Les relations commerciales avec la Chine s’intensifiant, la conclusion de contrats internationaux est de plus en plus fréquente pour les opérateurs économiques étrangers et chinois. En vertu du principe de la liberté contractuelle, les parties à un contrat international peuvent choisir une loi applicable à leur contrat afin de bénéficier de plus de souplesse, de sécurité juridique ou de neutralité. Cette étude basée notamment sur les actualités juridiques chinoises a pour objectif de donner une référence pratique sur la réglementation des contrats internationaux en Chine à travers la présentation des principes généraux du contrat international chinois, la conclusion, l’exécution et les difficultés d’application des contrats internationaux. Il y est aussi analysé l’application de la Convention des Nations Unies sur les contrats de vente internationale de marchandises, ainsi que certains cas de refus de reconnaissance et d’exécution de sentences étrangères en Chine. En traitant exclusivement des contrats internationaux en matière de commerce international, cette étude pourra offrir aux investisseurs étrangers désirant investir en Chine une vision relativement complète sur l’actualité de la réglementation des contrats internationaux en Chine et ainsi permettre aux parties de bien choisir la loi qui devra régir leurs rapports contractuels envisagés afin de réaliser leurs intérêts et d’éviter les mauvaises surprises liées à la méconnaissance des lois et des règlements chinois en vigueur. / China’s economy has grown significantly during the past thirty years under a policy of socialist market economy. For the purposes of international trade, Chinese international contract law makes reference to western law, while maintaining distinctive features stemming from political influence and Chinese culture. As trade relations with China intensify, foreign and Chinese economic entities are entering into an increasing number of international contracts. In accordance with the principle of contractual freedom, parties to an international contract may choose which law will govern their contract, so as to enjoy a greater degree of flexibility, legal safety or neutrality. This study, based mainly on Chinese legal developments, aims to provide a practical reference on the regulation of international contracts in China by presenting the general principles of international Chinese contracts, and the negotiation and execution of international contracts, as well as difficulties related to their application. It also analyses the manner in which the United Nations Convention applies to international sale of goods contracts, as well as certain cases of refusal to recognize and enforce foreign arbitral awards in China. By dealing exclusively with international contracts related to international trade, this study will provide foreign investors wishing to invest in China with a comprehensive picture of the current regulation of international contracts in China and will allow the parties to choose which law to govern their contractual relationships in order to achieve their objectives and avoid any unpleasant surprises resulting from their lack of awareness of current Chinese laws and regulations.

Les sociétés familiales sont les plus anciennes, les plus nombreuses et les plus importantes de notre économie. Pourtant, elles ne font l’objet d’aucune définition légale et n’ont que rarement suscité l’intérêt du juriste. Nous avons donc cherché à caractériser la société familiale en nous intéressant plus particulièrement à certaines d’entre elles, les sociétés cotées sur le marché financier. La société cotée familiale combine deux univers, la famille et le marché, qui sont fondés sur des valeurs et des modes de fonctionnement diamétralement opposés. Cette opposition nous permet de mieux distinguer les spécificités, mais également les risques attachés aux sociétés familiales. C’est à travers l’exemple des chaebol, des conglomérats familiaux coréens, que cette étude a été menée. L’analyse emprunte une méthode comparative où les sociétés chaebol sont opposées aux sociétés familiales françaises. Notre étude a permis de mettre en évidence l’impact du contrôle familial sur le fonctionnement de la société cotée. Elle souligne également l’échec relatif du transfert des normes américaines dans l’environnement coréen, confirmant ainsi la théorie de la dépendance au sentier. Parallèlement, cette étude invite à réfléchir sur la réception possible du droit français, plus proche de la réalité coréenne / Family-owned companies contribute the largest share to our economy. Yet, there is still no legal definition of what a family-owned company is and the topic has not drawn a lot of interest from legal academics. This study aims at differentiating family-owned companies by focusing more specifically on companies listed on a financial market. Family-owned listed company combines two worlds, family and financial market, which are based on diametrically opposed values and modus operandi. This conflict helps us to understand the specific features of these companies, as well as the risks attached to them. Taking the example of the chaebol, the Korean family-owned conglomerates, we highlighted the impact of the family control on the management and the governance of these groups. We compared French and Korean companies and legal frameworks, drawing the conclusion that the French legal system might have been a better fit to the Korean environment than American rules. Our research also underlines the relative failure of the transplant of U.S. standards in South Korea, which can be explained by the theory of path dependence.

