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In this paper, we analyse how the national variety in professional organisation is affected by the current period of globalisation by reference to key features of the business law firm in the US, the UK and Germany. Our argument is that changes in law firms from these different countries are indeed intertwined with each other through a gradual process of legal globalisation but that they are not necessarily converging on a dominant US model. Rather we find evidence that new hybrid types of firms are arising in Europe out of a re-combination of elements of different national models.

In recent years, traditional legal systems have been increasingly challenged by the rapid and wide-ranging changes induced by modern technology and science which constantly transform our economies and societies. The rise of a new type of scholarship in contemporary legal thought can be understood in the light of the growing disjunction between the traditional methods of law dealing with social problems and the overall pragmatic spirit of the globalized economies. The intrinsic conservatism of traditional law is sometimes (more or less explicitly) accused of being inadequate to cope with the problems raised by the application of new technologies and sciences, or worse, of being an impediment to the development of the full potential of the modern economies.

The aim of legal deposit is to ensure the preservation of and access to a nation’s intellectual and cultural heritage over time. There is a global trend towards extending legal deposit to cover digital publications in order to maintain comprehensive national archives. However, including digital publications in legal deposit regulations is not enough to ensure the long‐term preservation of these publications. Indeed, there are many practical difficulties associated with the entire deposit process. Conceptsm, principles and practices that are accepted and understood in the print environment, such as publication, publisher, place of publication and edition, may have new meanings or no longer be appropriate in a networked environment. Mechanisms for identifying, selecting and depositing digital material either do not exist or are inappropriate for some kinds of digital publication. There is a great deal of work on developing digital preservation strategies; this is at an early stage. National and other deposit libraries are at the forefront of research and development in this area, often in partnership with other libraries, publishers and technology vendors. Most of this activity is of a technical nature. There is some work on developing policies and strategies for managing digital resources. However, not all management issues or users’ needs are being addressed.

Following an analysis of English construction lawyers’ perceptions, attitudes and practices relative to mediation, this paper aims to offer an insight into the initial stages of the legal decision-making process, involving an examination of the degree of control construction lawyers’ exercise over the decision-making process itself, as well as an analysis of the factors that determine the decision to use mediation. The empirical work thus far focuses on the different potential barriers to mediation that typically characterize the relationship clients’ and legal advisors, addressing to divergent monetary interests, non-monetary and psychological interests and barriers in the principal–agent relationship.

Based on a quantitative survey of legal advisors in England and Wales (n = 212), the purpose of this paper is to explore mediation, specifically the factors that support its use, barriers that hinder use and the perceptions of the efficacy and level of effectiveness of the process.

The findings indicate that more experienced construction lawyers reported using mediation to a far greater extent than less experienced lawyers, consistent with the proposition that more experienced lawyers develop a cooperative reputation as a function of their professional encounters. The results reveal that the absence of good mediators, influence of the courts, inability to create enforceable precedents, negative experiences and preferences for other forms of dispute resolution do not seem to be significant factors militating against the referral of cases to mediation. It would also seem that self-reported financial interests do not deter construction lawyers from referring cases to mediation. Nevertheless, there may be a need to develop more standardised approaches to setting mediation fee scales to minimise lawyers’ diminished fee income as a consequence of their increased involvement as advocates or counsel in mediated cases.

The recent Jackson Cost Review has provided greater impetus for the use of mediation. A failure to respond to a request to engage in mediation may also be deemed unreasonable by the courts, as, for example, in the case of PGF II SA v. OMFS Company 1 Limited. Nevertheless, while the Civil Procedure Rules are being used by the courts in England and Wales increasingly to “encourage” parties to look to alternative methods to settle differences, little can be gleaned from the literature on the central role of construction lawyers in mediation, and more specifically the extent to which they refrain from referring cases to mediation in a manner inconsistent with their clients’ interests. Much of the construction-based research so far has focused on how mediation is bearing up in practice, its use, appealability and possible improvements.

Error reporting by healthcare staff, patient-derived complaints and patient-derived medico-legal claims are three separate processes present in most healthcare systems. It is generally assumed that all relate to the same cases. Given the high costs associated with these processes and strong desire to maximise quality and standards, the purpose of this paper is to see whether it was indeed the case that most complaints and claims related to medical errors and the relative resource allocation to each group.

Electronic databases for clinical error recording, patient complaints and medico-legal claims in a large NHS healthcare provider organisation were reviewed and case overlap analysed.

Most complaints and medico-legal claims do not associate with a prior clinical error. Disproportionate resource is required for a small number of complaints and the medico-legal claims process. Most complaints and claims are not upheld.

The authors have only looked at data from one healthcare provider and for one period. It would be useful to analyse other healthcare organisations over a longer time period. The authors were unable to access data on secondary staffing costs, which would have been informative. As the medico-legal process can go on for many years, the authors do not know the ultimate outcomes for all cases. The authors also do not know how many medico-legal cases were settled out of court pragmatically to minimise costs.

