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Full-Text Articles in Law

Western Unionizing The Hawala: The Privatization Of Hawalas And Lender Liability, Smriti S. Nakhasi Jan 2007

Western Unionizing The Hawala: The Privatization Of Hawalas And Lender Liability, Smriti S. Nakhasi

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Hawala, an ancient banking system used predominantly in South Asia and the Middle East, has recently posed a regulatory quandary for law enforcement and capital markets.1 This comment addresses the pitfalls of a prominently proposed, well-intentioned solution to bring the hawala system into the modern banking structure and under the regulatory eye of law enforcement. As will be seen, the inherent nature of the hawala system and the lender risks associated with privatizing create enormous obstacles to realizing these privatization efforts. The problem with many proposed solutions is that they try to impose guidelines upon a system based on cultural, …


Hedge Fund Regulation: What The Fsa Is Doing Right And Why The Sec Should Follow The Fsa's Lead, Lartease Tiffith Jan 2007

Hedge Fund Regulation: What The Fsa Is Doing Right And Why The Sec Should Follow The Fsa's Lead, Lartease Tiffith

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Recent news about hedge funds' successes and failures, and in some cases outright fraud, has increased the public's interest in a field that often prefers to cloak itself in a hidden veil. One can analogize hedge fund managers and the hedge fund industry to the nostalgic era of cowboys and the wild frontier. Hedge fund managers, like cowboys of the old days, do not want to be regulated. Just as the cowboys entering the frontier appreciated the lack of law or authority over their actions, today's hedge fund managers appreciate the lack of law or authority over their actions. And …


Development In International Energy Law, David Van Zandt Jan 2007

Development In International Energy Law, David Van Zandt

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

International energy law embodies a matter of keen interest that affects the daily lives of citizens in developing and developed countries worldwide. Among numerous other effects, international energy law influences gas prices, wages, employment rates and domestic market regulations. The weight of these direct consequences of international energy law and policy led to the creation of this year's symposium topic. The goal of this year's symposium is to identify issues arising from various international energy laws as well as to understand the effects that recent international events, including the fall of Enron, the creation of NAFTA and the political unrest …


Arbitration Of International Oil, Gas, And Energy Disputes In Latin America, Alexia Brunet, Juan Agustin Lentini Jan 2007

Arbitration Of International Oil, Gas, And Energy Disputes In Latin America, Alexia Brunet, Juan Agustin Lentini

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

An increase in global reliance on fossil fuels has prompted greater discussion on energy security. For the United States, interest has focused on ensuring that countries in the Western Hemisphere, which currently supply roughly half of U.S. imports of crude oil and petroleum products, remain stable sources of energy. While concerns have focused on political instability and a rising interest in the hemisphere's energy resources by China and India, the conversation centers on a hemispheric trend toward resource nationalism. Resource nationalism is exemplified by the global trend of placing the world's oil reserves under the control of national oil companies …


Methanex V. United States: The Realignment Of Nafta Chapter 11 With Environmental Regulation, Kara Dougherty Jan 2007

Methanex V. United States: The Realignment Of Nafta Chapter 11 With Environmental Regulation, Kara Dougherty

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In July 1999, the Canadian firm Methanex Corporation ("Methanex") notified the United States of its intention to seek approximately $1 billion in damages for the United States's alleged breach of Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement ("NAFTA"). NAFTA, a trilateral agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico (the "Parties"), gives private, foreign investors from each country the right to bring claims against another Party under certain circumstances. Methanex claimed a California measure banning the use of the gasoline additive MTBE discriminated against and expropriated its investments. The case of Methanex v. United States highlights two unintended …


Class Actions And Group Litigation In Switzerland, Samuel P. Baumgartner Jan 2007

Class Actions And Group Litigation In Switzerland, Samuel P. Baumgartner

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In what follows, I hope to contribute to that information with a look at group litigation devices in Switzerland. To begin with, Switzerland is one of the many countries that do not currently have an American-style class action. Suggestions to examine the possibility of introducing such a procedural vehicle have met with considerable opposition. Some of the reasons for that opposition are grounded in reactions to litigation in the United States. More broadly, however, there seems to be a general unease with civil litigation involving more than the traditional plaintiff and defendant and an occasional individual joined out of an …


The Equivalence Approach To Securities Regulation, Tzung-Bor Wei Jan 2007

The Equivalence Approach To Securities Regulation, Tzung-Bor Wei

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

It is undisputed that the world's financial markets are becoming increasingly international and increasingly integrated. "How should regulators respond?" is a hotly contested issue. Academic literature debates two competing approaches to international securities regulation--"harmonization" and "regulatory competition." Harmonization is the idea that rules and regulations should be standardized across countries as much as possible. Countries may achieve harmonization by ceding lawmaking authority to an international body or agency; alternatively, countries may agree to enact similar rules through their normal, domestic rule-promulgating procedures. In contrast to the harmonization approach stands the regulatory competition approach. Under this model, countries do not coordinate …


Center Of Main Interests, International Insolvency Case Venue, And Equality Of Arms: The Eurofood Decision Of The European Court Of Justice, Samuel L. Bufford Jan 2007

Center Of Main Interests, International Insolvency Case Venue, And Equality Of Arms: The Eurofood Decision Of The European Court Of Justice, Samuel L. Bufford

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The European Court of Justice ("E.C.J.") issued a ruling on May 2, 2006 in the Eurofood case, finding that the commencement of an insolvency case for Eurofood in Ireland gave the Irish court priority under E.U. law over a similar insolvency case commenced shortly thereafter in Italy. The E.C.J.'s ruling responded to the Supreme Court of Ireland's referral to the E.C.J. of five questions of E.U. law based on the E.U. Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings ("E.U. Regulation"). The Irish Supreme Court had referred these questions to the E.C.J. preliminary to deciding a pending appeal of the Dublin High Court's decision …


