This book analyses the legal approach to personal data taken by different fields of law. An increasing number of business models in the digital economy rely on personal data as a key input. In exchange for sharing their data, online users benefit from personalized and innovative services. But companies' collection and use of personal data raise questions about privacy and fundamental rights. Moreover, given the substantial commercial and strategic value of personal data, their accumulation, control and use may raise competition concerns and negatively affect consumers. To establish a legal framework that ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data while at the same time providing an open and level playing field for businesses to develop innovative data-based services is a challenging task.With this objective in mind and against the background of the uniform rules set by the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the contributions to this book examine the significance and legal treatment of personal data in competition law, consumer protection law, general civil law and intellectual property law. Instead of providing an isolated analysis of the different areas of law, the book focuses on both synergies and tensions between the different legal fields, exploring potential ways to develop an integrated legal approach to personal data.

Preventing Medical Malpractice and Compensating Victimised Patients in China is the first book in English on the legal remedies for preventing medical errors and compensating victims of medical malpractice in China from an economic and legal perspective. Specifically, those legal remedies include tort liability, regulation, insurance and social security. The new medical liability regime based on the Tort Liability Law 2009 currently provides the primary legal remedy against medical malpractice. However, the role of alternative regimes in medical quality assurance and victim compensation should not be ignored. This book:- gives a full description of all the current legal remedies for the prevention of medical malpractice and compensation for iatrogenic injuries in China, in order to see how those different legal instruments interact with and impact on one another.- examines how those legal remedies work in practice and what impact they have on society, based on an extensive analysis of court decisions, several semi-structured interviews, and a review of the available empirical literature.- summarises the law and economics studies on medical malpractice and applies economic theories to the legal remedies in China, in order to put forward policy recommendations to China.The ultimate conclusion of this work is that although many aspects of the legal remedies in China are consistent with the economic model of accident law as far as the prevention of medical malpractice is concerned, they still need great improvement when it comes to compensation for iatrogenic injuries.Overall, this book provides a thorough examination and evaluation of the legal remedies for medical malpractice in China, especially taking into account the latest developments in economic theories and new empirical findings. Hence, it will be of interest to legal and economic scholars, students, lawyers, insurers and policy makers responsible for ensuring the quality of medical care.

Plural Ownership is a thorough and thought-provoking analysis focussing on the principles underlying two areas of property law: concurrent ownership (in particular severance of joint tenancies) and successive ownership, and examines how they shade into each other. Smith first considers the range of rights recognized by the law and the ways in which these rights operate. The book then moves on to survey the regulation of these rights, principally by statute, providing a detailed examination of the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, and exploring the principles behind the Act. He provides an in-depth investigation of this legislation and the ways in which it relates to earlier principles and authorities.

Bringing together leading commercial and contract law scholars from the United Kingdom and United States, Comparative Contract Law: British and American Perspectives offers an insightful and comprehensive assessment of the commonalities and divergences in the contract law of these two jurisdictions. Approaching the subject area from a variety of perspectives - doctrinal analysis, behavioural analysis, law and economics, and theoretical - the book examines familiar areas of contract law as practiced in the UK and US. Topics include contract theory and structure; contract formation and defects of consent; policing contracts and the duty of good faith; contract interpretation; damages; speciality contracts; and legal reform. The volume provides a thorough assessment of the current state of commercial contract law in the UK and US, and addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the national and European approaches to many issues of contract law. In particular it focuses on how commercial contract law should be improved, and whether harmonization of the different contract law regimes is a suitable, and appropriate, solution.

