Expropriation Of Assets Research Articles

The Expropriation of Sanctioned Assets: Does Ukrainian Jurisprudence Respond to Human Rights Concerns?

Abstract This policy and practice note raises human rights concerns about the Law of Ukraine ‘On Sanctions’ imposed during time of war. Despite its legitimate aim to stop the war aggression, the expropriation of sanctioned assets into state income, newly introduced in 2022, significantly risks human rights violations. The current jurisprudence in Ukraine on the expropriation of assets of sanctioned individuals and entities into state income raises the following four key human rights concerns: (1) duplication of the offence and punishment from national criminal law; (2) retroactive effect of the introduced sanction; (3) inadequate procedural safeguards for sanctioned persons; and (4) unlimited scope of persons and their assets that can be expropriated. This note argues that these significant drawbacks cannot be legitimized even in time of war.

Обоснованность регулирования сборов и тарифов на услуги в аэропортах

The article examines the problem of the validity of regulation of airport services’ fees and tariffs. The study is relevant amid criticism of the need for regulation in the context of commercialization of the industry given the disputes over natural monopoly’ status of airports, potential competition between airports and the viability of alternative transaction governance mechanisms. The objective of the research is to analyze possible justifications for the necessity of airport services regulation and to reveal limitations of each of justifications. The analysis is carried out within the framework of two approaches: the natural monopoly model of the theory of industry organization and a comparative analysis of discrete structural alternatives from the new institutional economic theory. The following results were obtained. Firstly, the research shows that the necessity of regulation within the framework of these approaches is justified by the presence of two risks – the risk of abuse of a dominant position and the risk of expropriation of investments made by consumers of airport services. Secondly, concerning the limitations of the justifications, the article systematizes the factors contributing to the strengthening or weakening of the market power of airports. Thirdly, the research identifies the characteristics of airports that are subject to examination when examining the need of for regulation. Fourth, it is demonstrated that the level of risk of expropriation of assets varies depending on the scale of the airport’s activities and the role of the airport in the route networks of airlines. Thus, the paper concludes that within the framework of each of the approaches considered, the decision to introduce regulation of services at airports should be made not for the industry as a whole, but for individual airports, and shows the possible risks of a selective approach to regulating services at airports (the expansion of the regulator’s discretion, the increase in the regulator’s costs due to the need for analysis for the airports under consideration, corruption risks), which must be taken into account when designing relevant regulations if a decision is made to implement the proposed approach to regulation.

Regime type and international commercial agreements

AbstractPreferential trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties limit member‐states’ policy discretion; consequently policy uncertainty is mitigated. Reductions in policy uncertainty stemming from accession to an international agreement improve the resource allocation decisions of voters and reduce deadweight losses from the need to self‐insure against policy uncertainty. If electoral accountability makes expropriation of assets or discriminatory treatment of firms more costly to leaders (whereas electoral accountability has little effect on rent creation via tariff revenues) then among developing countries, democratic states sign preferential trade agreements relatively more frequently than autocratic states; however, autocratic states are more likely to sign bilateral investment treaties than are democratic states. We offer a simple model, and present some empirical regularities consistent with the theory.

<I>Manu Militari</I>: Venture Ties to Coercive Institutions in Emerging Economies

We explore how affiliations with military and political elites differentially affect survival and the likelihood of expropriation of new ventures. Empirically, we examine the impact of military and political ties on airline ventures over 65 years across 10 Latin American countries. Our findings show that military and political ties operate using different mechanisms of influence. While both military and political ties increase firm survival, only military ties reduce expropriation of assets. Further analysis finds that these effects are contingent upon institutional, political, and organizational contexts. Military ties were more effective than political ties in contexts of civil and political conflict, low institutional democracy, socialist-oriented economic regimes, and firms with foreign investments, while political ties were more effective when legislatures had more power and after long periods of civilian rule. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on dependency theory, organizational ties, and entrepreneurship.

Political event analysis using group support systems

Corporate and public sector managers often look to futurists for help in forecasting changes in their internal and external organizational environments. Futurists use techniques such as the Delphi method and scenario development to identify possible futures, often consisting of events and trends, occurring both globally and within a specific geographical region. As corporations expand into global markets, they become vulnerable to political events occurring in specific regions such as expropriation of assets, the imposition of currency controls, and targeted taxation. In analyzing the risk associated with these events, it is often useful to call on the opinions and judgments of knowledgeable persons closest to the events. Yet some of these persons may be reluctant to discuss their opinions openly. Therefore, it may be helpful to allow them to discuss issues among themselves under conditions of mutual anonymity. Group support systems (GSS) allow groups to conduct such discussions. We present a two-part methodology for analyzing political events using GSS, one to be used for an initial analysis and the other for a follow-up comparison. We then demonstrate our methodology by applying it to Hong Kong (1) before its reunification with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and (2) after the reunification.

