Current Books

The Age of Rebuilding: Sketches of the New Italian Private Law

Guido Alpa
Published: July 2007

Italian private law is undergoing a complex and fascinating process of evolution. Its Roman and French roots and the legacy of the codification age are now merged with EC Law, and with other sources of law, like case law, and even with the results of commercial practice.

This book is divided into five parts. The first is devoted to the resolution of some of the most important and difficult problems in private law: the definition of personal injury and the application of various methods of calculation of damages; the hypotheses of strict liability in tort; environmental damage; freedom of contract; and the results of the application of the EC Directive on unfair clauses in consumer contracts. The second looks at commercial law, considering consumers' interests; financial services (and the Parmalat case); competition and fair trade; mergers; and the transparency of banking contracts. The legal profession, as now regulated in Italy, is the subject developed in Part III. The book ends (Parts IV and V) with reviews of some relevant contributions of English jurists to the discussion of the present needs of legal systems in Europe and with an essay on the new aspects (and meanings) of legal certainty.

Legal systems in Europe are now converging, and the acquis communautaire is helping this process. Legal cultures are merging too; legislators and judges can profit from foreign experiences when they try to achieve a satisfactory balancing of conflicting interests. the needs of a general codification are now challenged; it is necessary to 'rebuild' the old machine of the law, taking into account the living sources emerging within society. In Italy as well as in Europe at large, soft law is now replacing hard law.

Prices
Member: £42
Non-Member: £70

WTO Law and Process: Proceedings of the 2005 and 2006 Annual WTO Conferences

Federico Ortino, Sergey Ripinsky
Published: May 2007

Each year in May, leading academics, national and international policy-makers, judges, legal practitioners and NGO representatives gather in London to discuss topical issues of the world trading system. London's Annual WTO conference, organized jointly by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and the Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown University Law Center, has grown into the most important annual event of its kind in the field.

This book collects the presentations and discussions at the last two Annual WTO Conferences in 2005 and 2006. Each conference addressed a broad range of topics relating to the WTO dispute settlement system (such as treaty interpretation, the Appellate Body's role in public international law, the relevance of non-trade interests and values, challenges of compliance, the principle of judicial economy) as well as broader institutional and constitutional issues facing the WTO (such as the impact of WTO disputes on the Doha negotiations, the relationship between trade and investment disputes and the role of the WTO in regulatory convergence).

This publication seeks to preserve the abundance of insights and ideas that were shared by very distinguished experts in the field as well as recording the ensuing debate on these interesting and complex topics.

Prices
Member: £51
Non-Member: £85

Antarctica: Legal and Environmental Challenges for the Future

Gillian Triggs, Anna Riddell
Published: April 2007

Since its inception almost 50 years ago, the Antarctic Treaty System has evolved to provide a stable and remarkably effective regime for management of the coldest, driest and windiest continent on earth. New challenges to this legal regime are now posed by contemporary problems such as climate change, tourism, and fishing and whaling in the Southern Ocean. For State Parties to the web of treaties that make up the Antarctic system of governance, the 21st century brings new demands for environmental protection while ensuring reasonable access for scientists and tourists alike. The papers in this collection were presented at a conference organized by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office to coincide with the Twenty-Ninth Meeting of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties held in Edinburgh in June 2006. The authors, experienced Antarctic 'watchers', discuss their views on:

• 'Illegal, unreported and unregulated' fishing
  
• Vessel-based pollution
  
• Navigation through ice-covered waters
  
• Antarctic Treaty Secretariat
  
• Liability of operators and their States for environmental damage
  
• Tourism

Included with these scholarly papers are all the international agreements that make up the Antarctic Treaty System along with the Measures, Decisions and Resolutions of the Twenty-Ninth Consultative Party Meeting and the Edinburgh Declaration supporting the scientific research of the forthcoming International Polar Year starting in March 2007.

The collection provides an accessible analysis of the legal and environmental issues for Antarctica in the first decade of the 21st century for government officials and advisors, scholars, students, legal practitioners and scientists.

Prices
Member: £39
Non-Member: £65

Current Competition Law Volume V

Philip Marsden, Michael Hutchings OBE
Published: April 2007

This book is a collection of papers and speeches given at the following conferences of the British Institute's competition programme in 2005-2006:

• the Annual Merger Control Conference (November 2005);
• a conference on the Reform of Article 82 (February 2006);
• the annual Competition Litigation Conference (February 2006); and
• the annual two-day Trans-Atlantic Antitrust Dialogue (July 2006).

Research papers written by the British Institute's Competition Law Forum on private actions, reform of Article 82, and consumer detriment are also included.

Areas covered include in-depth analyses of such topical areas as cartels, pricing practices and mergers. The book also provides comparative perspectives from European and North American experts, as well as important statements of policy by competition officials.

Prices
Member: £63
Non-Member: £105

Current Competition Law Volumes I–V

Published: April 2007

This five-volume collection contains papers and discussions from the Institute's competition law programme from 2002 to 2007.

