Preface/Préface -- 18th Congress Steering Committee  (Preface English) -- General Reports -- 1. Religion and the Secular State/La religion et L’État laïque; Javier Martínez-Torrón and W. Cole  Durham, Jr. -- 2. Complexity of Transnational Sources/La complexité des sources transnationales ; Silvia Ferreri -- 3. The Role of Practice in Legal Education/Le role de la pratique dans la formation des juristes ; Richard Wilson.-  4. Catastrophic Damages – Liability and Insurance/Les dommages catastrophiques – responsabilités civiles et assurances ; Pablo Salvador Coderch, Sonia Ramos González and Rosa Milà Rafel.-  5.  Maternity for Another/La gestation pour autrui ; Françoise Monéger.-  6. Same Sex Marriage/Les mariages homosexuels; Macarena Sáez -- 7. Consumer Protection in International Relations/ La protection des consommateurs dans les relations internationales ; Diego Fernández Arroyo -- 8.  Recent Private International Law Codifications/Les codifications récentes du droit international privé ; Symeon Symeonides.-  9. Class Actions/Les actions collectives; Diego Corapi -- 10. Cost and Fee Allocation Rules/Les règles de repartition des frais; Mathias Reimann -- 11. Climate Change and the Law/Changement climatique et la loi ; Erkki Hollo -- 12. The Regulation of Private Equity, Hedge Funds and State Funds/La réglementation des fonds speculatifs; Eddy Wymeersch -- 13. Corporate Governance/Le gouvernement d’entreprises; Klaus J. Hopt.-14. Financial Leasing and its Unification by UNIDROIT/Le crédit-bail financier et son unification par UNIDROIT ; Herbert Kronke.-15. Insurance Contract Law Between Business Law and Consumer Protection/Le droit des contrats d’assurance entre le droit des affaires et la protection des consommateurs ; Helmut Heiss -- 16. The Balance of Copyright/La mise en balance du droit d’auteur ; Reto M. Hilty and Sylvie Nérisson -- 17. Jurisdiction and Applicable Law in Matters of Intellectual Property/La competence et la loi applicable en matière de la proprieté intellectuelle ; Toshiyuki Kono -- 18. The Prohibition of Age Discrimination in Labor Relations/L’interdicition de la discrimination à cause de l’âge dans les relations du travail ; Monika Schlachter -- 19. The law applicable on the continental shelf and in the exclusive economic zone/Le droit applicable sur le plateau continental et dans la zone économique exclusive ; Moira McConnell.-  20. The Protection of Foreign Investment/La protection des investissements étrangers; Wen Hua Shan.-21. International Law in Domestic Systems/Le droit internatioinal en droit interne ; Dinah Shelton -- 22. Foreign Voters/Les électeurs étrangers; Jacques Robert -- 23. Constitutional Courts as Positive Legislators/Les cours constitutionnelles en tant que législateurs positifs ; Allan R. Brewer-Carías -- 24. Plurality of Public Opinions and the Concentration of Media/La pluralité des opinions politiques et les concentrations des médias ; Allen P. Grunes and Maurice E. Stucke -- 25. Are Human Rights Universal and Binding?/Les droits de l’homme, sont-ils universels et normatifs?; Rainer Arnold -- 26. Public Private Partnerships/Les partenariats publiques privés ; François Lichère -- 27. Regulation of Corporate Tax Avoidance/L’évasion fiscal; Karen B. Brown -- 28. Corporate Criminal Liability/La responsabilité pénale des personnes morales ; Mark Pieth and Rhada Ivory -- 29. The Exclusionary Rule/L’exclusion de certains moyens de preuve ; Stephen C. Thaman.

This title presents twenty-nine topics, prepared by leading scholars in more than 20 countries, providing a comparative analysis of cutting-edge legal topics of the 21st century. Considering topics of vital moment to contemporary legal scholars, the title includes pieces on Surrogate Motherhood, The Balance of Copyright in Comparative Perspective, International Law in Domestic Systems, Constitutional Courts as "Positive Legislators," Same-sex Marriage, Climate Change and the Law, The Regulation of Private Equity, Hedge Funds, and State Funds, and Regulation of Corporate Tax Evasion. Each chapter surveys legal developments in the U.S. and Canada, Europe, Asia, Latin and South America, Africa, and the Middle East in a format that permits the reader easy access to similarities and differences in the approaches of the selected national regimes. This comprehensive volume tells the story of parallel trends in the evolution of legal doctrine despite jurisdictional, cultural, and political barriers. While each of the covered countries stands alone as a sovereign, in a technologically advanced world their disparate systems nonetheless have converged to adopt comparable strategies in dealing with complex legal issues. The volume is a critical addition to the library of any scholar hoping to keep abreast of the major trends in contemporary law.