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This paper aims to explore the role of public and private international law and how they are used differently in regulation of global markets. Data were sourced from both primary and secondary materials – journal papers, court decisions, textbooks and international legal instruments to gain insights into the role of law and the varied contexts in which it is used in regulation of markets. In an ordinary sense of the word, law sets operational limits to protect normative values and practices in a state – trade, peace, security, just to mention but a few. However, law cannot be confined to deterring undesired behaviours or to settling disputes, but more importantly, a good law should prevent disputes from happening. Law dictates the way of life of a society and its efficacy often depends on how well it is used to order the proper functioning of the system. International law is the set of rules which govern and foster effective relations of states. The paper explores the chasm between public and private international law, with a view to demonstrate how they are used differently in regulation of markets. Public and private international law encompass norms evolved by multilateral treaties, customs, judicial decisions, model laws and soft law instruments by different oversight bodies governing states and other stakeholders in their relationship with each other. These norms/rules create a platform for interstate cooperation on varied regulatory issues of shared interests. While treaties create a uniform framework of rules in all signatory states, their implementation often depends on individual states willingness to transpose them into national law. Owing to the inherent challenges of public international law (interstate practice), it has become imperative for markets to use rules of private international law. While public regulates the relationship of states and their emanation, private international law helps to bridge gaps in the mainstream international legal systems of states and in so doing enhances their co-existence on overlapping regulatory issues. The engendered trans-national norms will over time generate a positive impact on local sustainability and co-existence of different regulatory domains.

This paper uses cases studies and experiences of countries to demonstrate the complimentary relationship of public and private international law and how they work in tandem in international legal practice. The paper has also used the varied experiences of states to demonstrate how public and private international law interact in regulation of global markets. Data were sourced from both primary and secondary sources – journal papers, court decisions, textbooks and international legal instruments – to gain insights into the law and the varied contexts in regulation of markets. The case law and experience of states alluded to undertaking this research reflect the complimentary relationship of states for markets to operate effectively.

The findings of the paper comport with the hypothesis that markets cannot effectively work unless they are pursued within the framework of rules of public and private international law. The paper has alluded to the experience in national jurisdictions and global to highlight the chasm between different regulatory domains for markets to operate effectively. The paper articulates important practical issues relating to public and private international law in regulations of markets.

The practical implication of the paper is that it underscores significant legal issues relating to regulation of markets drawing examples within national jurisdictions and globally.

The paper has social implications because markets affect people, jobs and social life in varied ways. It addresses pertinent issues related to the complementarity of public and private international law and how they are manifested in national jurisdictions.

The paper is original because it nuances the interrelationship of public and private international law, teasing out their interaction in regulation of global markets in a distinctive way.

The purpose of the paper was to examine the challenges inherent in harnessing the UN and other AML counter‐measures, paying particular attention to the United Nations Resolutions on countering financing of terrorism and why the UN Security Resolutions have not been easy to invoke. As regards other AML counter‐measures, the paper examined the legal status of soft law instruments, articulating the possible reasons why they are easy to implement.

The paper was written by the analysis of UN and other AML counter‐measures – which were evaluated in the gaze of how they have been implemented across states. While states are under an obligation to implement UN AML counter‐measures such as international treaties and soft law instruments, private banks as non‐state actors have exploited some loopholes in the law to flaunt them. This has undermined the efficacy of global AML counter‐measures. Many banks have been fined for violating UN sanctions on countries like Iran and Sudan. These examples were utilized in appraising the current UN and other AML counter‐measures across states.

The findings of the paper were compelling in demonstrating that global anti‐money laundering laws are often emasculated by the fact that they are implemented in the realm of international law. International law manifests itself within independent member states' vested strategic self‐interests. In the event of conflicts, national self‐interests will prevail. But again, money laundering is an opportunistic crime because it generates both synergies and externalities and the response of individual states often depends on how it is affected by it. It is wrong to assume as doing things in the realm of international law is not as easy as it is presumed to be.

