The linkages between human rights and multilateral trade have been a subject of considerable debate in the last decade or so. The emergence of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 as the nodal agency for multilateral trade in goods and services led to its intrusion into many issues that...

The UK Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 (CBIR) permits discretionary relief in the form of applying foreign insolvency law. There is no convincing common-law objection to the application of foreign law.The ability to apply foreign law pursuant to the CBIR is consistent with Chapter 15 of...

This article seeks to close a gap in the literature on the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in the Middle East. In particular, it examines unprecedented developments in countries situated in the Persian Gulf where a range of innovative institutions outside the domestic court system...

Intellectual Property Rights (“IPR”) can be regarded as an incentive for an inventor or an author, granted or recognized by a state. IPR are enforceable erga omnes within the boundaries of the state. Member States of the Paris Convention Union and other relevant conventions are expected to...

This paper develops a proxy measure of the inequality of influence on the basis of survey evidence from 2002 Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) conducted among 6,500 firms in 27 transition countries. We refer to the resulting inequality as crony bias in the political...

This paper reports on the 2009 update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) research project, covering 212 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance between 1996 and 2008: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism,...

The authors report on the latest version of the worldwide governance indicators, covering 213 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance from 1996 until end-2005: voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, regulatory...

This paper reports on the latest update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) research project, covering 212 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance between 1996 and 2007: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism,...

Kaufmann, Kraay and Mastruzzi present the newly updated estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 209 countries and territories for five time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004. These indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance,...

Traditionally, national governance and corruption challenges have been seen as: i) particularly daunting in the poorer countries, with the richer world viewed as exemplary; ii) anchored within a legalistic framework and focused on formal institutions, iii) a challenge within public sectors, and,...