Economic-union Books

Now in an updated, revised, and significantly expanded second edition, "Doing Business With Jordan: A Guide To Investment Opportunities & Business Practices" is an indispensable reference for any business or company seeking to do business in the Middle Eastern country of Jordan. Under the deft editorship of Philip Dew, "Doing Business With Jordan" presents an introduction to Jordan in terms of its geography, geology, history, and economy. Then such specific issues are presented with respect to the five sectors of electricity, agriculture, tourism, water, and 'The Regeneration of Downtown Amman'. Clearly presented 'how to' information is provided with respect to forming a business venture, the law of commercial agents and intermediaries, 'JIB' and 'FDI', and free zones. Aqaba special economic zones and development corporations are discussed in detail. Jordanian tax and regulatory are discussed at length as are the Amman stock exchange, as well as banking regulation and supervision. Of special note is the chapter devoted to media and advertising. "Doing Business With Jordan" concludes with up-to-date information on Jordanian labor laws, living and working conditions, residential and commercial property markets. Enhanced with three appendices providing useful addresses and contact details, general information, and contributor contact details, "Doing Business With Jordan" is an essential reference for any American corporation contemplating doing any kind of business in Jordan. Companies considering (or actively engaged in) doing business anywhere overseas should visit the Global Market Place website for a complete listing of all of the 'Doing Business' titles in their Global Market Briefings series.

Rose has written an important book that should be read by all people interested in work and justice. By carefully examining shop floor activism at the mill and life in the Duquesne community, Rose reveals the challenges of forming a union in a key industry beset by a working class divided by skill, ethnicity, and race. Based on the most impressive archival research I have ever encountered, this books stands as a signal achievement in the profession. It is an important story well told! Buy this book!

The EU Strucutral Funds is a pioneering book that provides the first systematic and critical examination of the role of the EU Structural Funds and other financial instruments in European integration. The examination is important because of the substantial sums of money involved and shows that these sums are not necessarily being used effectively or efficiently. Total Structural Fund spending from 1994 to 1999 is to be almost Euro 170 billion and this sum represents around 33 per cent of the Union budget and around 0.4 per cent of the Union gross domestic product. For the years 2000 to 2006 spending up to Euro 218.4 billion is proposed. The issues raised by Andrew Evans are highly topical because of the challenges to established practice entailed by the introduction of a single currency, the 'Euro', and by plans for the future accession of several countries of the Central and Eastern Europe of the Union.

This book covers a difficult topic in exactly the right amount of detail. For anyone studying EU competition law, its without doubt one of the best guides, and a must for the bookshelf.

