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The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:

The purpose of this paper is to review characteristics and functions of an advance payment guarantee (AP-Bond), and to analyse some legal and practical issues concerning a “reduction clause” in an AP-Bond under an overseas construction contract.

This paper compares relevant provisions of the URDG 758, the UN Convention, the ISP 98, and the FIDIC Silver Book, and also cites relevant case laws of the USA, UK and Korea. This paper also refers many Korean scholars’ views on characteristics of an independent guarantee including an AP-Bond.

A demand for payment under an AP-Bond shall not be honoured in the event that an employer wrongfully refuses to issue documents required for reduction of an AP-Bond. A beneficiary shall not be favoured by independence nature of an AP-Bond in case of fraud or abuse of right.

This paper originally analyzes a “reduction clause” in an AP-Bond. This paper provides logics that a demand for payment shall not be honoured in the event that a beneficiary wrongfully refuses to issue documents required for reduction of an AP-Bond.

Modern employment legislation invests the employee with important rights resulting in a greater degree of job security and improved legal protection in his employment. These rights or entitlements which are all personal in nature are divisible, for the sake of convenience, into four parts. Firstly, individual rights. These include guarantee payments, medical suspension, maternity, time off for specified activities, and the employer's insolvency. These rights are by no means exhaustive. Other rights of an individual nature as for example the right not to belong to a trade union where a closed shop is in operation; rights in connection with trade union membership; written reasons for dismissal; and so on, will be treated in the context of the discussion which will take place under the appropriate heading. Secondly, it is proposed to examine the employees right not to be discriminated against in employment on grounds of race and sex, thirdly, his right not to be unfairly dismissed will be analysed, to be followed finally by his right to redundancy payments. In this monograph, it is proposed to examine the first of these personal rights, namely the employee's individual rights. Each of the others will be discussed in subsequent monographs. It should be noted that unlike the common law terms implied into the contract of employment which consist of duties imposed on both the employer and the employee and which can be contracted out of by an express term in the contact of employment the statutory conditions of employment cannot be dispensed with in that manner. Like the implied terms at common law, the statutory conditions of employment too form another source of contract of employment though of course they are independent in that they neither form part of the contract of employment nor of the common law rights.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of independence principle of refund guarantees (RGs) and how to make the best of an arbitration clause in the guarantees so that a Korean shipbuilder, a guarantor and an export credit agency (ECA) may possibly protect themselves from buyers’ unlawful demand.

This paper firstly introduces a brief elucidation about RG and the concept of independence principle. By way of presenting factual backgrounds, legal and policy evaluation and analyses, this paper covered all issues and disputes arising out of one shipbuilding contract and the independent RG drawn from the shipbuilding contract, through in-depth cases studies of a judicial case on the matter of independence principle of RG between the beneficiary (the buyer or its assignee) and the guarantor reviewed by an English court, an arbitration case regarding whether the beneficiary (the buyer or its assignee) has any right of refund in the event of the acceptance of a repudiatory breach by the applicant (the builder) in the London Maritime Arbitrators Association, and the beneficiary (the buyer or its assignee)’s appeal to an English court against the award and a judicial case reviewing whether the guarantor has right of reimbursement in accordance with the terms of the export bond insurance with the Korean ECA.

While most RGs, in practice, are drawn as an independent guarantee which is payable on call without any evidence of default, there is another payment scheme in RGs, such as payment upon the submission of an arbitral award which may enhance the application of RGs in shipbuilding contracts. The paper suggested that under these circumstances, Korean builders may opt to make their shipbuilding contract be governed by Korean laws, with the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board as a competent arbitral jurisdiction and forum as far as possible.

This paper proposes prudent approaches and considerations in the issuance and application of RGs which are independent from shipbuilding contracts. The hope is to increase awareness in the utility of arbitration system as well as for fiduciary Korean banks and ECAs to play a more pivotal role in guiding shipbuilding industry stakeholders.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the law relating to different types of guarantee schemes and the circumstances in which they are used to safeguard against default risks in international commercial practice. Different types of guarantee schemes are used in different contexts, often depending on which types and the purpose they have been sought.

The paper was undertaken by evaluating secondary data sources, empirical examples and case law to underscore the pitfalls commercial parties need to always bear in mind with regard to guarantees and factoring and their usage in international commercial practice.

The paper articulates the law relating to different types of guarantees and how they are harnessed to provide security against default risks in international commercial practice. By the very nature of guarantees, they tend to be in high demand in times of economic uncertainties when banks and other financial institutions find it less prudent to lend to borrowers without ensuring some form of security against potential defaults.

There are many different types of guarantee schemes clients can always opt for, but some of them are never written about as much. There is therefore limited data available to inform policy decisions by those who seek to use them. Lack of adequate information on any financial produces, leave alone guarantees, is not good for businesses and the public in terms of how to safeguard against risks inherent in usage and practice of guarantees. In this similar respect, there were not enough data available to evaluate the varied context in which guarantees are used.

There are limited data available on guarantees, and because they are speciality products, the way they are used in practice can never be overlooked. It was necessary to publish this paper not only to address the foregoing need but also to discuss different types of guarantees and enhance understanding on their usage and practice. The paper articulates the law relating to guarantees and what guarantors need to always bear in mind before they accept to sign contracts of guarantees.

Guarantees are important for markets to operate efficiently. Their usage and practice has wide implications for various stakeholders such as banks, businesses, economies, governments and people, especially where contracts relating to them are not constituted and executed properly. Defaults on borrowed loans can lead banks not to lend money to businesses and subsequently choke them of a source on which many depend.

