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To provide a practical look at the European Union Market Abuse Regulation (Regulation EU No. 596/2014) (“MAR”) and some of its uncertainties, particularly the issue of its wide reaching jurisdictional scope.

The article takes a three pillar approach covering the following: a brief discursive overview of MAR, consideration of some of its uncertainties and key areas of controversy, and a detailed consideration of the jurisdictional scope of MAR.

Many questions and considerations about MAR remain, particularly those regarding how the investment recommendations requirements will be met in practice, most notably in respect of sales notes. Further, additional extensive record keeping obligations and prescriptive market soundings procedures are now expected of firms in order to show the legitimacy of their activities. In addition, the geographical scope of MAR is wide and all encompassing. Whilst its market manipulation, improper disclosure and insider dealing provisions must undoubtedly be adhered to worldwide, it remains to be seen how far the conduct requirements included in MAR will be implemented by non EU firms.

Consolidation and detailed consideration of the most common questions being asked in the market by market participants and issuers on The Market Abuse Regulation in the run up to its implementation. Practical guidance from experienced financial regulatory lawyers.

Demonstrates that the European Union (EU) has moved from a twin‐track to a triple‐track approach to the vetting of cross‐border competition concerns. The twin‐track approach is based on co‐operation at the multilateral and bilateral levels. The new third track, not based on co‐operation, is the legal right to unilaterally apply competition instruments extraterritorially. The EU has pushed to establish a multilateral approach through the auspices of the World Trade Organisation. Although there has been some support for this, the reservations from the USA and others make this track unfeasible for the foreseeable future. In the absence of any significant multilateral progress, the EU has concluded bilateral agreements with major partners, but the approach has its limitations – the EU can only deal with the countries with which it has such an agreement. The Commission’s third track unilaterally applies EU competition instruments extraterritorially using the effects doctrine.

This paper aims to examine the functioning and organizational structure of the historic Andalusian water courts, institutions of Islamic origin whose basic model should be considered in light of the regulation of modern Islamic banking and finance.

The methodology of this study has been focused on the contextualization of al-Andalus during the European Middle Ages, highlighting its enormous contributions and implications in the creation of Western knowledge. In the same way, the ordinances of the Castilian-Aragonese kings, aimed at the persistence of the Andalusian water courts in the Southeast of Spain after the Muslim period, have been used as the main sources of reference.

This research has detected that the main features of the Andalusian water courts, i.e. integrity, democracy, transparency, credibility, moral authority or simplicity (among many others), can be conveniently replicated in the scope of the current Islamic banking and finance.

Several implications can be derived from this study: first, it highlights the total resilience of a regulatory model that “it was already there,” given by the history of the Andalusian civilization. This model will be always welcomed by the Muslim community in Western countries as it is a matter of regulating themselves according to the way their ancestors did. The main limitation faced by this research is the relative scarcity of original sources, which is justifiable given that most of the royal ordinances come from the 13th century, having unfortunately lost a good number of sources over time.

This paper seeks a feasible alternative to the controversy arising from the resolution of possible disputes in Islamic banking and finance taking into account that Western judges do not know (nor do they have to) the principles on which this discipline is based. The application of the historical Andalusian model would allow the creation of an independent jurisdiction, while subordinated to the established juridic power, without contravening the principle of “jurisdictional unity.” The last element that gives an added value to this research is spreading the achievements of the Andalusian culture and civilization, unjustly omitted by a great part of the existing literature.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the existing legal basis, and its practical application, of an arbitrator’s competence to raise on her own initiative money laundering issues.

The research focusses on presenting the essence of the problem through evaluation of the legal basis for the arbitrators to raise money laundering concerns on their own initiative and the examples of so being done in international commercial arbitration.

This paper concludes that arbitrators do not presently have a solid legal basis that authorises them to act sua sponte against money laundering.

The originality and value of this paper lies in its emphasis on theoretical and practical issues related to money laundering in international commercial arbitration. It argues in favour of an explicit recommendation to be incorporated in the 2012 Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that international commercial arbitrators address money laundering on their own initiative.

This chapter describes the audit of local government in Italy. In Italy, as elsewhere, local audit has been affected by the implementation of new public management based reforms. There is an increasing trend towards collaboration and cooperation between the audited authority and the auditor. Audit has begun, as in other jurisdictions to widen its remit, so that it focusses on performance as much as financial and compliance issues. This change in role brings with it opportunities for the auditor to help public sector improvement but also challenges – as new skills are required for the new roles that the auditor takes on and audit independence is complicated by the cooperative nature of modern local government audit.

This paper aims to analyse whether the World Trade Organisation (WTO) covered agreements ought to be interpreted in a manner that enables an importing country to restrict or prohibit import of goods manufactured using child labour. This question is pertinent, given the WTO-covered agreements do not explicitly mention child labour, yet there is increasing international concern for the phenomenon of child labour, evidenced through international human rights law and international labour law treaties and a push by some developed countries’ WTO Members for inclusion of a “social clause” governing child labour under the covered agreements.

