interests of private actors in protecting their rights with the interests of society as a whole. Rather than focusing on collective actions only as a procedural device per se, the contributors to this book also examine how these mechanisms relate to their broader social context. Bringing together a broad range of scholarship from the areas of competition, consumer, environmental, company and securities law, the book includes contributions from Asian, European and North American scholars and therefore expands the scope of the traditional European and/or American debate.

The international order is constituted by a plurality of international regimes - institutionalized arrangements in different issue areas that possess their own norms and procedures. The present book examines how conflict among regimes may arise and probes the role that international law can play in managing such conflict. Throughout the book, the example of trade in cultural products is used to illustrate the evolution of regime conflict and the potential for its management. Conflicts between the goals of 'free trade' and 'cultural diversity' have notably surfaced within the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). As a result, there is a potential for conflict among WTO law, the UNESCO's Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and human rights. The book posits that three dimensions are characteristic for regime conflict: First, regime conflict is a function of conflict among different social goals or values. Second, such goal conflicts are institutionalized through the interaction of a variety of political actors struggling for influence, often in intergovernmental organizations. Third, regime conflict may manifest itself in conflicts of legal rules. If a state acts in conformity with the rules of one regime, its conduct may trigger a violation of the rules of another regime. The author argues that, while international law cannot be construed as a fully integrated and unified system, it does provide a common language for different regimes to engage with each other. The shared discourse rules of international law enable a degree of coordination of the policies of different regimes, notably through techniques of interpretation and legal priority rules. International law contributes to the management of regime conflict by providing commonly accepted reasons for choosing among competing policy goals.

Launched in 1993, The Common Core of European Private law is the oldest ongoing collective comparative law efort in Europe. Putting cases at their heart, each book in this series analyses a selected legal topic on the basis of real and fctional facts across diferent European and other jurisdictions. The likely outcome of the decision and its underlying legal rules are clearly set out case by case and jurisdiction by jurisdiction. In addition, the national reporters put the respective legal rules into the relevant cultural context. In this way, the collaborative efort brings not only the inner structures of national laws in Europe to the fore, but also the diferent cultural sensitivities forging their development in the frst place. It allows a reliable map of what is diferent and what is common in the various private laws across Europe to be drawn, without any specifc agenda for or against the further harmonisation of private law in Europe. The series comprises more than 20 volumes of work of more than 300 academics and is an invaluable tool to understand private law across Europe. In this book, which is part of the Common Core of European Private Law series, reporters consider legal institutions - such as the well-known acquisitive prescription and adverse possession - that allow squatters and other persons who have occupied the private or public land of others to acquire that land through mere long-term use. Rules permitting such acquisition have existed since Roman times and are said to promote legal certainty as regards ownership of land. The reporters investigate how these rules work in their legal systems today and whether this justifcation still holds water, especially given that land is now registered in most countries. Registration seems to obviate the necessity for rules permitting acquisition of land through mere long-term use, as land registration systems create clarity as to who owns the land. The continued existence of these rules also comprises a human-rights dimension. Landowners enjoy constitutional property protection under many constitutions and other legal instruments. The loss of protected ownership draws the constitutional validity of rules on long-term use into question. Yet, the rights to housing and human dignity are also relevant, especially where such users have lived on the land for extended periods and regard it as their home or where they are vulnerable to landlessness. As such, these rights must be balanced against each other. The reporters represent 19 jurisdictions from all over the world, including civil law, common law and mixed legal systems, and are from both the global north and the global south. A comparison between these legal systems and their experience with their rules on long-term use reveals a common core and guidelines against which these rules may be measured in other countries. As such, this book will be valuable to practitioners dealing with both private and public law, academic lawyers and government ofcials tasked with land use planning. With contributions by Miriam Anderson (University of Barcelona), Michel Boudot (Universite de Poitiers), Dmitry Dozhdev (Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences), Magdalena Habdas (University of Silesia in Katowice), Karoline Rakneberg Haug (Norwegian Parliamentary Ombud for Scrutiny of the Public Administration), Bjoern Hoops (University of Groningen), Eran S. Kaplinsky (University of Alberta), John A. Lovett (Loyola University New Orleans College of Law), Ernst J. Marais (University of Johannesburg), Francesco Mezzanotte (University of Roma Tre), Matti Ilmari Niemi (University of Eastern Finland), Alasdair Peterson (University of Glasgow), Hector Simon (University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona), Jozef Stefanko (University of Trnava), Johan Van de Voorde (University of Antwerp), Filippo Valguarnera (Stockholm University), Leon Verstappen (University of Groningen), Emma J.L. Waring (University of York) and Una Woods (University of Limerick).