It would have been better to carry out interviews so as to corroborate secondary data sources used in writing this paper. But due to some constraints, this option was not possible. It would also have been better to undertake the analysis of data based on a large sample of countries rather than cherry picking. While implementing AML counter‐measures in the realm of international law is necessary to foster international co‐operation, there are still some loopholes that need to be paid more attention.

The paper was written, analysed and evaluated based on the most recent literature on implementation of UN and other AML counter‐measures across countries. It also utilized the recent cases involving violations of UN AML counter‐measures by banks on sanctioned countries such as Iran and Sudan.

Thirty years after its creation, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has become a prime example of a norm-building process that transcends the traditional avenues of public international law, while compelling a high level of compliance and assuring quick adaptation to norms and practices that better address money laundering and the financing of terrorism in their evolving form. On the occasion of FATF’s 30th anniversary, this paper aims to revisit the unique characteristics of FATF and the factors behind FATF’s success as standard-setter and as implementation-reviewer in the anti-money laundering (AML)/CFT context.

This paper draws on primary sources of law, legal scholarship, reports and other open source data to analyse the FATF norm-building process and the factors behind its success.

Thirty years after its creation, the FATF has established itself as the key standard-setter, implementation-reviewer and force for reform in the AML/CFT context. Though the FATF norm-building process has been very successful, owing to its flexibility, adaptability and expansiveness, significant challenges lay ahead due to the evolving nature of money laundering and financing of terrorism.

This is a comprehensive study examining the achievements, impact, strengths and weaknesses of the FATF norm-building process on the occasion of the organisation’s 30th anniversary.

For the past two and half decades, there has been a marked shift in the corporate governance regulations around the world. The change is more remarkable in developing countries where countries with little or no corporate governance regime have adopted “world class” standards. While there can be a debate on whether law in books actually translates into law in action, in the meantime it might be interesting to analyse the law in books to understand how the corporate governance regime has evolved in the past 20 years. This paper quantitatively tracks 21 countries, most of them being developing and emerging economies, over a period of 20 years. The period covers 1995 to 2014; thus, it traverses the pre and post crisis period in 1999 and 2008. Thus, the paper also provides a snapshot of the macrolegal changes that the countries engage in hoping to stave off the next crisis. The paper uses over 50 parameters modelled on the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. The paper confirms the suspicion that corporate governance norms around the developing economies are converging on shareholder primacy end of the continuum. The rate of convergence was highest just before the financial crisis of 2008 and has since then slowed down.

The paper uses data collected from experts. They filled up detailed questionnaire which quizzed them on the rules relating to corporate governance norms in their country and asked them to retrospectively check their data every five years for the past 20 years. This provided an excellent overview as to how the law has evolved in the past two decades on corporate governance. The data were then tabulated using a scoring sheet and then was put together using item response theory (IRT) which is a Bayesian method similar to factor analysis. The paper then follows a comparative approach using heatmaps to analyse the evolution of corporate governance in developing countries.

Corporate governance norms around the developing economies are converging on shareholder primacy end of the continuum. The rate of convergence was highest just before the financial crisis of 2008 and has since then slowed down.

This is the first time that corporate governance panel data analysis has been carried out on top developing countries across so many parameters for such a long period. This paper also uses Bayesian IRT modelling to analyse the evolution which is novel in its approach especially in the corporate governance literature. The paper thus provides a clear view on the evolution of corporate governance norms and how they are converging on a particular ideology.

This essay will consider three theories developed by international law scholars to analyze the international legal terrain and the strengths of each as well as issues it fails to address sufficiently in the dimensions of power, meaning, and social relationships: bottom-up lawmaking; transnational legal processes; and global legal pluralism. The idea of bottom-up lawmaking, already discussed, has the strength of beginning from the everyday practices by which problems are solved that lead eventually to the creation of a body of law. However, the phrase bottom-up suggests that this is a grassroots movement, while it is typically cosmopolitan elites who generate the informal rules that become established over time. Explicit attention to the power relationships underlying this process would help to clarify what “bottom-up” means. As Judith Resnick points out, the terms “soft law” and “hard law” are themselves problematic, incorporating gender ideologies and suggesting that some international laws are enforced firmly, which is rarely the case in practice (personal communication).