This remarkable book covers the impact of human rights on intellectual property law in the most comprehensive review ever undertaken. It is destined to influence the future development of this field and constitutes an essential resource for both scholars and practitioners.' - Jerome H. Reichman, Duke University School of Law, US'Professor Geiger has assembled an extraordinary group of leading legal scholars, human rights lawyers, judges, and international civil servants to provide comprehensive, up-to-the-minute coverage of all the major issues implicated by the interaction between human rights and intellectual property. This volume will be required reading for anyone interested in this increasingly important topic.' - Beebe Barton, New York University School of Law, US 'Intellectual property law draws boundaries around human creativity. In doing so it intersects with the principles and values of the human rights tradition. In this remarkable volume, Professor Christophe Geiger has brought together a great team of scholars to explore this intersection. The result is a Research Handbook that is comprehensive in its coverage of jurisdictions, issues and debates. It is an indispensable starting point for researchers wishing to understand the field and its many topics.' - Peter Drahos, Australian National University and Queen Mary University of London, UK Research Handbook on Human Rights and Intellectual Property is a comprehensive reference work on the intersection of human rights and intellectual property law. Resulting from a field-specific expertise of over 40 scholars and professionals of world renown, the book explores the practical and doctrinal implications of human rights considerations on intellectual property law and jurisprudence. The various chapters of the book scrutinize issues related to interactions among and between norms of different legal families and the role of human rights in the development of a balanced intellectual property legal framework. The innovative approach of the book is reflected in its structure: the first part provides a foundation for the human rights and intellectual property discourse; the second sheds light on the human rights implications for the development of intellectual property; and the third (characterized by a human rights perspective) is devoted to the specific issues of interaction between human rights and intellectual property. Exploring in depth a variety of interactions between human rights and intellectual property law, the book will be of great interest to academics and experts working within human rights, intellectual property, development, international relations and international public law. Contributors include: A. Abdel-Latif, T. Aplin, C. Avila Plaza, D.B. Barbosa, A.Brown, C. Chiarolla, J. Christoffersen, C.M. Correa, T. Dreier, P. Ducoulombier, L.Falcon, S. Farran, S. Frankel, D. Gangjee, M. Ganzhorn, C. Geiger, D. Gervais, G. Ghidini, J. Griffiths, H. Grosse Ruse-Khan, L.R. Helfer, P. von Kapff, A. Kupzok, J.D. Lipton, D. Matthews, T. Mylly, A. Peukert, A. Plomer, J.M. Samuels, M. Senftleben, X. Seuba, C. Sganga, R. Smith, A. Stazi, T. Takenaka, C. Trautmann, D. Voorhoof, C. Waelde, H. Wager, J. Watal, G. Westkamp, P.K. Yu

It is not unusual in corporate litigation for the outcome of a case to hinge on the discovery in court of electronically-stored information (ESI). Yet in most jurisdictions (notably among EU Member States) the withholding of such information is required by privacy laws or even laws specifically blocking the transfer of data for discoverypurposes. Companies that ignore such laws may face severe sanctions. In the United States, however, discovery of ESI is often compulsory, and failure to comply can lead to contempt of court and losing the case. This book deals with the dilemma faced by multinational corporations when a United States court demands discovery of ESI that is protected in other countries. In fine detail the authors cover the full spectrum of possible responses, from evaluating the comparative cost of legal sanctions in a variety of major global jurisdictions to recognizing when to avoid litigation entirely. The tone throughout is eminently practical, specifying the precise nature and degree of risk involved and offering optimal solutions to all the conflicts likely to arise. On the theoretical side, the rationale of both the US e-discovery model and data privacy laws (focusing on the European data protection directive) are clearly explained. Specific jurisdictions covered include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan and United Kingdom. Given the huge growth in ESI among multinational companies over the last decade, this book answers a need that is gaining ever more prominence in international business. As such it is sure to be welcomed by litigators, in-house counsel, and corporate executives as an essential tool in this increasingly significant area of legal practice.

This book is a multi-disciplinary collection of essays from leading researchers and practitioners, exploring legal, ethical, social, psychological and practical aspects of surrogate motherhood in Britain and abroad. It highlights the common themes that characterise debates across countries as well as exploring the many differences in policies and practices. Surrogacy raises questions for medical and welfare practitioners and dilemmas for policy makers as well as ethical issues of concern to society as a whole. The international perspective adopted by this book offers an opportunity for questions of law, policy and practice to be shared and debated across countries. The book links contemporary views from research and practice with broader social issues and bio-ethical debates. The book will be of interest to an international audience of academics and their students (in law, social policy, reproductive medicine, psychology and sociology), practitioners (including doctors, counsellors, midwives and welfare professionals) as well as those involved in policy-making and implementation.

