Monday, December 24, 2012

It cannot merely be pleaded

It cannot merely be pleaded, as the court has no expertise in the laws of foreign countries nor in how they might be applied in a foreign court. Such foreign law may be considered no more than evidence, rather than law because of the issue of sovereignty. If the local court is actually giving extraterritorial effect to a foreign law, it is less than sovereign and so acting in a way that is potentially unconstitutional. Sony VAIO VGN-AW92CJS Battery

The theoretical responses to this issue are:

(a) that each court has an inherent jurisdiction to apply the laws of another country where it is necessary to achieving a just outcome; or

(b) that the local court creates a right in its own laws to match that available under the foreign law. Sony VAIO VGN-AW92CYS Battery

This explanation is sustainable because, even in states which apply a system of binding legal precedents, any precedent emerging from a conflicts case can only apply to future conflicts cases. There will be no ratio decidendi that binds future litigants in entirely local cases.

(c) that the national court, when applying a foreign law, does not give an extraterritorial effect but recognizes, Sony VAIO VGN-AW92DS Battery

through its own "conflict of laws rule", that the situation at hand falls under the scope of application of the foreign rule. In order to understand this argument one must first define the notion of extraterritorial application of a rule. This notion is susceptible to two distinct meanings:

On the one hand, this notion is used to describe the situation where a local court applies a rule other than the Lex fori (local law). Sony VAIO VGN-AW92JS Battery

On the other hand, it could mean that the rule is being applied to a factual situation that occurred beyond the territory of its state of origin. As an example of this situation, one can think of an American court applying British tort statutes and case law to a car accident that took place in London Sony VAIO VGN-AW92YS Battery

where both the driver and the victim are British citizens but the lawsuit was brought in before the American courts because the driver's insurer is American. One can then argue that since the factual situation is within the British territory, where an American judge applies the English Law, he does not give an extraterritorial application to the foreign rule. Sony VAIO VGN-AW93FS Battery

In fact, one can also argue that the American judge, had he applied American Law, would be doing so in an extraterritorial fashion.

Once the lex causae has been selected, it will be respected except when it appears to contravene an overriding mandatory rule of the lex fori. Sony VAIO VGN-AW93GS Battery

Each judge is the guardian of his own principles of ordre public (public order) and the parties cannot, by their own act, oust the fundamental principles of the local municipal law which generally underpin areas such as labour law, insurance, competition regulation, agency rules, embargoes, import-export regulations, and securities exchange regulations. Sony VAIO VGN-AW93HS Battery

Furthermore, the lex fori will prevail in cases where an application of the lex causae would otherwise result in a fundamentally immoral outcome, or give extraterritorial effect to confiscatory or other territorially limited laws.In some countries, there is occasional evidence of parochialism when courts have determined that if the foreign law cannot be proved to a "satisfactory standard", Sony VAIO VGN-AW93ZFS Battery

then local law may be applied. In the United Kingdom, in the absence of evidence being led, the foreign law is presumed to be the same as the lex fori. Similarly, judges might assume in default of express evidence to the contrary that the place where the cause of action arose would provide certain basic protections, e.g. Sony VAIO VGN-AW93ZGS Battery

that the foreign court would provide a remedy to someone who was injured due to the negligence of another. Finally, some American courts have held that local law will be applied if the injury occurred in an "uncivilized place that has no law or legal system."[8]

If the case has been submitted to arbitration rather than a national court, say because of a forum selection clause, Sony VAIO VGN-AW93ZHS Battery

an arbitrator may decide not to apply local mandatory policies in the face of a choice of law by the parties if this would defeat their commercial objectives. However, the arbitral award may be challenged in the country where it was made or where enforcement is sought by one of the parties on the ground that the relevant ordre public should have been applied. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ11EN Battery

If the lex loci arbitri has been ignored, but there was no real and substantial connection between the place of arbitration and the agreement made by the parties, a court in which enforcement is sought may well accept the tribunal's decision. But if the appeal is to the courts in the state where the arbitration was held, the judge cannot ignore the mandatory provisions of the lex fori. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ11MN Battery

To apply one national legal system as against another may never be an entirely satisfactory approach. The parties' interests may always be better protected by applying a law conceived with international realities in mind. The Hague Conference on Private International Law is a treaty organization that oversees conventions designed to develop a uniform system. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ11XN Battery

The deliberations of the conference have recently been the subject of controversy over the extent of cross-border jurisdiction on electronic commerce and defamation issues. There is a general recognition that there is a need for an international law of contracts: for example, many nations have ratified the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods, Sony VAIO VGN-BZ12VN Battery

the Rome Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations offers less specialized uniformity, and there is support for the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, a private restatement, all of which represent continuing efforts to produce international standards as the internet and other technologies encourage ever more interstate commerce. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ12XN Battery

But other branches of the law are less well served and the dominant trend remains the role of the forum law rather than a supranational system for Conflict purposes. Even the EU, which has institutions capable of creating uniform rules with direct effect, has failed to produce a universal system for the common market. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ31VT Battery

Nevertheless, the Treaty of Amsterdam does confer authority on the Community's institutions to legislate by Council Regulation in this area with supranational effect. Article 177 would give the Court of Justice jurisdiction to interpret and apply their principles so, if the political will arises, uniformity may gradually emerge in letter. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ31XT Battery

Whether the domestic courts of the Member States would be consistent in applying those letters is speculative.

The anti-globalization movement, or counter-globalisation movement, is critical of the globalization ofcorporate capitalism. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560 Battery

alter-globalizationmovement, anti-globalist movement, anti-corporate globalization movement,[3] or movement against neoliberalglobalization.Participants base their criticisms on a number of related ideas.[4] What is shared is that participants oppose what they see as large, multi-national corporations having unregulated political power, exercised through trade agreements and deregulated financial markets. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560N24 Battery

Specifically, corporations are accused of seeking to maximize profit at the expense of work safety conditions and standards, labor hiring and compensation standards, environmental conservation principles, and the integrity of national legislative authority, independence and sovereignty. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560N30 Battery

As of January, 2012, some commentators have characterized the unprecedented changes in the global economy as "turbo-capitalism" (Edward Luttwak), "market fundamentalism" (George Soros), "casino capitalism" (Susan Strange),[5] "cancer-stage capitalism" (John McMurtry), and as "McWorld" (Benjamin Barber). Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560P Battery

Many anti-globalization activists call for forms of global integration that better provide democratic representation, advancement of human rights, fair trade and sustainable development and therefore feel the term "anti-globalization" is misleading. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560P20 Battery

Supporters believe that by the late 20th century those they characterized as "ruling elites" sought to harness the expansion of world markets for their own interests; this combination of the Bretton Woods institutions, states, and multinational corporations has been called "globalization" or "globalization from above." Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560P22 Battery

In reaction, various social movements emerged to challenge their influence; these movements have been called "anti-globalization" or "globalization from below."

