The Section on Business Law of the International Bar Association is greatly indebted to the Editor, J. Michael Robinson and to John Gauntlett, the Chairman of the Committee on Issues and Trading in Securities, and his Vice Chairmen, Blaise Pasztory, Robert Briner and the members of the Committee who have contributed, for their joint efforts in preparing this ftrst book of their committee. It will make a valuable addition to the libraries of all practising lawyers because it has been written by practising lawyers, with the knowledge and experience of their own daily work and the understanding of what a practi tioner is looking for. I am confident that this book will prove of real assistance to practitioners world-wide, as have previous publications of other Committees of the Section on Business Law. I wish it great success. I hope that you may wish to join the Section on Business Law and thereby make contact and work with lawyers with similar interests in commercial law. WALTER OPPENHOF Chairman of the Section on Business Law XI Editor's Introduction I have great pleasure in presenting reports from fourteen countries. In the best tradition of many institutions of higher learning which trace their origins to some medieval ale house, this project has its genesis in a bar."