This edition of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business provides ageneral examination of issues vital to the world's economic recovery. In the field ofcompany law, practitioners examine changes in Russia's corporate law and the newUkrainian law governing joint-stock companies. In the area of competition law, lawyersreview Serbia's and Bulgaria's new laws on the protection of competition and theprivate enforcement of Articles 101 and 102 in Europe's national courts.Dispute resolution occupies two chapters, one dealing with best practices for draftingarbitration clauses and the other set aside, recognition, and enforcement of privatecommercial arbitration awards. A further two chapters treat employment and labormatters relating to distribution and commercial representation, indemnity upontermination, and processing personal data in the employment context in Hungary. Inthe area of financial services, practitioners from five jurisdictions deal with fiduciaryduty, the European Commission's proposed Directive on Alternative InvestmentFund Managers, Swiss disclosure rules on significant shareholdings, restructuringand refinancing routes for mortgage-secured debt in Spain, and insurance laws andregulations in Nigeria. Foreign investment is examined by two authors, reporting on2008 and 2009 developments in investment treaty disputes and foreign investmentin Indonesia. Intellectual property issues are reviewed in chapters relating to the useof intellectual property as collateral in secured financing and intellectual propertylicensing in Canada. Finally, lawyers treaty a variety of other issues, including the taxlaw of Liechtenstein, European Union-Israel trade in the automobile sector, insolvencyrisk and creditors' rights in Peru, the modernizing of trust law in Hong Kong andbridging cultural differences in international transactions.

"The Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business", in its 2007 edition, treats two major topic areas: litigation and dispute resolution and banking and finance. The litigation and dispute resolution section examines various issues relating to international arbitration, such as the status of non-signatories, the employment of electronic discovery, the use of expert evidence, and costs. It further surveys the recognition of enforcement of foreign judgments in Italy, developments in litigation in Australia, Anton Pilar Orders and Internet defamation, and Italian conflict-of-law rules.The banking and finance section of the Yearbook examines Austrian capital maintenance rules, bank secrecy in Israel, and broker-dealer and investment banking strategies. Miscellaneous articles deal with Mexico's commercial bankruptcy law, Slovakia's new bankruptcy legislation, trade marks and the Madrid Protocol, trade mark registration in Hong Kong, franchising in Italy, data protection, Spanish antitrust legislation, and cartel enforcement in Australia.

This year's volume of the "Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business" deals with the subject of Product Liability Law. This is a growing area, in which, manufacturers and suppliers are finding themselves more and more responsible for the quality of their products and for the consequences flowing from any defect therein. This book discusses a wide variety of topics, which come under the umbrella of product liability, ranging from liability for injuries caused by the use of asbestos and other toxic substances to the responsibility of air carriers in hijack situations. There is a growing amount of litigation throughout the world tackling the problems arising from the safety of products. These laws take into account the manufacturing process, the transportation, storage and delivery of goods, the intended use of products, their fitness for such purpose, and any warnings or instructions as to use given to consumers and end users. This publication also covers the question of jurisdiction in product-related litigation, particularly in crossborder transactions. In many instances, a plaintiff will attempt to bring his action in the United States, due to the large amount of damages, especially punitive damages, awarded there by juries in civil actions. Defendants, on the other hand, seek to counter this by raising issues such forum non conveniens. There also is the question of state versus federal jurisdiction within the United States, as well as a discussion focusing on the possible growth of federalism within the European Union and its impact upon product liability nationally and at a European level. A comparison of the divergent cultural attitudes towards property in China and the United States, including the different emphases placed upon the ownership and role of property in society, demonstrates the different views of product liability. Another aspect of defective goods dealt with here is liability for the recall of a dangerous product. There is a chain of responsibility stretching from the manufacturer, trough various levels of suppliers, to the final retailer of goods, which is obviously important when attempting to remove dangerous products from the market as quickly as possible, before they can cause widespread injury to consumers. This has been shown to be particularly relevant in cases involving automobiles and food products. Overall, therefore, Product Liability Law is a vital part of the general law protecting consumers, both on a national and international basis, which makes this book a very interesting and useful read for anyone involved in this area.

