Featured Articles
The Battle over the Election Ballot : A survey of the Movement to Reform the Director Election System for US Corporations
A Gilchrist Sparks III
James D Honaker
Although bitter proxy contests for corporate directorships occasionally make headlines in financial newspapers that follow US corporations, it is the absence of proxy contests at most stockholder meetings that is attracting the attention of corporate governance activists. In the wake of Enron and other scandals that undermined confidence in the current system for managing corporations, activists are demanding that stockholders play a greater role in corporate governance. These activists have targeted the director election system as one vehicle for enhancing stockholder power over corporate affairs.
Supply Options and Challenges for the Gas-Hungry Indian Market
Geoffrey Picton-Turbervill
Anthony Patten
The continued rise of the Indian economy and China’s growing appetite for foreign energy sources have become two of the major geopolitical issues of the nascent 21st century. Both within the Asia-Pacific region and as far afield as Africa and the Middle East, state-controlled Chinese oil and gas companies have demonstrated their willingness to bid for foreign oil and gas assets whenever and wherever available. India too is looking beyond its shores in order to satisfy its significant demand for energy.
Product Liability in Europe: The Hot Topics for 2007 and Beyond
Rod Freeman
Matthew Hibbert
The product liability risks in Europe for product manufacturers are very different to those they face in the United States. There is no question that the risks of uncontrollable litigation do not exist in the same way in any European country as they do in the US. However, product manufacturers must now deal with an increasingly challenging legal and regulatory regime, and it is now recognised that the European product liability environment, while different to that in the United States, presents significant risks that need to be understood and managed. It is also a changing environment, with important developments emerging on a number of fronts, both at EU and national levels.
Update on Pre-emption in Pharmaceutical Product Liability Cases
Chilton Davis Varner
Stephen B Devereaux
Meredith A Bunn
In January 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued regulations concerning prescription drug labelling. As part of the final rule, the FDA issued a formal statement of its position on a longrunning and hotly contested legal debate: pre-emption in pharmaceutical product liability cases.
Corruption in the Private Sector: The Growing Importance of Legislation Designed to Combat Private Corruption
Paul Gully-Hart
Traditionally, criminal sanctions were reserved for corruption of public officials based on the assumption that the state should intervene where public funds or public duties are at stake. Therefore, corruption in the private sector was originally dealt with by means of civil remedies and self-regulation. In other words, the criminalisation of private bribery is a recent phenomenon the importance of which has been rapidly growing in the last years.
Recent International Trends in Business Crime Defence
Monty Raphael
Since I last sat down to write the introduction to Who’s Who, the world’s media have continued to report an ever-expanding list of business crime causes célèbres.
The Main Regulatory Issues Within the Industry and Their Impact Upon the Legal Marketplace in 2007
Mark Verbiest
Group General CounselTelecom New Zealand Limited
David Knight
General Counsel New Zealand
Debra Blackett
Assistant General Counsel Group Competition and Regulatory Telecom New Zealand Limited
We see the key regulatory issues for 2007 as being technological convergence, regulatory policy on spectrum allocation, further industry consolidation, and the regulatory imposition of functional separation regimes on incumbent telecommunications operators.
A Forcast of Taxation Developments
Michael O
Chief tax officer Alcan Inc, Montreal
Welcome to the tax introduction of the 2007 International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers, a thought-provoking stretch of taxation filler and a must-read for all lawyers, legal wannabes (ie, tax accountants and auditors), and those who need their services. I have been given free reign; and sitting here on New Year’s day ploughing through this task, I have designed this introduction as a forecast of taxation developments that will shape the year to come.
International Arbitration Outlook And the Selection of the International Litigator
Michael McIlwrath
If you read the press – or at least the law firm marketing materials that land on the desks of corporate in-house counsel – arbitration is in a full growth mode. In 2006, a major accounting firm even issued a purported study of international business and concluded that companies increasingly rely on arbitration as the preferred method of dispute resolution for their international contracts. But the old saw about not believing everything you read applies to international arbitration. These happy reports stand in stark contrast to the frustration being voiced – both in corporate hallways and at conferences – that arbitration has become a slow, cumbersome procedure obsessed with due process at the expense of the efficiency and clarity of the parties’ rights.
Capital Markets in South Africa
Megan McDonald
Director, Securitisation Standard Bank of South Africa Limited
Unlike many of its African and emerging market counterparts, South Africa relies more on its domestic capital markets for funding than on international borrowing. This is partly due to its historical legacy and the preferences of the current government.