This book provides an unprecedented analysis on the place of performance. The central theme is that the place of performance is of considerable significance as a connecting factor in international commercial contracts. This book challenges and questions the approach of the European legislator for not explicitly giving special significance to the place of performance in determining the applicable law in the absence of choice for commercial contracts. It also contains, inter alia, an analogy to matters of foreign country mandatory rules, and the coherence between jurisdiction and choice of law. It concludes by proposing a revised Article 4 of Rome I Regulation, which could be used as an international solution by legislators, judges, arbitrators and other stakeholders who wish to reform their choice of law rules.

Economic sanctions are instruments of foreign policy. However, they can also affect legal relations between private parties - principally in contract. In such cases, the court or arbitration tribunal seized must decide whether to give effect to the economic sanction in question. Private international law functions as a 'filter', transmitting economic sanctions that originate in public law to the realm of private law. The aim of this book is to examine how private international law rules can influence the enforcement of economic sanctions and their related foreign policy objectives. A coherent EU foreign policy position - in addition to promoting legal certainty and predictability - would presuppose a uniform approach not only concerning the economic sanctions of the EU, but also with regard to the restrictive measures imposed by third countries. However, if we examine in detail the application of economic sanctions by Member States' courts and arbitral tribunals, we find a somewhat different picture. This book argues that this can be explained in part by the divergence of private international law approaches in the Member States.

As people, business, and information cross borders, so too do legal disputes. Globalisation means that courts need to apply principles of private international law with increasing frequency. Thus, as the Law Society of New South Wales recognised in its 2017 report The Future of Law and Innovation in the Profession, knowledge of private international law is increasingly important to legal practice. In particular, it is essential to the modern practice of commercial law. This book considers key issues at the intersection of commercial law and private international law. The authors include judges, academics and practising lawyers, from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom. They bring a common law perspective to contemporary problems concerning the key issues in private international law: jurisdiction, choice of law, and recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. The book also addresses issues of evidence and procedure in cross-border litigation, and the impact of recent developments at the Hague Conference on Private International Law, including the Convention on Choice of Court Agreements on common law principles of private international law.

***LONGLISTED FOR THE FT MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021*** 'Impeccably researched and sumptuous in its detail... It's a page-turner' The Economist 'This book tells the story brilliantly... Well-paced and cleverly organised. It also draws some devastating conclusions' The Sunday Times 'Gripping' Guardian In this compelling story of greed, chicanery and tarnished idealism, two Wall Street Journal reporters investigate a man who Bill Gates and Western governments entrusted with hundreds of millions of dollars to make profits and end poverty but now stands accused of masterminding one of the biggest, most brazen frauds ever. Arif Naqvi was charismatic, inspiring and self-made. The founder of the Dubai-based private-equity firm Abraaj, he was the Key Man to the global elite searching for impact investments to make money and do good. He persuaded politicians he could help stabilize the Middle East after 9/11 by providing jobs and guided executives to opportunities in cities they struggled to find on the map. Bill Gates helped him start a billion-dollar fund to improve health care in poor countries, and the UN and Interpol appointed him to boards. Naqvi also won the support of President Obama's administration and the chief of a British government fund compared him to Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible. The only problem? In 2019 Arif Naqvi was arrested on charges of fraud and racketeering at Heathrow airport. A British judge has approved his extradition to the US and he faces up to 291 years in jail if found guilty. With a cast featuring famous billionaires and statesmen moving across Asia, Africa, Europe and America, The Key Man is the story of how the global elite was duped by a capitalist fairy tale. Clark and Louch's thrilling investigation exposes one of the world's most audacious scams and shines a light on the hypocrisy, corruption and greed at the heart of the global financial system. 'An unbelievable true tale of greed, corruption and manipulation among the world's financial elite' Harry Markopolos, the Bernie Madoff whistleblower 'A pacy and deeply-reported tale' Financial Times

Do private and public international law coincide in their underlying objectives when it comes to their respective contribution to the realisation of global values? How do they work together towards the consistency and efficiency of the international legal order? This edited collection sets out a vision: to serve modern society, the international legal order cannot be defined as public or private. Linkages and Boundaries focuses on the interface between private and public international law and the synergies that a joint approach brings to topical issues, such as corporate social responsibility and environmental law, as well as foundational concepts such as international jurisdiction, state sovereignty and party autonomy. The book showcases the dynamic interaction between the two disciplines, with a view to contribute to a dialogue that is still only in the early stages of delivering its full potential. The collection explores ways to deepen the dialogue between these two distinct but interrelated disciplines, with a view to further their progression towards a more integrated and holistic approach to legal problems that require an international approach. The book brings together well-known experts and new voices from both disciplines and from a wide range of jurisdictions in Europe, North America and South America.

