Spanish socialism: On the road to Marbella

This essay analyzes the underlying social and economic forces that explain the gap between the Spanish Socialist Party's working class base and its pro-business supply-side economic policies. The essay examines the ascendancy of a new professional class linked to financial capital and European multi-national capital that challenges the industrial policies of the Franco right. From an analysis of incomes policy, economic deregulation and state allocation, the study concludes that the Socialists have displaced the traditional Right as the principal representatives of corporate capital — they have become the New Right.     

一起定期租船合同纠纷管辖权异议案

结合福州明发船务有限公司诉马鞍山宇环轮船有限公司定期租船合同纠纷管辖权异议案,对定期租船合同履行中如何认定还船港问题进行分析,进而认为,实际还船港应指合同双方最终达成一致的、与合同约定的还船港不同的、出租人同意接收、承租人同意归还船舶的港口.航运实务中出现的承租人单方终止租用行为的港口,或者出租人单方撤船的港口,都不能据以确定管辖法院的还船港.     

Economic analysis of standard form contracts: the monopoly case

The terms of standard form contracts are rarely known to consumers. Still, it is often argued that few consumers who read and understand the contract can assure that it does not include sub-optimal terms. According to this argument, if the proportion of informed consumers is sufficiently high, they can secure an optimal set of contract terms to the benefit of all other consumers. This paper shows that when suppliers can adjust the content of the form contract, the few reading consumers cannot correct the market failure. In fact, unless all consumers read and understand the form contract, a monopoly is always encouraged to offer sub-optimal terms, i.e., terms that benefit her but at a higher cost to the consumers.      

Institutions and contracts: Franchising

This paper investigates a new dataset of franchise networks in nine countries in order to assess whether and to what extent do institutions influence the practice of franchising. Our regressions relate the structure of franchise networks (the rate of franchised units as opposed to corporate units) to individual parameters supposed to reflect the extent of moral hazards on the franchisor's and franchisee's sides and, more specifically, to various institutional parameters of the franchisor's country, namely, the legal tradition, the level of procedural formalism, the constraints imposed by labour regulation and the effectiveness of trademark protection. While agency theory parameters seem to perform rather badly in this international setting, institutions such as trademark protection and labour regulation have more explanatory power: greater trademark protection encourages franchising and the impact of labour regulation is mostly positive, depending on the type of labour regulation that is being considered. The effect of legal tradition and formalism seems negligible once these parameters are taken in. JEL Classification D23 · F23 · K12     

The cost of regulation in a decentralized context: the case of the Spanish regions

The impact of regulation on productivity is an issue that has attracted increasing interest in recent decades, as some scholars have argued that the proliferation of red tape may be the cause of slower growth rates in some western economies. Regulation (and other public instruments) has significant effects that may be either benign or harmful. Justified and well designed regulation protects consumers from potentially unsafe products, limits pollution, enhances workplace safety and contributes to public health and safety, as well as a more productive and fair society. However, an overabundance of rules or badly designed regulation can cause confusion and delay, impose unreasonable compliance costs in terms of capital investment, labour and official paperwork, retard innovation, lower productivity and, accidentally, distort incentives for private initiative. The objective of this paper is to examine the possible impact of regulatory activity in the Spanish regions over the past decade (1989–2001) on growth and productivity.     

Regulation as a cause of firm fragmentation:the case of the Spanish construction industry

Team members organize their relationships to achieve efficient incentives in accordance with institutional constraints. When these constraints change, the rights and tasks of members are reallocated, generating a new contractual structure [or governance mechanism] that solves more easily the problem of collective action associated with team production. We show how this process has worked in the case of Spanish construction firms, in which more restrictive labor and tax regulations have induced parties to substitute market contracts for labor contracts because of the need to avoid moral hazards. We argue that this explains the increased fragmentation of the Spanish construction industry, and technical change does not seem to account for this process.     

Spanish court rules in 'Accessorize' trade marks case

The Barcelona Court of First Instance No. 1 found in favourof the claimants, owners of the famous registered trade mark‘Accessorize’ in their action for trade mark infringement,trade mark cancellation, unfair competition, and damages inrespect of the use by the defendants of the Accessori, Mr Accessoriand Accessori trade marks.     

How officers spend their time with the community

Using data from field observation of police patrol officers at work in two American cities, we explore similarities and differences between the tasks undertaken by generalist patrol officers and community policing specialists. As expected, community policing specialists are much more able to choose the work they do and the people they encounter. Specialists use their discretion to spend less “face time” with the public and more time “behind the scenes” than do patrol generalists, and to engage a higher-status and less problem-ridden clientele. Implications for adoption of community policing are discussed.     