Areas covered by Current Competition Law include in-depth analyses of such topical issues as cartels, pricing practices and mergers, and provide comparative perspectives from European and North American experts, as well as important statements of policy by competition officials.

Prices
Member: £120
Non-Member: £200

UKNCCL 16-volume set

Published: January 2007

This collection contains 16 volumes published by the United Kingdom National Committee of Comparative Law, including:

• Social Security and Family Law
• Trusts and Trust-Like Devices
• Comparative Product Liability
• The Effect of Treaties in Domestic Law
• United Kingdom Law in the 1980s
• United Kingdom Law in the 1990s
• Cross-Border Insolvency: Comparative Dimensions
• Governmental Liability: A Comparative Study
• The Option of Litigating in Europe
• UK Law in the mid-1990s (part 1)
• UK Law in the mod-1990s (part 2)
• The Limits of Restitutionary Claims: A Comparative Analysis
• The Europeanisation of Law
• UK Law for the Millennium
• Comparative Law Facing the 21st Century
• Studies in UK Law 2002
• Judicial Comparativism in Human Rights Cases

Prices
Member: £90
Non-Member: £150

European Banking Law

George Alexander Walker
Published: December 2006

This book is concerned with the nature and content of the underlying policy that has been developed within Europe in the banking and financial law area. While banking and financial markets constitute essential commercial sectors within Europe in their own right as well as provide a number of fundamental support services within any national economy, this is an area that has been given little dedicated attention until now. Only recently, have the importance of financial markets and financial integration within Europe (and elsewhere) been properly and fully realized. This publication attempts to understand the origin, evolution and legal validity of the core policy components involved in securing this integration within Europe and explore the operational effectiveness and value of the final financial programme constructed. This is a seminal work in the area of cross-border and regional banking and financial integration.

Prices
Member: £57
Non-Member: £95

Corporate Governance Post-Enron: Comparative and International Perspectives

Joseph J Norton, Jonathan Rickford
Published: November 2006

No sooner than the Enron scandal (and other major US corporate failures unfolded) it became apparent the sundry issues of corporate governance that were being brought into question and deliberation were not simply issues peculiar to the US corporate governance context (which are covered in detail in this volume by leading US experts), but were of major concern also throughout Western Europe (aspects which are governed by UK, Italian, French and Scandanavian experts and which touch upon European scandals such as Parmalat). In fact, the corporate governance issues of the Enron débâcle are of a broader 'global concern', where the experiences of developing, emerging and transitioning economies present their own special perspectives and lessons to be learned (here experts from Russia and East Asia make significant contributions). In addition, the increasing interconnection of law and accounting rears its head as being of core importance-another topic that is discussed in detail throughout this volume. Further, special types of corporations (eg regulated financial institutions) and transactions (eg mergers and acquisitions) generate their own additional issues: these are also covered within this book.

Prices
Member: £57
Non-Member: £95

Representational Fairness in WTO Rule-Making

Mohamed Omar Gad
Published: September 2006

Original price:£95

Website sale price: £60

This book examines representational fairness in WTO rule-making. The context of examination is the pharmaceutical-related provisions of the TRIPS Agreement and the interests of developing countries and pharmaceutical multinational enterprises therein. The book analyses the negotiation and implementation periods of the specified TRIPS provisions and the legal disputes that arose, covering the period from the mid-1980s, until the adoption of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health in November 2001.

An imbalance reflected in the negotiated text in favour of pharmaceutical MNEs' interests during the negotiation process is characterized as 'top-down' rule-making. Reacting to this, developing countries exerted pressure from the 'bottom up' hindering the implementation of these TRIPS provisions. This retorting action, while instilling a degree of balance, congests the TRIPS regime and the larger WTO system with additional dispute proceedings leading to strains in North-South relations. The volume concludes with selective suggestions focusing on the rule making process of the WTO and proposes measures to reduce the likelihood of a deficiency in representational fairness occurring in future negotiations.

Prices
Member: £36
Non-Member: £60

Independence, Accountability and the Judiciary

Guy Canivet, Mads Andenas
Published: July 2006

This new book explores the important and topical subject of judicial independence and judicial accountability. The tension between judicial independence and accountability leads to frequent controversy and even constitutional crises. Judicial independence and accountability are live issues in most countries. Modern constitutions (and international treaties establishing international courts) will have provisions about the independence of courts and judges. International law and principles are becoming increasingly important sources for the application of the independence principle. The different national solutions, and also those found for international courts, vary considerably. Presently, anti-terrorist measures adopted by national executives and legislatures continue to test judicial independence. The constitutional bases for judicial review, and on several levels, the court systems too, are in a process of change.

This book meets the need for comparative law material and analysis. Contributions from distinguished practitioners and academics place judicial independence and accountability within a comparative law perspective, showing how legal systems across the world have adapted to recent developments in this field.

Prices
Member: £48
Non-Member: £80