Settlement of Property Claims in Former East Germany

The reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990 was a political milestone for Europe (Harris 1991; Murphy 1991). It marked not only the end of an era dominated by two German states with radically different political and economic philosophies but also the end of the wider divisions of the cold war. In many ways the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent official reunification initiated a rewriting of the geography of central Europe. Contacts severed for more than forty years were suddenly reestablished, creating wholly new patterns of circulation and of political and economic influence (Blacksell 1994; Grimm and others 1994). For Germany itself, reunification meant the formal end of East Germany - the German Democratic Republic - and of virtually all of its existing social, economic, administrative, and legal systems. East Germany was replaced by a much-enlarged federal republic - what had been popularly known as West Germany - that transplanted its own administrative infrastructure almost unaltered to the new, unified German state [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED]. The change, accomplished less than a year after the first obvious signs of collapse in the East German regime, would have been traumatic for the peoples of both countries under any circumstance. For the 17 million East Germans it marked the end of much of their way of life and the beginning of adjustment to a new world of democratic politics. It also brought susceptibility to the dictates of capitalism and the vicissitudes of the free market. The ensuing difficulties were not only numerous and complex but also extremely varied, extending to every aspect of daily life in the five new Lander (federal states) and the unified city of Berlin, with intriguing implications for the human geography of the whole of Germany. More than five years after reunification, severe economic and social inequalities between the two parts of the country remain (Table I). The gross domestic product, both per capita and per employee, in the new Lander is about half that in the old, and the unemployment rate is more than a third higher. Even though the new Lander account only for a minority (19.4 percent) of the total German population, the discrepancies introduce a serious element of regional economic imbalance for the new German state (Statistisches Bundesamt 1996). Many aspects of the change have already stimulated detailed research (Irmen and Sinz 1991; Kohli 1993; Mai 1993; Munz and Ulrich 1994; Putz 1994; Wendt 1994; Wild and Jones 1994; von der Heide 1995). In this article we explore an aspect of the reunification process that has largely been ignored in the geographical literature: the settlement of disputes involving the ownership of land and property. The years between 1933 and 1990 have been described as a gigantic and prolonged state-sanctioned and -inspired land grab in the former East Germany, first under the national socialist government of the Third Reich and then, after 1949, by the communist government of East Germany (Jung and Vec 1991). During this extended period, huge amounts of land and property were confiscated by the state and either nationalized or allocated to new owners. The federal republic views both the national socialist and the communist governments having been illegal, and, since reunification, it has been German policy to try to right the wrongs committed by the erstwhile regimes. Property restitution began in what was to become West Germany as early as 1945 and to all intents and purposes was complete by the time reunification occurred. Nevertheless, after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 it was taken for granted [TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE I OMITTED] that the process would be extended to East Germany and that, in addition, the expropriations by the government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) would also be reversed (Mielke 1994). State-inspired expropriation of assets is hardly confined to Germany, of course. …

Société Algérienne de Commerce Algo and Others v. Sempac and Others

Sovereign immunity — Foreign States and State-controlled corporations — Expropriation of assets by foreign State — Claim brought by French companies against Algerian company to which assets transferred by Algerian State — Whether Algerian company entitled to jurisdictional immunity — Whether action in reality directed against sovereign act of Algerian State — The law of France

Corporacion del Cobre v. Braden Copper Corporation and Société Groupement d'Importation des Métaux

Sovereign immunity — Foreign States and State-owned corporations and their property — Expropriation of assets by foreign State — Action brought by American company for recovery of assets from Chilean State copper corporation — Whether entitled to jurisdictional immunity — Acts iure imperii and iure gestionis — Attachment of funds payable to State corporation for sales of copper — Whether State corporation entitled to immunity from execution — Appointment of expert to determine use of funds — Whether expropriation by a foreign State without adequate compensation can be recognised in municipal courts — The law of France

Société Nationale des Transports Routiers v. Compagnie Algérienne de Transit et d'Affrètement Serres et Pilaire and Another

83 Sovereign immunity — Foreign States and State-owned corporations — Expropriation of assets by foreign State — Action for restitution against Algerian company holding expropriated assets — Whether company entitled to jurisdictional immunity or immunity from execution — Whether foreign State expropriation without adequate compensation can be recognised in municipal courts — Whether Algerian company an entity independent from Algerian State — Acts iure gestionis and iure imperii — Whether assets of company distinct from those of Algerian State — The law of France

Expropriation of Eastern Zone Company (Germany) Case.

Jurisdiction — Territorial Limits of — Expropriation of Company — Effect of Expropriation on Property of Company in Country of Forum — Patents Registered in Country of Forum — Situs of Patents.Recognition of Acts of Foreign States — Expropriation of Assets of Company — Effect of Expropriation on Property of Company in Country of Forum — Effect on Patents Registered in Country of Forum — Situs of Patents.

Expropriation of Insurance Companies Case

Jurisdiction — Extra-territorial Effect of — Confiscatory Legislation — Territorial Limitation of — Expropriation of Assets of Insurance Company — Insurance Company as Mortgagee — Transfer of Assets to State Enterprise — Whether Mortgage Debtors Liable to Original Mortgagee or State Enterprise.