Comparative and Foreign Law Commons^™

The Civil Codes Of Libya And Syria: Hybridity, Durability, And Post-Revolution Viability In The Aftermath Of The Arab Spring, Dan E. Stigall

Dan E Stigall

The Arab Spring sent shockwaves through the political landscape of the Middle East and North Africa and upended long-standing authoritarian regimes throughout the region in rapid succession. Among the many countries touched by the Arab Spring, however, Libya and Syria have been among the most profoundly impacted, experiencing institutional deficits that complicate efforts to resolve ongoing conflicts and now threaten regional stability.

The effects of such instability pose a threat to the international community, making the stabilization of these countries a matter of international concern. In order to transition from conflict to peace and sustainable development in Libya and Syria ...

Los Tormentos De La Teoría Del Contacto Social: Contextualizando (Otra Vez) Una Categoría Jurídica, Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

No abstract provided.

Financial Innovation In East Asia, Ross P. Buckley, Douglas W. Arner, Michael Panton

Seattle University Law Review

Finance is important for development. However, the Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998 and the global financial crisis of 2008 highlighted the serious risks associated with financial liberalization and excessive innovation. East Asia’s strong focus on economic growth has necessitated a careful balancing of the benefits of financial liberalization and innovation against the very real risks inherent in financial sector development. This Article examines the role of regulatory, legal, and institutional infrastructure in supporting both financial development and limiting the risk of financial crises. The Article then addresses a series of issues with particular developmental significance in the region ...

The Timing And Source Of Regulation, Frank Partnoy

Seattle University Law Review

The distinction between specific concrete rules and general abstract principles has engaged legal theorists for decades. This rules–principles distinction has also become increasingly important in corporate and securities law, as well as financial market regulation. This Article adds two important variables to the rules–principles debate: timing and source. Although these two variables are relevant to legal theory generally, the specific goal here is not to address and engage the rules versus principles literature directly. Rather, the goal here is to ask whether the debate about financial market regulation might benefit from a more transparent analysis of temporal and ...

Deferred Prosecutions In The Corporate Sector: Lessons From Libor, Justin O'Brien, Olivia Dixon

Seattle University Law Review

Since 2008, the global economic downturn has significantly in-creased operating pressures on major corporations. Additionally, there has been a corresponding increase in corporate tolerance for corruption, which has coincided with a marked preference by regulators in settling, rather than litigating, enforcement actions. This Article argues that the expansion of prosecutorial authority without appropriate accountability restraints is a major tactical and strategic error. It evaluates whether the mechanism can be made subject to effective oversight. It argues that the current frame-work in the United States is highly problematic, leading to settlements that generate newspaper headlines but not necessarily cultural change. It ...

Are Defined Contribution Pension Plans Fit For Purpose In Retirement?, Jeremy R. Cooper

Seattle University Law Review

This Article considers the historical basis for the shift from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans, the structural and practical shortcomings of defined contribution plans, alternate pension models, and adjustments to existing retirement plan models that may offer a degree of protection to plan contributors. Like the United States, Australia is now realizing the limitations of a defined contribution retirement system insofar as it relates the provision of reliable retirement income for a population with increasing life expectancy. Unlike defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans provide a benefit based typically on time served and a predetermined proportion of either ...

Australia’S Experience With Foreign Direct Investment By State Controlled Entities: A Move Towards Xenophobia Or Greater Openness?, Greg Golding

Seattle University Law Review

Over the last few years, there has been considerable debate in Australia as to the appropriate regulation of foreign direct investment by entities affiliated with foreign governments. During that time, Australia has been a significant beneficiary of investment by sovereign wealth funds from many foreign jurisdictions, particularly by Chinese state owned enterprises. The Australian government, similar to governments of many developed Western countries, has struggled to properly calibrate its policy settings for regulating this type of investment activity. This Article considers the Australian regulatory regime and assesses Australia’s experience in regulating those investment flows during this period.

Enhancing The Transparency Dialogue In The “Santiago Principles” For Sovereign Wealth Funds, Adam D. Dixon

Seattle University Law Review

The financial crisis ultimately caused Western governments to welcome sovereign wealth fund (SWF) investment as a way to put a floor under collapsing markets and to provide a set of voluntary principles that would underwrite SWFs’ claim to legitimacy in the international community. In the autumn of 2007, then U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund, convened the International Working Group of SWFs (IWG) to draft a set of generally accepted principles and practices. These principles are referred to as the “Santiago Principles.” The implicit objective of these twenty-four voluntary principles is to promote ...

Law And Finance: The Case Of Stock Market Development In China, Zhong Zhang Dr

Zhong Zhang Dr

In just over 2 decades China has developed a stock market that is now one of the biggest in the world. This is puzzling, considering that law in general and investor protection in particular in China is widely regarded as weak. However, a thorough examination reveals that, far from being a counterexample, the case of China lends strong support to the “law matters”’ thesis. Granted, investor protection counted for little during the rapid growth of the market before mid-2001. But by the early 2000s, outrageous securities frauds had become endemic, bringing the market to a serious crisis. Faced with a ...

¿La Noción De Contrato Es Homogénea?, Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

Renzo E. Saavedra Velazco

No abstract provided.

Facilitating The Commons Inside Out, Hanoch Dagan, Tsilly Dagan

Tel Aviv University Law Faculty Papers

Commons property is a true challenge to the law, especially in a legal context that respects individual mobility, which is key to freedom and autonomy. While a tragedy of the commons is not inevitable, the sustainability – let alone flourishing – of the commons is far from obvious either. But the rewards of the latter trajectory are critical: a successful commons property can generate significant economic benefits, due to its intrinsic advantages of economies of scale, risk-spreading, specialization, and synergy. These benefits multiply in the context of social commons property regimes that function as the loci and engines of meaningful interpersonal relationships ...