Many infrastructure projects around the world are funded through the project finance method, which combines private financing with public sector backing from multilateral finance institutions such as the World Bank. This examination of the theoretical and practical implications of such funding begins with a discussion of the relationship between the financial structuring of these projects and finance, policy and legal disciplines, especially in the form of investment law, human rights and environmental law. A number of case studies are then examined to provide practical insights into the application (or otherwise) of human rights and sustainable development objectives within such projects. While these theoretical perspectives do not conclude that the project finance method detracts from the application or implementation of human rights and sustainable development objectives, they do highlight the potential for the prioritisation of investment returns at the expense of human rights and environmental protection standards.

As in its first edition, this book traces the contours of select US common law doctrinal developments concerning international commercial arbitration. This new edition supplements the foundational work contained in the first edition in order to produce a broader and deeper work. The author explores how the US common law may help bridge cross-cultural legal differences by focusing on the need to address these contrasting approaches through the nomenclature and goal of securing equality between party-autonomy and arbitrator discretion in international commercial arbitration. This book thus focuses on the common law development of arbitrator immunity, as well as the precepts of party-initiative and -autonomy forming part of the US common law discovery rubric that may contribute to promoting expediency, efficiency and transparency in international commercial arbitration proceedings. It does so by carefully analyzing, among other things, the International Bar Association (IBA) Rules on Evidence Gathering, the Prague Rules, and the role of 28 USC. 1782 in international arbitration.

This volume presents the first and only comprehensive examination of the legal issues surrounding international debt recovery on claims against Iraqi oil and gas. In addition to presenting a snapshot view of Iraq s outstanding debt obligations and an analysis of the significance of the theory of odious debt in the context of the Iraqi situation, the list of legal issues examined includes relevant provisions of the Iraqi Constitution of 2005, controlling Security Council resolutions, pertinent articles of the KRG oil and gas law (No. 22) of 2007 and the many nuanced and technical questions raised thereby, legal pronouncements aimed at protecting Iraqi oil and gas and those adopted in selected other nations, and general problems associated with recognition and enforcement of awards or judgments that may involve such oil and gas or revenues from the sale thereof. Also discussed are the lessons learned by the handling of the Iraq debt experience and the transferability of those lessons to future situations in which resource-rich nations may have outstanding financial obligations to other members of the world community or their nationals.

The Politics of Justice in European Private Law intends to highlight the differences between the Member States' concepts of social justice, which have developed historically, and the distinct European concept of access justice. Contrary to the emerging critique of Europe's justice deficit in the aftermath of the Euro crisis, this book argues that beneath the larger picture of the Monetary Union, a more positive and more promising European concept of justice is developing. European access justice is thinner than national social justice, but access justice represents a distinct conception of justice nevertheless. Member States or nation states remain free to complement European access justice and bring to bear their own pattern of social justice.

This tribute to Professor Arthur von Mehren from the Harvard Law School is a contribution to the evolving transatlantic dialogue on the conflict of laws. It contains ten contributions that discuss the problems conflict of laws is facing in a globalized world. The first five contributions deal with current legal topics in international civil litigation and transatlantic judicial co-operation ranging from the design of judgments conventions to the recently adopted Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements, and from problems involving negative declaratory actions in international disputes to recent transatlantic developments relating to service of process and collective proceedings. The remaining five contributions focus on choice of law in international relationships. They cover comparative and economic dimensions of party autonomy, reflect on discussions in the choice of law relating to intellectual property rights, and critically discuss the applicable law in antitrust law litigation, international arbitration, and actions for punitive damages.