The purpose of this chapter is to synthesise research on the concept of sustainable development in finance. Indeed, since the mid-1990s under the leadership of the United Nations and various non-governmental organisations, sustainable development has experienced an unprecedented boom that affects many areas. This synthesis is organised around two main themes: sustainable finance and fintech/digitalisation.

This paper aims to examine the extent of successes and challenges of adoption and implementation of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) codes in member states by highlighting the influence of the FATF anti-money laundering policy framework on money laundering (ML) and the way forward in heightening the fight against the fast-evolving nature of ML and terrorist financing activities.

This paper, based on a purely qualitative desktop study, is drawn on historical information from FATF’s recommendations, its periodic reports, publications and other secondary sources such as books, journal articles on financial systems and scholarly literature.

The challenges found include difficulty in domestic coordination, capacity constraints of countries, inadequate operational resources and assessment complexities in the implementation of FATF standards. Nonetheless, FATF has chalked some successes such as the harmonization of legislation and enforcement efforts through the provision of coordination points. Other successes include flexibility in response to new threats, adoption of the mutual evaluation process, which advanced peer pressure on defaulting members, enhancement of the international financial space and the enhancement of the legitimization of FATF’s processes.

This paper provides a description of the successes and challenges of the FATF’s 40 + 9 recommendations since its establishment. The outcome would alert countries and players within the international financial space to invest more in capacity building and the entrenchment of the recommendations into their domestic laws.

The essence of the ecological crisis is not that resources are out of reach, but that the relationship between living beings has deteriorated. For this reason, ecology cannot simply be seen as a scientific matter but rather as a genuine social problem that requires social actions.

The law in its present form falls short of managing ecological problems despite the fact that the right to a natural environment is recognized in most jurisdictions as a basic one and that international covenants have been created to protect the natural environment. Environmental law ought to bring about a reverence for life and promote the cooperation of biotic communities. A legal system given to innovation could offer foresight-based regulation, integration of the ensemble of living beings, and cooperation in the living world. One of the main challenges the law has to meet is the exploration of a theoretically established and practically viable basis for extending its influence to address the problems of future generations.

The purpose of this paper is to present and analyse part of the relevant legal instruments currently available for regulating environmentally harmful space activities.

This paper opted for a functional research method combined with a comparative methodology. To make the argument, this paper relies on the contextual analysis of primary and secondary sources of law, instrument of soft law and the relevant background material (e.g. journal articles, textbooks, law reform and policy papers).

The central section will focus on the principles of international environmental law to outline their utility in the contemporary context. Finally, the conclusive part will point out the several ways in which the use of analogies can shape the outer space regime, especially concerning how those principles that are developed to safeguard the Earth, can also be extended for the protection of the space ecosystem.

Environmental hazards are rapidly increasing and the current international law and policy on planetary protection are inadequate to meet the challenges of the near future. There is no possibility of an environment-friendly and sustainable future if not strictly connecting it with a comprehensive and transparent acknowledgement of the human mistakes made on Earth. There are valuable lessons to be learned from our past, and it is under this perspective that the trend of polluting the outer space can be reverted. This paper fulfils an identified need to study the correlation between principles of international environmental law, space law and the current situation in the outer space.

This paper aims to address the evolution of corporate governance in Germany with a particular regard to whether there can be observed a gradual convergence to a shareholder primacy corporate governance system.

To investigate a potential shift of the German corporate governance system to an Anglo-American tiled corporate governance system, the authors have empirically assessed on a polynomial base 52 separate company and corporate governance variables for 20 years (1995-2014).

This research suggests that a gradual convergence has taken place prior to the global financial crisis. However, the results suggest that the convergence process experienced a slowdown in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, which may be linked to the stability of the German corporate governance system during the global financial crisis and the political environment during this time.

This paper contributes to the research by not only analysing the development of the German corporate governance system but also identifying new reasons for this development and explaining why a new convergence process may be observed in the future again.