Sir Frederick Pollock wrote that 'English-speaking lawyers ...have specialised the name of Equity'. It is typical for legal textbooks on the law of equity to acknowledge the diverse ways in which the word 'equity' is used and then to focus on the legal sense of the word to the exclusion of all others. There may be a professional responsibility on textbook writers to do just that. If so, there is a counterpart responsibility to read the law imaginatively and to read what non-lawyers have said of equity with an open mind. This book is an exploration of the meaning of equity as artists and thinkers have portrayed it within the law and without. Watt finds in law and literature an equity that is necessary to good life and good law but which does not require us to subscribe to a moral or 'natural law' ideal. It is an equity that takes a principled and practical stand against rigid formalism and unthinking routine in law and life, and so provides timely resistance to current forces of extremism and entitlement culture. The project is an educational one in the true etymological sense of leading the reader out into new territory. The book will provide the legal scholar with deep insight into the rhetorical, literary and historical foundations of the idea of equity in law, and it will provide the law student with a cultural history of, and an imaginative introduction to, the technical law of equity and trusts. Scholars and students of such disciplines as literature, classics, history, theology, theatre and rhetoric will discover new insights into the art of equity in the law and beyond. Along the way, Watt offers a new theory on the naming of Dickens' chancery case Jarndyce and Jarndyce and suggests a new connection between Shakespeare and the origin of equity in modern law. 'This beautiful book, deeply learned in the branch of jurisprudence we call equity and deeply engaged with the western literary tradition, gives new life to equity in the legal sense by connecting it with equity in the larger sense: as it is defined both in ordinary language and experience and by great writers, especially Dickens and Shakespeare. Equity Stirring transforms our sense of what equity is and can be and demonstrates in a new and graceful way the importance of connecting law with other arts of mind and language.' James Boyd White, author of Living Speech: Resisting the Empire of Force 'Equity Stirring' is a fine example of interdisciplinary legal scholarship at its best. Watt has managed to produce a book that is fresh and innovative, and thoroughly accessible. Deploying a range of familiar, and not so familiar, texts from across the humanities, Watt has presented a fascinating historical and literary commentary on the evolution of modern ideas of justice and equity. Ian Ward, Professor of Law at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. "this is an important, compendious, and thought-provoking work that should be on the shelves of everyone interested in equity studies." Mark Fortier, Law and Literature "there is much of interest to the legal historian...the book's insights and erudition did engage this rather sceptical reader, who would like to believe that equity could achieve justice, but fears rather that it can only be as fair as the court dispensing it." Rosemary Auchmuty, The Journal of Legal History "With luck, Equity Stirring will stir...taxonomic positivists from their culture of entitlement, waking them to the possibility that law and justice do not form the perfect quadration". Nick Piska, Social & Legal Studies "a highly imaginative, original and refreshing foray into the legal and ethical import of concepts too often thought to be difficult, archaic and obscure...Watt gives us a way into the subject which is forceful in its imaginative reach and its ethical import..." David Gurnham, Law, Culture and the Humanities

Authorities in the fields of environmental and international law and policy, political science, environmental technology, and public administration compare and contrast the ways in which the United States and the European Union handle similar environmental issues. The contributors critically analyze the influence of culture and history on the way apparently "similar" developed democracies handle the same problems; they examine the center-state relationship as it applies to EU member countries in contrast to states within the United States; they look at the challenge of transboundary, international, and global environmental problems, and how these relate to the still-emerging geopolitical reconfigurations involved in such structures as NAFTA and the EU; and they examine how transnational resources are handled in the North American and EU contexts. Randall Baker has assembled leading experts who examine significant issues for policymakers and environmentalists in North America and Western Europe.

"A well-documented and eminently readable examination of the tort reform debate in the United States."
-- "The Advocate"

"A compendium of defenses against decades of tort reform misinformation and disinformation, this monograph will best serve undergraduates as a library reference."
-- "The Law and Politics Book Review"

"This book is an important addition to the growing body of works . . . that consumer advocates and attorneys can use to defend the civil justice system in the legislatures, in courtrooms, and in the court of public opinion."
--"Trial Magazine"

Late night comedians and journalists eagerly seized upon the case of an elderly woman who sued McDonald's when she spilled hot coffee in her lap as a prime example of frivolous litigation. But as Rustad and Koenig argue, cases such as these are an incomplete and misleading characterization of tort law. Corporations have successfully waged a public relations battle to create the impression that most lawsuits are spurious, when in fact the opposite is true: tort law plays a crucial role in protecting consumers from dangerous and sometimes life-threatening hazards. Without legal remedies, corporations would suffer no penalty for choosing profits over public health and safely.

In Defense of Tort Law is the first book to systematically examine the social, legal and policy dimensions of the tort reform debate. This insightful analysis of solid empirical data looks beyond popular myths about frivolous lawsuits, and tackles a variety of contentious issues: Should punitive damages be capped? Who is favored by tort law? Who loses, and why?

Koenig and Rustad's detailed case study analysis also reveals disturbing genderinequities in a legal system that is largely dominated by men. Because women are disproportionately injured by medical products, impermissible HMO cost cutting, medical malpractice and sexual exploitation, restrictions on the rights to recovery in these fields inevitably creates gender injustice. Engaging and up to date, In Defense of Tort Law also identifies aspects of the current law that require further elaboration, including the need for measures to combat cybercrime against consumers.