The challenges faced by privacy laws in changing technological, commercial and social environments are considered in this broad-ranging 2006 examination of privacy law. The book encompasses three overlapping areas of analysis: privacy protection under the general law; legislative measures for data protection in digital communications networks; and the influence of transnational agreements and other pressures toward harmonised privacy standards. Leading, internationally recognised authors discuss developments across these three areas in the UK, Europe, the US, APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), Australia and New Zealand. Chapters draw on doctrinal and historical analysis of case law, theoretical approaches to both freedom of speech and privacy, and the interaction of law and communications technologies in order to examine present and future challenges to law's engagement with privacy.

This updating supplement brings the Main Work The Rome II Regulation up to date and incorporates substantive developments since publication of the book in December 2008. In particular it draws attention to legislation implementing the Regulation in the United Kingdom, to recent ECJ cases concerning other EC private international law instruments, to new decisions of the English courts concerning the pre-Regulation rules of applicable law, and to recent books and journal articles providing further colour to the picture surrounding the Regulation since its adoption in January 2009. It is an essential purchase for all who already own the Main Work, and maintains its currency.

A sharp distinction is usually drawn between public international law, concerned with the rights and obligations of states with respect to other states and individuals, and private international law, concerned with issues of jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in international private law disputes before national courts. Through the adoption of an international systemic perspective, Dr Alex Mills challenges this distinction by exploring the ways in which norms of public international law shape and are given effect through private international law. Based on an analysis of the history of private international law, its role in US, EU, Australian and Canadian federal constitutional law, and its relationship with international constitutional law, he rejects its conventional characterisation as purely national law. He argues instead that private international law effects an international ordering of regulatory authority in private law, structured by international principles of justice, pluralism and subsidiarity.

The Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements was concluded on June 30, 2005, and promises to become an important instrument in judicial relations throughout the world, making choice of forum clauses both more likely to be honored and more likely to lead to judgments that will be recognized and enforced around the globe. The convention, and the proposed treatise, will serve as an indispensable source for both transactions lawyers drafting the transnational commercial contracts of the future and for litigators involved in the resolution of disputes between parties to important transnational commercial transactions.

This volume commemorates the career of Sir Francis Jacobs KCMG QC, who served as British Advocate General at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg from October 1988 until January 2006. The essays in the volume examine the key developments in EU law over the period that Sir Francis served as Advocate General, one that saw momentous changes in the character of the Union and its legal order. It encompassed the Treaty of Maastricht, which superimposed the Union on the pre-existing European Community, as well as the Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice; the proclamation of the Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights; the drafting of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe; the creation of the Court of First Instance and the EU Civil Service Tribunal; the completion of the single market; and the enlargement of the Union to 15 Member States in 1995 and 25 Member States in 2004. The period also witnessed a profound change in the nature of much academic scholarship on the law of the Union. At the same time, the ECJ continues to grapple with issues which preoccupied it in the 1980s and earlier, such as the relationship between Union law and national law, the circumstances in which individuals should be permitted to seek the annulment of measures adopted by the Union's institutions and the scope of the Treaty rules on freedom of movement. The essays in the volume look at the persistent difficulties that have faced the unique legal system during the period of change. The volume is divided into five sections dealing respectively with: general issues and institutional questions; fundamental rights; substantive law; external relations; and national perspectives. The contributors are distinguished figures drawn from a variety of constituencies, including the national and European judiciaries, legal practice, and the academic world.

The Study Group on a European Civil Code has taken upon itself the task of drafting common European principles for the most important aspects of the law of obligations and for certain parts of the law of property in movables which are especially relevant for the functioning of the common market.
Like the Commission on European Contract Law's "Principles of European Contract Law," the results of the research conducted by the Study Group on a European Civil Code seek to advance the process of Europeanization of private law. Among other topics the series tackles sales and service contracts, distribution contracts and security rights, renting contracts and loan agreements, negotiorum gestio, delicts and unjustified enrichment law, transfer of property, and trust law.
The principles furnish each of the national jurisdictions a grid of reference. They can be agreed upon by the parties within the framework of the rules of private international law. They may provide a stimulus to both the national and European legislator for molding private law. Beyond this, they aim to further discussion about the creation of a European Civil Code, or a Common Frame of Reference in the area of patrimonial law, by submitting a concrete model.
The "Principles of European Law" are published in co-operation with Bruylant (Belgium), Oxford University Press (United Kingdom) and Staempfli Publishers Ltd. (Switzerland).