International Marketing
The International legal environment: Playing by the rules
1. Define: Common law, Code law, Islamic law, Marxist-socialist tenets, prior use vs.
registration, Conciliation, arbitration, litigation, cybersquatters
a. Common law: is the body of law based on tradition, past practices, and legal
precedents set by courts through interpretations of statutes, legal legislation, and
past rulings.
b. Code law: it is a legal system based on all-inclusive system of written rules, or
codes, of law which is generally divided into three separate codes. They are
commercial, civil and criminal.
c. Islamic law: it is also called Shari’ah. It is a legal system based on an interpretation
of the Koran. Islamic law encompasses religious duties and obligations as well as the
secular aspect of law regulating human acts. Among its provisions is a prohibition of
the payment of interest.
d. Marxist-socialist tenets: it is the set of views in which law is subordinate to
prevailing economic conditions. Marxist-socialist tenets influenced the legal systems
of Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union as well as China. Forcing
these nations to revamp their commercial legal code as they become involved in
trade with non-Marxist countries.
e. Prior use vs registration: prior use is the principle, as observed in the United States
and other common-law nations, that ownership of intellectual property rights usually
goes to whoever can establish first use. While registration is filing appropriate legal
documents with the appropriate intellectual property agencies international or
domestic.
f. Conciliation: it is a non-binding agreement between parties to resolve disputes by
asking a third party to mediate differences.
g. Arbitration: it is a procedure used as an alternative to litigation, in which parties in
a dispute may select a disinterested third party or parties as referee to determine
the merits of the case and make a judgment that both parties agree to honor.
h. Litigation: is the process in which a dispute between parties is contested in a
formal judicial setting. It is commonly instigated by a lawsuit asserting one party’s
version of the facts.
[Link]: persons or businesses that buy, usually for a nominal fee, and
register as website names descriptive nouns, celebrity names, variations on company
trademarks, geographic and ethnic group names and pharmaceutical and other
descriptors and then hold them until they can be sold at an inflated price.
2. Discuss the state of international commercial law
In general, the marketer must deal with national commercial laws, as an
international commercial law does not exist. Operations must vary from country
to country with regard to its individual laws. Progress toward a unified law is
seeing success in the EU countries, which eventually aim to have a unified
commercial legal system.
3. Discuss the limitations of jurisdictional clauses in contracts
When present in a contract, jurisdictional clauses are honored by the courts.
However, if the contractual events are not in effect, entered into or executed
within the state indicated, courts have been known to disregard the jurisdictional
clause and apply different rules in determining what law governs. Since there is
no obligation for the courts to uphold jurisdictional clauses, the parties must be
reasonable when adding such clauses, or they are liable to have very limited
actual value.
4. What is the objective theory of jurisdiction? How does it apply to a firm doing
business within a foreign country?
This concept holds that even if an act is committed outside the territorial
jurisdiction of the U.S. courts, those courts can nevertheless have jurisdiction if
the act produces effects within the home country. This applies to firms because
they are not exempt from the standards set by the United States and must abide
to those rules regardless of the countries they are operating in.
5. Discuss some of the reasons why it is probably best to seek an out-of-court
settlement in international commercial legal disputes rather than sue
It is best to seek an out-of-court settlement for several reasons:
a. The cost of a potential lawsuit many times outweighs the benefits of a win.
b. lawsuits are frustrating because of the length of time they take a process.
c. Lawsuits also can create a poor image and damage relations.
d. lawsuits are public and do not hold the confidentiality that other forms of
solving the dispute have.