The activists are especially opposed to the various abuses which they think are perpetuated by globalization and the international institutions that, they say, promote neoliberalism without regard to ethical standards. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560P28 Battery

Common targets include the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) and free trade treaties like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the Trans Pacific Trade Agreement (TPPA), Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560P30 Battery

the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and theGeneral Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). In light of the economic gap between rich and poor countries, movement adherents claim “free trade” without measures in place to protect the environment and the health and well being of workers will contribute only to the strengthening the power of industrialized nations (often termed the "North" in opposition to the developing world's "South").Sony VAIO VGN-BZ560P34 Battery

A report by Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, notes that "millions of farmers are losing their livelihoods in the developing countries, but small farmers in the northern countries are also suffering" and concludes that "the current inequities of the global trading system are being perpetuated rather than resolved under the WTO, Sony VAIO VGN-BZ561 Battery

given the unequal balance of power between member countries." [11] Activists point to the unequal footing and power between developed and developing nations within the WTO and with respect to global trade, most specifically in relation to the protectionist policies towards agriculture enacted in many developed countries. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ561N20 Battery

These activists also point out that heavy subsidization of developed nations' agriculture and the aggressive use of export subsidies by some developed nations to make their agricultural products more attractive on the international market are major causes of declines in the agricultural sectors of many developing nations. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ561P20 Battery

Through the Internet, a movement began to develop in opposition to the doctrines ofneoliberalism which were widely manifested in the 1990s when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) proposed liberalisation of cross-border investment and trade restrictions through its Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI). Sony VAIO VGN-BZ562P Battery

This treaty was prematurely exposed to public scrutiny and subsequently abandoned in November 1998 in the face of strenuous protest and criticism by national and international civil society representatives.

Neoliberal doctrine argued that untrammeled free trade and reduction of public-sector regulation would bring benefits to poor countries and to disadvantaged people in rich countries. Sony VAIO VGN-BZ563P Battery

Anti-globalization advocates urge that preservation of the natural environment, human rights (especially workplace rights and conditions) and democratic institutions are likely to be placed at undue risk by globalization unless mandatory standards are attached to liberalisation. Noam Chomsky stated in 2002 that. Sony VAIO VGN-BZAAFS Battery

The term "globalization" has been appropriated by the powerful to refer to a specific form of international economic integration, one based on investor rights, with the interests of people incidental. That is why the business press, in its more honest moments, refers to the "free trade agreements" as "free investment agreements" (Wall St. Journal). Sony VAIO VGN-BZAAHS Battery

Accordingly, advocates of other forms of globalization are described as "anti-globalization"; and some, unfortunately, even accept this term, though it is a term of propaganda that should be dismissed with ridicule. No sane person is opposed to globalization, that is, international integration. Surely not the left and the workers movements, Sony VAIO VGN-BZAANS Battery

which were founded on the principle of international solidarity—that is, globalization in a form that attends to the rights of people, not private power systems.

By 2002, many parts of the movement showed wide opposition to the impending invasion of Iraq. Many participants were among those 11 million or more protesters that on the weekend of February 15, 2003, Sony VAIO VGN-BZAAPS Battery

participated in global protests against the imminent Iraq war and were dubbed the "world's second superpower" by an editorial in the New York Times.[13] Other anti-war demonstrations were organized by the antiglobalization movement: see for example the large demonstration, organized against the impending war in Iraq, which closed the first European Social Forum in November, 2002 in Florence, Italy.[14] Sony VAIO VGN-CS118E/Q Battery

Anti-globalization militants worried for a proper functioning of democratic institutions as the leaders of many democratic countries (Spain, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom) were acting against the wishes of the majorities of their populations in supporting the war.Chomsky asserted that these leaders "showed their contempt for democracy". Sony VAIO VGN-CS118E/R Battery

Critics of this type of argument have tended to point out that this is just a standard criticism of representative democracy — a democratically elected government will not always act in the direction of greatest current public support — and that, therefore, there is no inconsistency in the leaders' positions given that these countries are parliamentary democracies. Sony VAIO VGN-CS118E/W Battery

The economic and military issues are closely linked in the eyes of many within the movement.

Many participants (see Noam Chomsky's quotes above) consider the term "anti-globalization" to be a misnomer. The term suggests that its followers supportprotectionism and/or nationalism, which is not always the case - in fact, Sony VAIO VGN-CS11S/P Battery

some supporters of anti-globalization are strong opponents of both nationalism and protectionism: for example, the No Border network argues for unrestricted migration and the abolition of all national border controls. S. A. Hamed Hosseini (an Australian sociologist and expert in global social movement studies), Sony VAIO VGN-CS11S/Q Battery

argues that the term anti-globalization can be ideal-typically used only to refer to only one ideological vision he detects alongside three other visions (the anti-globalist, the alter-globalist and the alter-globalization).[17] He argues that the three latter ideal-typical visions can be categorized under the title of global justice movement. Sony VAIO VGN-CS11S/W Battery

According to him, while the first two visions (the alter-globalism and the anti-globalism) represent the reconstructed forms of old and new left ideologies, respectively, in the context of current globalization, only the third one has shown the capacity to respond more effectively to the intellectual requirements of today’s global complexities. Sony VAIO VGN-CS11Z/R Battery

Underlying this vision is a new conception of justice, coined accommodative justice by Hosseini,[18] a new approach towards cosmopolitanism (transversal cosmopolitanism), a new mode ofactivist knowledge (accommodative consciousness), and a new format of solidarity, interactive solidarity. Sony VAIO VGN-CS120J/P Battery

The term "anti-globalization" does not distinguish the international left-wing anti-globalization position from a strictly nationalist anti-globalization position. Many nationalist movements, such as the French National Front, Austrian Freedom Party, or the Italian Lego Nordare opposed to globalization, Sony VAIO VGN-CS120J/Q Battery

but argue that the alternative to globalization is the protection of the nation-state, sometimes, according to critics, in explicitly racist or fascist terms. Other groups, influenced by the Third Position, are also classifiable as anti-globalization. However, their overall world view is rejected by groups such as Peoples Global Action and anti-fascist groups such as ANTIFA. Sony VAIO VGN-CS120J/R Battery

Some activists, notably David Graeber, see the movement as opposed instead to neoliberalism or "corporate globalization". He argues that the term "anti-globalization" is a term coined by the media, and that radical activists are actually more in favor of globalization, in the sense of "effacement of borders and the free movement of people, possessions and ideas" than are the IMF or WTO. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190JTB Battery

He also notes that activists use the terms "globalization movement" and "anti-globalization movement" interchangeably, indicating the confusion of the terminology.[20] The term "alter-globalization" has been used to make this distinction clear. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190JTP Battery