In a time when Americans are waking up to the health consequences of consuming fast food, researchers have discovered that fast food restaurants seem to be located in greater concentrations near primary or secondary schools. While this phenomenon affects the food environments of some children and carries implications as to their short term and long term health (which has also been well researched), this paper focuses primarily on fast food restaurants that are within walking distance of schools. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to integrate geospatial, business, demographic, and food quality data, I use linear regressions to examine whether and which fast food restaurants achieve greater sales by being closer to schools. By including an interaction term in my regressions, I find that low-quality, unhealthy fast food restaurants are rewarded with higher sales when in proximity to schools than identical restaurants that are farther away. Conversely, higher-quality fast food establishments actually earn lower sales when in proximity to schools. This paper adds to the existing literature by using fast food sales near schools to infer the dietary choices of children, evaluate the success of location strategies employed by the fast food industry, and offer new insights to public health professionals.

Despite an abundance of research on the problem of insider threats, only limited success has been achieved in preventing trusted insiders from committing security violations. Virtue ethics may be an approach that can be utilized to address this issue. Human factors such as moral considerations impact Information System (IS) design, use, and security; consequently they affect the security posture and culture of an organization. Virtue ethics based concepts have the potential to influence and align the moral values and behavior of information systems workers with those of an organization in order to provide increased protection of IS assets. An individual’s character strengths have been linked to positive personal development, but there has been very little research into how the positive characteristics of virtue ethics, exhibited through the character development of information systems workers, can contribute to improving system security. This research aimed to address this gap by examining factors that affect and shape the ethical perspectives of individuals entrusted with privileged access to information. This study builds upon prior research and theoretical frameworks on institutionalizing ethics into organizations and Information Ethics to propose a new theoretical model which demonstrates the influences on Information Systems Security (ISS) trusted worker ethical behavior within an organization. Components of the research model include ISS virtue ethics based constructs, organizational based internal influences, societal based external influences, and trusted worker ethical behavior. This study used data collected from 395 professionals in an ISS organization to empirically assess the model. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling was employed to analyze the indicators, constructs, and path relationships. Various statistical tests determined validity and reliability, with mixed but adequate results. All of the relationships between constructs were positive, although some were stronger and more significant. The expectation of the researcher in this study was to better understand the character of individuals who pose an insider threat by validating the proposed model, thereby providing a conceptual analysis of the character traits which influence the ethical behavior of trusted workers and ultimately information system security.

An increasing number of researchers are recognizing the importance of the role played by employees in maintaining the effectiveness of an information security policy. Currently, little research exists to validate the relationship between the actions (behaviors) taken by employees in response to exceptional situations (antecedents) regarding an organization’s information security policy, the impact (consequences) those actions have on an organization, and the motives that prompt those actions. When these exceptional situations occur, employees may feel compelled to engage in behaviors that violate the terms of an information security policy because strict compliance with the policy could cause the organization to lose revenue, reputability or some other business advantage. To address this issue, this research study investigated how to design an effective information security policy for exceptional situations in an organization. In order to achieve this goal, this study explored how an information security policy should be designed with the critical components of clarity, comprehensiveness, ease of use and flexibility, in addition to including provisions for the work contingencies of employees. The aim of this proposed study was to demonstrate how the application principles of the prima-facie, utilitarian and universalizability design theories can aid in designing an information security policy that includes these essential elements. The research study explored the effectiveness of the policy's design and the effect it had on employee compliance with the policy in exceptional situations. A survey questionnaire was administered to a control group and an experimental group consisting of full-time and part-time employees who worked in various departments of a single organization. The survey employed a five-point Likert-type scale. The data gathered from the questionnaire was analyzed. Inferential statistics used the general linear model (GLM), including the t-test, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), regression analysis, and factor analysis with the latest SPSS version computer statistical analysis program. This study built to develop a model for designing an effective information security policy for exceptional situations in an organization. Based on the analysis of fit the model for designing an effective information security policy for exceptional situations in an organization was determine to be a success model. This study should provide many opportunities for future research, as well as providing information security practitioners and academics a solid roadmap for designing effective information security policies within an organization to apply during exceptional situations.

