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This book contains contributions on aspects of the operation of agency law in commercial contexts by many of the world’s leading experts on the law of agency. It is the product of a conference of the authors held at the University of Nijmegen in November 2014. Contributing authors come from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It comprises 12 chapters in five parts, preceded by a synthesising introduction. The first substantive section is devoted to aspects of general principle, including apparent authority, ratification, undisclosed principals, indirect representation, and unidentified principals. The second section, on Agency in Company Law, is concerned with the status as agents of company directors, liquidators, and receivers. The third section addresses the role of agency law in markets in financial transactions and services, including the relationship between insurers, agents and their customers. There is treatment of the common law, but also of aspects of statutory regimes including the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (UK), Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), and the Insurance Act 2015 (UK). The fourth section is concerned with powers of attorney. The fifth and last section is concerned with private international law, and in particular issues of conflict of laws arising out of the EC Commercial Agents Directive.

This book provides a theoretical framework for the understanding of corporate (or company) law from both a functional and a comparative perspective and illustrates how corporate laws in core jurisdictions (namely, Brazil, the U.S., the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan) conform to that framework. Corporations in all jurisdictions share the same key legal attributes: namely, legal personality, limited liability, delegated management, transferable shares, and investor ownership. Businesses using the corporate form give rise to three basic types of agency problems, namely those between: (1) managers and shareholders as a class; (2) controlling shareholders and minority shareholders; and (3) shareholders as a class and other corporate constituencies, such as corporate creditors and employees. After identifying the common set of legal strategies used to address these agency problems and discussing their interaction with enforcement institutions, the book illustrates how a number of core jurisdictions around the world deploy such strategies. In so doing, it highlights the many commonalities across jurisdictions and reflects on the reasons why they differ on specific issues. The analysis covers the basic governance structure of the corporation, including the powers of the board of directors and the shareholder meeting, both when management and when a dominant shareholder is in control. It then analyses the role of corporate law in shaping labor relationships, the protection of external stakeholders, the relationships with creditors, related-party transactions, fundamental corporate actions such as mergers and charter amendments, takeovers, and the regulation of capital markets.

This book aims to resolve a puzzle: how can two systems of competition law and policy, whose enforcement and judicial institutions employ similar concepts and legal language, reach very different results on a number of current, significant antitrust issues? The most important provisions of the Sherman Act and the competition sections of the Treaty Founding the European Union are striking similar, but a combination of differences in social values, political institutions, and legal precedent retard close convergence. The work explores the main contested areas of contemporary antitrust: mergers, price discrimination, predatory pricing, exclusive supply, conditional rebating, and intellectual property in the context of dynamic competition. In each area we focus on how the prevalent antitrust analyses differ between the EU and the U.S., the policy ramifications of these differences, and how the analyses used by the enforcement authorities or the courts in each of these areas relate to those in other areas. The book also tracks several substantive themes that appear across the chapters, such as pricing incentives and constraints, welfare effects, and whether competition tends to be viewed as an efficiency generating process or as rivalry. We conclude with forecasts and suggestions about how greater compatibility if not convergence might ultimately be attained.

This is a study of the law governing the bank–customer relationship pertaining to the disposition of funds by cheques and credit transfers, covering both paper-based and electronic payments. This book addresses, with various degrees of detail, common law, civilian, and ‘mixed’ jurisdictions, particularly in Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States. In addition to the description of the law in these jurisdictions, the book contains an in-depth analysis of the common issues and the responses to them, in light of desired policies. Accordingly, an evaluation of the various rules and proposals for reform are integral parts of the study. The book is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 is an overview of the various legal systems and fundamentals in banking and payment law, in an overall historical context. Chapter 2 deals with the banking relationship, within which collections and payments occur. It highlights the customer contract, the deposit transaction, the mandate authorizing bank collections and payments, and the debt resulting from entries to the current account. Chapter 3 covers the performance of the mandate. It discusses extensively laws governing the payment and collection of cheques and credit transfers, in the context of actual clearing and settlement mechanisms, particularly large-value transfer systems in developed countries. Chapter 4 is on payment systems misuse through fraud, either in the initiation payments or in misdirecting them. It discusses cheque forgery, unauthorized electronic funds transfers, forged cheques endorsements, and misdirected funds transfers.

