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In this chapter, the author offers a horizontal comparison of interpretation standards contained in international legal instruments of different origin. These legal instruments range from international treaties to model laws. They also originate from different law makers such as the United Nations or individual states as well as trade or academic organisations, mainly regulating civil and commercial matters. The author argues that this comparison can provide the basis for the development of a uniform standard in the application of such law, which is often referred to as uniform law because it provides a single source of law to regulate a multitude of situations spanning across national boundaries. The main point of reference is the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, also known as the VCLT. This UN treaty specifically provides a general interpretation standard. From there newer standards occurring in subsequent uniform laws can be integrated using the lex specialis doctrine. This, in turn, provides opportunities for comprehensive usable methods to be developed for uniform law both in a public and private law settings. These then facilitate transparency, fairness and reasonableness. The correct identification of object and purposes of any given instrument is crucial for the successful interpretation of its content. It is this point that needs further research, and this chapter offers a starting point by providing some detailed examples from a range of uniform laws of varying nature including international sales laws, arbitration laws and Double Taxation Conventions.

The aims and objectives of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) have been defeated by the intrusion of domestic laws of different contracting states in the interpretation of the provisions of this Convention. One of the most abused channels of this un-uniform interpretation is through art 4 of the CISG, which excludes the matters of validity and property from the Convention’s jurisdiction. This paper, therefore, aims to critically analyze the dangers of unsystematic reliance on the domestic laws in the interpretation of art 4 of the CISG on matters involving transnational validity and property.

The paper will use doctrinal methodology with critical and analytical approaches. The paper will incisively study the doctrines, theories and principles of law associated with validity of commercial contracts and the implications of exclusion of the doctrine of “validity” under the CISG.

The findings and contribution to knowledge will be by way of canvassing for a uniform transnational validity doctrine that will streamline and position the CISG to serve as a uniform international commercial convention.

This paper adopted a conceptual approach. Even though the paper ventilated the views of many writers on the issue of application of the doctrine of validity under the CISG, the paper, however, carved its own niche by making original recommendations on how to create a uniform validity jurisprudence under the CISG.

Corporate social responsibility describes the role that society expects of business organizations. Because it is difficult to see societal norms in one's own society, comparative law can help us increase the salience of those norms in our own community. Looking at how a set of business laws uniform across 16 West and Central African countries lives in one of the member states, Cameroon, we see that society expresses its norms not only when behavior tracks the positive law, but also, and very importantly, when it diverges from that law. After studying examples of divergence in the South, specifically in the African country Cameroon, the chapter turns to the North. Using the United States as the illustration, and focusing on the role of business entities, the chapter identifies ways of opening the discussion among all political constituents, even those outside the traditional business community.

The purpose of this article is to compare the methods of interpretation and gap filling in the United Nations Sales Convention (CISG) and in the Draft Common European Sales Law (CESL). In particular, it aims to examine whether the established interpretation and gap filling method of the CISG can and should be used for the CESL.

The article looks at the method by which international case law and doctrine interpret the CISG and fill its gaps. The article compares this method with the method that is provided for in the CESL instrument but has to be implemented.

It is suggested that despite its nature as European community law, CESL should be interpreted in a broad international way since it does not only cover internal EU sales, but also transactions involving parties from outside the EU. For this reason its interpretation and gap filling should follow the method of the CISG so as to interpret similar provisions in a similar way in order to harmonize law within and outside the EU.

Both the CISG and CESL intend to unify legal traditions or different legal systems; the CISG tries to harmonize globally what CESL tries to harmonize regionally. It is important that these two instruments complement one another by the avoidance of divergent interpretations of similar provisions. It would helpful for further research to assess whether and how two decades of experience with the CISG can be used in the interpretation and application of CESL.

CESL's interpretation provision, if it is enacted, is unlikely to change from the current version. The way CESL is interpreted and how its gaps filled will determine its practical significance as a viable opt‐in national law. It is therefore necessary to develop in advance the right interpretive methodology if CESL is to become a meaningful alternative instrument.

The article suggests that the CESL should not be interpreted in the traditional way European community law is interpreted, but, instead, be interpreted under a broad international perspective. It also advances the idea of interconventional interpretation by which the CISG would guide the interpretation of similar provisions found in CESL.

This paper examines accounting practice and its environment in one European country, Belgium, whose capital is home to the European Union (EU). Belgium's national accounting system has witnessed dramatic improvements in the last two decades as it has moved toward a highly standardized accounting system similar to France. This article traces what one author calls “the Belgian accounting revolution,” based on professional literature and personal interviews with senior partners of major accounting firms and academics in Belgium. Little is known in North America about accounting in Belgium. This article intends to fill this gap and provides some insights on accounting in this vital European country.

Collateral consequences (CCs) of criminal convictions such as disenfranchisement, occupational restrictions, exclusions from public housing, and loss of welfare benefits represent one of the salient yet hidden features of the contemporary American penal state. This chapter explores, from a comparative and historical perspective, the rise of the many indirect “regulatory” sanctions flowing from a conviction and discusses some of the unique challenges they pose for legal and policy reform. US jurisprudence and policies are contrasted with the more stringent approach adopted by European legal systems and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in safeguarding the often blurred line between criminal punishments and formally civil sanctions. The aim of this chapter is twofold: (1) to contribute to a better understanding of the overreliance of the US criminal justice systems on CCs as a device of social exclusion and control, and (2) to put forward constructive and viable reform proposals aimed at reinventing the role and operation of collateral restrictions flowing from criminal convictions.

Purpose – This chapter focuses on the creative and artistic consequences triggered by legal and business decisions related to the form, structure, and operation of the band as a creative entity, as distinct from its members. The chapter highlights the choices often made by professional musical groups in popular music and the consequences of those choices.

Design/methodology of approach – The chapter follows the legal consequences of organizational formation and how those choices impact a band’s relationship with its record label, publisher, and audience as well as the relationship dynamics within the organization itself.

Findings – Lack of planning often results in tensions that undermine bands, particularly in those bands that form incrementally over time. Standard record label agreements and publishing agreements tend to heighten the tension among band members, creating competing economic incentives for various band members.

Originality – The implications to organizational dynamics for musical groups are rarely analyzed in terms of the band's legal and economic structure either as an academic review or as a professional planning methodology. This analysis and the approach provided herein should provide musicians and their counsel an effective method for planning and anticipating the inevitable tensions that will arise in the various stages of the band’s development.

EU competition policy may be explained as a system: an organized set of objectives, rules, functions, procedures and authorities, acting in unity. A system is a complex reality, immersed in a complex context and permanently changing to overcome its dysfunctionalities and to adapt itself to environmental challenges. Globalization is its major challenge today. This paper proposes to understand globalization from four viewpoints. EU competition policy should respond to an evolutionary, contradictory, relative and systemic globalization. The aim of this paper is to identify the responses adopted in order to react to all these different dimensions of globalization.