infonet-economy

Until 2009. the holding and transfer of securities held through banks and other custodians were governed by traditional legal principles applying to movable,tangible property. But operational and commercial trends in the securities and custody business, such as the intermediation and dematerialization of securities, had been challenging these legal foundations for quite some time.…

This article addresses the question whether the provision of the 2009 UNIDROIT Convention on Substantive Rules for Intermediated Securities (or Geneva Securities Convention) interfers in the relationship between an issuer and its shareholders or bondholders. The question is central to many questions of corporate law and corporate governance. The article concludes that, except to the…

In the information age, intellectual assets (such as trade secrets and music) are flowing across borders and between continents. However, legal hurdles may still negatively affect and prevent the smooth flow of these intellectual assets, as shown in the article. Even though the article analyses the issue from a European perspective with a view towards Asia (China and Japan), the…

In the global fight against biopiracy, one of the key issues is to prevent the grant and exploitation of patents on traditional knowledge and genetic resources by requiring that patent applicants for inventions involving traditional knowledge and genetic resources disclose the source of those resources and provide evidence that the prior informed consent of the local owners of such…

Investors do not physically hold their investment securities any more. Securities are held and transferred through a complex, sophisticated, and international network of financial intermediaries, including central securities depositories, investment banks, and brokers-dealers. Investors buy and sell their holdings by having book-entries made to their securities accounts; they provide…