Comparison Between U.S. And E.U. Antitrust Treatment Of Tying Claims Against Microsoft: When Should The Bundling Of Computer Software Be Permitted, James F. Ponsoldt, Christohper D. David Jan 2007

Comparison Between U.S. And E.U. Antitrust Treatment Of Tying Claims Against Microsoft: When Should The Bundling Of Computer Software Be Permitted, James F. Ponsoldt, Christohper D. David

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

This article will analyze the recent U.S. and E.U. judicial approaches to tying charges which stem from software bundling. Part II reviews U.S. tying jurisprudence both generally and as applied to software bundling. Part III outlines the D.C. Circuit's approach to Microsoft's Windows/Internet Explorer bundle. Part IV briefly covers tying jurisprudence in the European Union. Part V describes the European Commission's ("E.C.") analysis of Microsoft's Window/Windows Media Player bundle. By comparing the two approaches, Part VI shows that neither approach is ideal: although the U.S. approach offers too little guidance to software manufacturers seeking to avoid liability and unduly discounts …


Code Or Contract: Whether Wal-Mart's Code Of Conduct Creates A Contractual Obligation Between Wal-Mart And The Employees Of Its Foreign Suppliers, Katherine E. Kenny Jan 2007

Code Or Contract: Whether Wal-Mart's Code Of Conduct Creates A Contractual Obligation Between Wal-Mart And The Employees Of Its Foreign Suppliers, Katherine E. Kenny

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

This comment examines whether corporate codes of conduct and more specifically, Wal-Mart's Code of Conduct, are binding contracts between foreign suppliers and their employees or whether they are voluntary and non-contractual devices. An analysis of U.S. law and the text and implementation of Wal-Mart's Code of Conduct reveals that the Code should not be interpreted as a contract binding on foreign suppliers and their employees for the breach of contract for denial of minimum and overtime wages, the breach of contract for forced labor, and the breach of contract for denial of the fundamental right to freely associate. The comment …


Beyond Enron: Regulation In Energy Derivatives Trading, Alexia Brunet, Meredith Shafe Jan 2007

Beyond Enron: Regulation In Energy Derivatives Trading, Alexia Brunet, Meredith Shafe

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

The bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation in December 2002 is the biggest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history. The Houston-based company, formed in 1985, became the nation's seventh-largest company in revenue by buying electricity from generators and selling it to consumers. Because Enron made the market in energy trading, its collapse fundamentally altered the U.S. energy trading industry. Equally important, the disclosure of Enron's role in California's power market crisis shattered confidence in deregulated wholesale-electricity and natural gas markets, creating obstacles for new players seeking to restore confidence in energy trading markets. New market entrants offer their clients a more complete …


Legal Hurdles To Developing Wind Power As An Alternative Energy Source In The United States: Creative And Comparative Solutions, Adam M. Dinnell, Adam J. Russ Jan 2007

Legal Hurdles To Developing Wind Power As An Alternative Energy Source In The United States: Creative And Comparative Solutions, Adam M. Dinnell, Adam J. Russ

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

This article discusses how parties have used current domestic environmental laws to curb the development of a more "environmentally-friendly" alternative energy source: wind power. As the ever-increasing demand for oil and petroleum around the world leads to rising costs throughout the nation, investing in new energy sources is considered crucial to sustainable development in the United States. Wind power has the potential to serve as a clean, efficient, and renewable source of energy in the 21st Century. The further development of wind power could create a meaningful alternative energy supply, relaxing geopolitical and economic concerns over this country's strict century-old …


Addicted To The Pump, Shaneka Reese Jan 2007

Addicted To The Pump, Shaneka Reese

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Most of the world has acknowledged a growing problem with greenhouse gas emissions ("GHG"), and has expressed that acknowledgement by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol ("Kyoto"). The United States, however, has refused to ratify Kyoto. Automobiles are responsible for the largest portion of the global increase in carbon dioxide emissions. As part of the most powerful industry in the world, U.S. automakers are capable of reducing emissions as required by Kyoto. Adopting Kyoto will in fact prove beneficial to American automakers, by forcing them to adjust to the new market condition that has contributed to the ascendancy of foreign automakers--the desire …


From North-South Divide To Private-Public Debate: Revival Of The Calvo Doctrine And The Changing Landscape In International Investment Law, Wenhua Shan Jan 2007

From North-South Divide To Private-Public Debate: Revival Of The Calvo Doctrine And The Changing Landscape In International Investment Law, Wenhua Shan

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

After dominating Latin American states for over a century, the Calvo Doctrine has been widely described as "dead," particularly in the wake of the global tide of economic liberalization that began in the 1990s. However, some recent moves within and beyond Latin America suggest that this principle is not dead, but on the resurgence. The "Revival of Calvo" phenomenon signals a change of direction in international investment law: neo-liberalism no longer dominates international investment law-making, and a more balanced, and perhaps also a more conservative and nationalistic approach, is gaining ground. This Article explores these recent events and analyzes to …


Ec Reforms Of Corporate Governance And Capital Markets Law: Do They Tackle Insiders' Opportunism?, Luca Enriques, Matteo Gatti Jan 2007

Ec Reforms Of Corporate Governance And Capital Markets Law: Do They Tackle Insiders' Opportunism?, Luca Enriques, Matteo Gatti

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Company and capital markets laws are rapidly evolving everywhere: there are few countries around the world where they have not been the subject of reform or where at least a reform agenda has not been devised. There are various reasons for this, both global and local. Among the global (or common) reasons for reform, two at least deserve to be singled out: large-scale market crises or prominent economic scandals, and financial development.