Quiz 7: The International Legal Environment: Playing by the Rules

Definition of various terms including common law, code law, Islamic law, Marxist-socialist tenets, conciliation, arbitration, litigation, prior use, registration, and Cybersquatters (CSQs) are given below: Common law: Common law includes the principles that are formulated and evolved from the judicial decisions. Common Law is basically prepared on the basis of past decisions taken by the higher courts. These laws are applicable in the cases having similar set of facts. Code law: Unlike common law, code law includes the written rules. Code law is all-inclusive and is divided into three different codes namely civil, commercial, and criminal laws. Islamic law: This law includes all the duties, obligations, and secular aspects that govern the acts of an individual person. Islamic law regulates the social as well as economic behavior of individuals. The prime objective of this law is to ensure social justice. Marxist-socialist tenets: The legal system of Marxist-socialist states is centered on the social, political, and economic policies. The Marxist-socialist tenets govern the legal system developed by a country when it enters the global market with their own version of free market system. Conciliation: It is one of the major tactics used for settling dispute in commercial transactions. In conciliation, different parties involved in a dispute ask a third party to act as their mediator. The third party provides various alternative solutions to the disputed parties after listening and analyzing their issues. However, the decision taken in conciliation is non-binding on the parties involved. Arbitration: Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Alternative dispute resolution offers an alternative to resolve the disputes outside a court in an informal and cooperative way. It provides a faster and cheaper way to resolve the dispute between two parties. Litigation: Litigation is the use of court processing to resolve a dispute. It is the most time consuming and expensive way to resolve dispute. Furthermore, it also causes jurisdictional complications. Prior use: It is a rule controlling the ownership of intellectual property rights in a common-law country. As per this rule, an individual or organization would be considered as the rightful owner if it can establish first use. Registration: It is a rule controlling the ownership of intellectual property rights in a code-law country. As per this rule, an individual/ organization would be considered as the rightful owner if it can register a trademark or other property right before others. Cybersquatters (CSQs): They are the individuals or firms, who buy as well as register the names of different ethnic groups, descriptive nouns, and geographic names. Later on, they sell these domain names at inflated prices.

International marketing is a process of conducting marketing activities in more than one country. The main base for such marketing is the contract on which the parties agreed. There is no prescribed jurisdiction or separate legal systems to sort out the issues that encounters between two different nationals on the subjects of marketing commercials. The international marketer should however consider the laws, rules and regulations of both the countries i.e. his own country as well as the country in which he is doing marketing activities. Important considerations of jurisdiction in the event of conflicts when legal disputes encounter among citizens of multiple countries are: 1. As per the listed clauses agreed in the contracts. 2. Based on the location the contract is encountered and the legalities of that location. 3. Location or country where the contract is enforced. Therefore, in case of problems when legal disputes arise between international marketers justice is given based on the clauses of the contract and the country jurisdiction provision where the activities are performed.

Commercial law is the provision or set of laws related to business or corporate which are applicable in multiple agreed countries. There is no specified meaning for international commercial law. Commercial law which is handled internationally in many situations like disputes between two countries is called international commercial law. While conducting marketing activities internationally, marketer should handle the commercial laws of nations. Marketers should vary their business operations based on the individual laws of the country. However, EEC countries have unique commercial laws for conducting business. Therefore, international commercial law is referred as a system of rules, regulations, principles and authorisations which are applicable by different countries while doing business. This system of rules differs from country to country.