• Title/Summary/Keyword: Validity of the Contract

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Interpretation of the Umbrella Clause in Investment Treaties (국제투자조약상 포괄적 보호조항(Umbrella Clauses)의 해석에 관한 연구)

  • Jo, Hee-Moon
    • Journal of Arbitration Studies
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.95-126
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    • 2009
  • One of the controversial issues in investor-state investment arbitration is the interpretation of "umbrella clause" that is found in most BIT and FTAs. This treaty clause requires on Contracting State of treaty to observe all investment obligations entered into with foreign investors from the other Contracting State. This clause did not receive in-depth attention until SGS v. Pakistan and SGS v. Philippines cases produced starkly different conclusions on the relations about treaty-based jurisdiction and contract-based jurisdiction. More recent decisions by other arbitral tribunals continue to show different approaches in their interpretation of umbrella clauses. Following the SGS v. Philippines decision, some recent decisions understand that all contracts are covered by umbrella clause, for example, in Siemens A.G. v. Argentina, LG&E Energy Corp. v. Argentina, Sempra Energy Int'l v. Argentina and Enron Corp. V. Argentina. However, other recent decisions have found a different approach that only certain kinds of public contracts are covered by umbrella clauses, for example, in El Paso Energy Int'l Co. v. Argentina, Pan American Energy LLC v. Argentina and CMS Gas Transmission Co. v. Argentina. With relation to the exhaustion of domestic remedies, most of tribunals have the position that the contractual remedy should not affect the jurisdiction of BIT tribunal. Even some tribunals considered that there is no need to exhaust contract remedies before bringing BIT arbitration, provoking suspicion of the validity of sanctity of contract in front of treaty obligation. The decision of the Annulment Committee In CMS case in 2007 was an extraordinarily surprising one and poured oil on the debate. The Committee composed of the three respected international lawyers, Gilbert Guillaume and Nabil Elaraby, both from the ICJ, and professor James Crawford, the Rapportuer of the International Law Commission on the Draft Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, observed that the arbitral tribunal made critical errors of law, however, noting that it has limited power to review and overturn the award. The position of the Committee was a direct attack on ICSID system showing as an internal recognition of ICSID itself that the current system of investor-state arbitration is problematic. States are coming to limit the scope of umbrella clauses. For example, the 2004 U.S. Model BIT detailed definition of the type of contracts for which breach of contract claims may be submitted to arbitration, to increase certainty and predictability. Latin American countries, in particular, Argentina, are feeling collectively victims of these pro-investor interpretations of the ICSID tribunals. In fact, BIT between developed and developing countries are negotiated to protect foreign investment from developing countries. This general characteristic of BIT reflects naturally on the provisions making them extremely protective for foreign investors. Naturally, developing countries seek to interpret restrictively BIT provisions, whereas developed countries try to interpret more expansively. As most of cases arising out of alleged violation of BIT are administered in the ICSID, a forum under the auspices of the World Bank, these Latin American countries have been raising the legitimacy deficit of the ICSID. The Argentine cases have been provoking many legal issues of international law, predicting crisis almost coming in actual investor-state arbitration system. Some Latin American countries, such as Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, already showed their dissatisfaction with the ICSID system considering withdrawing from it to minimize the eventual investor-state dispute. Thus the disagreement over umbrella clauses in their interpretation is becoming interpreted as an historical reflection on the continued tension between developing and developed countries on foreign investment. There is an academic and political discussion on the possible return of the Calvo Doctrine in Latin America. The paper will comment on these problems related to the interpretation of umbrella clause. The paper analyses ICSID cases involving principally Latin American countries to identify the critical legal issues arising between developing and developed countries. And the paper discusses alternatives in improving actual investor-State investment arbitration; inter alia, the introduction of an appellate system and treaty interpretation rules.