Technology contracts: An academic perspective

As university-industry ties broaden and strengthen it becomes more important for technology managers on both sides to understand the nature and obligations of the other, and thus its needs, policies, and limitations. This paper discusses some relevant aspects of the nature of universities, the needs of industry, current technologytransfer laws, and in consequence, university policies. It also provides standard language in selected clauses of research and licensing agreements that address these issues. In explicating this fundamental information, the paper might be a useful basis for starting negotiations.     

Deadline or guideline? – Stipulations as to time in IT contracts

In this article practical guidance is offered on the implications of English law rules relating to stipulations as to time in IT contracts, with reference to recent case law.     

我国餐饮特许经营企业的知识产权战略研究

知识产权战略对餐饮特许经营企业来说非常重要。我国餐饮特许经营企业知识产权意识的缺乏,运用知识产权战略能力的不足已经影响到我国餐饮特许经营企业的健康发展。知识产权战略应贯穿于餐饮企业特许经营的始终,在开始特许经营前就初步建立起知识产权体系,并在特许经营的过程中注意知识产权的保护。     

TMT contracts: Avoiding termination and achieving positive realignment: How legal counsel can make a difference - A UK perspective

“The task of a leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been” Henry A. KissingerWith stuttering growth in the Western economies where major sourcing and TMT (Technology, Media & Telecoms) contracts are pervasive, it is perhaps not surprising that internal and external legal counsel are increasingly being called upon to advise clients on termination options and strategies to effect or oppose a threatened termination for breach of contract. This short paper considers why this has happened and the other factors which are in play which have meant that advice on termination and the renegotiation of contracts in this context has become more common. Expertise in this area is part of an IT lawyer’s tool kit and we consider that this is an area where internal and external legal counsel can make a substantial difference in delivering solutions to their clients.In this paper I talk about termination and renegotiation interchangeably. The reason for this as will become clear is that all forms of termination, whether they are consensual or contested, will involve some form of renegotiation of the terms of the contract between the parties. This is because it is almost impossible except perhaps in the simplest of installations to predict the nature in which a supplier or a customer may wish to change the services provided, and consequently even the most carefully crafted of exit and transition clauses, schedules and plans will require some form of post-contract negotiation between the customer, the outgoing supplier and potentially a new supplier or suppliers. This will necessarily involve some form of renegotiation of the terms of the contract between the parties.This paper looks at renegotiation in the context of a termination scenario rather than dealing with renegotiation during the normal course of operation of the contract.     

The Bosman ruling and the presence of native football players in their home league: the Spanish case

This paper examines whether the Bosman ruling plays a role in the presence (participation and performance) of native football (soccer) players in their home league, focusing on the Spanish case. By abolishing transfer fees after the expiration of contracts, as well as liberalizing the migration of professional football players within the European Union, the Bosman ruling could negatively impact the participation of national players in their home league. To explore this issue, we use data from the First Division of the Spanish League for the seasons 1980/1981–2011/2012. The results suggest a decline in the number of native Spanish players as a consequence of the Bosman ruling, although the impact does not appear to be permanent. However, we find that the Bosman case has a negative and lasting impact on the performance of Spanish players in their home league. Our findings do not change when we use different subsamples or introduce controls for unobserved characteristics, or for observed characteristics that could drive the presence of Spanish players, such as participation in European competitions, the performance of the Spanish national team, and the success of teams’ youth academies, among others. This work also takes into account other changes in the nationality quota rules and the impact of other post-Bosman legislative changes, such as the Kolpak case and the Cotonou agreement.     

Innovation after the revolution: foreign sovereign bond contracts since 2003

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. Key points

• In 2003, under official pressure, amendment provisionsin standard form New York law sovereign bond contracts shiftedto resemble English law boilerplate.
• Market participants andofficials expected contracts in New York and London to convergearound a common formulation.
• Contrary to expectations, theshift away from old boilerplate did not lead to convergencearound new boilerplate.
• Issuers in London, and to a lesserdegree in New York, are experimenting with diverse terms andinstitutional arrangements.
• Amendment provisions in recentissues have used hybrid formulations, permitting holders tovote in person or by written consent, with different approvalthresholds.
• More issuers are using trust structures.
• Creditorcommittees are making a qualified comeback, though the adoptionand formulation of committee provisons does not appear to trackissuers' credit quality.
• Not all issuers agree to pay committeeexpenses.
• Some issuers have agreed to require unanimous creditorconsent to amend litigation-related terms, . . . [Full Text of this Article]