The EC Merger Control Regulation: Right of Defence, a Critical Analysis of DG COMP Practice and Community Courts' Jurisprudence by Mihalis Kekelekis (International Competition Law Series: Kluwer Law International) Merger control constitutes a well-established pillar of EU competition law. However, the drafters of the Community competition merger legislation, in view of the need to attain the imperative goal of market integration. put more emphasis on the clarification of the substantive rules applied by the Commission through enhancing its supervisory powers than on the necessity for protecting the defendant parties or any involved third parties in merger proceedings. Here for the first time is an in-depth analysis of the rights of notifying parties and third parties in merger proceedings, as reflected in the administrative practice of the Commission and the case law of the Community courts.
Following a detailed exposition of the operation of the Merger Regulation and its procedures, this study covers not only the generally approved fundamental rights, such as the right to be heard or the right to access the Commission's file, but also all the other procedural rights involved in merger proceedings, such as the right of notifying parties to propose commitments outside the time-limit required. It examines the rights of the parties from the pre-notification stage through the first and second phases of the proceedings, with particular emphasis on notification, preliminary investigation, statement of objections, access to the file, oral hearing, commitments, and adoption of the final decision.
Among the issues covered in depth are:
the value of pre-notification meetings;
preparation of the Form CO and the danger of incompleteness;
derogation procedure;
commitments procedure in phase one and phase two investigations;
statement of objections, reply and time-linits;
limits to access to the file and oral hearing; and
the concept of 'sufficient interest'.
The study culminates with recommendations for reform of, and improvement in, the rights of notifying parties and third parties, including amendments to the Regulation and a further suggestion for the adoption of a Notice providing guidance on how the rights of these parties should be taken into account in merger proceedings.
A valuable set of annexes includes the texts of the Merger Regulation, its implementing Commission Regulation, the DG Competition Best Practices on the Conduct of EC merger control proceedings, as well as indicative diagrams of the first and second phase of the EC merger proceedings.
As a detailed examination of the rights of notifying parties and third parties in EC merger proceedings, and an important blueprint for detailing the rights of these parties, this study will be of immeasurable value for practitioners and business people involved in European business merger activities, as well as for interested academics.
It examines the rights of the parties in the light of a step-by-step analysis of the merger proceedings, i.e. pre-notification stage, first phase and second phase of the proceedings). Particularly the stages of notification, preliminary investigation, statement of objections, access to the file, oral hearing, commitments and of the adoption of the final decision are examined.
The conclusions of this book suggest that there must be a need to balance the efficient enforcement of competition rules with the protection of the notifying and third parties' procedural rights. Consequently, suggestions for further reform of the Merger Regulation and of its internal procedures are presented and the adoption of a Notice on the rights of notifying parties and third parties in merger proceedings is suggested, aiming to ensure that the Commission is fair and objective in applying its procedural rules.
The material, which this research is based on, is derived not only from the basic bibliography on merger and competition policy, the decisions of the Commission and the Community courts in this respect and interviews undertaken with a number of Competition lawyers in Brussels, but also from practical experience that I gained through my internships in the Merger Task Force of the European Commission as well as in international law firms in Brussels.
Excerpt: This study has attempted to present an analysis of the rights of notifying parties and third parties in EC merger proceedings, as reflected in the administrative practice of the Commission and the case law of the Community courts. This study was placed in the context of the broader ambitions of EU Competition policy, i.e. the maintenance of effective and fair competition and the establishment of internal market integration, with no barriers to trade between Member States, as derived from Article 3g EC, which states that a system of undistorted competition in the internal market should be ensured.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned ambitions, a Regulation on, among others, merger control has been adopted by the Council, as a legislative measure, to ensure that all mergers affecting firms established in the Community are in harmony with the maintenance of an effective and fair competition.' In this context, the Commission has been endowed with far-reaching supervisory powers to protect market structures by preventing the creation or strengthening of dominant positions that would impede effective competition within the common market or in a substantial part of it (Article 2(3) of the Regulation).
However, as it has also been mentioned in the introduction of this study, it seems that the drafters of the Community competition merger legislation, in view of the need to attain the imperative goal of market integration, as laid down in Article 3g EC, had put more emphasis on the clarification of the substantive rules applied by the Commission through enhancing its supervisory powers, than on the necessity for protecting the rights of the notifying or any involved third parties in merger proceedings.'
It can be argued that, one the one hand, a high degree of procedural protection can certainly improve the transparency of the proceedings. On the other hand, however, such protection may do more harm than good and undermine the efficiency of proceedings and the proper decision-making, especially under the Regulation, where the Commission applies very strict time-limits.' To this end, pleas alleging infringement of the rights of defence have been rejected by the Community courts, if the final outcome of the case would not have been different even in case of their observance. In the Endemol v. Commission case, for example, the applicant, i.e. one of the notifying parties in the Commission's administrative proceedings, argued that the Commission infringed its rights of defence in the way in which it dealt with its right of access to the file. In particular, the applicant alleged that the Commission acquired new information after the parties to the concentration had been granted access to the file and that they were never informed of that fact or given the opportunity to see this information. The CFI accepted the Commission's argument that the principles governing access to the file in merger proceedings must reconcile the protection of the parties' rights of defence and the wider public interest in effective scrutiny of concentrations, and it followed holding that:
"even if the Commission had disclosed the information, which was, moreover, of confidential nature, the applicant would not have been able to challenge it."
Also, in the Kaysersberg v. Commission case, the CFI ruled that the third parties' right to be heard must be adapted to the need for speed, which is a criterion that characterises the nature of the Regulation.'
Consequently, according to the administrative practice of the Commission and the case law of the Community courts, the rights of notifying parties and third parties in merger proceedings must be derived from the balancing of two factors: efficiency to reflect the proper decision-making and fairness. An analysis of the way the need for efficiency and speed of assessment has been and should be balanced with the protection of the notifying parties' rights of defence and the third parties' right to be heard was the ultimate purpose of this study.
In view of the fact that no specific legislation exists at the current time in the Community legal order for the protection of these rights, this study has concluded with suggestions for reform of, and improvement in, the rights of notifying and third parties in merger proceedings, as well as with suggestions for the elaboration of a new Commission Notice to deal with this subject.
I believe that the adoption of a legislative measure, even in the form of a non-binding notice, concerning the protection of the parties' rights in merger proceedings would increase legal certainty and improve the accountability and performance of the Commission. In addition, applications by the parties to the concentration or any interested third parties before the Community courts challenging Commission's decisions for infringements of basic procedural rights within its administrative proceedings are expected to diminish. The recent developments with respect to the general right of access to information from EU institutions and the discussions regarding the alignment of a single regulatory framework for both the general and the administrative right to access information can constitute an important stimulus in that respect.'
In any case, however, and even if such a legislative measure is not to be adopted, the Community courts should continue to operate in quite the same manner as they have already done, i.e. they should continue to formulate standards of procedural fairness and define clearly the extent of protection provided by procedural rights under the Regulation. Such doctrinal assessments would certainly constitute an important step towards the establishment of a coherent procedural framework for EC merger proceedings.

