Transnational Business Problems

The Fifth Edition Transnational Business Problems combines the best aspects of a conceptual, systemic approach and a problems approach. It provides a sophisticated intellectual framework for understanding the most significant contractual and regulatory issues in international business. At fewer than 700 pages, this compact book is ideal for a one-semester course. One volume. Transnational Business Problems presents the important practical and policy aspects of international transactions in one reasonably-sized volume. Deals with Systemic Issues First. Transnational Business Problems considers systemic issues first. Five introductory chapters discuss the structure of the international system, the different players in international business--corporations, lawyers, international institutions--and issues that reach across all kinds of transactions such as dispute resolution and tax. Problems Approach. The introductory chapters are followed by eight problems, each focused on a different kind of transaction: transnational sales, agency and distributorship agreements, licensing, foreign direct investment, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, development agreements, and international debt instruments. Each problem covers both contractual and regulatory issues. Nearly all begin with a sample contract. Sophistication. The book uses primary source materials--draft contracts, statutes, regulations, treaties, cases, and arbitral awards--that allow students, with help from the text, to work through issues in a realistic way. It goes beyond the nuts and bolts of transactions to encourage consideration of broader policy issues: from the liability of corporations for human rights violations to restrictions on foreign investment; from the compulsory licensing of HIV drugs to the restructuring of sovereign debt. Geographical Diversity. Transnational Business Problems reflects the geographical diversity of business today. The problems focus on China, the European Union, South America, Mexico, and the Middle East. Materials from other parts of the world are included in the introductory chapters. Intellectual Heritage. Transnational Business Problems grows out of a rich intellectual heritage that began with Milton Katz and Kingman Brewster's International Transactions and evolved into Henry Steiner and Detlev Vagts's Transnational Legal Problems. This book views transnational business problems as a particular species of transnational legal problem that both generates and is influenced by transnational legal process. Fully Updated. The Fifth Edition of Transnational Business Problems is fully updated to account for developments through the start of 2014. Every year between editions the authors provide an update in memo form that teachers can distribute as a supplement to their classes. Useful Teacher's Manual. Transnational Business Problems has a complete teacher's manual that provides suggestions on how to approach the material and answers to all of the questions posed in the text. The manual also contains sample syllabi.