Akcininkai, būdami bendrovės akcijų savininkais, yra suinteresuoti pelninga ir efektyvia bendrovės veikla, kadangi jie įsigydami bendrovės akcijų, siekia savo privačių interesų tenkinimo, t. y. materialinės naudos. Todėl akcininkai turi turėti galimybę aktyviai dalyvauti bendrovės valdyme, kontroliuoti bendrovės valdymo organų veiksmus ir tokiu būdu siekti apibrėžtų veiklos tikslų. Tokias galimybes akcininkams suteikia neturtinės teisės. Šiame darbe yra analizuojamos pagrindinės neturtinės akcininkų teisės Lietuvoje, pabrėžiama tinkamo šių teisių įgyvendinimo svarba. Tai pat yra nagrinėjami šių neturtinių teisių pažeidimo atvejai, jų sukeliamos pasekmės kitoms akcininkų turimoms teisėms, šių pažeistų teisių gynimo būdai, aptariamos pagrindinės problemos, su kuriomis susiduria akcininkai, tiek rezidentai, tiek nerezidentai, norėdami jomis pasinaudoti. Tai pat darbe yra nagrinėjamos Europos Komisijos pasiūlytos iniciatyvos gerinti bendrovių valdymą Europos Sąjungos valstybėse narėse, o ypač 2006 m. sausio 05 d. Europos Komisijos parengtas direktyvos pasiūlymas dėl bendrovių, kurių registruotoji buveinė yra valstybėje narėje ir kurių akcijomis leista prekiauti reguliuojamoje rinkoje, akcininkų balsavimo teisių panaudojimui, iš dalies keičianti Direktyvą 2004/109/EB. / Shareholders, being the owners of the company’s shares, are interested in a profitable and effective performance of the company, because by acquiring shares of the company they seek satisfaction of their own interests, i.e. material gain. Therefore, the shareholders should have an opportunity to be actively involved in the management of the company, control actions of the management bodies of the company and, thus, pursue defined business objectives. Such opportunities to shareholders are provided by their non-property rights. This work analyses the main non-property rights of shareholders in Lithuania, emphasizes the importance of proper implementation of these rights. It also deals with infringement instances of these non-property rights and their consequences to the rights enjoyed by other shareholders, remedies for such infringed rights and discusses major problems that shareholders, both residents and non-residents, face in exercising them. The work also examines the initiatives proposed by the European Commission to improve corporate management in EU member states, in particular the Proposal by the European Commission for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 January 2006 on the exercise of voting rights by shareholders of companies having their registered office in a Member State and whose shares are admitted to trading on a regulated market and amending Directive 2004/109/EC.

In this dissertation I examine the reasons why the U.S. film industry lost the GATT-Uruguay Round negotiations on audiovisual services and intellectual property rights (IPRs) related to copyright. I revisit the political economy approach to communication and implement Mosco's (1996) suggestions on the approach's renewal. Mosco notes that political economists of communication thematically view the state as supporting transnational business (1996, p. 94). However, Jarvie's (1992) analysis of the relationship between the U.S. government and film industry between 1920 and 1950 suggests that this 'support' theme does not adequately capture the often antagonistic and unproductive relationship between the two parties. I extend Jarvie's (1992) work by developing themes from his scholarship and applying them to a case study on the Uruguay Round. I review the literature on the media-cultural imperialism thesis and focus on Herbert Schiller's (1969 [1992], 1976, 1989) scholarship. Schiller's thesis implies that outcomes in international relations are dictated by domestic determinants such as the influence of corporate lobbyists. However, I argue that the reasons why Hollywood lost lie not in domestic determinants alone, but in a broader perspective (derived from the discipline of international relations) that focuses on the interaction between domestic trade politics and international relations (Putnam, 1988 [1993]). Putnam characterises international negotiations as an interactive process involving the bargaining between negotiators and the separate discussions each delegation has with constituents in its domestic market on the ratification of the agreement. I assess themes from Jarvie's work and propositions from Schiller's thesis using Putnam's (1988 [1993]) two-level analysis and empirical evidence from primary documents and thirty-five interviews conducted over a three-year period (1994 to 1997) with U.S. and European negotiators and film executives. I argue that U.S. domestic trade politics hampered efforts by U.S. negotiators to reach a bilateral accord on audiovisual services and IPRs related to copyright because of linkages forged by EU Member States between progress in those talks and progress in talks on agriculture, maritime transport services, geographic indications related to wines and anti-dumping. A second obstacle to a bilateral accord was an influential hawkish minority of the Hollywood lobby, who set an aggressive agenda for U.S. negotiators and set off a chain reaction in the final moments of the Round that led to Hollywood's defeat. Finally, I present an alternative scenario to the argument (cf. Waregne, 1994; Dehousse and Havelange, 1994; Joachimowicz and Berenboom, 1994) that the French government dictated the outcome of the audiovisual services and IPRs negotiations. My scenario emphasises the preeminent status of the General Affairs Council, the role of EU Member States other than France, and Commission efforts to forge a bilateral deal. In the end, the hawks dictated the outcome of the audiovisual services talks, while a majority of EU Member States dictated the outcome of the talks on IPRs related to copyright.