This was an excellent find. Anyone who feels that they are not clear on the myriad of treaties and agreements that have shaped the economic integration of Europe will be well served here. In a simple, easy to read format, this book explains things step by step without being patronizing or talking down to the reader. Legal jargon is kept to a minimum. The book is neatly organized, so if you are interested in a particular area, you can find it easily. If you are a student interested in researching the EU, or an academic looking for clarification on something simple, or someone looking to do business in Europe, this book is for you.

And excellent example of a regional study where politics and economics cannot be separated, and thus have been successfully analyzed in the context of each other. D'Anieri does a good job of combining general overview of the Ukrainian-Russian relations and their development throughout history with the detailed and in-depth study of the political and economic issues that Ukraine is currently facing as a result of a deep interdependence with Russia. I particularly enjoy the way this study ties the history of broken trust and fear of imperialistic aspirations into the process of decision making by Ukrainian leadership. The astute identification of essential areas of problems and the thoroughness in explaining their causes makes this book a great help for those interested in the future prospects of the region.

Once again Dr. Overturf looks at the principles of European integration under a microscope. A great book focusing on the issues concerning Europe after the signing of the Maastricht treaty. A book for the future of Europe. Insights to seriously consider.

I have used this book as the main reference for an honors senior seminar here at the American University of Paris and have found it to be an excellent text for analysis and documentation. Willem Molle, the author, knows the EU from within and as such he can explained it better than any other author that I have used in this connection

The book proposes a number of sophisticated theoretical statements on the sources of the protraction or partial failure of Russia's transition so far. One of its basic claims is that Russia has entered the road of democratization without yet being a fully "modern" state. This implies that it does not yet have a rule of law, an effective civil society, and mechanisms to hold politicians accountable between elections and even through them. The positive effect of the introduction of electoral procedures - though being by themselves more or less meaningful - is thus diminished by the context in which the candidates and voters interact. That is what is meant by "Russia's challenge to Vladimir Putin." Such a proposition constitutes an adequate and lucid diagnosis though I doubt that the term "modern" is the most appropriate one to conceptualize the issue at hand here. ("Modernity" is, in general, such a diffuse concept that it might be better to avoid it in focused social analysis.) Still, the substance of Rose's and Munro's argument is certainly relevant. One would wish Putin, his assistants and Russian politicians in general would read the book because it so refreshingly clearly states what Russia's major problem today seems to be.
This is one of the general advantages of this text. The authors' opinions are stated explicitly, and their critique of Russian practices sometimes borders to what Russians might consider "politically incorrect." For instance, the authors affirmatively quote S.E. Finer who judged Ivan the Terrible's rule to have been "the most extreme example of arbitrary and capricious despotism to be found anywhere" (as quoted on p. 17). When Rose and Munro deal with the pathologies of the post-Soviet Russian political structure by way of not lamenting the absence of a real party system, as is often done, but introducing the idea that there are four party systems producing "a system of floating parties" they can be envied for finding original ways to decipher one of the major paradoxes of post-Soviet Russian politics.
I found reading Rose's and Munro's thus to be fun and a challenge at the same time. We learn a lot about Russia. The opinions of the authors on many issues in her politics and society are well-informed. But the range of issues dealt with is too broad, and the amount of numbers and percentages sometimes overwhelming (at least, for those among us not trained in memorizing and computing large amounts of numerical data). A narrower focus of the study, presentation of less survey results, and use of more qualitative data might have made the argument clearer.