La fraude et la dématérialisation du crédit documentaire

"Mémoire présenté à la faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maîtrise en droit des affaires (LL.M)"

La protection des actionnaires minoritaires lors d'opérations de prises de contrôle

Les actionnaires sont au centre du gouvernement des entreprises. Bien qu'une certaine passivité leur soit parfois reprochée, simultanément, des craintes existent qu'une démocratie des actionnaires ne limite excessivement la gestion quotidienne des entreprises. Loin d'être incompatibles, ces deux remarques reflètent la diversité des actionnaires. En pratique, leurs attentes et leur comportement dépendent fortement de deux éléments : la part du capital ou des voix qu'ils détiennent de même que leur identité. Notre recherche porte sur la protection des actionnaires minoritaires dans le cadre d'opérations de prises de contrôle de sociétés publiques. Le sujet soulève une problématique d'une grande actualité dans le contexte canadien, contexte caractérisé par une concentration de l'actionnariat des sociétés publiques. Le sujet fait la conjonction de deux problèmes d'actualité. D'une part, la multiplication des prises de contrôle s'est accrue lors des dernières décennies et ce phénomène semble, plus que jamais, promis à un brillant avenir. D'autre part, le problème de la protection des actionnaires minoritaires se pose de façon toujours plus aiguë, dans le cadre des sociétés par actions de plus en plus importantes où leur rôle tend à s'amenuiser.

Companies’ practices and social responsibility: cases of companies in the French tourist sector

This article examines the firms’practices in the French tourist sector. By confronting the concepts defined in the literature on the social responsibility and what really happens in companies, the current research shows that the studied firms implement a minimal social responsibility which remains well below the expectation level of some stakeholders. This situation is explained by several factors, namely structural. Finally, the paper suggests ways to improve the concept of social responsibility.

The great asymmetry : America's closest allies in times of war

This dissertation focuses on military cooperation between the United States and its special allies. It argues that alliance expectations determine the level of military cooperation, while two intervening variables - the level of government cohesion and military capabilities - determine its implementation. This study also shows how secondary states deploy strategies to overcome power asymmetries through bilateral concessions, international organizations and by appealing to principle. The focus of the research is on special allies, as they have the most to gain or lose by going along with American plans. My contention is that secondary allies can rarely influence the dominant ally decisively, but they can act autonomously and resist to pressures exerted by the stronger alliance partner. The argument builds on three central claims. First, power asymmetries between allies translate into different assessments of international threats. Second, when disagreements over threats arise, the outcome of intra-alliance bargaining is not necessarily dictated by the preferences of the stronger power. Third, secondary states, as opposed to the dominant partner, face unique constraints when facing major foreign policy decisions, i.e. they face a trade-off between establishing a credible reputation as an alliance partner in a politically feasible way while minimizing domestic audience costs. To examine the theoretical puzzle presented by asymmetric military cooperation, I introduce a causal explanation that builds on neoclassical realism, to zone in on the interaction between systemic and domestic variables. My research makes a contribution to alliance theory and foreign policy decision-making by studying how special allies respond to American decisions in times of threat and how systemic constraints are channeled through state-level variables. To investigate the causal link between threat perception, alliance expectations and domestic constraints, this study relies on the method of structured focused comparison with three detailed case studies. The focus is on the initial decision made by special allies regarding whether or not to participle in joint mobilization with the United States. The decision-making process is presented from the perspective of secondary allied states and measures the explanatory factors that motivated the decision on military cooperation. The case studies are the UK, Canada and Australia’s response to the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq during the period of 2001 to 2003.

Industries et industriels français du textile face au défi international 1871-1914

Fortement liées à l’international, les industries françaises du textile ont connu une évolution erratique entre 1871 et 1914. L’adoption de tarifs hautement protectionnistes en 1892 favorise les industriels du coton au détriment de ceux travaillant la laine et la soie. Ces derniers exportent leurs marchandises luxueuses sur des marchés ouverts à la concurrence. Ils profitent peu des marchés coloniaux, moins intéressés par leurs produits. Des politiques hardies d’importation directe de la matière première permettent, notamment à Roubaix, de pallier à certains désavantages. Si plusieurs industriels incitent le gouvernement à réformer ses services commerciaux à l’étranger et à y adjoindre des spécialistes, ils retiennent peu les recommandations des experts concernant l’adoption des moyens propres à favoriser les exportations. Plusieurs carences du commerce français ont été soulignées précocement mais il a été difficile de rapidement appliquer des solutions. Dans un contexte marqué par une concurrence accrue sur les marchés extérieurs, la France s’en tire mieux qu’on a pu le penser. La flexibilité de l’appareil productif français permet d’obtenir de nombreuses commandes dans les créneaux du luxe et du demi-luxe. Son niveau d’intégration, moins élevé que dans d’autres pays, se révèle ainsi parfois être un avantage. Toutefois, l’industrie textile est handicapée par la grande difficulté des patrons à s’associer de manière stable à l’extérieur du clan familial. L’entente se réalise cependant plus aisément et avantageusement pour ceux qui ont une production spécialisée, rare ou brevetée. Les performances et l’organisation des entreprises textiles françaises à l’étranger montrent que le marché national stimulait peu les producteurs à adopter les meilleures conditions de production possibles. Ces sociétés et celles obtenant des succès à l’exportation sont souvent les plus dynamiques et les plus rentables.