Where the fate of a company is on the line in a negotiation, legal and business teams must work seamlessly to reach a successful conclusion. Unfortunately, there's often a gap between lawyers, who are typically untrained in business strategy, and business executives, who lack basic knowledge of contract law and regulations. This book offers a thorough introduction to enable lawyers and businesspeople to understand the theoretical concepts and to apply practical tools to conduct a successful, multi-faceted negotiation. It explains the different strategic considerations that negotiators face, from the pressures on individuals representing a larger group to the difficulties that arise from clashes of corporate culture. It also discusses the specific challenges raised by negotiations that involve multiple parties and multiple issues and take place over longer periods of time. Throughout the book provides concrete, practical advice on how best to guide companies through the most difficult negotiations.

Boilerplate—the fine-print terms and conditions that we become subject to when we click “I agree” online, rent an apartment, or enter an employment contract, for example—pervades all aspects of our modern lives. On a daily basis, most of us accept boilerplate provisions without realizing that should a dispute arise about a purchased good or service, the nonnegotiable boilerplate terms can deprive us of our right to jury trial and relieve providers of responsibility for harm. Boilerplate is the first comprehensive treatment of the problems posed by the increasing use of these terms, demonstrating how their use has degraded traditional notions of consent, agreement, and contract, and sacrificed core rights whose loss threatens the democratic order. This book examines attempts to justify the use of boilerplate provisions by claiming either that recipients freely consent to them or that economic efficiency demands them, and it finds these justifications wanting. It argues that our courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies have fallen short in their evaluation and oversight of the use of boilerplate clauses. To improve legal evaluation of boilerplate, the book offers a new analytical framework, one that takes into account the nature of the rights affected, the quality of the recipient's consent, and the extent of the use of these terms. It goes on to offer possibilities for new methods of boilerplate evaluation and control, and concludes by discussing positive steps that NGOs, legislators, regulators, courts, and scholars could take to bring about better practices.

This book analyses the legal and economic implications of the European Commission's plans to form a Capital Markets Union (CMU) in Europe, which will have a major impact on financial markets and institutions both in the region and beyond. A detailed introductory chapter provides a broad overview of the various aspects and challenges of the CMU proposals, whilst thematically grouped chapters cover the following areas: (i) general aspects, (ii) Brexit, (iii) financing innovation, (iv) raising capital on the capital markets, (v) fostering retail and institutional investment, (vi) leveraging banking capacity to support the wider economy, (vii) facilitating cross-border investing, and (viii) comparative aspects of capital market integration. The book provides high-quality analysis of the legal and economic issues in a practical context.

During the financial crisis, dramatic events undermined the global economy. Failures in individual markets and institutions sparked a financial crisis that resulted in political, social, and economic unrest in countries such as the United States, where a host of legislative acts have completely reshaped the regulatory landscape. This book investigates the impact of the financial crisis on the capital markets and regulation, with an emphasis on the structure of financial instruments and derivatives. It examines the crisis and how it altered financial markets and financial instruments. In the United States, the U.S. Federal Reserve policy under Chairman Bernanke, and the passage of various laws including the Dodd-Frank Act reshaped how markets function. The book also discusses the efforts to deal with public debt in the United States; the use of financial instruments as a means of accessing capital, managing risk and making money; regulation of securities and interest rates; the use of interest rates in asset valuation; derivatives, options, and swaps; the history and powers of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC); and litigation theories.

The American economy looks good. This is in the wake of a decade where dramatic failures in individual markets and institutions sparked a global financial crisis resulting in political, social, and economic unrest. In the United States, a host of legislative acts completely reshaped the regulatory landscape. This book investigates the structure and the workings of financial instruments and the capital markets; it considers market evolution after the crisis and the impact of Central Bank policy. In doing so, it provides the tools to recognize vulnerabilities in capital market trading activities. This edition serves to explain the legal and business considerations of capital market participation.

The phenomenal story of China’s ‘unprecedented disposition to engage the international legal order’ has been primarily told and examined by political scientists and economists. Since China adopted its ‘open door’ policy in 1978, which altered its development strategy from self-sufficiency to active participation in the world market and aimed at attracting foreign investment to fuel its economic development, the underlying policy for mobilizing inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) remains unchanged to date. With the 1997 launch of the ‘Going Global’ policy, an outward focus regarding foreign investment has been added, to circumvent trade barriers and improve the competitiveness of Chinese firms, typically its state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In order to accommodate inward and outward FDI, China’s participation in the international investment regime has underpinned its efforts to join multi-lateral investment-related legal instruments and conclude international investment agreements (IIAs). China began by selectively concluding bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with developed countries (major capital exporting states to China at that time), signing its first BIT with Sweden in 1982. Despite being a latecomer, over time China’s experience and practice with the international investment regime have allowed it to evolve towards liberalizing its IIAs regime and balancing the duties and benefits associated with IIAs. The book spans a broad spectrum of China’s contemporary international investment law and policy: domestic foreign investment law and reforms, tax policy, bilateral investment treaties, free trade agreements, G20 initiatives, the ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative, international dispute resolution, and inter-regime coordination.