Pledge is a special security for the performance of obligations as it best reflects the security function of the obligation, thus making pledge extremely attractive. The security for the performance of collateralised loan obligations may take the form of real estate, movable property and property rights. The aim of this paper is to determine whether the legislation in force is comprehensive enough at regulating the pledge of property rights, identify the shortcomings of the legislation regulating the pledge of property rights and suggest possible ways to solve the identified problems.

No description available.

Magister Legum - LLM / Many critics have questioned whether the protection of the IPRs would benefit developing countries. It was argued in this paper that developing countires have the interest in protecting IPRs as well. However, it was showed that the benefit of this protection can be realized only if there is a fair rule of the game to all players in the multilateral trading system. The general objective of this research was to examine the current status of IPRs protection and the levels of TRIPS compliance by Rwanda in the area of copyright. / South Africa

Intellectual property rights (IPR) have become a major problem in the relationship between the industrialized West and the developing South, primarily because the West demands that developing countries adopt and enforce Western IPR. Since the relationship between US corporations and Chinese businesses is among the most successful and at the center of the current process of globalization, IPR have been a major cause of conflict and controversy between them and serve as an exemplar for this thesis. I argue, first, that the reason that a large number of Chinese businesses, especially privately-owned small and medium-sized enterprises, infringe foreign IPR lies in the nature of the difference between what have been mostly low-tech traditional Chinese businesses and high-tech industrial economies, to which intellectual property laws belong. Second, I demonstrate that the steady improvement of intellectual property protection in the more successful areas of development in the Chinese economy suggests that the solution for improved IPR protection in China and perhaps other emerging nations will follow, not precede, the development and transformation of a low-tech pre-industrial economy into an industrial high-tech economy.