Les développements technologiques et la mondialisation ont permis aux gens d’avoir accès à l’information plus facilement et rapidement que jamais, provoquant ainsi des changements importants dans le milieu juridique qui doit s’adapter à la nouvelle clientèle sophistiquée et exigeante. Dans ce travail, nous nous penchons sur certains aspects devant être considérés par les avocats modernes assistant leur clientèle dans le cadre des transactions d’acquisition et de fusion. / Technological advancements and globalisation have allowed people to access information more rapidly and easily than ever, thus provoking significant changes in the legal profession to adapt to the new sophisticated and demanding clientele. In this research, we focus on certain aspects needed to be considered by modern lawyers in assisting their clients in the context of merger and acquisition transactions.

Den tekniska utvecklingen, närmare bestämt introduktionen av fenomenet självkörande fordon, har medfört att det i skrivande stund föreligger viss oklarhet beträffande ansvarsfrågan enligt gällande rätt. Denna oklarhet har varit föremål för diskussion i ett delbetänkande från regeringen. I SOU 2016:28 finns sammanfattade förslag på reglering, däremot endast avseende försöksverksamheten ”Drive Me” som biltillverkaren Volvo ligger bakom. För att bemöta denna oklarhet har rättsläget diskuterats och problematiserats i hopp om ökad insikt i frågan. Detta utifrån framförallt skadeståndslagen, trafikskadelagen och produktansvarslagen samt generella skadeståndsrättsliga principer och ansvarsformer. Sammantaget har det kunnat konstateras att det inte finns någon självklar lösning på problemet, även om det i ett flertal situationer går att få en uppfattning av vad som vore juridiskt rimligt. Uppsatsen bidrar således till en problematisering av rättsläget inför den kommande harmoniseringen av teknik och juridik; ett steg i utvecklingen. / The technological development, specifically the introduction of the phenomenon of driverless vehicles, has meant that the time of writing, some ambiguity regarding the issue of liability under the law exists. This uncertainty has been discussed in an interim report from the government. Proposals on regulation are summarized in current SOU, however, only for the pilot project “Drive Me” as the automaker Volvo is behind. In order to address this uncertainty, the legal position has discussed and problematized in the hope of increasing awareness on the issue. Mainly from tort liability, Traffic damage Act, product liability law and liability forms and general principles of tort law. Overall, it´s been established that there is no obvious solution to the problem, although it´s possible to get an idea of what would be legally reasonable in a number of situations. The essay contributes thus to a discussion of problems of the legal position for the upcoming harmonization of technology and law; a stage of development.

"Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de LLM en droit" / Le présent mémoire analyse le phénomène des prises de contrôle inversée (PCI). Cette technique permet à une société privée de se faire acquérir par une société publique coté en Bourse. Elle obtient de cette dernière, en contrepartie, un nombre si important de ses actions qu'à la suite de la transaction, la société privée contrôle la société publique qui vient légalement de l'acheter. D'où la prise de contrôle dite inversée. Le but de l'opération consiste pour la société privée à devenir publique rapidement, et ce, à coûts moindres, comparativement à un appel public traditionnel. La société privée profite ainsi de son nouveau statut pour se financer par un appel public à l'épargne publique par le biais de la Bourse. La piètre réputation associée à ce genre de transactions est due à la cupidité de quelques entrepreneurs peu scrupuleux qui ont comme objectif d'empocher un profit rapide au détriment du public investisseur. Avec comme résultat que ce type de transaction suscite, à juste titre, la méfiance des autorités réglementaires. Le dilemme peut donc être posé en ces termes: compte tenu de l'importance économique des PME en termes de création de richesse au pays, doit-on restreindre l'usage de la PCI au nom du principe de la protection des épargnants? En somme, la liberté commerciale doit-elle céder le pas à des craintes de nature réglementaire? Nous concluons que malgré ces craintes très réelles, la PCI, majoritairement utilisée par la PME, doit être maintenue et qu'en termes de politique réglementaire, les autorités devraient favoriser l'emploi par ces jeunes sociétés du programme de financement « Société de Capital de Démarrage» (SCD) mis en place par la Bourse de Croissance rsx. Malgré ses défauts évidents, ce programme doit être amélioré afin de promouvoir une PCI plus efficace, et ce, à l'intérieur du programme Sco. À cet égard, la SCD pourrait bénéficier de la crédibilité ainsi que de l'expertise indéniable de la Bourse de Croissance en matière de financement de jeunes entreprises. Idéalement, la SCD serait améliorée au point où elle rendrait la PCI, hors ce programme, inutile. En ce sens, la liberté commerciale de faire des PCI serait préservée, tout en assurant la protection du public investisseur. / This thesis endeavours to analyse the phenomenon of the reverse takeover (RTO). This technique allows a private company to be acquired by a public entity whose stock is listed on an exchange. The former obtains from the latter such an important part of its stock that following the completion of the transaction, the private company controls the public company which has just acquired it. The takeover is therefore deemed reversed. The purpose of the transaction from the private entity perspective is to gain the status and privilege associated with being a publicly listed company faster and at a fraction of the cost that would otherwise be the case with a traditional public offering. Thereafter the private company uses its newly acquired public status to tap the capital markets via the stock exchange. The poor reputation generally associated with this kind of transaction is in a large measure due to the greed of a few scam artists whose main motive is a quick profit at the expense of the investing public. The result of this situation is that the RTO is viewed with considerable scepticism by the regulatory authorities. The dilemma may therefore be set in the following terms: taking into consideration the economic importance of the small and medium business (SME) as a creator of wealth in the economy, should the competent authorities limit the use of the RTO in the name of investor protection. In other words, should the commercial freedom to use the RTO in order to finance SME take a back seat to regulatory concerns. We conclude that although the serious concerns levelled by the regulators are very real, the RTO which is used primarily by SME should be maintained. It is further argued that regulatory authorities should promote as a matter of policy the RTO sponsored by the Capital Pool Company (CPC) program provided for by TSX Venture. We find that this program should be upgraded to allow for a more efficient RTO under the rules of the CPC. In this regard, the program would gain from the credibility and the undeniable expertise of the TSX Venture in the realm of financing young and emerging companies. Therefore, ideally, this program would be improved to the point where it would render the RTO pursued out of the program useless. If this were the case, we conclude that commercial freedom would be preserved, while concurrently maintaining protection for investors and upholding the integrity of capital markets.

