This book brings together a number of contributions examining how changes associated with economic globalization have contributed to the creation of new pressures on, and expectations of, those fields of law connected to the regulation of cross-border commercial transactions. These new demands of law – in particular, that it be more agile or “flexible” in regulating the economy – have prompted lawmakers and regulators in multiple jurisdictions to adopt a range of new regulatory techniques and legal forms to respond to this challenge. In many cases, these adaptations in law have entailed compromising traditional legal principles, such as legal certainty, in favor of empowering regulators with greater discretion than has traditionally been permitted in modern law. This change raises important questions about the meaning of fairness (certainty or flexibility), as well as the relationship between the public and private good.

This note explores the interactions between new technologies with key areas of commercial law and potential legal changes to respond to new developments in technology and businesses. Inspired by the Bali Fintech Agenda, this note argues that country authorities need to closely examine the adequacy of their legal frameworks to accommodate the use of new technologies and implement necessary legal reform so as to reap the benefits of fintech while mitigating risks. Given the cross-border nature of new technologies, international cooperation among all relevant stakeholders is critical. The note is structured as follows: Section II describes the relations between technology, business, and law, Section III discusses the nature and functions of commercial law; Section IV provides a brief overview of developments in fintech; Section V examines the interaction between technology and commercial law; and Section VI concludes with a preliminary agenda for legal reform to accommodate the use of new technologies.

In response to cartel formation, competition lawyers and policymakers in nine Asian jurisdictions have experimented with leniency programmes. This mechanism allows firms to come forward with information in relation to their illegal cartel participation in return for a reduction of or immunity from a sanction. The experimentation plays out across three different dimensions: the revision of early adopted leniency programmes, the introduction of newly written leniency programmes, and the decision – deliberate or otherwise – not to create a leniency programme. This volume is the first to analyse the empirical evidence across a number of countries to determine how effective these measures have been, and how they have been amended in response to problems encountered. In this volume, local experts from key Asian jurisdictions, together with international experts, offer an introduction to this fast-developing field, and explore the theoretical, international and regulatory contexts of leniency programmes.

The Routledge Handbook of FinTech offers comprehensive coverage of the opportunities, challenges and future trends of financial technology. This handbook is a unique and in-depth reference work. It is organised in six thematic parts. The first part outlines the development, funding, and the future trends. The second focuses on blockchain technology applications and various aspects of cryptocurrencies. The next covers FinTech in banking. A significant element of FinTech, mobile payments and online lending, is included in the fourth part. The fifth continues with several chapters covering other financial services, while the last discusses ethics and regulatory issues. These six parts represent the most significant and overarching themes of FinTech innovations. This handbook will appeal to students, established researchers seeking a single repository on the subject, as well as policy makers and market professionals seeking convenient access to a one-stop guide.

While corporate governance has been a successful concept throughout the centuries, it is in question whether this concept can remain sustainable in the digital era and during a time of technological and managerial disruption. Under the pressure of new economic, social, and ecologic challenges, it is vital to understand how this concept needs to transform. Challenges and Opportunities of Corporate Governance Transformation in the Digital Era is an essential reference source that discusses concepts, trends, and forecasts of corporate governance and examines its transformation under the pressure of new technologies and economic changes. Featuring research on topics such as corporate identity, e-commerce, and cost management, this book is ideally designed for corporate leaders, managers, executives, business professionals, consultants, professors, researchers, and students.

Blockchain is a recent technology that is promising to revolutionize the way supply chains are designed and operated. Regarding its role in securing exchanges of data, this technology has remarkably changed the manner of governing the structure of the supply chain relationships and the way that transactions are made. Blockchain technology is likely to influence future supply chain practices by performing electronic integration, supporting partners’ connections, and offering real-time information flows. Thus, blockchain technologies are gaining interest among both academicians and professionals. This interest concerns the conceptual level and also the practical and concrete levels of the implementation of blockchain technology in supply chains. The Handbook of Research on Blockchain Technology and the Digitalization of the Supply Chain presents blockchain’s basic concepts and pertinent methods that contributed to meeting key supply chain management objectives. It determines the current trends and challenges in the use of blockchain to enhance supply chain management. Covering topics such as communication systems, documentation systems, and supply chain evolution, this major reference work is an excellent resource for business leaders and managers, logistics professionals, IT managers, students and educators of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

There is a broad consensus amongst law firms and in-house legal departments that next generation “Legal Tech” – particularly in the form of Blockchain-based technologies and Smart Contracts – will have a profound impact on the future operations of all legal service providers. Legal Tech startups are already revolutionizing the legal industry by increasing the speed and efficiency of traditional legal services or replacing them altogether with new technologies. This on-going process of disruption within the legal profession offers significant opportunities for all business. However, it also poses a number of challenges for practitioners, trade associations, technology vendors, and regulators who often struggle to keep up with the technologies, resulting in a widening regulatory “gap.” Many uncertainties remain regarding the scope, direction, and effects of these new technologies and their integration with existing practices and legacy systems. Adding to the challenges is the growing need for easy-to-use contracting solutions, on the one hand, and for protecting the users of such solutions, on the other. To respond to the challenges and to provide better legal communications, systems, and services Legal Tech scholars and practitioners have found allies in the emerging field of Legal Design. This collection brings together leading scholars and practitioners working on these issues from diverse jurisdictions. The aim is to introduce Blockchain and Smart Contract technologies, and to examine their on-going impact on the legal profession, business and regulators.

Business firms are ubiquitous in modern society, but an appreciation of how they are formed and for what purposes requires an understanding of their legal foundations. This book provides a scholarly and yet accessible introduction to the legal framework of modern business enterprises. It explains the legal ideas that allow for the recognition of firms as organizational "persons" having social rights and responsibilities. Other foundational ideas include an overview of how the laws of agency, contracts, and property fit together to compose the organized "persons" known as business firms. The institutional legal theory of the firm developed embraces both a "bottom-up" perspective of business participants and a "top-down" rule-setting perspective of government. Other chapters in the book discuss the features of limited liability and the boundaries of firms. A typology of different kinds of firms is presented ranging from entrepreneurial one-person start-ups to complex corporations, as well as new forms of hybrid social enterprises. Practical applications include contribution to the debates surrounding corporate executive compensation and political free-speech rights of corporations.

The technology and application of artificial intelligence (AI) throughout society continues to grow at unprecedented rates, which raises numerous legal questions that to date have been largely unexamined. Although AI now plays a role in almost all areas of society, the need for a better understanding of its impact, from legal and ethical perspectives, is pressing, and regulatory proposals are urgently needed. This book responds to these needs, identifying the issues raised by AI and providing practical recommendations for regulatory, technical, and theoretical frameworks aimed at making AI compatible with existing legal rules, principles, and democratic values. An international roster of authors including professors of specialized areas of law, technologists, and practitioners bring their expertise to the interdisciplinary nature of AI.

This Research Handbook analyses the role of law in a universe fractured by new disruptive technologies such as metaverse platforms. Contributing authors explore how the law will adapt as new dimensions of the metaverse are introduced to issues such as intellectual property rights, e-commerce, NFTs and cryptocurrencies, data privacy, contract law, as well as human rights, consumer law and criminal law. The abuse and manipulation of users is studied in several contributions.