This volume examines the evolution of Central European product liability systems, with particular reference to the effect of the implementation of the Product Liability Directive in the context of the recent enlargement of the EU. This book also provides a comparison of how product liability law has evolved in the socialist states, comparing it to developments taking place in the West. Using product liability law, this study offers a valuable insight into the necessary features and requirements of the harmonization of laws between the EU and post-socialist Europe. Predominantly legal in scope, it also takes account of the importance of extra-legal elements in law reform. As such, this book will be a valuable resource for those interested in European Law, as well as those working in the area of Consumer and Product Liability law.

This book takes a look at fully automated, autonomous vehicles and discusses many open questions: How can autonomous vehicles be integrated into the current transportation system with diverse users and human drivers? Where do automated vehicles fall under current legal frameworks? What risks are associated with automation and how will society respond to these risks? How will the marketplace react to automated vehicles and what changes may be necessary for companies? Experts from Germany and the United States define key societal, engineering, and mobility issues related to the automation of vehicles. They discuss the decisions programmers of automated vehicles must make to enable vehicles to perceive their environment, interact with other road users, and choose actions that may have ethical consequences. The authors further identify expectations and concerns that will form the basis for individual and societal acceptance of autonomous driving. While the safety benefits of such vehicles are tremendous, the authors demonstrate that these benefits will only be achieved if vehicles have an appropriate safety concept at the heart of their design. Realizing the potential of automated vehicles to reorganize traffic and transform mobility of people and goods requires similar care in the design of vehicles and networks. By covering all of these topics, the book aims to provide a current, comprehensive, and scientifically sound treatment of the emerging field of “autonomous driving".

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

This examination of western-European legal systems demonstrates how tort law has adapted to meet new market conditions.

European Union citizens are injured each year while using products. Product liability law can contribute to preventing such damage by the way in which liability requirements in the context of warnings are framed and applied. Underlying these warning issues are a number of legal presumptions about how humans behave and interact with products and with their warnings. Primarily, liability law presumes that warnings can be effective in modifying user behavior. Relative to this is the manner in which courts or litigants evaluate product warnings in European product liability law. To rule more consistently and effectively in warning issues, a solution resides in the use of guidelines in European product liability laws that are based on empirical evidence on how humans interact with warnings. This book undertakes a behavioral approach towards the topic of warnings and product liability. Insights from cognitive psychology and ergonomics are essential for a thorough legal analysis of warnings, as they can shed light on people's abilities and limitations with regard to processing warning information, as well as on how the design of products can contribute to preventing accidents. (Series: Civilology - No. 2)

In the process of resolving disputes, it is not uncommon for parties to justify actions otherwise in breach of their obligations by invoking the need to protect some aspect of the elusive concept of public order. Until this thoroughly researched book, the criteria and factors against which international dispute bodies assess such claims have remained unclear. Now, by providing an in-depth comparative analysis of relevant jurisprudence under four distinct international dispute resolution systems – trade, investment, human rights and international commercial arbitration – the author of this invaluable book identifies common core benchmarks for the application of the public order exception. To achieve the broadest possible scope for her analysis, the author examines the public order exception’s function, role and application within the following international dispute resolution systems: relevant World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements as enforced by the organization’s Dispute Settlement Body and Appellate Body; international investment agreements as enforced by competent Arbitral Tribunals and Annulment Committees under the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes; provisions under the Inter-American Convention of Human Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights as enforced by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, respectively; and the New York Convention as enforced by national tribunals across the world. Controversies, tensions and pitfalls inherent in invoking the public order exception are elucidated, along with clear guidelines on how arguments may be crafted in order to enhance prospects of success. Throughout, tables and graphs systematize key aspects of the relevant jurisprudence under each of the dispute resolution systems analysed. As an immediate practical resource for lawyers on any side of a dispute who wish to invoke or strengthen a public order exception claim, the book’s systematic analysis will be welcomed by lawyers active in WTO disputes, international investment arbitration, human rights law or enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. Academics and policymakers will find a signal contribution to the ongoing debate on the existence, legal basis, content and functions of the transnational public order.