La présente étude examine une des difficultés que soulève la résolution du contrat de vente en droit africain des affaires. L'Organisation pour l'Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires (OHADA) créée par le Traité du 17 octobre 1993 organise les règles communautaires relatives à la résolution du contrat de vente. Le Livre VIII de l’Acte uniforme OHADA portant sur le Droit commercial Général a été adopté le 15 décembre 2010 et a abrogé l’Acte du 17 avril 1997. Selon l’article 281 de l’Acte uniforme, la résolution du contrat de vente ne survient que lors de l’inexécution totale ou partielle de l’obligation du cocontractant. Notre étude visera à évaluer les conséquences dans le droit de la vente OHADA de la substitution du critère de privation substantielle par celui de la gravité du comportement du débiteur justifiant une résolution unilatérale du contrat. Cette nouvelle position du droit de la vente OHADA se démarque dans une certaine mesure du droit matériel uniforme et rejoint un courant adapté aux impératifs socioéconomiques du commerce tant régional qu’international. En outre la partie lésée devra déterminer la gravité du comportement du débiteur au risque de voir sa demande sanctionnée pour défaut de droit et donner lieu à des dommages intérêts à l’autre partie. En effet, avec pour optique la nécessité de sauvegarder le contrat au nom du principe favor contractus, comment le juge détermine a posteriori si la gravité du comportement du cocontractant est suffisante pour anéantir le contrat? Ce nouveau critère de la gravité du comportement du cocontractant en droit de la vente OHADA vient supplanter le critère de la privation substantielle et fait cohabiter la traditionnelle résolution judiciaire avec celle de la résolution unilatérale dont les contours demeurent incertains. Les cas d’ouvertures liés à la résolution du contrat de vente OHADA pour inexécution des obligations fondamentales ou accessoires seront passés au crible de même que leurs effets sur les parties. Dans une approche comparatiste avec la Convention de Vienne et les règles de codifications privés telles que les Principes UNIDROIT ou du Droit Européen des Contrats il y a lieu de s’interroger sur la mise en œuvre et les conséquences de la résolution du contrat de vente OHADA par l’inexécution de l’obligation d’une des parties due à un manquement essentiel d’une part et à la gravité du comportement du débiteur d’autre part. / The Treaty on Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa signed on October 17th, 1993 created the Organisation for Harmonisation of Business law in Africa (OHBLA).OHBLA organises common rules on resolution of sales contracts. The Book VIII of the Uniform act on General Commercial Law adopted on December 15th, 2010 replaces the previous act of April 17th, 1997. According to article 281 of this uniform act, contract resolution only occurs when there is a partial or total non execution of one party’s obligation. The present study is going to examine one of the difficulties that exist in the resolution of sales contracts in African business law. Our study will consist in evaluating the consequences of substitution of the substantial privation criteria by the seriousness of the debtor’s behaviour in OHBLA sales law. This substitution justifies a unilateral contract termination. This new OHBLA law position somehow distinguish itself from material uniform law and joins a new position socioeconomically more adapted to regional and even international business. Moreover, the prejudiced party will have to determine the gravity of the debtor’s behaviour risking to be punished for lack of motives and according damages to the other party. In fact, in order to save the contract by all means according to the favor contractus principle, how will the judge subsequently determine if the debtor’s behaviour gravity is enough to breach the contract? This new criterion of the gravity of a contracting party’s behaviour comes in replacement of the substantial privation criteria and enhances the cohabitation of the traditional judiciary termination and the unilateral cancellation which is still uncertainly defined. Cases related to contract resolution caused by non-execution of mandatory or accessory obligations in OHBLA law will be carefully examined as well as their effects on contracting parties. In a comparative approach with the Vienna Convention and private codifications such as UNIDROIT principles or European contract law, we will wonder about the use and the consequences of resolution of sales contract in OHBLA law caused by non-execution a mandatory obligation on one part and the gravity of one party’s behaviour on the other part.

Freedom of contract is one of the fundamental principles of private law. Most pronounced is the principle of contractual freedom in business contractual relationships, in which is admitted the highest degree of contractual freedom. Contractual freedom is often generally associated with the rule that what is not forbidden is allowed, ie. if the legal regulation does not prohibit any contractual arrangement, is such an arrangement allowed. This understanding of freedom of contract is very simplistic and misleading and thus in many cases incorrect. Given that freedom of contract is seen as a rule or principle, approach to it is fairly spontaneously and in search of answers to the question of legality or illegality of certain contractual arrangements, the progress is often intuitively and based on ad hoc reasoning the contractual freedom is in individual cases either accepted or rejected. One reason for this approach is the fact that there have been no more precise rules for a differentiation of non- mandatory and mandatory legal rules. Their differentiation is for the recipients of legal rules crucial because it gives an answer to the question, how far reaches their liberal sphere, in particular, if the contractual freedom is in the particular legal issue enabled or not. A lack of structure and...