This text contains chapters covering a variety of legal issues. The first section deals with contractual matters, including joint venture contracts, agreements relating to agency, distribution, licensing and franchising, time sharing and preliminary agreements regarding the buying and selling of property. The second section deals with the privatization of former state-owned companies and monopolies, such as media organizations. Under the heading of "Corporate Law", joint stock companies, sub-chapter S corporations, takeovers and new company legislation are discussed. The section on securities and investment deals, in particular, with the area of foreign investment, including tax incentives and the regulation of investments. There is also a section on taxation, which concentrates on offshore jurisdictions, and a section on general commercial issues. The topics covered in this final section vary to include technology transfer, evidential procedures, free trade areas, the regulation of resources, anti-trust matters, dispute resolution and new commercial legislation.

The 2004 volume of the "Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business" contains a wide variety of topics of interest to international commercial lawyers and their clients. Various areas of Company Law are discussed, including mergers and acquisitions, piercing the corporate veil and the financing of share acquisitions. The Yearbook also contains several chapters on investments and securities, including the need for corporate governance in this area, and the role of collective investment schemes in Bermuda. Some chapters deal with the introduction of new technology into the realm of commerce, particularly new legislation relating to e-commerce and the Competition Law issues encountered by the telecommunications industry. The introduction and effects of new legislation generally are also addressed, including the new Ukrainian Commercial Code and Brazilian Civil Code. In addition to discussions on intellectual property, arbitration and asset protection, the Yearbook contains a section on real property rights, including a very interesting comparison between the way in which China and Indonesia view property rights, and the treatment received by such rights in Western society. Various areas of law are also looked at from a European point of view, such as the increase in America-style asbestos litigation in Europe, the hiring out of workers within Europe and the effect of the European Convention on Human Rights upon business. With the ever-increasing introduction of new technology, the expansion of global communications, new attitudes towards business and commerce and increased awareness of personal and property rights, there is a constant need for the law to develop in order to adequately deal with these issues. The yearbook branches out into some of the innovative and topical areas of contemporary law, and should be of great interest to anyone involved in modern-day business.

This edition of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business surveys issues involved in post-employment employer-employee relations and the ability of employers to control the conduct of a former employee. The survey's introductory chapter provides a general review of issues in the context of multiple jurisdictions, followed by countryby-country analyses of 17 jurisdictions, encompassing reports on Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, Gibraltar, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, the Slovak Republic, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Franchising has long been an integral part of the globalization of business and an important tool in the spread of investment.
In this special issue of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business, practitioners who are specialized in franchising -- its potentials as well as its pitfalls -- provide reports on franchising developments in national systems such as:
- Australia,
- Austria,
- Canada,
- Chile,
- China,
- the Czech Republic,
- Denmark,
- France,
Germany,
- Greece,
- India,
- Indonesia,
- Israel,
- Malaysia,
- Mexico,
- Norway,
- Russia,
- Singapore,
- Spain,
- Thailand, and
- Turkey.

This edition of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business provides a general examination of issues vital to the world's economic recovery. In the field of company law, practitioners examine changes in Russia's corporate law and the new Ukrainian law governing joint-stock companies. In the area of competition law, lawyers review Serbia and Bulgaria's new laws on the protection of competition and the private enforcement of Articles 101 and 102 in Europe's national courts. Dispute resolution occupies two chapters, one dealing with best practices for drafting arbitration clauses and the other set aside, recognition, and enforcement of private commercial arbitration awards. A further two chapters treat employment and labor matters relating to distribution and commercial representation, indemnity upon termination, and processing personal data in the employment context of Hungary. In the area of financial services, practitioners from five jurisdictions deal with fiduciary duty, the European Commission's proposed Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers, Swiss disclosure rules on significant shareholdings, restructuring and refinancing routes for mortgage-secured debt in Spain, and insurance laws and regulations in Nigeria. Foreign investment is examined by two authors, reporting on 2008 and 2009 developments in investment treaty disputes and foreign investment in Indonesia. Intellectual property issues are reviewed in chapters relating to the use of intellectual property as collateral in secured financing and intellectual property licensing in Canada. Finally, lawyers treaty a variety of other issues, including the tax law of Liechtenstein, European Union-Israel trade in the automobile sector, insolvency risk and creditors' rights in Peru, the modernizing of trust law in Hong Kong and bridging cultural differences in international Transactions.

The 2006 edition of the "Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business" examines issues in three major topic categories: Litigation and Dispute Resolution, Investment Vehicles, and Secured Interests in Immovables. Lawyers from Nigeria, the United States, and Ireland review the settlement of investment disputes, the impact of claims on non-United States companies, and claim and dispute resolution under FIDIC. Practitioners from Israel, Panama, Hong Kong, and Belgium treat investment vehicles such as trusts, foundations, and joint ventures and investment visas. Contributors from Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, and Mexico review the use of security in real property in their respective jurisdictions. Finally, lawyers from Brazil, Canada, the United States, Germany, South Africa, Ukraine, and Romania treat issues ranging from trade mark counterfeiting, registered designs, and telecommunications to criminality in international business transactions, outsourcing, and business immigration.

