A Legal Framework From Emerging Business Models

The last two decades have witnessed the growth of new forms of entrepreneurial cooperation such as dynamic networks like virtual enterprises and enterprise pools. These business forms are often hybrid, having elements of both contract-based organizations and corporate forms, in particular partnership. This book examines the relative utility of contract and partnership law in fostering and maintaining these emerging business models, focusing on dynamic networks. The book analyses how dynamic networks are organized and set up through, very often, collaborative contracts and how the behaviour of their member firms is regulated. Good faith and fair dealing as a behavioural criterion in contractual and partnership relations, is an important theme of this work. The background and preconditions for the emergence and growth of such business forms is also investigated. The book contains case studies of such networks from different countries in particular Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England and Norway. It examines relevant legal rules in a number of jurisdictions such as England, Norway, Germany, Italy, France and the US. This detailed book will appeal to postgraduate students and academics in the fields of contract law, comparative law, partnership law and business/commercial law. Academics in other disciplines such as economics, sociology and business management will also find much to interest them in this study.

Business networks are an important economic phenomenon of increasing practical importance throughout Europe. This volume examines business networks from an interdisciplinary perspective, with many contributions dealing with a certain form of business network, the so-called cooperative or non-hierarchical. With regard to this specific form of cooperation the volume presents new economic findings, proposes a definition and discusses the governance structure of those networks.Moreover, this book explores whether the research results can also be applied to hierarchical, centralized business networks. With medium-sized companies and all the more with large companies, business networks also pose the question of the compatibility with anti-trust law. This collection dedicates three contributions to this important question. They are complemented by chapters on liability of the network and its members towards third parties and contributions discussing duties of loyalty and the interpretation of agreements. Drawing on new research from Italy, Spain, Germany and Norway, this work illustrates the European legal perspective on business networks.

This book analyses innovations of structuring corporate groups and regulatory limitations of group transparency and proposes Systems Thinking as solution.

An essential, in-depth analysis of the key legal issues that governments face when adopting cloud computing services.

Google’s has proved to be one of the most successful business models in today’s knowledge economy. Its services and applications have become part of our day-to-day life. However, Google has repeatedly been accused of acting outside the law in the development of services such as Adwords, Googlebooks or YouTube. One of the main purposes of this book is to assess whether those accusations are well-founded. But more important than that, this book provides a deeper reflection: are current legal systems adapted to business models such as that of Google or are they conceived for an industrial economy? Do the various lawsuits involving Google show an evolution of the existing legal framework that might favour the flourishing of other knowledge-economy businesses? Or do they simply reflect that Google has gone too far? What lessons can other knowledge-based businesses learn from all the disputes in which Google has been or is involved? This book is valuable reading for legal practitioners and academics in the field of information technologies and intellectual property law, economists interested in knowledge-economy business models and sociologists interested in internet and social networks. Dr. Aurelio Lopez-Tarruella is Senior Lecturer in Private International Law at the University of Alicante, Spain.

This book explores current issues regarding the regulation of various economic sectors, theoretically and empirically, discussing both neoclassical and behavioural economics approaches to regulation. Regulation has become one of the main determinants of modern economies, and virtually every sector is subject to general laws and regulations as well as specific rules and standards. A traditional argument to justify regulatory interventions is the promotion of public interests. Fixing markets that lack competition, balancing information asymmetries, internalising externalities, mitigating systemic risks, and protecting consumers from irrational behaviour are frequently invoked to complement the invisible hand of the market with the visible hand of the state.However, regulations can lead to unintended consequences, and serve the interests of powerful private interest groups rather than the public interest and social welfare. In addition, new insights from behavioural economics question the traditional regulatory approaches, most prominently in attitudes towards consumers. Furthermore, digitalisation and technological innovation in general present new challenges in terms of both the type of regulation and the regulatory process.Part I of this book discusses various theoretical approaches to the economic analysis of regulations, while Part II looks at specific applications of the law and economics of regulation.

This book provides an overview of key legal issues facing e-Research: data exchange and data management, collaborative endeavour, the role and operation of privacy law, and commercialisation.

This collection celebrates the immense contribution of Sarah Worthington to the field of private law. Defining the subject broadly, experts from the judiciary and the academy address contemporary challenges arising in the fields of agency, company law and insolvency, contract law, equity, the law of money, personal property, restitution and unjust enrichment. The breadth of the contributors' expertise and their willingness to offer innovative and insightful solutions to difficult problems perfectly mirror Sarah Worthington's rigorous and inspirational approach to private law scholarship.