This book provides a practical guide to the Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010 together with comparative international case studies. It provides a thorough analysis of the Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010 (which provides a modern statutory framework for domestic and international arbitration in Scotland) and the most important current issues that are arising in the field of international commercial arbitration. It includes a number of highly relevant legal case studies that compare Scottish and international practice. These provide a practical insight into the various aspects of arbitration. It also includes a number of chapters on international practice. These cover UNCITRAL Model Law, UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, institutional arbitration rules, and International Bar Association arbitration guidelines.

The financial crisis has brought about a revival of state protectionism across the globe. Most Western leaders have made a virtue of big government and state intervention; bail-outs and Sovereign Wealth Funds have been among the first responses to the economic contraction. Company law rules are one of the instruments frequently used to restrict or to discourage integration or to deter foreign investment. Examples of the new protectionism can be seen in a wide range of legislative and regulatory measures, for instance state measures preventing foreign takeovers, ‘golden shares’ or laws on foreign direct investment targeting Sovereign Wealth Funds, mainly from Asia. This book presents research by a number of company law and EU law experts. The chapters cover a broad range of topics, spanning from takeovers/mergers over the one share-one vote debate through to the foreclosure of markets against Sovereign Wealth Funds.

This book provides an exposition of company law from a comparative perspective. It analyses important policy issues in the area of company law, including the emergence and nature of the business corporation, EU company law, incorporation and corporate representation, agency problems in the firm, rights of stakeholders and shareholders, minority shareholder protection in corporate control transactions, legal capital, and piercing the corporate veil, as well as corporate insolvency and restructuring law. The book’s main focus is the law of public and private companies in the common law sense (the law of partnerships is referred to and taken into account as necessary). The book’s analysis encompasses the corporate laws of the US, the UK, Germany, and France, as well as the legislative measures adopted by the EU and the relevant case law of the Court of Justice of the EU. It includes edited and, where necessary, translated extracts from leading company case law. The cases are discussed and interpreted in the context of the national and European regulatory frameworks and in light of economic and legal theory, as well as legal history.

This book is about testamentary formalities, that is to say, about the requirements which the law of succession imposes in order for a person to make a will. How are wills made? What precisely are the rules — as to the signature of the testator, the use of witnesses, the need for a notary public or lawyer, and so on? Is there is a choice of will-type and, if so, which type is used most often and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each? How common is will-making or do most people die intestate? What happens if formalities are not observed? How can requirements of form be explained and justified? What is the legal history of wills, the state of the law today, and the prospects for the future? Is this a fruitful topic for comparative law? The book explores these questions through a representative sample of countries in Europe as well as in the USA, Latin America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. A final chapter draws the threads together and offers an overall assessment of the development of wills and will-making in Europe and beyond.

This book presents a detailed study on compensation and restitution in investor state arbitration pursuant to investment treaties. The study begins by examining the historical roots of the principles of reparation, restitution, and compensation in international law as reflected in the landmark Chorzów Factory case. The roots of these principles are traced to Roman law and private law concepts that entered into the European continent's legal systems. Moving to modern times, the study focuses on the principle of reparation set out in the Chorzów Factory case and its requirement that reparation put the aggrieved party in the ‘hypothetical position’ that would have existed if not for the wrongful act. Restitution, both material and judicial, is discussed as a form of reparation. Compensation, by far the more common form of reparation in modern international investment disputes, is discussed in detail. In dealing with compensation for expropriation, this book examines the recent trends in which lawful and unlawful expropriation cases are distinguished and the impact that this distinction can have on the amount of compensation. This book additionally outlines some of the main valuation and accounting methods used in setting the hypothetical position to measure compensation due. Various forms of supplemental compensation, such as moral damages, interest, or arbitration costs, may also be necessary to fully restore the hypothetical position; these are discussed along with applicable limitations. This study also sets out important principles that may limit compensation generally, such as causation and the prohibition on double counting.