Email Evidence Preservation. How to Balance the Obligation and the High Cost

With the great advancement of computer technologies, electronic information starts to play a more and more important role in modern business transactions. Therefore, electronic data, such as e-mail, is frequently required in the process of litigation. Companies, on the one hand, have the legal obligations to produce this kind of e-mail evidence. On the other hand, they also undertake a high cost of e-mail evidence preservation due to the great volume on a daily basis. This Article firstly analyzed features of e-mail evidence with the comparison of paper evidence. Then, it discussed about how e-mail is authenticated and admitted into evidence. By using the case laws in different legal aspects and current Canadian legislations, the Author demonstrated the importance of e-mail evidence preservation in ordinary business course. After that, the Article focused on the practical dilemma of the companies between their legal obligation and the expensive cost to preserve e-mail evidence. Finally, the Author proposed suggestions to both companies and courts on how to coordinate the obligation and cost. More specifically, while companies should adopt a document management policy to implement e-mail evidence preservation, courts need to take into consideration of the high cost of e-mail evidence preservation in electronic discovery.

Understanding Economic Cycle Effects on Top Executive Compensation: An Analysis Applied to American NYSE Listed Companies.

Rapport de recherche présenté à la Faculté des arts et des sciences en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maîtrise en sciences économiques.

Baby-boom, baby-bust and the Great Depression

The baby-boom and subsequent baby-bust have shaped much of the history of the second half of the 20th century; yet it is still largely unclear what caused them. This paper presents a new unified explanation of the fertility Boom-Bust that links the latter to the Great Depression and the subsequent economic recovery. We show that the 1929 Crash attracted young married women 20 to 34 years old in 1930 (whom we name D-cohort) in the labor market possibly via an added worker effect. Using several years of Census micro data, we further document that the same cohort kept entering into the market in the 1940s and 1950s as economic conditions improved, decreasing wages and reducing work incentives for younger women. Its retirement in the late 1950s and in the 1960s instead freed positions and created employment opportunities. Finally, we show that the entry of the D-cohort is associated with increased births in the 1950s, while its retirement turned the fertility Boom into a Bust in the 1960s. The work behavior of this cohort explains a large share of the changes in both yearly births and completed fertility of all cohorts involved.

Return and Volatility performance comparison of Ethical and Non-ethical publicly-listed financial services companies

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Constraining the active tectonic deformation of Andaman-Nicobar Arc in the background of December 26,2004 Great Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake

The Andaman-Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal lies in a zone where the Indian plate subducts beneath the Burmese microplate, and therefore forms a belt of frequent earthquakes. Few efforts, not withstanding the available historical and instrumental data were not effectively used before the Mw 9.3 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake to draw any inference on the spatial and temporal distribution of large subduction zone earthquakes in this region. An attempt to constrain the active crustal deformation of the Andaman-Nicobar arc in the background of the December 26, 2004 Great Sumatra-Andaman megathrust earthquake is made here, thereby presenting a unique data set representing the pre-seismic convergence and co-seismic displacement.Understanding the mechanisms of the subduction zone earthquakes is both challenging sCientifically and important for assessing the related earthquake hazards. In many subduction zones, thrust earthquakes may have characteristic patterns in space and time. However, the mechanism of mega events still remains largely unresolved.Large subduction zone earthquakes are usually associated with high amplitude co-seismic deformation above the plate boundary megathrust and the elastic relaxation of the fore-arc. These are expressed as vertical changes in land level with the up-dip part of the rupture surface uplifted and the areas above the down-dip edge subsided. One of the most characteristic pattern associated with the inter-seismic era is that the deformation is in an opposite sense that of co-seismic period.This work was started in 2002 to understand the tectonic deformation along the Andaman-Nicobar arc using seismological, geological and geodetic data. The occurrence of the 2004 megathrust earthquake gave a new dimension to this study, by providing an opportunity to examine the co-seismic deformation associated with the greatest earthquake to have occurred since the advent of Global Positioning System (GPS) and broadband seismometry. The major objectives of this study are to assess the pre-seismic stress regimes, to determine the pre-seismic convergence rate, to analyze and interpret the pattern of co-seismic displacement and slip on various segments and to look out for any possible recurrence interval for megathrust event occurrence for Andaman-Nicobar subduction zone. This thesis is arranged in six chapters with further subdivisions dealing all the above aspects.

Administrative control of companies in India

The joint stock company is an institution wielding immense socio economic _power over the ultimate progress and well -being of the nation. It is subjected to corresponding definable responsibilities towards all who depend on than. the shareholders.the employees the suppliers of raw materials. the consumers of its product: and society at Large. The company law is changing and must change with time and take note of the dynamics of trade and industry. Obviously it cannot be static and permanent while the basic economic and social philosophies and the technique of production and investment in the industrial sector change.‘ It provides a legal framework for the corporate form of business in which the organization capital and labour are brought. together in a particular form of relationship. The activities carried on within this corporate form is subjected to a gradual but steadily increasing control by the Government. A study of this oontrol is undertaken to better understand the present law and to suggest the path for further change

Receivable Management in Non Banking Finance Companies with Special Reference to Vehicle Financing

In the absence of entry barrier or regulatory restrictions, Non Banking Financial Companies frantically grew and accessed the public deposit without any regulatory control. The deposit of NBFCs grew from Rs. 41.9 crore in 1971 to 53116.0 crore in 1997. This growth was the result of a combined effect of increase in the number of NBFCs and increase in the amount of deposits. The deposits amazed as above was invested in various assets especially that in motor vehicles by these asset financing NBFCs. Various tactics were adopted by these NBFCs and their agents for recovering the receivable outstanding from such assets. Both central government and RBI were concerned about the protection of depositors‘ interest and various committees were set up to frame a comprehensive regulation for the functioning of these NBFCs.