Cost Benefit Analyses of Developing a Legislation to Attract Non-Resident High Net Worth Individuals to Use Estonian Private Foundation Platform

On a global level, the high net worth population is expanding, and the wealth of high net worth individuals (HNWI) is increasing rapidly. For various reasons, high net worth families and individuals are searching for vehicles to assist them in safeguarding and conveniently managing their wealth. Private foundations represent one useful avenue for achieving this end, and the use of private foundations has become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly in European countries. Many countries have laws which regulate private foundations and several are looking for adjusting or introducing legislation.In this article, authors analysing benefits for a country like Estonia in case the country increases the attractiveness of its jurisdiction for non-residents who are looking for establishment of a private foundation. The article comes to the conclusion that to be competitive, a country cannot collect tax revenues from private foundations established by non-residents except from income originated in the very same country. However, the country can earn benefits from revenues received by companies rendering services to non-residents and their private foundations. The article demonstrates that service fees a country earns and taxes collected from these fees would be substantial enough to make necessary changes to legislation beneficial for a country

WHAT IS COMPLIANT PRESENTATION UNDER THE LAW OF DOCUMENTARY LETTERS OF CREDIT? A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE 14 OF THE UCP 600

Documentary letters of credit are among the most popular methods of payment in international transactions. The key to their success is in reducing the risk for exporters by replacing importers’ fi nancial undertakings with a guarantee of payment from a bank. Within the framework of a complicated process, a bank will guarantee to honour the seller’s presentation of complying documents with terms of credit on behalf of the creditworthy buyer, who will compensate the bank based on another contract. By applying two principles of autonomy and strict compliance, documentary credit mitigates the existing commercial risk of trade between a buyer and seller who are in diff erent countries and have no information about the financial capacities of each other’s businesses. These two principles are regulated under the Unifi ed Customs and Practices for Documentary Letters of Credit (the UCP), which was promulgated by the International Chamber of Commerce for the first time in 1933. The constant revisions of the UCP (current version UCP 600), which refl ected current market practices, resulted in a global turnout of traders and its recognition as one of the most successful sets of rules introduced by the private sector. Th e main idea behind the introduction of the UCP (as confi rmed by ICC offi cials) was to harmonise rules applicable to international LC transactions at the global level. However, it should be noted that the UCP has no power of law, and in case of any confl ict between its provisions with national law or absence thereof among its provisions, national law will prevail. Therefore, it is of crucial importance that its degree of harmonisation with national laws in preventing possible losses to traders and bankers active in the practice of international trade fi nance be defi ned. This paper studied general requirements for compliant presentation within 14 articles of the UCP 600 in comparison with requirements under English Law. In order to provide a complete picture to the reader, this paper analysed the respective sections of other ICC publications, including ISBP 745745, DOCDEX decisions, and ICC Banking Commission Opinions along with the UCP. Th e main purpose behind this paper is two-fold: Firstly, it tries to provide a legal analysis of the general framework of compliance requirements for documents under the UCP 600. Secondly, it strives to fi nd existing conflicts between respective provisions in the UCP 600 and English Law. Recognition of such conflicting areas can be used as advice for the draft ing committee of the UCP to achieve their goal of further harmonising the practice of international trade finance

The European Union external competencies and maritime industry

Maritime industry has deep roots in Europe. International ports and Inland water ways are in use by European merchants in the course of their trade all along the history. Formation of the European Union and Single European Market has increased the importance of maritime transport even more than before. Currently, industry is regulated at the Union level with body of law which intends to create a safe and predictable business environment for European and foreign enterprises. However, shared nature of the EU with her Member States in regulating Maritime Transport has created a big question mark for many external parties as well as European stack holders of Maritime industry. The question is who can represent EU maritime industry externally and where to draw the limits of Union and Member States Competencies in this industry? At the midst of the second decade of 21th Century, still many international businesses and even foreign governments wonder about limits of external competencies of the EU in maritime industry. Such confusion creates trouble for foreigners and even Europeans in determining where should they referee their matters to the Commission and where should they approach Member States? In this paper, author tries to answer above mentioned question by scrutinizing external and internal challenges facing the EU about its competencies to represent maritime industries outside of her boundaries. Paper is divided into five main sections. After introductory comments, second part will discuss maritime policy and its regulation in the EU. In third part with particular focus on the EU-IMO relations, paper will analyse external challenges facing the Union in representing her maritime industry in international organizations. Forth part will take a look at internal challenges and regulatory limits which affect the extremal representation of maritime industry by the Union. Final part is dedicated to concluding remarks