This work develops a functional concept of the employer in the hope of overcoming the theoretical and practical problems arising from the ascription of responsibility in fragmented employment settings. A first part analyses two conflicting strands in the received concept of the employer, simultaneously identified as a single party to a bilateral contract and defined through the exercise of a range of employer functions. As a result of this tension, full employment law coverage is restricted to a narrow paradigm scenario where a single legal entity exercises all employer functions, and fails to grapple with the rise of complex work arrangements, from temporary agency work to corporate groups and Private Equity investors. The second part illustrates the practical implications of these developments: regulatory obligations are placed on inappropriate entities, and workers may find themselves without recourse to employment law protection. A subsequent chapter compares this situation with German law, where a sophisticated apparatus has been developed to regulate employment in corporate groups. The final part reconceptualizes the employer, defining it as the entity, or combination of entities, exercising functions regulated in a particular domain of employment law. Each of the two strands of the received concept is addressed in turn to demonstrate how this openly multi-functional approach overcomes the rigidities of the current concept without abandoning an underlying unitary definition. As a result, employment law obligations fasten on the entity, or combination of entities, exercising the relevant employer functions, regardless of the formal legal organization of the enterprise in question.

This book analyses whether the concept of monetary sovereignty is evolving under the impact of economic globalization and increasing financial integration, and assesses what this implies. Chapter 1 reviews the origins of the concept of monetary sovereignty and concludes that, as a dynamic concept with both positive and normative components, monetary sovereignty cannot become eroded under the impact of legal and economic constraints. Chapter 2 examines the ongoing hybridization of international monetary law arising from changes in the sources of this body of law, from the unsuitability of the categories of “hard” and “soft” law for characterizing all normative evolutions in this field, and from the emergence of transnational monetary law. Chapter 3 scrutinizes the phenomenon of exchange rate misalignment under monetary and trade law. Intrinsically related, it assesses which aspects of the IMF’s legal framework should be reformed to tackle contemporary challenges to the stability of the international monetary system, such as global current account imbalances. Chapter 4 analyses the increasing regionalization of monetary sovereignty through monetary union movements. In this context, relevant aspects of the European sovereign debt crisis are examined in detail. It is argued that, as long as transferring sovereign powers to a monetary union is what provides a state’s population with maximum monetary and financial stability, the underlying transfers are not a surrender of monetary sovereignty, but its effective exercise under the form of cooperative sovereignty. Finally, chapter 5 looks into the ongoing reorganization of the international financial architecture and assesses whether the experience of the Global Financial Crisis has prompted states to rethink the way sovereign powers in monetary and financial matters are exercised.

This book is a study of the foundations and structure of contract law. It has both a theoretical purpose and a pedagogic purpose. It moves from trust to promise to the nuts and bolts of contract law. The book shows that contract law has an underlying unifying moral and practical structure. There may be more legal detail in this book than the theorist requires (as in the discussions of offer and acceptance and conditions), and more theory than is necessary for the law student (as in the early discussion of the morality of promising). However, the overall two purposes support each other in an effective and comprehensive study of contract law. This second edition retains the original text, and includes a new Preface. It also includes a lengthy postscript that takes account of scholarly and practical developments in the field over the last thirty years, especially the large and rich law and economics literature.

This book introduces and develops contract governance as a new approach to contract theory. It thereby aims at setting an international and interdisciplinary research agenda for modern contract law. Contract governance combines insights from governance research and contract theory. As an umbrella term, contract governance therefore covers various and very diverse issues of governance in contract law and contract practice—just as corporate governance does for company law and finance. While the concept of governance was originally developed in Williamson’s seminal article with a view to the ‘governance of contractual relations’, it has ironically not received much attention in general contract law theory so far. Yet contract governance appears to be an important and indeed necessary complement to corporate governance and in fact is the second, equally important pillar of governance research in the core of private law. Contract and organization are distinct forms of cooperation, yet they are complementary and, in some cases, contract and organization can be alternative instruments for the same goals. Moreover, the market mechanism as such requires an organizational framework which may exert an influence on market results and which is open to a governance analysis. Contract governance opens up the perspective for its various incentives and regulatory mechanisms. In that respect, governance research goes beyond traditional contract law theory: It can enhance ‘better’ regulation, for example by helping to avoid misdirected regulation and counter-intentional effects. Contract governance may thus help preserve individual freedom, as it may contribute to less intrusive regulation.