The 2003 Special Issue of the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business deals with issues relating to Corporate Governance. Following a series of scandals involving reporting by public companies in the United States, there has been an increase in the number of measures dealing with, among other things, the liability of directors and managers when submitting company financial returns. The first and most well-known piece of legislation to be introduced was, of course, the United States Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act covers matters including the establishment of audit committees, disclosure committees, and codes of ethics, with an emphasis upon the disclosure of information and transparency. It describes, for example, the principle of 'vicinity of Insolvency' and the relevant information to be disclosed to shareholders and creditors. The issue of directors' duties and responsibilities is addressed, together with the consequences of insider trading and conflicts of interests. The Act also contains provisions on whistleblowers and introduces new criminal sanctions for company wrongdoings, as well as enhancing those penalties already in place. As a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, many countries have followed suit and adopted their own measures to combat corporate failings, corruption, and the misuse of power. Among those covered in this publication are South Africa, China, a number of eastern and western European states, and various Asian jurisdictions. Other specific topics discussed are, inter alia, generally accepted accounting principles, insolvency, the banking, securities and insurance industries, foreign issuers, and close private companies.

This yearbook's principal aim is to review significant legal developments in international business and offers an important forum and point of reference for international legal practitioners. Volume 15 continues to develop the inclusion of materials which are of particular value to practitioners and advisers working within the international business sector. The 1993 volume gathers a range of considerable international expertise to bear upon issues of insolvency administration, rights and remedies of foreign creditors in bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings, enforcement of judgments, product liability in the EC, EC association agreements, commercial agency, environmental regulations, foreign parent corporate liability for subsidiaries, construction contracts, and the International Sale of Goods Convention. From Volume 15, each forthcoming volume of the Yearbook will contain its own index. In addition a cumulative index, starting in 1993, will be published as a separate volume, updated approximately every three years. The Yearbook is published under the auspices of the Center of International Legal Studies, Austria.

In the event that damage is caused as a result of the Year 2000 problem, who will be responsible for compensating the victims of such damage? Should the developers, vendors or licensors of non-compliant software be held liable if their products do not continue to function correctly through the change in the millennium? Should those who provide "fixes" to the Bug which do not work properly be accountable for damage caused? Do end-users have a duty to ensure that their software is Year 2000 compliant? These questions, among others, will not be answered fully until the courts have had an opportunity to rule upon disputes which will no doubt arise. Other matters to be considered include the type of agreement that has been entered into between the parties, which rules will therefore apply and what defences, if any, may be available to the defendant. Insurance is also a big issue. Many insurance companies are stating that damage resulting from the Millennium Bug will not be covered by existing policies, and defences such as force majeure and act of God have been raised. What will happen when these issues come to litigation remains to be seen. This special issue of the "Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business" discusses the legal implications of the Millennium Bug in various countries. It describes the way in which agreements relating to software are viewed by different jurisdictions and the possible attribution of liability for damage caused by the Bug.

This yearbook reviews significant legal developments in international commerce and offers an important forum for legal practitioners to address and compare practical legal issues of direct interest to their areas of specialization. Each volume of the yearbook features a comprehensive range of articles written for and by leading practitioners and advisers working within the international business sector. The topics covered in Volume 17, the new volume for 1995, range from the ethical issues for lawyers involved in cross-border transactions to insider trading. Several of the chapters make reference to the growing European Union (EU), with one chapter focusing particularly on the free movement of goods throughout the EU's Member States. Competition within the EU is also dealt with, the provisions of Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty of Rome being of particular relevance due to the large amount of recent case law in this area. There is a large section dealing with company law matters, including the emergence and development of new types of corporation, privatization and the westernization of companies in countries such as China. The recovery of monies and the enforcement of judgments in this respect are always issues of high priority in business. The volume thus discusses these matters in a separate section on debt recovery. The remainder of the book is divided into parts dealing with finance and mergers and acquisitions, together with a general commercial law section. This yearbook has been prepared by specialist practitioners from all corners of the world for the use of international business lawyers and their clients.