The forum (non) conveniens doctrine provides the basis for the discretionary exercise of jurisdiction by English courts in private international law disputes. London's pre-eminence as a centre for international commercial litigation has led to its frequent deployment in proceedings where parties disagree over where a case should be heard. The doctrine's significance is not limited to England but extends to many Commonwealth jurisdictions which have embraced it. This is the first book-length study devoted entirely to examining the forum (non) conveniens doctrine's past, present, and future from the perspective of the law in England. By offering a meticulous and critical analysis of relevant historical and contemporary sources in England and elsewhere, it seeks to fill gaps in relevant knowledge of the English forum (non) conveniens doctrine, and challenge certain views concerning its operation that have come to be regarded as representing the orthodoxy. In this respect, the book attempts to refine our understanding of the doctrine's historical development, evaluate its application in the years following its formal recognition in England, and examine the case for revising it, given the changing nature of international commercial litigation in recent decades. The book's ultimate objective is to act as an authoritative and comprehensive reference point for those with an interest in the forum (non) conveniens doctrine, more specifically, and cross-border private litigation, more generally.

This book provides an extensive analytical examination of the Cape Town Convention and its Protocols. The Convention aims to facilitate asset-based financing and leasing of aircraft, railway and space objects by establishing a uniform legal regime for the creation and protection of security and related interests in these types of equipment. The book provides a detailed treatment of issues arising from the creation of security and other international interests under the Convention, from the need to ensure their priority among competing interests to the enforcement of remedies in the case of the debtor's default or insolvency. Security interests in aircraft, railway and space objects are among the most frequently invoked mechanisms used to ensure repayment of the debt. It is their significance, effectiveness and frequency of use that explains this work's focus and scope.

Cross-border insolvency is an increasingly topical issue and cross-border insolvency practice continues to develop rapidly. Cross-Border Insolvency: A Commentary on the UNCITRAL Model Law (Fourth Edition) is an updated, enhanced edition covering the national implementation of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency. Written by specialists from each jurisdiction, this new edition provides an in-depth, article-by-article analysis of the local enactment and application of the model law in each of the jurisdictions concerned, alongside consideration of the relationship between the model law and any existing cross-border insolvency jurisprudence. Each chapter adopts essentially the same format for ease of reference, addressing key concepts such as the centre of main interests, court-to-court communication, enforcement of security interests and the protection of debtors and creditors. New to the fourth edition are chapters on Chile, Gibraltar and the Philippines with an expanded South African chapter to include the OHADA countries.This major new edition is an invaluable guide to the local application and comparative analysis of the model law for anyone dealing with cross-border insolvency issues. Lawyers in private practice or in-house, insolvency practitioners, government authorities, academics and students will find this expanded edition an essential addition to their library.

This collection offers a study of the regimes for the recognition and enforcement of foreign commercial judgments in 15 Asian jurisdictions: mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. For practising lawyers, the book is intended as a practical guide to current law and procedures for enforcing judgments in the selected jurisdictions. However, it does not stop at describing current law and practice. Of interest to academics and students, it also analyses the common principles of the enforcement regimes across the jurisdictions, and identifies what should be regarded as the norm for enforcement in Asian countries for the purpose of attracting foreign direct investment and catalysing rapid economic development. In light of the common principles identified, the book explores how laws in Asia may generally be improved to enable judgments to be more readily enforced, while ensuring that legitimate concerns over indirect jurisdiction, due process and domestic public policy are respected and addressed. With this in mind, the book discusses the potential impact that the adoption of the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements might have on Asian jurisdictions; it also considers the potential impact of the convention for the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters presently being drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. This timely book argues that it is imperative to adopt a uniform system for the recognition and enforcement of judgments throughout Asia if there is to be traction for the enhanced cross-border commerce that is expected to result from endeavours such as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), CPTPP (also known as TPP-11), and RCEP.

The second edition of this highly recommended work addresses the interaction between conflict of laws, dispute resolution, electronic commerce and consumer contracts. In addition it identifies specific difficulties that conflicts lawyers and consumer lawyers encounter in electronic commerce and proposes original approaches to balance the conflict of interest between consumers' access to justice and business efficiency. The European Union has played a leading role in this area of law and its initiatives are fully explored. It pays particular attention to the most recent development in collective redress and alternative/online dispute resolution. By adopting multiple research methods, including a comparative study of the EU and US approach; historical analysis of protective conflict of laws; doctrinal analysis of legal provisions and economic analysis of law, it provides the most comprehensive examination of frameworks in cross-border consumer contracts.

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.

No one would dispute that the duty to provide for those that you have a legal and moral obligation to support is very important. With the movement and migration of people both within Europe and globally, there are more and more families and relations who live in different States. Therefore it is imperative that suitable and workable methods exist to create maintenance obligations and then secure the transfer of funds, particularly from abroad. In the book the provisions in EU Maintenance Regulation no 4/2009 and the Hague Maintenance Convention of 2007 are analysed in order to discover what developments and therefore potential improvements have been made in relation to the recovery of maintenance from abroad. The book also includes an empirical study on the first year of operation of the Maintenance Regulation. Data collected has been analysed in order to supplement the critique of the instruments. The information and analysis is used to suggest suitable solutions for the future, which include amendments to the Regulation and recommendations for best practice.

