Investments made through foreign special purpose entities (SPEs) are often measured in the same category as foreign direct investment – yet the beneficial owners of such entities are often unknown. This Perspective presents a Russian example of the distortion in national FDI statistics arising...

Companies registered in offshore jurisdictions play a persistent role in the intermediation of financial flows in and out of emerging market economies. There are competing explanations for the use of these structures; narratives include, at one end of the spectrum, the role of tax evasion and...

The perception of rising wealth inequality has led to calls for the creation of a central database on worldwide ownership of financial assets, in other words a “global financial register.” Economists Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman have proposed that this register be built using the...

The measurement of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and stocks between home countries and host countries is muddied by the widespread use of “special purpose entities” (SPEs), including for the round-tripping of domestic investment. Many national statistical bodies still do not...

In the period 1992-2013 a significant portion of the Russian economy was placed in corporate or contractual structures that were governed by foreign law rather than Russian law. The largest Russian commercial disputes, including between Russian litigants, were heard in foreign courts or...

This article was originally published in Business Law International at [2005] 6(3) BLI 372. It examines three techniques that have been used to create obligations of public international law on states that are parties to commercial contracts with private parties. The first technique, referred to...

This paper provides a high level review of Georgian tax law at the beginning of the 2000s in a sector that was (and still remains) key to the Georgian economy. It points out the significance of the project specific exemptions that were granted by the Georgian government to several transcaspian...