While the term "anti-globalization" arose from the movement's opposition to free-trade agreements (which have often been considered part of something called "globalization"), various participants contend they are opposed to only certain aspects of globalization and instead describe themselves, at least in French-speaking organisations, Sony VAIO VGN-CS190JTQ Battery as "anti-capitalist", "anti-plutocracy," or "anti-corporate." Le Monde Diplomatique 's editor, Ignacio Ramonet's, expression of "the one-way thought" (la pensée unique) became slang against neoliberal policies and the Washington consensus.[21] Several influential critical works have inspired the anti-globalization movement. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190JTR Battery No Logo, the book by the Canadian journalist Naomi Klein who criticized the production practices of multinational corporations and the omnipresence of brand-driven marketing in popular culture, has become "manifesto"[22] of the movement, presenting in a simple way themes more accurately developed in other works. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190JTW Battery In India some intellectual references of the movement can be found in the works of Vandana Shiva, an ecologist and feminist, who in her book Biopiracy documents the way that the natural capital of indigenous peoples and ecoregions is converted into forms of intellectual capital, which are then recognized as exclusive commercial property without sharing the private utility thus derived. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NAB Battery The writer Arundhati Roy is famous for her anti-nuclear position and her activism against India's massive hydroelectric dam project, sponsored by the World Bank. In France the well-known monthly paper Le Monde Diplomatique has advocated the antiglobalization cause and an editorial of its director Ignacio Ramonet brought about the foundation of the association ATTAC. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NAC Battery Susan George of the Transnational Institute has also been a long-term influence on the movement, as the writer of books since 1986 on hunger, debt, international financial institutions and capitalism. The works of Jean Ziegler, Christopher Chase-Dunn, and Immanuel Wallerstein have detailed underdevelopment and dependence in a world ruled by the capitalist system. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NAD Battery Pacifist and anti-imperialist traditions have strongly influenced the movement. Critics of United States foreign policy such as Noam Chomsky, Susan Sontag, and anti-globalist pranksters The Yes Men are widely accepted inside the movement. Although they may not recognize themselves as antiglobalists and are pro-capitalism, Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NBB Battery some economists who don't share the neoliberal approach of international economic institutions have strongly influenced the movement. Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom (Nobel Prize in Economics, 1999), argues that third world development must be understood as the expansion of human capability, Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NCA Battery not simply the increase in national income per capita, and thus requires policies attuned to health and education, not simply GDP. James Tobin's (winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics) proposal for a tax on financial transactions (called, after him, the Tobin tax) has become part of the agenda of the movement. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NCB Battery Also, George Soros, Joseph E. Stiglitz (another Economic Sciences Nobel prize winner, formerly of the World Bank, author of Globalization and Its Discontents) and David Korten have made arguments for drastically improving transparency, for debt relief, land reform, and restructuring corporate accountability systems. Sony VAIO VGN-CS190NCC Battery Korten and Stiglitz's contribution to the movement include involvement in direct actions and street protest. In some Roman Catholic countries such as Italy there have been religious influences, especially from missionaries who have spent a long time in the Third World(the most famous being Alex Zanotelli). Sony VAIO VGN-CS50B/W Battery Internet sources and free-information websites, such as Indymedia, are a means of diffusion of the movement's ideas. The vast array of material on spiritual movements, anarchism, libertarian socialism and the Green Movement that is now available on the Internet has been perhaps more influential than any printed book. Sony VAIO VGN-CS51B/W Battery Although over the past years more emphasis has been given to the construction of grassroots alternatives to (capitalist) globalization, the movement's largest and most visible mode of organizing remains mass decentralized campaigns of direct action and civil disobedience. This mode of organizing, sometimes under the banner of the Peoples' Global Action network, Sony VAIO VGN-CS52JB/W Battery tries to tie the many disparate causes together into one global struggle. In many ways the process of organizing matters overall can be more important to activists than the avowed goals or achievements of any component of the movement. At corporate summits, the stated goal of most demonstrations is to stop the proceedings. Sony VAIO VGN-CS60B/P Battery Although the demonstrations rarely succeed in more than delaying or inconveniencing the actual summits, this motivates the mobilizations and gives them a visible, short-term purpose. This form of publicity is expensive in police time and the public purse. Rioting has occurred at some protests, Sony VAIO VGN-CS60B/Q Battery for instance in Genoa, Seattle and London - and extensive damage was done to the area, especially targeting corporations, including McDonald's and Starbucks restaurants. Despite, or perhaps because of, the lack of formal coordinating bodies, the movement manages to successfully organize large protests on a global basis, Sony VAIO VGN-CS60B/R Battery using information technology to spread information and organize. Protesters organize themselves into "affinity groups," typically non-hierarchical groups of people who live close together and share a common political goal. Affinity groups will then send representatives to planning meetings. Sony VAIO VGN-CS61B/P Battery However, because these groups can be infiltrated by law enforcement intelligence, important plans of the protests are often not made until the last minute. One common tactic of the protests is to split up based on willingness to break the law. This is designed, with varying success, to protect the risk-averse from the physical and legal dangers posed by confrontations with law enforcement. Sony VAIO VGN-CS61B/Q Battery For example, in Prague during the anti-IMF and World Bank protests in September 2000 demonstrators split into three distinct groups, approaching the conference center from three directions: one engaging in various forms of civil disobedience (the Yellow march), one (the Pink/Silver march) advancing through "tactical frivolity" (costume, dance, theatre, music, and artwork), Sony VAIO VGN-CS61B/R Battery and one (the Blue march) engaging in violent conflicts with the baton-armed police, with the protesters throwing cobblestones lifted from the street.[23] These demonstrations come to resemble small societies in themselves. Many protesters take training in first aid and act as medics to other injured protesters. Sony VAIO VGN-CS62JB/P Battery In the USA, some organizations like the National Lawyer's Guild and, to a lesser extent, the American Civil Liberties Union, provide legal witnesses in case of law enforcement confrontation. Protesters often claim that major media outlets do not properly report on them; therefore, some of them created theIndependent Media Center, a collective of protesters reporting on the actions as they happen. Sony VAIO VGN-CS62JB/Q Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-CS62JB/R Battery,Sony VAIO VGN-CS71B/W Battery

Workplace standards that Adidas'