Nobody doubts the significant role of corporations being not only a primary legal and social, but also economic, form of involvement of the multitude as one party in civil and business turnover, which traditionally presents high risks. The European Union has long fixed its eyes on perspectives of its economic and political rise, which may also be stimulated by support of the cross-border activity of corporations suited to the dimensions of the single market. As may be read between the lines of numerous legal acts of the European Union, the dynamic and expanding single market requires rational legal forms, models, and institutions to be introduced by the relevant legal instruments. One of these instruments is the Council Regulation (EC) No 2157/2001 of 8 October 2001, on the Statute for a European company (SE). In line with a new concept of a legal person to be freed from subjection solely to the national legislation of the Member States, it gives rise to a separate subject of law, which is a European company (Societas Europaea or SE). By means of direct application throughout Europe, leaving aside the problem of transposition of the European Union rules into national law of the Member States, this act is drafted to pave the way for the legal certainty in carrying out a cross-border corporate activity and its restructuring based on a new legal framework, ensuring continuity of the corporate existence. But has the Council of the European Union given the nationals of the European Union the legal form that was expected and desired? How does the legal status of a European company differ from the one indigenous to a national corporation, composed initially of the very same persons? Are there changes in private international law regulation with respect to the formal enlargement of the definition of a corporation inherent to this legal act? Finally, does the enactment of this Council Regulation mean that national corporate law was fully discovered and exploited, and that the idea of a national corporation will soon perish? This book provides the answer to these and other issues.

Problems in assessment of damages remain among the most contentious aspects of private law disputes. The assessment exercise becomes particularly difficult when one of the parties asks that damages be assessed in some foreign currency or claims that, even though damages should be assessed in the currency of the forum, foreign exchange losses should form a head of loss. The 1975 decision of the UK's House of Lords in Miliangos v George Frank (Textiles) Ltd was revolutionary in that it permitted English courts to award judgment in a foreign currency. Miliangos has been influential throughout the common law world, and courts in the commonwealth and the US now contemplate awarding damages in currencies other than its own. However, that modernization has hardly eliminated the problems in this area. When may a judge assess damages in a currency other than that of the forum? If a court elects to assess damages in its own currency, what conversion date should it select in converting from a foreign currency that was relevant to the obligations between the parties? In an age of fluctuating currencies, questions of this nature present judges with choices involving significant financial implications. This book takes a comparative look at how common law courts have addressed damages claims when foreign currencies are involved, and at the statutory responses to that issue. It describes the practices of UK courts, Commonwealth courts, and US courts in this field, and it draws both on principles of private international law and of damages assessment to analyze current practice. It is essential reading for lawyers who deal with conflicts of laws and financial and banking law.

One of the issues left untouched by the Brussels Convention of 27 September 1968 (and by the Brussels-1 Regulation replacing it) concerns the leeway left to domestic courts when applying European rules on international jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters. For instance, is the court under a duty of strict compliance with the jurisdiction rule as it is drafted? Would such a duty go so far as to require the court to abide by the jurisdiction rule, even though it is being used by one of the litigants to achieve an unfair result, for example to delay adjudication on the merits? Under what conditions may the Court decline jurisdiction on account of any unsuitable forum shopping, thus ruling out the European provision on jurisdiction? Recent litigation in the ECJ has yielded rather, even excessively, restrictive answers, ruling out any discretion by domestic courts to remedy any inconvenience arising from the strict application of the European provisions, if such discretion were provided for by the lex fori (the Gasser case, the Turner case, and the Owusu case). This series of rulings from the ECJ raises several questions. Most observers have questioned the appropriateness of prescribing a blind application of European rules on jurisdiction by domestic courts, relying on the legal traditions of EC Member States usually providing for corrective mechanisms - such as 'forum non conveniens' in English Law and 'exception de fraude' in French Law - in cases when a party abusively triggers the jurisdiction of a court in order to obtain an unjust advantage, thus practising unacceptable forum shopping. The time has now come for an analysis, under both Community and comparative law, of the ramifications of the recent Gasser/Turner/Owusu cases. Readers will find in this book a collection of studies by some of the leading English and French experts today, analysing the ins and outs of jurisdiction and forum shopping in Europe.

This book provides a much-needed analysis of this very important subject for international business lawyers,including discussion of the jurisdictional and choice of laws issues arising from cross-border contracts of insurance and reinsurance concluded by electronic means. This book is the first published in England to devote itself to a detailed analysis of the choice of laws rules in the E.C. Insurance Directives. It is aimed at academics and practitioners, at private international lawyers and at insurance lawyers. The private international law rules of the E.C. Insurance Directives deal with the applicable law to insurance contracts covering risks situated within the EU. They do not deal with the applicable law to reinsurance contracts and insurance contracts covering risks situated outside the EU. This should be ascertained by reference to the choice of laws provisions in the 1980 Rome Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations. Detailed discussion of these rules is also provided, and proposals for reform suggested.