This paper examines the WTO-covered agreements, current trends in interpretation of the covered agreements by panels and the Appellate Body (AB) and scholarly debate regarding connecting trade with labour standards and human rights.

This paper argues: that although inclusion of a social clause in the covered agreements is unlikely, Article XX(a) GATT, Article XX(b) GATT and Article 2.1 TBT can in certain circumstances be interpreted as to allow such restrictions on the import of goods; that no clear academic argument logically precludes connecting trade with labour standards and human rights; and that to legitimate both the WTO and the international legal system as a whole, the covered agreements, as the basis of international trade law, ought to be interpreted in a manner consistent with international labour law and international human rights law.

This paper draws upon the recent AB decision in European Commission – Seal Products, examining the AB’s interpretation of the Article XX(a) GATT “public morals” exception. This paper further seeks to provide a succinct overview of the argument surrounding WTO involvement in the issue of child labour.

One of the last functions the Commission on Industrial Relations performed before it was wound up towards the end of last year was to produce a report on wage determination in the retail distribution sector. Because of the CIR's dissolution, the report received remarkably little publicity. This was a pity, since it was the culmination of some two years' work, in consultation with representatives from over 50 employers' associations, several trade unions and other spokesmen from the industry. In addition it contains the results of a postal survey of over 2,500 retail establishments and an earnings survey of 13,500 employees — a great deal of original data. Ivor Williams worked for the CIR and took a prominent part in the preparation of the report. In this article he examines the structure and effectiveness of retail wages councils, and in particular the report's recommendation that a revised form of wages council should be retained.

This paper aims to widen as well as deepen the discussion on standards and good practice guidelines beyond just local or regional efforts and include international developments.

An extensive review of literature was used to develop an outline of existing standards and good practice guidelines that are used by records management professionals to manage digital records.

The analysis reveals that there has been a long tradition in standards and good practice guidelines development dating back to the 1980s. The study also reveals that there are two broad categories of standards and good practice guidelines, those with assessment mechanisms and those without such mechanisms. The choice of whether to have an assessment mechanism depends on the purpose for which a standard or good practice guideline is developed.

The paper explores an extensive array of standards and good practice guidelines, their utility and their geographical coverage. It demonstrates how different terms such as Electronic Records Management Systems, Electronic Document Management Systems, Electronic Document and Records Management Systems and Enterprise Content Management have been used without much clarity on how these terms relate to each other, and proposes a clarification framework.

The purpose of this paper is to present the author's commentary on the special issue of Journal of Educational Administration entitled “Systemwide reform: examining districts under pressure”.

The major thesis of this commentary and reflection on the preceding papers is that there is a need to recognize that “school districts” as known in the USA are examples of a more general phenomenon of intermediary organizational entities in education systems in North America and elsewhere in the world and that there is a need to problematize, not take for granted, the form, purpose, and influence of these mediating layers of the school system on the quality and improvement of schools, and on the implementation of government policies that are intended to regulate and support education in schools.

This issue of the Journal of Educational Administration presents a series of papers that highlight different aspects and contemporary trends in school district practice and research – organizational characteristics associated with district effectiveness (see Trujillo this issue), how districts are responding to political and public demands for accountability (see Hamilton et al., this issue), the invention of school district authorities as portfolio managers of diverse school provider systems (see Marsh et al., this issue), and how social communication networks linking school and district staff interface with the use of evidence to support school improvement (see Finnigan and Daly, as well as Wohlstetter and Smith this issue).

The simple thesis of this commentary is to argue that school districts function as an intermediate level of education governance, management, and support within national and state education systems, and that current research and discussion on the school district role in improving and sustaining the quality of education would be strengthened by broadening the scope of research and discussion to alternative kinds of intermediate level governance and support systems that exist in North America and in other regions of the world.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the implications of The UK Bribery Act 2010 for businesses and in particular those with cross‐border activities.

This study relies on documentary research and using both primary and secondary data drawn from the public domain.

The study suggests why UK businesses and in particular those conducting cross‐country transactions should take the implications of this law seriously as the enforcement agency in the UK transforms to a more active mode. It also suggests why, despite some severe criticisms, the UK does not lag behind in the global fight against corruption.

This is an exploratory review paper to promote empirical research in a business sensitive theme.

Insights from the study should prompt business leaders to give sufficient attention to those areas with high risks of falling within the ambit of the Act.

The study's findings reinforce the ethical dimensions of cross‐border business practices.

This study uses the implications of the new UK Act to draw attention to the business community that with the passing of the Act business cannot be as usual; that compliance to the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act would be insufficient; and that despite controversies over implementation delays, the UK does not lag behind in the fight against corruption worldwide.