Environmental protection has been a matter of public awareness for many years. However, improvement of environmental quality is not always considered in terms of economic advantage. Rigorous evaluation of the relationship between economy and environment suggests a positive feedback between social benefits (public health, education, technology) and economic development. Definition of environmental quality includes determination of origins, distributions and dispersion mechanisms of xenobiotic substances. Risk assessment incorporating measures for preventive/corrective policy may then follow....

There is no longer any doubt that, for the foreseeable future, public access to computer software and information is essential for the economic development of every country on earth, rich and poor. Yet it is precisely here, in this most forward-looking of technologies, that the ancient legal battle lines of private ownership versus public interest are being drawn again, with extreme intransigence, in the field of international law pertaining to intellectual property rights. In a situation bristling with ironies, it is particularly disturbing that the rampant software piracy in developing...

Ever since Korea succumbed to the East Asian economic crisis in 1997, its financial sector has been restructuring itself in accordance with the terms of an IMF bail-out package, in addition to meeting urgent domestic banking needs. All this is taking place in the context of an international convergence of supervisory standards in the banking industry, spearheaded by the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the "Core Principles" of the Basel Committee for Bank Supervision. This nexus of events makes the current reform of Korean banking laws of special significance as an example...

The rapid growth of international trade has brought about a need for unification of law governing international commerce and especially the international sale of goods since the sales contract constitutes the most common and the most important business transaction. This text examines the interaction between conflict of law rules and substantive rules in conventions designed to unify the law in this area. It also attempts to establish which method of unification of substantive law will restrict or even possibly exclude altogether the application of traditional conflictual mechanisms. This book...

This work presents a detailed analysis of the application of the WTO rule on regional arrangements to the current attempts at co-operation in the Asia Pacific region and makes recommendations for an institutional framework for economic integration in the region. The author argues that a framework for regional co-operation must be flexible in allowing for differential sub-regional arrangements and for a development-oriented trade policy, which has been common in some countries in the region. This thesis is based on a comprehensive account of the history and development of regional...

Since its creation by the Treaty of Asuncion in 1991, the regional trade association of MERCOSUR has been plagued by financial crises in its member states. Yet it continues, albeit slowly, to meet its objectives. To its four full members (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay) it has already added Chile and Bolivia as associate members, and continues its negotiations with the Andean Community and even with Mexico. This book by a leading authority on the subject is the first full-length analysis of the viability of MERCOSUR as an effective engine of economic development. Drawing on vast...