Workplace standards that Adidas' policy upholds include the freedom for workers to take part in collective bargaining and a non-retaliation policy towards workers who express concerns.[43] In practice, however, many of Adidas' suppliers have not upheld these standards. At the Panarub factory in Java, 33 workers were fired after striking for better pay in 2005. Sony VAIO VGN-AW11XU/Q Battery PT Kizone is another Indonesian factory where Adidas has received criticism over treatment of workers. They produced products for Adidas as well as Nike and the Dallas Cowboys until they closed recently in January 2011. Laid off were 2,686 workers, who are owed $3 million in severance pay and benefits. Nike has contributed $1.5 million but Adidas has not acted. Sony VAIO VGN-AW11Z/B Battery A campaign has been initiated by United Students Against Sweatshops calling for universities to cut contracts with Adidas.[45] On 16 July 2012, War on Want[46] organised activists in London to replace Adidas price tags in sports stores with 34p ones, a reference to the low hourly wage rate paid to the Indonesian workers who make Adidas goods.[47] Sony VAIO VGN-AW120J/H Battery The campaign group Labour Behind the Label claimed that the basic pay of Indonesian Adidas workers was only £10 a week. William Anderson, head of social and environmental affairs for the Asia Pacific region, posted an entry on the company blog in which he sought to justify the 34p an hour pay rate. Sony VAIO VGN-AW150Y/H Battery Adolf "Adi" Dassler (born 3 November 1900 in Herzogenaurach, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire; died 6 September 1978 in Herzogenaurach, West Germany) was the founder of the German sportswear company Adidas. Trained as a cobbler, Adi Dassler started to produce his own sports shoes in his mother's laundry after his return from World War I. Sony VAIO VGN-AW160J/Q Battery His father, Christoph, who worked in a shoe factory, and the Zehlein brothers, who produced the handmade spikes for track shoes in their blacksmith's shop, supported Dassler in starting his own business. On 1 July 1924, his older brother Rudolf Dassler joined the business, which became the Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory). Sony VAIO VGN-AW170Y/Q Battery At the 1928 Olympics, Dassler equipped many athletes, laying the foundation for the international expansion of the company. During the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Dassler equipped Jesse Owens of the USA with his shoes. Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals in the year he wore Adi's shoes. Sony VAIO VGN-AW180Y/Q Battery With the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, both Dassler brothers joined the Nazi Party, with Rudolf reputed as being the more ardent National Socialist.[1] Rudolf was drafted, and later captured, while Adi stayed behind to produce boots for the Wehrmacht.[2] Sony VAIO VGN-AW190JAH Battery The war exacerbated the differences between the brothers and their wives. Rudolf, upon his capture by American troops, was suspected of being a member of the SS, information supposedly supplied by none other than his brother Adi.By 1948, the rift between the brothers widened. Rudolf left the company to found Puma on the other side of town (across the Aurach River), and Adolf Dassler renamed the company Adidas after his own nickname. (Adi Dassler). Sony VAIO VGN-AW190NAB Battery In 1973, Adolf Dassler's son Horst Dassler founded Arena, a producer of swimming equipment. After Adolf Dassler's death in 1978, Horst and his wife Käthe took over the management. Horst died nine years later, in 1987. Adidas was transformed into a private limited company in 1989, but remained family property until itsIPO in 1995. Sony VAIO VGN-AW190NBB Batterymultinational corporation (MNC) or multinational enterprise (MNE)[1] is a corporation that is registered in more than one country or that has operations in more than one country. It is a large corporation which both produces and sells goods or services in various countries. [2] Sony VAIO VGN-AW190NCB Battery It can also be referred to as aninternational corporation. They play an important role in globalization. The first multinational corporation was the Dutch East India Company, founded March 20, 1602.Corporations may make a foreign direct investment. Foreign direct investment is direct investment into one country by a company in production located in another country either by buying a company in the country or by expanding operations of an existing business in the country. Sony VAIO VGN-AW190YAB Battery A subsidiary or daughter company[6] is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock.[7][8] A corporation may choose to locate in a special economic zone, which is a geographical region that has economic and other laws that are more free-market-oriented than a country's typical or national laws. Sony VAIO VGN-AW190YBB Battery Multinational corporations are important factors in the processes of globalization. National and local governments often compete against one another to attract MNC facilities, with the expectation of increased tax revenue, employment, and economic activity. To compete, political powers push towards greater autonomy forcorporations, or both. Sony VAIO VGN-AW190YCB Battery MNCs play an important role in developing the economies of developing countries like investing in these countries provide market to the MNC but provide employment, choice of multi goods etc. On the other hand, economist Jagdish Bhagwati has argued that in countries with comparatively low labor costs and weak environmental and social protection, multinationals actually bring about a 'race to the top.' Sony VAIO VGN-AW190YDB Battery While multinationals will certainly see a low tax burden or low labor costs as an element of comparative advantage, Bhagwati disputes the existence of evidence suggesting that MNCs deliberately avail themselves of lax environmental regulation or poor labor standards. As Bhagwati has pointed out, MNC profits are tied to operational efficiency, which includes a high degree of standardisation. Sony VAIO VGN-AW220J/B Battery Thus, MNCs are likely to adapt production processes in many of their operations to conform to the standards of the most rigorous jurisdiction in which they operate (this tends to be either the USA, Japan, or the EU). As for labor costs, while MNCs clearly pay workers in developing countries far below levels in countries where labor productivity is highSony VAIO VGN-AW230J/H Battery (and accordingly, will adopt more labor-intensive production processes), they also tend to pay a premium over local labor rates of 10 to 100 percent.[9] Finally, depending on the nature of the MNC, investment in any country reflects a desire for a medium- to long-term return, as establishing plant, training workers, etc., can be costly. Sony VAIO VGN-AW235J/B Battery Once established in a jurisdiction, therefore, MNCs are potentially vulnerable to arbitrary government intervention such as expropriation, sudden contract renegotiation, the arbitrary withdrawal or compulsory purchase of licenses, etc. Thus, both the negotiating power of MNCs and the 'race to the bottom' critique may be overstated, while understating the benefits (besides tax revenue) of MNCs becoming established in a jurisdiction. Sony VAIO VGN-AW290JFQ Battery Conflict of laws (or private international law) is a set of procedural rules that determines which legal system and which jurisdiction apply to a given dispute. The rules typically apply when a legal dispute has a "foreign" element such as a contract agreed to by parties located in different countries, although the "foreign" element also exists in multi-jurisdictional countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and Canada. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41JF Battery The term conflict of laws itself originates from situations where the ultimate outcome of a legal dispute depended upon which law applied, and the common law courts manner of resolving the conflict between those laws. In civil law, lawyers and legal scholars refer to conflict of laws as private international law. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41JF/H Battery Private international law has no real connection with public international law, and is instead a feature of local law which varies from country to country. Its three different names – conflict of lawsprivate international law, and international private law – are generally interchangeable, although none of them is wholly accurate or properly descriptive. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41MF Battery The term conflict of laws is primarily used in jurisdictions of the Common Law legal tradition, such as in the United States, England, Canada, and Australia.Private international law (droit international privé) is used in France, as well as in Italy, Greece, and the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41MF/H Battery International private law (internationales Privatrecht) is used in Germany (as well asAustria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland), Russia and Scotland. Within the federal systems where legal conflicts among federal states require resolution, as in the United States andAustralia, the term conflict of laws is preferred simply because such cases do not involve an international issue. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41XH Battery Hence,conflict of laws is a general term to refer to disparities among laws, regardless of whether the relevant legal systems are international or inter-state. The term, however, can be misleading when it refers to resolution of conflicts between competing systems rather than "conflict" itself. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41XH/Q Battery The term private international law was coined by American lawyer and judge Joseph Story, but was abandoned subsequently by common law scholars and embraced by civil law lawyers. The first instances of conflict of laws in the Western legal tradition can be traced to Greek law. Ancient Greeks dealt straightforwardly with multistate problems, and did not create choice-of-law rules. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41ZF Battery Leading solutions varied between the creation of courts for international cases, or application of local law, on the grounds that it was equally available to citizens of all states.[1] More significant developments can be traced to Roman law. Roman civil law (jus civile) being inapplicable to non-citizens, special tribunals had jurisdiction to deal with multistate cases. Sony VAIO VGN-AW41ZF/B Battery The officers of these specialized tribunals were known as the praetor peregrini. The Praetor peregrini did not select a jurisdiction whose rules of law should apply. Instead, they "applied" the "jus gentium." The jus gentium was a flexible and loosely-defined body of law based on international norms. Thus the praetor peregrini essentially created new substantive law for each case. Sony VAIO VGN-AW50DB/H Battery Today, this is called a "substantive" solution to the choice-of-law issue. The modern conflict of laws is generally considered to have begun in Northern Italy during the late Middle Ages and in particular at trading cities such asGenoa, Pisa and Venice. The need to adjudicate issues involving commercial transactions between traders belonging to different cities led to the Sony VAIO VGN-AW51JGB Battery development of the theory of statuta, whereby certain city laws would be considered as statuta personalia "following" the person whereby it may act, and other city laws would be considered as statuta realia, resulting in application of the law of the city where, e.g., the res would be located (cf. lex rei sitae). Sony VAIO VGN-AW52JGB Battery Maritime law was also a great driver of international legal rules; providing for the enforcement of contracts, the protection of shipwrecked sailors and property, and the maintaining of harbours.[3] The modern field of conflicts emerged in the United States during the nineteenth century with the publishing of Joseph Story's treatise on the conflict of laws in 1834. Sony VAIO VGN-AW53FB Battery Story's work had a great influence on the subsequent development of the field in England such as those written by A.V. Dicey. Much of the English lawthen became the basis for conflict of laws for most Commonwealth countries. However, in the US, Story's work fell out of fashion in the mid-twentieth century. Sony VAIO VGN-AW70B/Q Battery Traditional conflict of law rules were widely perceived as too rigid and unresponsive to the needs of a highly mobile society undergoing the Second Industrial Revolution. They were replaced with a number of approaches, of which the most important is the governmental interests analysis pioneered by law professor Brainerd Currie in a landmark series of essays. Sony VAIO VGN-AW71JB Battery As a result of Currie's work, the rules for conflict of laws in the United States have diverged significantly from the rules in use at the international level. In those states with an underdeveloped set of Conflict rules, decisions on jurisdiction tend to be made on an ad hoc basis, Sony VAIO VGN-AW72JB Battery with such choice of law rules as have been developed embedded into each subject area of private law and tending to favour the application of the lex fori or local law. In states with a more mature system, the set of Conflict rules stands apart from the local private civil law and adopts a more international point of view both in its terminology and concepts. Sony VAIO VGN-AW73FB Battery For example, in the European Union, all major jurisdictional matters are regulated under the Brussels Regime, e.g. the rule of lis alibi pendens from Brussels 1 Regulation applies in the Member States and its interpretation is controlled by the European Court of Justice rather than by local courts. That and other elements of the Conflict rules are produced supranationally and implemented by treaty or convention. Sony VAIO VGN-AW80NS Battery Because these rules are directly connected with aspects of sovereignty and the extraterritorial application of laws in the courts of the signatory states, they take on a flavour of public rather than private law because each state is compromising the usual expectations of their own citizens that they will have access to their local courts, and that local laws will apply in those local courts. Sony VAIO VGN-AW80S Battery Such aspects of public policy have direct constitutional significance whether applied in the European context or in federatednations such as the United States, Canada, and Australia where the courts have to contend not only with jurisdiction and law conflicts between the constituent states or territories, but also as between state and federal courts, and as between constituent states and relevant laws from other states outside the federation. Sony VAIO VGN-AW80US Battery In divorce cases, when a court is attempting to distribute marital property, if the divorcing couple is local and the property is local, then the court applies its domestic law lex fori. This becomes much more complicated when local laws allow polygamy. For example, Saskatchewan Canada stands alone as a province in Canada that allows more than one spouse at a time per person. Sony VAIO VGN-AW81DS Battery Each province has similar marital property laws, but what happens when one or more provinces ignore the federal polygamy law? In this case some of the spouses receive/give marital property from two or more simultaneous spouses, while others may only receive/give from one spouse only, depending on whether their home province allows polygamy. Sony VAIO VGN-AW81JS Battery The case becomes even more complicated if foreign elements are thrown into the mix, such as when the place of marriage is different from the territory where divorce was filed; when the parties' nationalities and residences do not match; when there is property in a foreign jurisdiction; or when the parties have changed residence several times during the marriage. Sony VAIO VGN-AW81YS Battery Each time a spouse invokes the application of foreign law, the process of divorce slows down, as the parties are directed to brief the issue of conflict of laws and provide translations of the foreign laws. Different jurisdictions follow different sets of rules. Before embarking on a conflict of law analysis, the court must determine whether a property agreement governs the relationship between the parties. Sony VAIO VGN-AW82DS Battery The property agreement must satisfy all formalities required in the country where enforcement is sought.Whereas commercial agreements or prenuptial agreements generally do not require legal formalities to be observed, when married couples enter a property agreement, stringent requirements are imposed, including notarization, witnesses, special acknowledgment forms. Sony VAIO VGN-AW82JS Battery In some countries, these must be filed (or docketed) with a domestic court, and the terms must be “so ordered” by a judge. This is done in order to ensure that no undue influence or oppression has been exerted by one spouse against the other. Upon presenting a property agreement between spouses to a court of divorce, Sony VAIO VGN-AW82YS Battery that court will generally assure itself of the following factors: signatures, legal formalities, intent, later intent, free will, lack of oppression, reasonableness and fairness, consideration, performance, reliance, later repudiation in writing or by conduct, and whichever other concepts of contractual bargaining apply in the context. Sony VAIO VGN-AW83FS Battery In the absence of a valid and enforceable agreement, here’s how the conflict of law rules work: Movable v. Real Estate - In general, applicable matrimonial law depends on the nature of the property. Lex situs is applied to immovable property (i.e., real estate), and the law of matrimonial domicile applies to movable property, provided there has been no subsequent change in the spouses’ domicile. Sony VAIO VGN-AW83GS Battery

