UCP 600 rules – changing letter of credit business for international traders?

A letter of credit (L/C), in international trade may be described as an instrument of finance carrying a conditional guarantee of payment from the overseas (buyer’s) bank to the seller. Consequently, a L/C is desirable in high value and/or high risk transactions. The guarantee is conditional upon the seller complying 100% with the documentary requirements of the L/C, an issue of particular concern to exporters, as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) estimates worldwide documentary discrepancy rates of 70%. L/C transactions are governed by ICC rules, and whilst these provide an international standardised process, the differing interpretations of what constitutes documentary compliance create difficulties for sellers in particular. The new rules: UCP 600, supposedly have simpler and clearer wording, to reduce ambiguity and differences in interpretation, and hopefully reduce documentary discrepancy rates and the associated financial risks. This article examines the major changes introduced by the UCP 600 and comments on their likely impact on future L/C business. Whilst acknowledging some improvements were introduced in the UCP 600, the article concludes that a number of issues have been ignored to the detriment of traders

Carotid Atherosclerotic Markers in CADASIL

Purpose: Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a cerebral small vessel disease caused by mutations of the NOTCH3 gene. Marked variations in disease severity have raised the hypothesis that non-genetic factors may modulate the expressivity of the phenotype. The aim of the current study was to evaluate whether atherosclerosis, assessed by carotid duplex ultrasonography, is associated with variations in the clinical and MRI phenotype of CADASIL. Methods: Data from 144 consecutive patients enrolled in an ongoing prospective cohort study were collected. Degree of disability was assessed by the modified Rankin Scale, that of cognitive impairment by the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (MDRS). The total volume of the brain, of lacunar lesions and of white matter hyperintensities, the number of cerebral microhemorrhages, and parameters derived from histograms of apparent diffusion coefficient were measured on cerebral MRI. Atherosclerosis was evaluated by B-mode ultrasonography of carotid arteries. Both the carotid intima-media thickness cIMT) and the presence of carotid plaques or stenosis were recorded. Results: Higher cIMT was found to be independently associated with lower MDRS scores when this score was less than the quartile limit (p = 0.02). Only a trend for a positive association was detected between cIMT and the Rankin score (p = 0.06). There was no significant association between carotid markers and the occurrence of stroke or MRI parameters except for diffusion data. The mean and peak values of MRI diffusion histograms were found positively associated with the presence of plaques (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The results suggest that the severity of atherosclerosis may relate to cognitive decline in CADASIL and that this effect is possibly related to the degree of microstructural cerebral tissue lesions. Longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these results. Copyright (C) 2010 S. Karger AG, Base

Are International Merchants Stupid? - A Natural Experiment Refutes the Legal Origin Theory.

In economics, there is currently an important discussion on the role of "legal origins" or "legal families". Some economists claim that legal origins play a crucial role until today. Usually, they distinguish between Common Law, French, Scandinavian and German legal origin. When these legal origins are compared, countries belonging to the Common Law tradition regularly come out best (with regard to many different dimensions) and countries belonging to the French legal origin worst. International arbitration provides an ideal "natural experiment" to test this view empirically: in international trade, the contracting parties are free to choose the substantive law that suits their interests best. If the literature just cited was correct, we would expect that rational traders would structure their interactions according to some substantive law based on the Common Law tradition such as British or US American law. Although exact statistics are not readily available, the evidence from cases that end up with international arbitration courts (such as the International Court of Arbitration run by the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris) clearly demonstrates that this is not the case.Legal Origins, International Arbitration, Choice of Substantive Law

Context at the International Criminal Court

In this article, I propose a contextual approach to ICC jurisdiction normatively to be adopted by the Court’s Office of the Prosecutor and Pre-Trial Chamber in investigating and eventually prosecuting crimes under the Rome Statute. Under this contextual approach, I contend that both the Prosecutor and Pre-Trial Chamber are able to consider evidence outside the traditional notions of territorial and temporal jurisdiction to conceptualize a conflict in its entirety. The totality of cross-border and inter-temporal evidence should be considered when deciding whether to investigate attacks that the Prosecutor has a reasonable basis to believe fall within the Court’s jurisdiction. Procedurally, the multi-step jurisdictional framework, the “Funnel Approach,”—beginning with the preliminary examination of a situation and proceeding to issuing an arrest warrant—provides flexibility to admit extra-jurisdictional evidence. Textually, the open-ended ‘gravity’ threshold does not limit the Prosecutor in considering evidence within the Rome Statute’s territorial or temporal limitations

EU Competition Policy Revisited: Economic Doctrines Within European Political Work

European Union competition policy is often described as neoliberal, without this leading to more investigation. This paper highlights how the European Competition policy doctrine has been shaped, how the ordoliberal movement and the Chicago school ideas have been implemented and supported by the political work of some key actors. We show that, contrary to what is sometimes said in literature, ordoliberal actors were neither hegemonic nor leaders between Rome Treaty and the eighties, even if some neoliberal principles were introduced in antitrust law. These laws are much more a compromise between French and German representatives, and between neo-mercantilists and ordoliberals. However, things have dramatically changed since the eighties, when both (1) new political work from members of the Commission introduced in the European competition policy elements of Chicago School doctrine to complete the European market and (2) some decisions from the ECJ clarified the doctrine of EU Competition law. Nowadays, European competition policy is a mix between an ordoliberal spirit and some Chicago School doctrinal elements.competition, policy, European Union, neoliberalism, ordoliberalism, political work

Aquafed - another pressure group for private water

An analysis of the new private water lobby group, Aquafed, and the other forms of lobbying and pressure used by the private water companies