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Development of a Similarity Evaluation System for Offshore Plants' 3D Piping CAD Models Created Using Aveva Marine and SmartMarine 3D (Aveva Marine과 SmartMarine 3D 간의 해양 플랜트 3D 배관 CAD 모델 유사도 평가 시스템 개발)

  • Lee, Jaesun;Kim, Byung Chul;Kim, Hyungki;Cheon, Sanguk;Cho, Mincheol;Lee, Gwang;Kim, Jin-Hyun;Mun, Duhwan;Han, Soonhung
    • Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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    • v.40 no.4
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    • pp.397-406
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    • 2016
  • Diverse stakeholders engaged in design, construction, and operation and maintenance of offshore plants typically operate heterogeneous plant 3D CAD systems. Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) companies are required to submit plant design result to the owner in the form of a plant 3D CAD model, as specified in the contract. However, because of the limitations of data interface of plant 3D CAD systems, EPC companies frequently perform manual remodeling to fulfill the terms and conditions of the contract. Therefore, comparison should be performed between the source plant 3D CAD model and the remodeled plant 3D CAD model to prove the validity of the remodeled plant 3D CAD model. To automate the comparison process, we have developed a system for quantitatively assessing the similarity of the plant 3D CAD models. This paper presents the architecture and detailed functions of the system. In addition, experimental results using this system are explained.

A Study on the Accomodation of Trade Usage or Practice in CISG (UN 통일매매법(統一賣買法)(CISG)에서 국제무역관습(國際貿易慣習)의 수용여부(受容與否)에 관한 고찰(考察))

  • Oh, Won-Suk
    • THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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    • v.12
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    • pp.163-200
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    • 1999
  • The CISG entrusts many problems to trade or practice : for example the problems which can't be compromised between civil law system and common law system ; the problems in which the application of usage or practice in universal ; the problems of rapid change according to trade circumstance. The purpose of this paper is to confirm whether the CISG is accomodating the usage or practice in its Text, and to find which topic is most closely related to usage or practice in CISG. The Article 9 in the CISG is a provision of usages or practices applicable to contract. But the problems of the CISG in the accomodation of usages or practices are that it lacks the definitions of ‘usage’ and ‘practices’, the CISG is not concerned with the validity of any usage according to Article 4, and the application of usage or practice may differ in litigation and arbitration The topics such as delivery of goods, payment of price and the transfer of risk are most closely related to usages and practices. The delivery of goods and the transfer of risk are determined by the trade terms like FOB or CIF. But the method of identification and the risk for the sale of goods in transit can't be determined by the trade terms in INCOTERMS(1990). So the CISG may serve as complementing role. In payment of price, the trade term does not refer to the time and place of payment. So the CISG may be the basis of interpretation. Likewise the usages and practices such as trade terms, UCP and so on, can be expected to play a significant role in complementing and interpreting the CISG.

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Validity of Non-documentary Conditions (신용장의 비서류적 조건의 유효성)

  • Suk, Kwang-Hyun
    • THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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    • v.22
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    • pp.137-171
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    • 2004
  • Under Article 2 of the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (1993 Revision. UCP), letter of credit means an arrangement whereby an issuing bank is to make a payment to a beneficiary, or is to accept and pay bills of exchange drawn by the beneficiary, or authorises another bank to effect such payment, or to accept and pay such bills of exchange, or to negotiate, against stipulated document(s), provided that the terms and conditions of the letter of credit are complied with. In letter of credit operations, all parties concerned deal with documents, and not with goods, services and/or other performances to which the documents may relate (UCP, Article 4). It is important to note that under UCP, if a letter of credit contains conditions without stating the document(s) to be presented in compliance therewith, banks will deem such conditions as not stated and will disregard them (Article 13 c). Section 5-108(g) of the Uniform Commercial Code also contains a similar provision. However on several occasions the Korean Supreme Court held that non-documentary conditions in letter of credit governed by UCP could be regarded as valid, although they were not desirable in the context of letter of credit transactions. The rationale underlying the decisions was that parties to the letter of credit transactions are free to determine the terms and conditions of the relevant letter of credit. After reviewing the relevant provisions of UCP, UCC, the International Standby Practices (ISP98) and the Supreme Court decisions of Korea, the author suggests that we classify conditions that do not require any documents (so called apparent non-documentary conditions) into two categories and treat them differently. There are apparent non-documentary conditions that are consistent with the nature of letter of credit and those which are inconsistent with the nature of letter of credit. In the first category there are two sub-categories, (i) those which are valid and (ii) those which are invalid and thus should be disregarded. In the second category there are two sub-categories, (i) those which are invalid and thus should be disregarded and (ii) those which are valid but deprive the instrument of the nature as letter of credit.