Dr. Holzmann introduces the manager and technologist as well as the student and the foreign patent practitioner to the United States Law of Patent Infringement. Dr. Holzmann directly addresses what to do when a patent is being infringed. The author explains and interprets the intricacies of the patent law and provides a strong basis of understanding future changes in patent law. This valuable volume should appeal to academics and students of law, attorneys specializing in corporate law, patent attorneys, CEOs in technical firms, and CEOs of foreign corporations.

This book continues the exploration of the role, function and theoretical basis of copyright law examined in the first four volumes. New Directions in Copyright Law, Volume 5, offers valuable insights into simulating international research and debate about the future of the copyright system. The international and multidisciplinary core of scholars in this book focus on two themes: copyright and the new technologies; and copyright, corporate power and human rights. This book should be read by anyone interested in the future of copyright, regardless of discipline.

This is a book dedicated to the significance and legacy of landmark cases in the field of intellectual property. Eleven well-known scholars offer in-depth commentary and analysis of cases that have made an impact on legal theory or critical thinking about the scope and purpose of the protection of intellectual and industrial creativity. All the cases covered have proven useful in developing doctrine, even though subsequent developments have made some appear 'misleading' rather than 'leading', and for some recent cases it is too early to say whether their approach will become mainstream. Among the fundamental questions - all profoundly interesting, and to which no definite answers have yet been found - arising in the course of the analysis are the following: * Who should be master over the reputation, esteem and legacy of authors and their works - authors and their heirs, or subsequent copyright owners? * What, if any, protection should be granted to achievements in the absence of confusion? * Should prevention of unfair competition allow one to 'reap what one has not sown'? * Should we protect commercial investment beyond the scope of defined intellectual property rights? * Should it be considered a tort to use a well-known mark in a way that may dilute its repute and distinctive character? * What kinds of monopolies should be protected, if any? * Does the patent system in its current form allow us to question the assumption that technological progress is good per se, and that novel and inventive solutions should thus be protected? * Should extraneous considerations such as public good and social usefulness be considered at the stages of grant and enforcement of patent rights? * Should we grant patents over living organisms whose workings and reproduction are a long way from being completely understood? * Should the rules developed for the enforcement of property rights limit a patentee's remedies to appropriate damages, thereby effectively granting a compulsory licence? The book concludes with an analysis of two case clusters remarkable for the worldwide dimension of the dispute. The authors show how litigation over Lego in about 30 jurisdictions and Budweiser in over 40 jurisdictions has enriched doctrine on such issues as contract, trade marks, trade names, geographical indications, property rights in general, human rights, and various international and bilateral treaties, all as they impinge on the protection of intellectual property rights. For scholars in the field, as well as for lawyers seeking a rich vein of doctrine to buttress a case, this unusual book will be of incomparable value. As a masterful clarification of salient doctrine, it represents a major contribution to the legal theory underpinning intellectual property law.

The clergy abuse scandal has posed the greatest threat to the traditional understanding of the Catholic priesthood since the Protestant Reformation. Now, as then, the deadliest attacks are coming from within the Church. In an attempt to improve a system that allowed a small minority of the clergy to violate children and ameliorate the gross negligence of some bishops who recycled these predators, the American bishops instituted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002. It is, unfortunately, doing the Church more harm than good.

In Hope Springs Eternal in the Priestly Breast, Fr. James Valladares shows how justice and charity have been violated by some bishops in dealing with accused priests. He examines the pertinent canons that guide the Church's judicial system and finds that these are often ignored or wrongly applied. He provides true cases that highlight the injustice of the process and the agony of priests who have been subjected to the charter's draconian mandates.

The Church has incurred tremendous financial losses because of settlements rising from both legitimate and false claims. Her image has been marred by the secular media, which has taken advantage of the crisis. Even so, we often fail to understand how trivial these are in comparison to the damage done to the priesthood by the enactment of the charter's policies. This is the most pressing issue that the bishops need to address.

"The International Academy of Estate and Trust Law" is a body that comprises leading estate and trusts lawyers from civilian and common law jurisdictions around the globe. Its membership - all experts in trusts, estate and inheritance law, and/or tax law - includes solicitors, barristers, notaires, judges, and law professors. The group's proceedings manifest a comparative approach, offering perspectives on issues of direct and immediate concern for both civil and common law jurisdictions. This volume records the May 2000 week-long conference in Berlin, which focused on four main topics: arbitration and alternative dispute resolution, in which the "estate" meets the "family"; transnational issues in testamentary matters, especially in light of the "Hague Convention on Succession to Deceased Estates"; responsibility of tax advisers, the discussion of which concentrates on the development of a unified code of conduct; and developments in offshore trusts, in which the very nature of the interest of the beneficiary under a trust is being redefined and tested once again.

