The Section on Business Law of the International Bar Association is
greatly indebted to the Editor, J. Michael Robinson and to John
Gauntlett, the Chairman of the Committee on Issues and Trading in
Securities, and his Vice- Chairmen, Blaise Pasztory, Robert Briner and
the members of the Committee who have contributed, for their joint
efforts in preparing this ftrst book of their committee. It will make a
valuable addition to the libraries of all practising lawyers because it
has been written by practising lawyers, with the knowledge and
experience of their own daily work and the understanding of what a
practi- tioner is looking for. I am confident that this book will prove
of real assistance to practitioners world-wide, as have previous
publications of other Committees of the Section on Business Law. I wish
it great success. I hope that you may wish to join the Section on
Business Law and thereby make contact and work with lawyers with similar
interests in commercial law. WALTER OPPENHOF Chairman of the Section on
Business Law XI Editor's Introduction I have great pleasure in
presenting reports from fourteen countries. In the best tradition of
many institutions of higher learning which trace their origins to some
medieval ale house, this project has its genesis in a bar.