Full Mutability Doctrine - property relations between spouses are governed by their latest domicile, whether acquired before or after the marriage.[6] This is also the norm in England, except for a few cases where severe injustice results from a harsh application. In those cases, the court also examines whether newly acquired property can be traced back to property owned before the change. Sony VAIO VGN-AW83HS Battery

Immutability Doctrine - the original personal law of the parties at the time of marriage continues to govern all property including subsequently acquired property, regardless of a later change in domicile or nationality. This is the Continental approach in France, Germany and Belgium. Also, with certain reservations, see Art. Sony VAIO VGN-AW90NS Battery

7 of the 1976 Hague Convention on Marriage and Matrimonial Property Regimes. Also in Israel: “property relations between spouses shall be governed by the law of their domicile at the time of the solemnization of the marriage, provided that they may by agreement determine and vary such relations in accordance with the law of their domicile at the time of making the agreement”. Sony VAIO VGN-AW90S Battery

Note that the Israeli application of the Immutability Doctrine does not distinguish between personal and real property. Both are subject to the law of domicile at marriage.

Partial Mutability or Mutability of New Acquisition - this is the American approach to conflicts of law in matrimonial property division cases. Sony VAIO VGN-AW90US Battery

All movable property acquired during the marriage is subject to the parties’ domicile law at the time of acquisition, and not that of the original or intermediate domicile. What was acquired before the marriage is governed by the law of the parties' domicile at the time of marriage. Thus, if rights vested in a property when and where it was purchased, it would not be adversely affected by a later change of domicile. Sony VAIO VGN-AW91CDS Battery

Lex Fori - In many cases, courts simply avoid this complicated and expensive analysis by applying their local law to the parties' entire property, even if there is a foreign element. This is based on the assumption that laws around the world are basically similar in their treatment of marriage as a co-partnership. Sony VAIO VGN-AW91CJS Battery

Since the partnership can be placed in the forum, the forum’s law applies to all its aspects.