This volume examines the important area of dispute resolution. Its main focus is upon those methods of resolving disputes which provide alternatives to the existing judicial system. Under discussion are the most prominent of these methods - arbitration, mediation and conciliation - as well as others, such as mini-trials, valuations and dispute review boards. The authors are eminent legal practitioners and scholars from countries spanning the five continents. Consequently, the volume consists of accounts relating to the use of alternative dispute resolution methods in these countries. The pros and cons of each method are examined, together with the procedures involved, their applicability to certain types of cases and their future development. This work also includes a chapter devoted entirely to International Fast-Trac Commercial Arbitration, which describes how fast-track clauses may be utilized in international commercial contracts to ensure that disputes are resolved rapidly and efficiently. The future for such clauses in individual countries is discussed and a comparative analysis given.

This volume contains sections on company law, dispute resolution, employment law, insolvency law, intellectual property law, taxation and finance and other general commercial issues. There are a number of chapters which tackle cross-border issues, such as taxation, jurisdiction and arbitration, while others concentrate on specific geographical areas, such as the Asia-Pacific region. Some authors explore problems in the workplace, including the reduction of the workforce and incidents of racial discrimination within it, issues of which all employers need to be aware. Also examined are those subjects which are ever-present in the life of a business, among them bankruptcy and insolvency, procurement, intellectual property, investment, contracts and other matters of company law. Other chapters comprise an in-depth look at the Vienna Convention on the "International Sale of Goods", a specialized discussion of patent second medical use claims, an explanation of how criminal sanctions are being applied to crimes against the environment, a report of the devaluation and dollarization of an economy and an interesting insight into the effects of a nation's culture and traditions upon its legal system. This volume of the yearbook contains chapters on a wide variety of issues which arise regularly in the commercial world, but it also contains discussions on more specialized topics. These will not only be of use to the practitioners and business people involved in those areas, but should be useful reading for those who are not and provide an introduction to subjects which they may find useful in the future.

For centuries, inconsistencies were seen as a hindrance to good reasoning, and their role in the sciences was ignored. However, logicians as well as philosophers and historians have shown a growing interest in the matter. Central to this change were the advent of paraconsistent logics, the shift in attention from finished theories to construction processes, and the recognition that most scientific theories were at some point either internally inconsistent or incompatible with other accepted findings. The interest gave rise to important questions. How is "logical anarchy" avoided? Is it ever rational to accept an inconsistent theory? In what sense, if any, can inconsistent theories be considered as true? This collection of papers examines such questions. It contains case studies as well as philosophical analyses, and presents an excellent overview of the different approaches in the domain.

This year's volume of the "Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business deals with various aspects of the arbitration process. Some of the areas covered include the appointment of arbitrators, the points to be borne in mind by arbitrators during the conduct of arbitral proceedings, the evidentiary procedures involved in arbitration, and the advantages and disadvantages of arbitration when pitted against conventional litigation. Crucial to any successful arbitration is good preparation, in particular the setting down in an arbitral agreement of the intentions of the parties with regard to any future disputes that may arise between them. Ideally, the parties should agree, "inter alia, upon the type of arbitration, the choice of law, the "situs, and the number and appointment of arbitrators. The appointment of the arbitrators is a very important consideration in the conduct of an arbitration procedure. First, one must decide whether a sole arbitrator or a panel of three or more arbitrators is preferable in the specific circumstances, taking into account such criteria as cost, time, complexity of the issue, and the experience of the arbitrators. These points also, of course, have a bearing upon whether one chooses to arbitrate in the first place or whether litigation would be a more suitable route. Various factors in making these decisions are discussed in detail by the authors in this volume, and much valuable guidance is given to those involved in the arbitration process.

The twenty-third volume of the "Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business contains chapters relating to agency and distribution, finance and investment, intellectual property, sports law, technology, and general commercial issues. The spread of jurisdictions treated includes Argentina, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Italy, Panama, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, and Venezuela. The range of subjects and jurisdictions in volume twenty-three attests to the diversity and scope of international business practice.

This Yearbook reviews significant legal developments in international commerce and offers an important forum for legal practitioners to address and compare practical legal issues of direct interest to their areas of specialisation. Each volume of the Yearbook features a comprehensive range of articles written for and by leading practitioners and advisers working in the international business sector. Volume 16 addresses key issues in general commercial law, company law, environmental law, foreign investment and litigation, procedure and dispute resolution. The Yearbook is published under the auspices of the Center for International Legal Studies.