Homeschooling As A Constitutional Right: A Claim Under A Close Look At Meyer And Pierce And The Lochner-Based Assumptions They Made About State Regulatory Power, David M. Wagner

David N. Wagner

In 2012, a German family of would-be homeschoolers, the Romeikes, fled to the U.S. to escape fines and child removal for this practice, which has been illegal in Germany since 1938. The Sixth Circuit, in denying their asylum request, conspicuously did not slam the door on the possibility that if the Romeikes were U.S. citizens, they might have a right to homeschool. This article takes up that question, and argues that Meyer and Pierce, the classic cases constitutionalizing the right to use private schools, point beyond those holdings towards a right to homeschool; and that the permissible state ...

The Discrimination Between National And Foreign Investors In The Lebanese Corporate Law, Khodr Fakih

khodr fakih

A country that treats foreign and domestic investors alike in regards to commercial dealings motivates foreign investors to play a fundamental role in stimulating economy in such country. However, non-discriminatory treatment is sometimes undesirable from the perspective of public policy. Most national laws provide certain measures of discriminating between foreign and domestic investors in order to give its citizens more privileges and advantages over foreign investors. This is applicable in the Lebanese Commercial legal system. This paper discusses the discrimination that is implemented by the Lebanese Commercial Law between Lebanese and non-Lebanese investors specifically in regards to commercial representation and ...

Brics, A Multi-Centre “Legal Network”?, Lucia Scaffardi

Lucia Scaffardi

The paper analyzes the phenomenon of the BRICs group and its transformation into BRICS. From the first Summit, whose final declarations were mainly centered on economic, financial and commercial themes, the group attention has broadened its horizons, as to encompass health, agriculture, environment, international relations. The BRICS working method seems to suggest a new pattern of inter-state relations, based on peer-to peer cooperation, experiences sharing and “soft” policy transfer. Given the difficult classification of this new “entity”, the author suggests to consider it more as a network, where there is not a singular hegemony power, but where the relevance of ...

The Beijing Treaty On Free Expression: How Stopping Digital Piracy May Cost The World Free Expression, Michael A. Shinall

Boston College International and Comparative Law Review

The Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances grants, for the first time, international rights to performers to protect their work in an audiovisual medium. This is a step forward in protecting audiovisual media from international piracy or infringement, but comes at a cost. While performers’ economic rights are kept in check by fair use defenses (favored uses designed to promote the creation of new works) performers’ moral rights from the Beijing Treaty contain no counterbalancing defense. This Comment argues that without this counterbalancing defense, performers may assert these moral rights against other artists unchecked, consequently chilling the free expression that copyright ...

Cohabiting With The Accused: The Formal Limits Of Spousal Privilege Affirmed In Van Der Heijden V. Netherlands, Shae Fitzpatrick

Boston College International and Comparative Law Review

In the wake of Europe’s evolving social landscape of family life, the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) decision in Van der Heijden v. Netherlands sheds light on the scope of spousal privilege. The ECtHR found that the Netherlands’ interference in Van der Heijden’s nontraditional family life did not violate her Article 8 right guaranteed by the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms . In its decision, the ECtHR upheld the formal limits of Dutch spousal privilege even though it did not protect Van der Heijden in her de facto relationship with the accused. Despite ...

V.C. V. Slovakia: A Reproductive Rights Victory Misses The Mark, Lindsay Hoyle

Boston College International and Comparative Law Review

In V.C. v. Slovakia, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) should have held that Slovakia’s intentional, systematic policy of coerced sterilization of Roma women violated the discrimination provision of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The ECtHR, however, is reluctant to find Article 14 discrimination violations unless the government fails to effectively investigate concrete evidence suggesting racial animus, thereby amounting to a procedural violation. In V.C., a discrimination violation was nonetheless appropriate in light of the importance of the Convention rights violated, disproportionate accounts of hospitals sterilizing Roma women, and other ...

Meaningful Journalism Or "Infotainment"? The Failure To Define The Public Interest In Axel Springer Ag V. Germany, Kathryn Manza

Boston College International and Comparative Law Review

Although American courts provide wide discretion for freedom of the press, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ensures that the right to privacy enjoys equal footing with freedom of expression in Europe. When navigating the grey areas between these two frequently opposing rights, the European Court of Human Rights allows private information about a public figure to be published only to the extent the information contributes to the public interest. In Axel Springer AG v. Germany, the court missed a valuable opportunity to provide a clear standard for what the public interest encompasses. Although the ...

United States V. Dire: The Somali Pirates And The Fourth Circuit's Choice To Apply An Evolving "Law Of Nations" To The Problem, Samuel B. Richard

Boston College International and Comparative Law Review

Maritime piracy poses a grave threat to global shipping. In the United States, federal law criminalizes piracy as defined by international law, or the law of nations. Recently, in United States v. Dire, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals interpreted the law of nations surrounding piracy. Dire concerned the conviction of five Somali nationals under the piracy statute. The defendants argued that piracy requires a robbery, and since no robbery occurred, their convictions should be overturned. Examining two differing approaches by lower District Courts, the Fourth Circuit concluded that piracy does not require robbery because the law of nations evolves ...

Scoppola V. Italy (No. 3): The Uncertain Progress Of Prisoner Voting Rights In Europe, Javier R. Jaramillo

Boston College International and Comparative Law Review

This Comment examines European disenfranchisement of prisoners in light of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees a right to free elections through Article 3 of Protocol No. 1. While many European states continue the longstanding practice of denying wrongdoers the right to vote, at least under certain circumstances, this practice has come under increasing criticism over the last several decades. In recent years, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has decided several cases addressing this issue, but these decisions have failed to clarify under what circumstances it is permissible for a state to deny prisoners, and former ...