Note that Lex Fori also applies to all procedural relief (as opposed to substantive relief). Thus, issues such as the ability to grant pre-trial relief, procedure and form, as well as statutes of limitations are classified as “procedure” and are always subject to domestic law where the divorce case is pending. Sony VAIO VGN-AW91CYS Battery

Unlike marriage which has an international recognised legal status, there are no international treaties on recognition of unmarried couple's legal status. If an unmarried couple change residence to different countries, then the local law on where the couple is last domiciled is applied to them. Sony VAIO VGN-AW91DS Battery

This covers, legal; status of the relationship, rights, obligations and all worldwide movable and immovable property. To otherwise interpret the law would mean if the unmarried couple had assets in several different countries, they would then need separate legal cases in each country to resolve all their movable and immovable property. Sony VAIO VGN-AW91JS Battery

Many contracts and other forms of legally binding agreement include a jurisdiction or arbitration clause specifying the parties' choice of venue for any litigation (called a forum selection clause). Then, choice of law clauses may specify which laws the court or tribunal should apply to each aspect of the dispute. This matches the substantive policy of freedom of contract. Sony VAIO VGN-AW91YS Battery

Judges have accepted that the principle of party autonomy allows the parties to select the law most appropriate to their transaction. Obviously, this judicial acceptance of subjective intent excludes the traditional reliance on objective connecting factors, but it does work well in practice. Generally, when the court is to apply a foreign law, it must be proved by foreign law experts. Sony VAIO VGN-AW92CDS Battery