This is the first paper that articulates the close relationship between guarantees, factoring and trusts. The paper has articulated the varied contexts in which each of the foregoing speciality products is harnessed in practice. Although this paper was written largely by reviewing and internalizing secondary data sources, it was done in a distinctive way to underscore the objectives it was written to achieve.

The purpose of this paper is to explore UK consumer perceptions of trust, risk and perceived usefulness of mobile payments through the use of sequential mixed methods.

A post-positivist philosophy is used with a social constructionist ontology with a questionnaire as the first survey instrument using an empirical sequential mixed methods approach. Summary quantitative analysis of the questionnaire data is undertaken followed by semi-structured interviews that produce qualitative data on which content analysis is undertaken to assess and explore UK consumer perspectives. The technology acceptance model is used as the underlying framework on which a conceptual model is developed.

UK consumers have significant risk and trust concerns with mobile payments, although these concerns can be overcome when clear consumer benefits are identified whilst bank supported mobile payments have an increased level of trust compared to new market entrants and other established companies. Furthermore, perceived trust positively influences perceived usefulness and mitigates perceived risk, whilst perceived risk negatively influences perceived usefulness. In addition, perceived usefulness significantly and positively influences UK consumer attitude which can lead to adoption.

Whilst 120 completed questionnaire responses are received, only 101 questionnaires are used for analysis. In addition, ten semi-structured interviews are undertaken using a purposeful sample to minimise any imbalance (Oakley, 1981) which increases the reliability of the research findings (Hackley, 2003). This mobile payments research does not have a statistically secure universalisation of the findings, which negates the application of these research findings to other groups and to different social settings (Lincoln and Guba, 1985).

Mobile payment organisations will need to focus on identifying the specific benefits of mobile payments to UK consumers as mitigating risk and increasing trust do not compensate for the absence of usefulness.

UK consumers indicate a lack of awareness of existing contactless payment guarantees provided by UK banks, although these payment guarantees significantly increase UK consumer trust.

Both quantitative and qualitative empirical data are obtained on UK consumer perspectives of risk, trust and perceived usefulness of mobile payments using sequential mixed methods.

Host governments often provide guarantees in build‐operate‐transfer (BOT) infrastructure projects to attract private sector investors. Problems arise because the governments often do not know the full extent of contingent liabilities when issuing guarantees, and because they account and record guarantee costs only when guarantees come due. This paper discusses the guarantees' financial impact from the perspectives of the government and the project sponsor. A typical Indonesian BOT toll road project is taken as the case study. Stochastic simulation using Latin Hypercube technique is applied on the cash flow model with and without guarantees. Several types of guarantees including minimum revenue guarantee, maximum interest rate guarantee, debt guarantee, tariff guarantee and minimum traffic guarantee are discussed. Simulation results reveal that guarantees can reduce risk but are not free of cost. If compared with equivalent subsidies, however, some guarantees can be more effective in lessening the extent of project risk.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of Kafalah in the practice of Islamic banking in Malaysia generally and ascertain applicable rules governing the application under relevant legislations and Shariah. The study also aims to examine the legislations in the light of Shariah provisions governing Kafalah and propose amendments.

This is a qualitative research where primary data sources mainly legislations and secondary sources comprising of articles and books on the subject of Kafalah were examined. It is an exploratory legal research that primarily focuses on library studies and adopts doctrinal approach for content analysis of data from the identified sources.

Kafalah is widely used in Islamic banking in Malaysia with primary or secondary application in structuring such products/services as personal guarantee, bank guarantee, Islamic credit card among others. The substantive law applicable to Kafalah in Islamic banking in Malaysia is the Contracts Act 1950 as decided cases indicate. However, provisions of the Act are at variance with rules of Shariah applicable to Kafalah on absolution of guaranteed debtor, multiple guarantors’ liability towards guaranteed sum as well as recourse and recovery from principal debtor.

This research explored the practice of Kafalah in Islamic banking under Malaysian legal framework based on the available literature. The research does not embody an empirical evaluation.

This research suggests, with respect to the identified issues, an amendment to the Act for clarification as follows: that recourse and recovery from principal debtor is only where creditor has requested guarantor to settle outstanding debt, that presence of surety does not absolve principal debtor from his original liability and that multiple guarantors stand as having equal responsibility towards guaranteed amount. The research findings will assist policy and law makers to harmonize the relevant laws with the Shariah to facilitate sustainable development of Islamic banking.

Clause 1 [General Provisions] contains the provisions that in many contracts are bundled together under the ‘miscellaneous’ or ‘other provisions’ heading and includes a list of definitions, some interpretation principles, rules on communication between the Parties, documents forming the Contract, assignment, confidentiality etc. But Clause 1 also contains other provisions, like the Employer's right to use documentation and other deliverables provided by the Contractor (in other contracts usually referred to as a license to use), and a substantive Sub-Clause on limitation of liability.

The purpose of this paper is to explain and conceptually analyse the origins and outcomes of the Brazil‐USA cotton dispute.

The analysis is conducted using a conceptual framework to show the effects of US policies on Brazil and the world cotton market. The historical context of the conflict is presented, to explain the motivations of both countries and the background of the dispute.

US cotton subsidies and related policies have the effect of harming international producers, including Brazil. This analysis, along with an explanation of Brazil's role in world cotton production, explains why Brazil had cause to complain to the WTO and why the WTO ruled in its favor.

The implications of these rulings are that the international dispute and its unique resolution could foreshadow similar conflicts in the future between different parties over different commodities, and the analysis presented in this paper will serve to explain them.

This is the only paper to present a complete history of the Brazil‐USA conflict, along with a conceptual analysis of the targeted US policies.