Staff error reporting systems and patient advisory services seem to be efficient and working well. However, the broader complaints and claims process is costing considerable time and money, yet may not be useful in driving up standards. System changes to maximise helpful complaints and claims, from a quality and standards perspective, and minimise unhelpful ones are recommended.

This study provides important data on the lack of overlap between errors, complaints and claims cases.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate effects of two integrative mechanisms of third-party logistics (3PL) integration (i.e. information sharing and process coordination) between users and providers on relationship satisfaction, and further explores how partnership-surrounding (e.g. legal unprotectability) and partnership-specific barriers (e.g. measurement difficulty and cooperation difficulty) influence 3PL integration in the context of Chinese 3PL practices.

Using data collected from 247 3PL users in China, this study uses the structural equation modeling method to empirically examine the relationship among partnership-surrounding/specific barriers, 3PL integration and relationship satisfaction.

The results show that information sharing has no significant effect on relationship satisfaction, while process coordination has a positive effect on relationship satisfaction and partially mediates the relationship between information sharing and relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, as partnership-specific barrier, measurement difficulty and cooperation difficulty are negatively related to information sharing and process coordination. Surprisingly, as partnership-surrounding barrier, legal unprotectability is not significantly related to information sharing but is positively related to process coordination.

As a comprehensive study on 3PL user-provider relationship in China, this study extends existing 3PL literature by providing evidence about the importance of 3PL integration and different types of barriers to 3PL integration, also providing managerial implications for 3PL users, providers, law and regulation makers about how to better implement 3PL integration in China.

In response to the divides identified by some UK writers between critical legal scholarship, left political agendas, and empirical, policy-driven, socio-legal research, and indications of similar divides in the US, this essay seeks to demonstrate the possibilities for work that negotiates between progressive political commitments, social and political theory, policy concerns, and social scientific approaches to the interface between law and society. It does so by reference to three case studies of critical, feminist socio-legal scholarship, which address policy issues in the areas of family law, the legal profession, and access to justice.

This paper aims to deepen understanding of the interrelated questions: how Japanese antidumping policies have been formulated and transformed; what the reasons are for such caution in adopting antidumping measures; and what patterns can be observed of recent changes in antidumping policy and legal systems.

To explain the changes in antidumping policy and rules in Japan, this paper examines not only political competition among bureaucratic organizations but also policy learning by bureaucratic organizations and their effects on change in policy preferences and advancements in the legal system.

The effects of bureaucratic politics and policy learning not only complexly interact but also are highly complicated to initiate policy changes in accordance with the maturity of antidumping legal system. In this case study, the policy learning has led the rival bureaucrats to a consensus to change antidumping policy and legal system, but the agreement could be a temporal truce that may easily collapse by political contingencies.

Along with the influences of large‐scale economic and political dynamisms, this paper focuses on two aspects of the policy subsystem to explain those changes: one is political competition among bureaucratic organizations claiming jurisdiction of antidumping policy; the other is the effect of policy learning among bureaucratic organizations on changes in policy preferences and on advancements in antidumping rules.

This study aims to examine why Ghana has English legal origins (hypothesised as a legal framework that promotes financial development) but has not developed a well-functioning mortgage finance market.

The authors adopt the institutional autopsy approach developed by Milhaupt and Pistor (2008). This study is not a cross-country study but a historical examination of Ghana’s mortgage finance regulatory framework. The institutional autopsy framework considers the iterative process of change in a system and allows for context-specific system analysis.

The authors note that for a long period of about 68 years (1940-2008), some of the legal rules regulating mortgage finance were not typical of the hypothesised characteristics of the English common law tradition. These rules, including, interest rate controls, excessive entry barriers, loan default guarantee discriminations and complex foreclosure procedures, tended to inadequately protect creditors. In the context of the history of military rule and law-making, judicial discretion that could have promoted legal efficiency and strengthened contract enforcement was also limited. During this period, the legal system demonstrated a concentrated and coordinative character. New legislation in the form of the Home Mortgage Finance Act 2008 (Act 770) attempts to resolve some of these bottlenecks and improve creditor rights protection.

The study focuses solely on how the legal institution affects creditor protection and mortgage finance in Ghana.

Policy-wise, the study deepens the understanding of the channels through which the law affects the development of mortgage finance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the methodology used (institutional autopsy) is novel in the context of analysing mortgage finance.

Focuses on the contract process as a source of information for managers seeking to contract more effectively. Draws on the findings of a multiple‐case comparative study undertaken to understand service‐contracting processes and the factors that influence them. Offers specific ideas for ways to manage contracting processes more effectively. Includes case examples to clarify the points raised.