Adidas AG

http://www.all-keyboard.com/,http://www.laptopfan-shop.com/,http://www.laptop-fan-shop.com/ Adidas AG (German pronunciation: [ˈadiˌdas]) is a German multinational corporation that designs and manufacturers sports clothing and accessories based in Herzogenaurach, Germany. It is the holding company for the adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company (including Ashworth), and Rockport. Sony VAIO PCG-3B1M Battery Besides sports footwear, Adidas also produces other products such as bags, shirts, watches, eyewear, and other sports- and clothing-related goods. Adidas is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Germany and Europe and the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world.[3] Sony VAIO PCG-3C1T Battery Adidas was founded in 1948 by Adolf Dassler, following the split of Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik between him and his older brother Rudolf. Rudolf later established Puma, which was the early rival of Adidas. Registered in 1949, Adidas is currently based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, along with Puma. Sony VAIO PCG-3D1M Battery The company's clothing and shoe designs typically feature three parallel bars, and the same motif is incorporated into Adidas's current official logo.[4][5] The company revenue for 2010 was listed at €11.99 billion. Christoph Von Wilhelm Dassler was a worker in a shoe factory, while his wife Pauline ran a small laundry in the city from the city of Nuremberg. Sony VAIO PCG-3G2M Battery After leaving school, their son, [Rudolf Dassler]Rudolf "Rudi" Dassler, joined his father at the shoe factory. When he returned from fighting in World War I, Rudolf received a management position at a factory, and later in a leather wholesale business in Nuremberg. Adolf "Adi" Dassler started to produce his own sports shoes in his mother's wash kitchen in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria after his return from World War I. Sony VAIO PCG-5R1M Battery In July 1924, his brother Rudolf returned to Herzogenaurach to join his younger brother's business, which became Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) and prospered. The pair started the venture in their mother's laundryPerennial|year=2009|location=New York| but, at the time, electricity supplies in the town were unreliable, and the brothers sometimes had to use pedal power from a stationary bicycle to run their equipment. Sony VAIO PCG-7141M Battery By the 1936 Summer Olympics, Adi Dassler drove from Bavaria on one of the world's first motorways to the Olympic village with a suitcase full of spikes and persuaded U.S. sprinter Jesse Owensto use them, the first sponsorship for an African American. Following Owens's haul of four gold medals, his success cemented the good reputation of Dassler shoes among the world's most famous sportsmen. Sony VAIO PCG-7143M Battery Letters from around the world landed on the brothers' desks, and the trainers of other national teams were all interested in their shoes. Business boomed and the Dasslers were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes each year before World War II.title=How Adidas and was born Both brothers joined the Nazi Party, but Rudolf was slightly closer to the party than Adolf. Sony VAIO PCG-7151M Battery During the war, a growing rift between the pair reached a breaking point after an Allied bomb attack in 1943, when Adi and his wife climbed into a bomb shelter that Rudolf and his family were already in: "The dirty bastards are back again", Adi said, referring to the Allied war planes, but Rudolf was convinced his brother meant him and his family. Sony VAIO PCG-7154M Battery After Rudolf was later picked up by American soldiers and accused of being a member of the Waffen SS, he was convinced that his brother had turned him in.[7] The Dassler factory, used for production of anti-tank weapons during the war, was nearly destroyed by US forces in April 1945, but was spared when Adi Dassler's wife, Käthe, Sony VAIO PCG-7162M Battery convinced the GIs that the company and its employees were only interested in manufacturing sports shoes. American occupying forces subsequently became major buyers of the Dassler brothers' shoes.[8] The brothers split up in 1947,[6] with Rudi forming a new firm that he called Ruda – from Rudolf Dassler, Sony VAIO PCG-7181M Battery later rebranded Puma, and Adi forming a company formally registered as Adidas AG from Adi Dassler on 18 August 1949. Although it is popularly claimed that the name is an acronym for All Day I Dream About Sport, that phrase is a backronym; the name is actually a portmanteau formed from "Adi" (a nickname for Adolf) and "Das" (from "Dassler").[1] Sony VAIO PCG-41112M Battery Puma and Adidas entered a fierce and bitter rivalry after the split. The town of Herzogenaurach was divided on the issue, leading to the nickname "the town of bent necks"—people looked down to see which shoes strangers wore.[9] Even the town's two football clubs were divided: ASV Herzogenaurach club supported Adidas, while 1 FC Herzogenaurach endorsed Rudolf's footwear.[7] Sony VAIO PCG-7153M Battery When handymen were called to Rudolf's home, they would deliberately wear Adidas shoes. Rudolf would tell them to go to the basement and pick out a pair of free Pumas.[7] The two brothers never reconciled, and although both are buried in the same cemetery, they are spaced apart as far as possible. Sony VAIO PCG-71312M Battery In 1948, the first football match after World War II, several members of the West German national football team wore Puma boots, including the scorer of West Germany's first post-war goal, Herbert Burdenski. Four years later, at the 1952 Summer Olympics, 1500 metres runner Josy Barthel of Luxembourg won Puma's first Olympic gold in Helsinki, Finland. Sony VAIO PCG-7144M Battery At the 1960 Summer Olympics Puma paid German sprinter Armin Hary to wear Pumas in the 100 metre sprint final. Hary had worn Adidas before and asked Adolf for payment, but Adidas rejected this request. The German won gold in Pumas, but then laced up Adidas for the medals ceremony, to the shock of the two Dassler brothers. Sony VAIO PCG-7191L Battery Hary hoped to cash in from both, but Adi was so enraged he banned the Olympic champion. After a period of trouble following the death of Adolf Dassler's son Horst Dassler in 1987, the company was bought in 1989 by French industrialist Bernard Tapie, for ₣1.6 billion (now €243.9 million), which Tapie borrowed. Sony VAIO PCG-3C1M Battery Tapie was at the time a famous specialist of rescuing bankrupt companies, an expertise on which he built his fortune. Tapie decided to move production offshore to Asia. He also hired Madonna for promotion. He sent, from Christchurch, New Zealand, a shoe sales representative to Germany and met Adolf Dassler's descendants (Amelia Randall Dassler and Bella Beck Dassler) and was sent back with a few items to promote the company there. Sony VAIO PCG-3F1M Battery In 1992, unable to pay the loan interest, Tapie mandated the Crédit Lyonnais bank to sell Adidas, and the bank subsequently converted the outstanding debt owed into equity of the enterprise, which was unusual as per the prevalent French banking practice. Sony VAIO PCG-3H1M Battery The state-owned bank had tried to get Tapie out of dire financial straits as a personal favour to Tapie, it is reported, because Tapie was Minister of Urban Affairs (ministre de la Ville) in the French government at the time. In February 1993, Crédit Lyonnais sold Adidas to Robert Louis-Dreyfus, a friend of Bernard Tapie for a much higher amount of money than what Tapie owed, 4.485 billion (€683.514 million) francs rather than 2.85 billion (€434.479 million). Sony VAIO PCG-3J1M Battery They also purposely bankrupted Tapie's company that owned Adidas, because only the company had the right to sue them. Robert Louis-Dreyfus became the new CEO of the company. He was also the president of Olympique de Marseille, a team Tapie had owned until 1993. Sony VAIO PCG-8141M Battery Tapie filed for personal bankruptcy in 1994. He was the object of several lawsuits, notably related to match fixing at the football club. During 1997, he served 6 months of an 18-month prison sentence in La Santé prison in Paris. In 1994, combined with FIFA Youth Group, SOS Children's Villages became the main beneficiary. Sony VAIO PCG-8161M Battery In 1997, Adidas AG acquired the Salomon Group who specialized in ski wear, and its official corporate name was changed to Adidas-Salomon AG because with this acquisition Adidas also acquired the Taylormade Golf company and Maxfli, which allowed them to compete with Nike Golf. Sony VAIO PCG-3C2M Battery In 1998, Adidas sued the NCAA over their rules limiting the size and number of commercial logos on team uniforms and clothing. Adidas withdrew the suit, and the two groups established guidelines as to what three-stripe designs would be considered uses of the Adidas trademark. Sony VAIO PCG-5N2M Battery In 2003, Adidas filed a lawsuit in a British court challenging Fitness World Trading's use of a two-stripe motif similar to Adidas's three stripes. The court ruled that despite the simplicity of the mark, Fitness World 's use was infringing because the public could establish a link between that use and Adidas's mark.[11] Sony VAIO PCG-5P1M Battery In September 2004, top English fashion designer Stella McCartney launched a joint-venture line with Adidas, establishing a long-term partnership with the corporation. This line is a sports performance collection for women called "Adidas by Stella McCartney",[12] and it has been critically acclaimed.[13] Sony VAIO PCG-5S1M Battery Also in 2005, on 3 May, Adidas told the public that they sold their partner company Salomon Group for €485m to Amer Sports of Finland. In August 2005, Adidas declared its intention to buy British rival Reebok for $3.8 billion (US$). This takeover was completed with partnership in January 2006[1] and meant that the company would have business sales closer to those of Nike in North America. Sony VAIO PCG-9Z1M Battery The acquisition of Reebok would also allow Adidas to compete with Nike worldwide as the number two athletic shoemaker in the world.