Bio-Cyber-Physical ‘Planetoids’ for Repopulating Residual Spaces

Minimal interventions that provide various microclimates can stimulate both biodiversity and social accessibility of leftover spaces. New habitats are often developed for different animal and plant species based on studies of the microclimates typical of such residual spaces. By introducing interventions of 0.5-1.0 m diameter ‘planetoids’ placed at various locations, existing and new life is supported. The ‘planetoid’ described in this paper is prototyped by means of Design-to-Robotic-Production and -Operation (D2RP&O). This implies that it is not only produced by robotic means, but that it contains sensor-actuator mechanisms that allow humans to interact with them by establishing a bio-cyber-physical feedback loop

Comparative Study of Unconscionability Exception to the Principle of Autonomy in Law of Letter of Credits

This paper touches upon legal nature and scope of unconscionability as an exception to autonomy principle of documentary letters of credit (LC) and bank guarantees. Complicated process of international trade is known as the main reason behind development of new exceptions to globally appreciated principle of autonomy in process of LC transaction. Apart from fraud which has been recognized in international business society and various jurisdictions, other exceptions including unconscionability, nullity, illegality and recklessness have received different treatments in different national laws. Unconscionability is applied to situations where beneficiary’s demand to draw under the LC is not fraudulent but affected with bad faith in a way that court prevents bank from honouring the credit. While UCP leaves the problem of fraud and other exceptions to autonomy principle to be solved by national laws, among common law countries, unconscionability defence has been recognized in Australia and Singapore but others do not show welcoming attitude towards it. Current paper tries to find reasons behind different attitudes of common law jurisdictions to unconscionability defence in letter of credit process by answering following questions: What is the nature of unconscionability? How different common law jurisdictions have received it as an exception to principle of autonomy in documentary letters of credit and bank guarantees? And last but not the least, what are arguments in favour and against its universal recognition as a defence for payment under letter of credit and bank guarantee system

To be or not to be; the EU cross-border mergers framework and harmonization of dissenting shareholder’s rights

To date, the Cross-border Merger Directive is known as a successful attempt in harmonizing crossborder merger rules within the overall under-harmonisation of EU company law. Transnational companies merge across the Union in accordance with the European cross-border mergers framework. However, concerns in many respects are not met. Issues like descending shareholder protection and creditors’ rights still raise valid questions. The legal aspects of dissenting shareholders’ rights and their protection against the majority decision are notharmonized at the Union level and leave the issue under the control of the national law of the Member States. Therefore, the Member States provide divergent levels of protection for dissenting shareholders of a cross-border merger transaction within their national framework. Such divergence extends from providing no special rights for minority shareholders in cross-border mergers to transposing the respective provision in the Cross-Border Mergers Directive in national laws and provide particular remedies for such group of shareholders in cross-border mergers taking place subjected to their national law. This paper endeavors to answer the question of ‘Whether or not further harmonization of protection mechanisms for dissenting shareholders within cross-border merger transactions in the EU necessary?’

The EU export controls regime: Dual-use goods and technologies in the European legal framework

Dual-use items, including software and technology, can be used for both civil and military purposes. Export control of such items is an important constituent part of security policies of exporter states. These measures are aimed at avoiding proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.1 The nature of dual-use goods intrigues imposition of control over exporting them to unfriendly countries or those ‘sensitive’ in terms of their ambiguous considerations of foreign policies.2 Some category of goods may be banned for export, whilst others are legitimate products that further technological development and strengthen international economic ties. The aim of the exporter states is to seek balance between safeguarding security objectives whilst not undermining competitiveness of local businesses. The paper explores the EU framework for regulating exports of dual-use goods as well as the EU participation in the international export controls regimes

Theoretical and technical potential evaluation of solar power generation in Iran

Nowadays, utilizing solar energy for power production at high efficiency and in a cost-effective status is a challenging issue for power plant engineers. This challenge would be answered by considering several affecting parameters such as technical, economic, and environmental criteria. In this investigation, in order to provide an assessment for implementing solar power plants in the southeast of Iran, Sistan and Baluchistan province, a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach is linked to a geographic information system (GIS). The MCDM approach is used to appraise the effective criteria for implementing solar power plants. The environment, orography, economic and climate are selected as the important criteria. Each criterion is assessed for the defined location of the investigation (Sistan and Baluchistan province) and in addition, GIS is employed to provide a geographical-graphical valuation to determine the most appropriate place for installing a large-scale solar power production plant. The solar systems considered in this study are photovoltaic (PV) collectors and concentrated solar power (CSP) generation plants (e.g. solar trough collectors). Technical and theoretical valuations are made to specify the amount of solar power which can be harnessed in Sistan and Baluchistan. In overall, it is demonstrated that this specific location in the southeast of Iran has the technical potential to provide 7,419 TWh/y and 8,758 TWh/y of solar electricity by installing CSP and PV technologies, respectively