This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the nature and scope of family law, covering the meaning of ‘family’ and the functions of family law. It then describes trends in family law; the family justice system; and the internationalisation of family law.
Chapter
1. Introduction
N V Lowe, G Douglas, E Hitchings, and R Taylor
Chapter
21. Law firms as businesses
Scott Slorach, Judith Embley, Peter Goodchild, and Catherine Shephard
This chapter first discusses the business aspect of law firms. Law firms have the same financial motivations and pressures as any other business. They need money (investment) to set up, and then to survive and grow. Law firms need to make a profit, attract clients, and stay ahead of other law firms. They operate within the legal market, producing a product-legal services-the ‘consumers’ of which are the clients. The chapter considers the different types of law firm operating within this market, who their clients are, and why those clients chose a particular firm. It examines the challenges faced by law firms in both the domestic and international markets.
Chapter
1. The nature and sources of commercial law
This chapter provides an overview of the nature and sources of commercial law. It explores the definition of commercial law, referencing how it is notoriously difficult to define. Commercial law draws on principles from a number of different areas of jurisprudence, such as contract law, criminal law, and principles from tort, property, equity, and trusts. The key challenge for commercial law is therefore to strike the right balance between the competing principles regardless of how they overlap. The chapter also considers the impact and significance of consumerism, internationalisation, digitalisation, certainty, and good faith on commercial law. It then discusses the role of equity in commercial law.
Chapter
17. International Aspects
Alison Jones, Brenda Sufrin, and Niamh Dunne
This chapter examines the issue of jurisdictional problems in competition law, the ‘internationalisation’ of competition law, and the efforts to deal with competition issues at a global level to match the global operations of undertakings on world markets. It looks first at the question of extraterritoriality in public international law, particularly the concept of objective territoriality. It considers the distinction between prescriptive jurisdiction and enforcement jurisdiction and how these might apply to competition law. It then looks at the development of the effects doctrine in US law and the concept of comity, and at the position of foreign plaintiffs in US courts. It considers how the EU takes jurisdiction by the application of the single economic entity doctrine, the implementation doctrine, and the qualified effects doctrine. The chapter concludes by examining international cooperation in competition law and how competition law must be sensitive to the huge global economic inequalities of the twenty-first century. It looks at the bilateral agreements into which the EU has entered, and the multilateral cooperation to which the EU is party, including cooperation within UNCTAD, the OECD, the WTO, and the International Competition Network (ICN).