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The Preliminary Study for the evaluation of the Rehabilitation Nursing Program integrated with Day Care Program of Stroke Survivors (뇌졸중환자의 낮 병동 재활간호프로그램의 적용평가를 위한 예비연구)

  • Suh, Moon-Ja;Kang, Hyun-Sook;Lee, Myung-Hwa
    • The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.98-107
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    • 2000
  • A Preliminary study for the evaluation of the Rehabilitation Nursing Program(RNP) implemented to the 25 stroke survivors at the Day Care Program Center of National Rehabilitation Hospital in Seoul was done at 1999. The purposes of this study was to assess the psychological effects as outcome-variables such as depression, powerlessness and self efficacy of the stroke survivors who were discharged from acute care hospitals. The Rehabilitation Nursing Program (RNP) integrated with the Day Care Program for rehabilitation was implemented and the psychological outcome variables were measured by 3 psychologic instruments of Zung Depression Scale, Millers's powerlessness and the Bandura's self efficacy scale. These instruments were translated into Korean and the contents validity and the reliability were tested. The subjects were 17 males and 8 females and 52% were aged over 51 years old and 24% were from 31 to 50 years old. Most of them (72%) had been educated more than high school level. The contents of RNP were 8 sessions composing of self-introduction, individualized assessment, health contract and feedback, management of depression, shaving experiences, effective communication, self efficacy teaching, health information, and daily care activities. This study found that the level of depression and the powerlessness were within average level and had not been changed the level of self efficacy after RNP were somewhat higher than before, but it was not changed significantly. According to the results, the psychological state of the subjects were not changed significantly. Only the level of self efficacy was a little improved after having the RNP. Based on theses results, the RNP should be focussed on the psychological nursing care and the psychological outcome variables were retested strictly with the enough sample size.

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The Judgment Criteria and Origin Verification Cases on "Exceptional Circumstances" in Application of FTA Preferential Tariffs (FTA 특혜관세 적용에 있어 "예외적인 경우"에 대한 판단기준과 검증사례 연구)

  • Kwon, Soon-Koog
    • Korea Trade Review
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    • v.43 no.3
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    • pp.199-218
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    • 2018
  • The force majeure in the international sale of goods has been widely used regarding liability and settlement of disputes in the event of breach of contract due to circumstances beyond the control of the parties. The purpose of this study is to examine the judgment criteria and cases concerning on force majeure in the application of FTA preferential tariffs. In order to achieve this purpose, this paper uses a literature review and case analysis on exceptional circumstances under the Korea·ASEAN FTA and the Korea·EU FTA. This study, this paper provides several implications for companies seeking preferential tariffs regarding the Korea·ASEAN FTA and the Korea·EU FTA. Korean companies are subject to the following: confirm the denial article of FTA preferential tariffs stipulated in the Korea·ASEAN FTA and the Korea·EU FTA, consider the judgment criteria on exceptional circumstances of customs authorities, confirm the extension criteria on the validity period of certificate of origin, confirm the reply criteria of verification result of the customs authorities of the exporting country, and confirm the violation of the principle of good faith for unrequested action on reply of verification result of customs authorities.

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A Comparative Study on the Principles of Change Circumstances under the Contract for the International Sale of Goods (국제물품매매계약상 사정변경원칙의 적용에 관한 비교법적 검토)

  • Oh, Hyon-Sok
    • THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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    • v.51
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    • pp.159-185
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    • 2011
  • This paper is intended to discuss the controversial issue of the principles of change circumstances under the legal system of international commercial transactions. The principles of change circumstances, so called clausula rebus sic stantibus is the legal doctrine allowing for treaties to become inapplicable because of a fundamental change of circumstances. It is essentially an "escape clause" that makes an exception to the general rule of pacta sunt servanda (promises must be kept). The practical needs of international transactions differ from the established concepts of national contracts law. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the legal system and theories under the regimes of international commercial transactions such as the CISG, the PICC, and the PECL. Clausula rebus sic stantibus does not apply if the parties to a treaty had contemplated for the occurrence of the changed circumstance. It only relates to the changed circumstances that were never contemplated by the parties. This paper has shown that the hardship provisions in the CISG, PICC, PECL has similarities to each a validity defense and an excuse defense. it was provisions that CISG governs this issue in Article 79, PICC Article 6.2.1, 6.2.2, 6.2.3(in addition to Article 7.1.7), PECL Article 6.111(in addition to 8.108). It is time when we should reconsider its legal system with great interest in order to harmonize with the international standpoint. It will be the turning point of our viepoint under the international commercial transactions.

