| Khilkoff
Boulding & Co solicitors |
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International
Law
Khilkoff
Boulding & Co. are able to assist by liason only with matters
relating to USA law, particularly in the states of California, New
York and Florida.
We can assist
with emigration to the United States through an associated specialist
firm in Cincinnati, Ohio.
We have contacts
with associated firms in Spain, Cyprus, and Germany.
Our senior partner
has many years experience in dealing with European and American
legal problems and is himself an attorney at law, licensed to practise
in New York and California as well as being an English solicitor.
USA Law
Khilkoff Boulding
& Co. does not itself deal directly with American law matters
but through professional contacts in the US can assist clients who
do have problems or opportunities in the USA.
The senior partner,
Rory Khilkoff-Boulding, is not only a solicitor in the United Kingdom,
but also a qualified American Attorney at Law, licensed to practice
in California and New York and with his considerable American law
experience can act not only as an introducer, but also as an ''interpreter'
between the two legal systems which, although they use the same
language, are in law and procedure extremely different. American
law also varies from state to state.
Please note
that for insurance reasons, no American work is carried out at any
of our offices, but suitably qualified and experienced Professional
Contacts can be located in other countries, including the United
States.
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| Thomas
Eggar Solicitors |
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Dealing
with the World - Euro Business
Martin Cross from leading South East law firm, Thomas Eggar, explains
how Private International Law can be relevant to your business.
You are based in the South East of England. Your product and services
are popular and your market is growing. You are starting to sell
your product and services to people in Europe , America and all
over the world. Some of the customers are businesses and some are
consumers. Like all businesses, you are suffering a level of attrition.
Some people are complaining. Some people are not paying their bills.
What do you do next?
When expanding into foreign markets don't let your enthusiasm leap
ahead of your natural commercial prudence. Make sure you carry Trade
Indemnity Insurance. Investigate Bills of Exchange and Letters of
Credit as methods of payment and consider any necessary variation
to your usual terms and conditions of trading. If these things are
not considered, you have in fact left yourself at the mercy of what
is described as Private International Law.
Private International Law is a minefield and a nightmare for any
small business dipping its toe for the first time into international
trade.
Private International Law is the rather fine sounding name to describe
the swamp of interaction between domestic law in each separate jurisdiction
and the law of other international jurisdictions. On occasion, this
nexus is governed by direct Treaties between countries and on others
by Conventions to which a number of countries have put their signature.
The trick is to know what the relevant domestic law is, what Conventions
or Treaties apply and if there is any particular get-out because
of the difference between business or domestic sales.
The raft of different international conventions can be confusing.
You may be aware of the Warsaw convention (which rather strangely
has a time limit of two years for accidents involving air transport,
when UK law allows three years), the Athens convention which deals
with merchant shipping and the Berne convention which deals with
international carriage by rail.
Additionally, the European Commission Regulation 44/2001 on Jurisdiction
and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial
matters came into force on 1 March 2002 and now in effect regulates
most SME style trade within Europe .
This legislation replaced The Brussels convention, which was used
to determine whether or not English courts had jurisdiction over
defendants. Just to make the position a little more complicated,
Denmark opted out of Regulation 44/2001 and therefore is still governed
by the old Brussels Convention.
It is not, however, enough simply to know the names of the Conventions.
After all, in your commercial efforts to sell your products and
services worldwide you may have also sold goods to the United States
, to Israel and to Singapore . You will be delighted to know that
the first two countries have ratified the Hague Convention and the
last country, Singapore, has acceded to the Hague Convention and
been accepted by the UK. You accordingly have a means of obtaining
evidence and enforcing judgments. However, as a consequence of bi-lateral
treaties that apply to "old empire territories" when you
serve documents in Singapore you will be compelled to use consular
or government agencies there rather than using service in accordance
with the laws in the relevant territory, which is what is generally
required by the Hague Convention.
Of course, once you step away from the old Brussels Convention countries
and from the Hague Convention countries then you are in a legal
no-man's land. There may well be a treaty governing relations between
England and Wales and the non Convention countries to which you
have sold, but it is going to take a lot of research to discover
this.
The purpose of pointing out some of these horrors is to make it
clear that if you are expanding into foreign markets then it is
not enough to simply find a buyer of your goods or services. It
is not enough to carry out credit checks. What you need to do is
make sure that if you are involved in a substantial transaction
you have actually given some thought to what can happen if things
go wrong. For instance, if you sold machinery to Qatar and the customer
complains, what can you do? Can you start proceedings in Qatar or
do you have to start them in the UK ? If a customer doesn't pay
his bill, will the Qatari courts recognise any judgment you obtain
in England and Wales ? Will you have to actually start proceedings
in Qatar ? Of course the situation becomes hugely more complicated
if you are contracting with an agent or third party in one country
and with an ultimate customer in a third country to whom you are
effecting delivery.
Lawyers at Thomas Eggar who are involved in this work are familiar
with such obscure acts of parliament as the Foreign Limitation Periods
Act, the Maritime Conventions Act, and the Private International
Law Act. They are familiar with the Conventions referred to above,
the relevant treaties and, of course, Regulation 44.
It is good advice to look before you leap. Don't just look at credit
issues. Look at legal issues - complicated and boring as they may
seem - before you make a major commercial commitment.
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| Constant
& Constant Solicitors |
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Constant &
Constant is a leading international commercial law firm. Established
in 1911 to provide legal services to the shipping industry, the
firm remains one of the leading specialists in the maritime area.
In addition, the practice has expanded over the years, and now also
provides a broad range of other commercial law services.
As a firm with
an international reputation, we combine personal service with technical
expertise. The firm’s success in this respect is reflected
in its broad client base, ranging from private individuals to government
agencies. We also act for many insurers, financial institutions
and public and private companies worldwide.
In addition
to our own expertise, we have a network of long-established connections
around the world which enables us to obtain specialist advice or
assistance in other jurisdictions when this is necessary.
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