Online Arbitration is an online alternative dispute resolution (OADR) process that resolves disputes without litigation outside national courts. Due to globalisation and increased e-commerce, international commercial online arbitration has become more important and it is therefore essential to look at the legal and technical requirements for a more effective international online arbitration regime or lex electronica arbitralis, specifically focused on disputes that arise from cross-border, low value e-commerce transactions for both goods and services, and especially between online businesses and consumers (B2C), but also between online businesses (B2B). The lex electronica arbitralis should lead to swift outcomes that will be able to be enforced efficiently anywhere in the world, without impairing the requirements of accountability, due process, efficiency, impartiality, independence, fairness, transparency, etc. The 'UNCITRAL Technical Notes on ODR of 2016' follows a non-binding guideline format, so there is currently no legal outline that exclusively regulates online arbitration. Due to this lacuna, the guidelines of the 'Technical Notes' and rules of traditional international commercial arbitration will have to be used as far as they accommodate online arbitration. Due to its unique features, online arbitration however needs an exclusive set of rules that will deal with its legal and technical requirements. The most comprehensive manner to have realised an online arbitration regime or lex electronica arbitralis would have been by the proposed 'UNCITRAL Draft Procedural Rules (DPR) on OADR for Cross-Border E-Commerce Transactions'. Unfortunately, since Working Group III (WG.III), who was mandated by UNCITRAL to compile the 'DPR', could not manage to reach consensus on many aspects, the 'Technical Notes' was adopted instead. The thesis will review WG.III's progress to complete the 'DPR' and how it eventually led to the adoption of the 'Technical Notes'. The 'Technical Notes' still leaves many questions and uncertainties on many of online arbitration's legal and technical requirements that will be pointed out. The thesis will indicate that these legal and technical requirements do not compose insurmountable challenges, but that UNCITRAL will have to address them when they decide to revise the 'Technical Notes' in the future or when they decide to compile a set of legal standards exclusively for online arbitration in the future. The focus will also be directed to the future of international arbitration legislation in a developing country such as SA, while a plea is made to SA lawmakers to make provision for online arbitration.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-126). / This thesis examines video games, copyright law and gamers' attitudes to copyright infringement, with particular reference to South Africa. The work provides an overview of the debates about copyright law and digital media, and offers an analysis of attitudes expressed by South African gamers about copyright infringement, popularly termed 'piracy'. The thesis reveals that, while about 70% of the gamers in this study share content illegally, they express complex and varying motivations for doing so, and have various and conflicting means of understanding the supposed illegality of the act. Some of the issues raised by participants in this study relate to contested perspectives on Digital Rights Management (DRM). In this work, I argue that DRM erodes civil liberties and does not necessarily extend the interests of gaming corporations. In this regard, the thesis explores alternative strategies to the restrictive approaches adopted by advocates of DRM as well as prohibitive copyright laws and multilateral agreements on intellectual property. In essence, this work intends to establish middle ground between gamers, who place a high premium on usability and affordability of gaming products, and the gaming corporations, who are interested in extending market share as well as protecting what they deem to be their intellectual property.

The problem of the present study is twofold (1) analyze the impacts of institutions and private property rights on the banking industry, and (2) the effects of property rights, contracting rights and intellectual property rights concurrent to privatization of state owned enterprises on a wide range of industries. First, it uses a sample of 37 countries to assess the effects privatization on industry growth of output, value added and establishments with regards to property rights institutions, using 3SLS technique. Consistent with the law and finance view, our results show that privatization works better in settings with better contracting, patents, and IPRs laws to foster industry growth. The results suggest that least developed countries can accelerate the growth of their industrial sector by structurally bettering their legal institutions to benefit from their privatization programs. There is strong evidence of structural unemployment in sectors that are more capital intensive; privatization has a crowding out effect channeled through financial development. The results have broad implications vis-à-vis policy choices for institutional reforms specifically in terms of control of corruption, enhancing property rights, contracting rights, and IRPs protection for privatization to bear fruits. Second, this study assumes that banks in countries with infective institutions operate in a highly risky environment, which is reflected in the interest rates spread, loan quality, and net interest margin. It investigates the relationships between banks and institutions using seemingly unrelated regressions and data from 79 countries. It shows that institutional improvements abate inefficiencies in the banking sector, reduce obstacles to external finance, and improve the quality of bank loan portfolios. Specifically, had a country in the 25th percentile of the institutional quality index, depth of credit information, and the spread improved its value to the mean sample of these variables, banks in that country would have had an annual decrease of 2.24% in net interest margin, 1.57% in unpaid loans, and 0.822 basis points in the spread. Other institutions including private and public registries are effective in improving access to external finance. Importantly, information on borrowers past loan repayment patterns significantly decreases the spreads only when controlled for predated institutional quality. This finding highlights the significance of institution-building especially in countries where sudden power shifts result into pendular swings in public policies. Third, using three independent samples to investigate the institutional factors affecting the performance of the banking sector around the world, this study finds that financial effects of three sets of institutions including private creditors’ right, property rights, and institutional quality on bank performance are strong. It uses SEM technique to show that better quality of institutions is negatively related to bank profitability while private creditors’ right and property rights institutions are positively related to bank profitability.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2005--Bayreuth.