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A STUDY ON THE LIMITS OF ARBITRATION AGREEMENT (중재계약의 한계에 관한 소고)

  • Park, Jong-Sam;Kim, Yeong-Rak
    • Journal of Arbitration Studies
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.221-241
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    • 1998
  • Though the arbitration agreement is a means to resolve disputes autonomously in essence, the Principle of Parties Autonomy and the Principle of Free Contracting can not be applied infinitely without any limitations but subject to the Public Policy and the Compulsory Provisions as established by an interested country. Such principle of law is applied to international arbitration agreements as well, but their validity should be determined by different standards from those in domestic arbitration agreements, in consideration of their internationality. The essential effect of arbitration agreement is to exclude from the jurisdiction of State courts. Depending upon definition of the legal nature of arbitration agreement, the range and contents of the effect of such agreement will vary. Whether State courts can intervene in claims related to Compulsory Provisions is an issue at the level of legislation policy which can not be easily concluded. But, the applicability of Compulsory Provisions can not serve as an imperative ground to deny the eligibility of claims for arbitration, so far as such claims can be disposed of by the parties. On the other hand, it is reasonable to view the arbitration agreement as a substantive contract in its legal nature enabling the authority for dispute resolution to be delegated to arbitrator, so that the Principle of Parties Autonomy can be widely applied throughout the arbitration procedure as well as with other legal acts on private laws. With this, the parties can enjoy an arbitration award appropriate for characteristics of a specific arbitration agreement, thus resulting in facilitating the use of arbitration procedure for international trade activities. To conclude, the Public Policy and the Compulsory Provisions as limitations on arbitration agreement should be applied to such an extent that they can protect States basic moral faith and social order.

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Rousseauistic origin of Kant's theory of Freedom. (칸트 도덕철학의 자율적 자유 개념의 루소적 기원)

  • Moon, Sung-hak
    • Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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    • v.116
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    • pp.79-110
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    • 2010
  • In this paper I will consider the Rousseauistic origin of Knat's theory of Freedom. Kant's autonomous freedom which is the main theme of the Critique of practical Reason have three characteristic elements, namely spontaneity, self-lawmaking and universal validity. Rousseau mentions three kinds of freedom in his works. Natural freedom which is treated in Discourse on the origin of inequality is freedom which a man in natural state have. I proved that natural freedom is the origin of Kant's theory of spontaneity that is a essential part of autonomous freedom. Social freedom which is treated in Social contract is deeply connected with general will. General will is the power of self-lawmaking. We can easily conclude that Rousseau's social freedom is the origin of Kant's theory of self-legislation which is another essential part of autonomous freedom. The last essential part of Kant's autonomous freedom is universality that is inseparably connected with Rousseau's moral freedom which is largely mentioned in Emlie.

An Implementation of Federated Learning based on Blockchain (블록체인 기반의 연합학습 구현)

  • Park, June Beom;Park, Jong Sou
    • The Journal of Bigdata
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    • v.5 no.1
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    • pp.89-96
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    • 2020
  • Deep learning using an artificial neural network has been recently researched and developed in various fields such as image recognition, big data and data analysis. However, federated learning has emerged to solve issues of data privacy invasion and problems that increase the cost and time required to learn. Federated learning presented learning techniques that would bring the benefits of distributed processing system while solving the problems of existing deep learning, but there were still problems with server-client system and motivations for providing learning data. So, we replaced the role of the server with a blockchain system in federated learning, and conducted research to solve the privacy and security problems that are associated with federated learning. In addition, we have implemented a blockchain-based system that motivates users by paying compensation for data provided by users, and requires less maintenance costs while maintaining the same accuracy as existing learning. In this paper, we present the experimental results to show the validity of the blockchain-based system, and compare the results of the existing federated learning with the blockchain-based federated learning. In addition, as a future study, we ended the thesis by presenting solutions to security problems and applicable business fields.