Evicted! is a practical and critical look at the vulnerability of Americans' property rights to eminent domain abuse since the Supreme Court's 2005 Kelo decision. The 2005 Supreme Court decision Kelo v. City of New London, which upheld the taking of an individual's home by local government for the sake of private development, unleashed a firestorm of controversy. The backlash against eminent domain cuts across partisan, ideological, and racial lines, with 4 out of 5 Americans opposing Kelo. Critics of Kelo claim that it represents a radical departure in the law, putting every homeowner in jeopardy of dispossession by government at the service of corporate interests. But are property rights and eminent domain truly in mortal conflict? Written for general readers, property owners, and local government officials seeking to understand the implications of Kelo for eminent domain and property law, Evicted! cuts through all the hype and hysteria surrounding Kelo and argues that the alleged wave of eminent domain abuse is mostly a myth. Evicted! describes what property rights are, why the law protects them, and how eminent domain really works. Schultz shows that Kelo did not make new law but only broadened Supreme Court precedents, and he refutes claims that Kelo has opened the way to widespread eminent domain abuse. Nevertheless, the author identifies certain legislative changes that are needed at the local, state, and national levels to better protect individual property owners when corporate thugs and corrupt government officials occasionally gang up against them.

The relationships between international intellectual property treaties, the United Nations international environmental treaties (first and foremost the Convention on Biological Diversity), the relevant customary norms and soft law form a complex network of obligations that sometimes conflict with each other. The first set of treaties creates private rights while the latter affirms the sovereignty rights of States over genetic resources and related knowledge and creates international regimes of exploitation of the same. Jonathan Curci proposes solutions to the conflicts between treaties through the concept of 'mutual supportiveness', including the construction of a national-access and benefit-sharing regime, mandatory contractual provisions in relevant international contracts, a defensive protection when genetic resource-related traditional knowledge is unjustly patented through the analysis of the concepts of 'ordre public and morality', 'certificate of origin' in the patent application and 'novelty-destroying prior art' and positive protection through existing and sui generis intellectual property rights and misappropriation regimes.

It is scarcely five years since the first edition of this book, a milestone in the strategy-oriented approach to intellectual property at the global level, appeared and was quickly and widely welcomed as virtually an intellectual property agenda for the 21st century. This second edition includes a judicious update of the original data and analysis in light of the significant movement forward that has taken place over the past few years in many of the critical areas that shape the competitive strategies in the use of IP Rights. The authors have lost none of their conviction of the necessity to enhance awareness of the techno-economic effects of intellectual property rights protection on enterprise competitiveness and national growth and development. The book provides a panoramic but detailed view of the world's intellectual property system that embraces socioeconomic, cultural and technological development in its scope, clarifying the pitfalls and challenges that the system presents even as it promises to improve the quality of life on our planet. The authors both internationally respected and honoured for their work in elucidating the economic necessity of an intellectual property system that can inspire universal confidence, emphasize the imperative of international competiveness in knowledge-based technology. In their orderly presentation of the key issues that promote the real benefits (not yet achieved) of a truly effective regime of intellectual property rights they discuss such factors as the following: - the use of intellectual property as an integral part of business strategy; - optimal utilization of intellectual property assets; - the incentives and rewards of 'fair play' in the marketplace; - facilitation of widespread diffusion and adoption of the fruits of creativity and innovation; - the crucial role of small and medium enterprises; - the need at every level for deliberate incentive policies that encourage creativity and invention; - strict enforcement of intellectual property rights; - creating linkages between intellectual property stakeholders; and - use of patent information for forecasting technology trends. These issues and recommendations and more are all discussed in a framework that highlights each of the major areas of knowledge in which intellectual property rights are most insistently invoked today, such as the digital economy, e-commerce, Internet domain names, database protection, protection of plant varieties, design of integrated circuits, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Ultimately, however, this outstanding work's most important contribution lies in its vision of the organic corporation of governments, institutions, supranational organizations, multinational corporations, small and medium enterprises, and civil society as they collectively fashion a 21st century in which creativity and innovation are enabled to convert knowledge into wealth and social good. For this reason, as well as for its richly detailed treatment of trends and current reality in the field, this new, updated edition of Intellectual Property and Competitive Strategies in the 21st Century will continue to be read and put to good use by business people, international lawyers, government officials, and interested academics in all parts of the world.

The comprehensive research review discusses some of the most important and influential articles published on the history of intellectual property. The seminal works encompass a broad variety of specific legal fields, periods and methodological perspectives. It focuses on the three main subfields of intellectual property: patent, copyright and trademark law. This important research review will be of a great interest to legal historians, economic historians and anyone interested in intellectual property and its history.