[14] Adidas has global corporate headquarters in Germany, and many other business locations around the world such as Portland OR, Hong Kong, Toronto, Taiwan, England, Japan, Australia, and Spain. Sony VAIO PCG-7171M Battery Mainly sold in the U.S., Adidas makes lots of assets from these countries and is expanding to more oversea countries.In 2005, Adidas introduced the Adidas 1, the first ever production shoe to use a microprocessor. Dubbed by the company "The World's First Intelligent Shoe", it features a microprocessor capable of performing 5 million calculations per second that automatically adjusts the shoe's level of cushioning to suit its environment. Sony VAIO PCG-7186M Battery The shoe requires a small, user-replaceable battery that lasts for approximately 100 hours of running. On 25 November 2005, Adidas released a new version of the Adidas 1 with an increased range of cushioning, allowing the shoe to become softer or firmer, and a new motor with 153 percent more torque. Sony VAIO PCG-81112M Battery On 11 April 2006, Adidas announced an 11-year deal to become the official NBA clothing provider. They will make NBA, NBDL, and WNBA jerseys and products as well as team-coloured versions of the "Superstar" basketball shoe. This deal (worth over $400 million) takes the place of the previous 10-year Reebok deal that was put in place in 2001. Sony VAIO PCG-31311M Battery Adidas currently manufactures several running shoes, including the adiStar Salvation 3, the adiStar Ride 3 (the replacement for the adiStar Cushion 6), the Supernova Sequence 4 (the replacement for the Supernova Control 10), and the Supernova Glide 3, among others.[dated info] In addition, their performance clothing is widely used by runners. Sony VAIO PCG-8152M Battery Adidas also uses kangaroo leather to make their more expensive shoes. One of the main focuses of Adidas is football kit and associated equipment. Adidas remain a major company in the supply of team kits for international football teams. Adidas also makes referee kits that are used in international competition and by many countries and leagues in the world. Sony VAIO PCG-31111M Battery The company has been an innovator in the area of footwear for the sport, with notable examples including the 1979 release of the Copa Mundialmoulded boot used for matches on firm dry pitches. It holds the accolade of the best selling boot of all time. The soft-ground equivalent was named World Cup and it too remains on the market, timeless and iconic. Sony VAIO PCG-61111M Battery Some of the most famous football teams are currently sponsored by Adidas. Adidas became renowned for advancing the Predator boot design developed by ex-Liverpool and Australian international playerCraig Johnston. This design featured a ribbed rubber structure for the upper leather of the shoe, used to accent the movement of the ball when struck; Sony VAIO PCG-51112M Battery highly skilled players claimed they were able to curve the flight of the ball more easily when wearing this new contoured design.The Predator also features the Craig Johnston-invented Traxion sole. FIFA, the world governing body of football, commissioned specially designed footballs for use in its own World Cup tournaments to favour more attacking play. Sony VAIO PCG-51211M Battery The balls supplied for the 2006 World Cup, the Teamgeist, were particular noteworthy for their ability to travel further than previous types when struck, leading to longer range goal strikes that were intended to increase the number of goals scored.Goalkeepers were believed to be less comfortable with the design, claiming it would move significantly and unpredictably in flight. Sony VAIO PCG-51212M Battery Adidas also introduced another new ball for the 2010 World Cup. The Jabulani ball was designed and developed by Loughborough University in conjunction with Chelsea FC. It received much criticism from players, managers and pundits for being too hard to control.The lighter and more aerodynamic ball led to many shots and passes being over hit. Sony VAIO PCG-41111M Battery The Jabulani was widely blamed for the low numbers of long range goals or even remotely accurate attempts in the opening stage of the tournament. In Germany, Adidas sponsors the German national team and Bundesliga clubs Bayern Munich, Schalke, Hamburg, Bayer Leverkusen, and VfL Wolfsburg. Sony VAIO PCG-41111V Battery Current footballers that Adidas officially endorses includes (but is not limited to): Mats Hummels, Lionel Messi, Nani, Shinji Kagawa, Daniele De Rossi, Frank Lampard, Arjen Robben, Salomon Kalou, Kaká, Xabi Alonso, David Villa, Jermain Defoe, Steven Gerrard, Michael Ballack, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Tobias Hysén,Dimitar Berbatov, Alessandro Del Piero, Xavi, Atsuto Uchida, Hiroshi Kiyotake, and Karim Benzema. Sony VAIO PCG-61412V Battery As well as the aforementioned Predator boot, Adidas also manufacture the F50 and adiPure range of football boots. Adidas also provides clothing and equipment for all teams in Major League Soccer. They are also set to produce kits for Premier League giants Arsenal from 2014. Adidas has sponsored tennis players and recently introduced a new line of tennis racquets. Sony VAIO PCG-71112M Battery While the Feather is made for the "regular player", and the Response for the "club player", Adidas targets the "tournament player" with the 12.2 oz Barricade tour model.[17] Adidas sponsors the following professional players with mainly clothing and footwear: Ana Ivanović, Andy Murray, Maria Kirilenko, Caroline Wozniacki, Justine Henin, Sony VAIO PCG-81111V Battery Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Daniela Hantuchová, Alicia Molik, Fernando Verdasco, Marcos Baghdatis, Gilles Simon, Fernando González, Flavia Pennetta, Laura Robson, Melanie Oudin, and Sorana Cîrstea. Adidas tennis clothing contains the ClimaCool technology found in other athletic jerseys and shoes.[18] In November 2009 World Number 4 Andy Murray was confirmed as Adidas's highest paid star with a 5 year contract reported to be worth $24.5m. Sony VAIO PCG-81111V Battery Players sponsored by Adidas can take advantage of the Adidas Player Improvement Program, where the company provides coaches, fitness trainers and sports psychologists to players in order to further their careers. The program includes legendary coaches such as Darren Cahill and Sven Groeneveld. In Cincinnati, at the ATP Tennis Tournament in Mason, they have also sponsored the ball-boy and ball-girl uniforms. Sony VAIO PCG-81212M Battery Adidas Golf is part of Adidas, a German-based sports clothing manufacturer and part of the Adidas Group, which consists ofReebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company, and Rockport. The Adidas Group is one of the global leaders in the sporting goods industry offering a wide range of products around the three core segments of Adidas, Reebok, and TaylorMade-Adidas Golf. Sony VAIO PCG-81212V Battery Adidas Golf sells and manufactures Adidas-brand golf clothing, footwear, and accessories. In 1997, Adidas AG acquired the Salomon Group who specialized in alpine ski wear, and its official corporate name was changed to Adidas-Salomon AG because with this acquisition Adidas also acquired the TaylorMade Golf company and Maxfli, which allowed them to compete with Nike Golf. Sony VAIO PCG-51111M Battery Salomon sold its controlling interest in TaylorMade and its other sports equipment companies to global giant Adidas AG. In 1998, Adidas Golf USA moved its business operations from Tualatin, Oregon, to the Carlsbad, California headquarters of TaylorMade Golf, acquired by Adidas-Salomon. Sony VAIO VPCS13X9E/B battery Adidas Golf USA had thirty employees to relocate. Carlsbad is also the headquarters of one of its primary competitors, Callaway Golf Company. In 1999, TaylorMade and AdidasGolf USA, were merged into a new company—called TaylorMade-Adidas Golf—with world headquarters in Carlsbad. Sony VAIO VPCS12V9E/B battery Mark King was named president of the company he had begun his career with in 1981 as a sales representative after a short stint as vice president of sales and marketing at Callaway Golf Ball Co. in 1998. In November 2008, Ashworth (clothing) became a wholly owned subsidiary of TaylorMade-Adidas Golf, complementary to the synthetic performance fabrics of Adidas Golf. Sony VAIO VPCS12V9E/B battery Adidas Golf sells clothing, footwear, and accessories for men, women, and youth. Men's equipment includes footwear, shirts, shorts, pants, outerwear, base layer and eyewear. Women's equipment includes footwear, shirts, shorts, skirts, pants, outerwear, base layers, and eyewear. Youth equipment includes both boys and girls footwear, clothing, and eyewear. Sony VAIO VPCF13M8E/B battery In the 1990s, Adidas signed world's iconic batsman Sachin Tendulkar of India and made shoes for him.[20] Tendulkar still wears Adidas shoes while playing matches. Since 2008, Adidas has sponsored the cricket bat used by Sachin Tendulkar. It created a new bat, 'Adidas MasterBlaster Elite', personalized for him. Sony VAIO VPCF13Z0E/B battery In 2008, Adidas made their move into English cricket market by sponsoring English batting star Kevin Pietersen after the cancellation of his lifetime deal with Woodworm, when they ran into financial difficulties.[21] The following year they signed up fellow England player Ian Bell, Pakistan opening batsman Salman Butt and Indian Player Ravindra Jadeja. Sony VAIO VPCM13M1E/L battery Having made cricket footwear for many years, the company finally entered the field of bat manufacture in 2008. Now the range includes Pellara, Incurza, Libro and M-Blaster. Currently the sponsored cricketers include Sachin Tendulkar, Suresh Raina, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo. Sony VAIO VPCM13M1E/W battery Adidas manufactures uniforms for the England cricket team. Adidas signed with Cricket South Africa in 2011 and the uniforms worn by South African Cricket Team during and after the Cricket World Cup 2011 will be manufactured by the German giant.[22]The Australia cricket team were previously sponsored by Adidas till late 2011. Now they also sponsor the South Korea national cricket team. Sony VAIO VPCF22M1E battery In the Indian Premier League (IPL), Adidas are the official apparel sponsor for the teams Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils and Pune Warriors India.[23][24] Adidas has been a longtime basketball shoe manufacturer and is one of the leading basketball brands in the world. Sony VAIO VPCF11M1E/H battery They are most famous for their late 1960s iconic Superstar and Pro Model shoes, affectionately known as "shelltoes" for their stylized hard rubber toe box.These were made very popular in the 1980s hip hop streetwear scene alongside Adidas's stripe-sided polyester suits.Sony VAIO VPCF13M0E/B battery Adidas is also the current outfitter of all 30 franchises in the National Basketball Association (replacing the Reebok brand after the merger) and sponsors numerous players past and present like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Tracy McGrady, as well as Dwight Howard, Chauncey Billups, Derrick Rose, Quincy Pondexter,Brandon Knight, Eric Gordon, Michael Beasley, Josh Smith and Tim Duncan. Sony VAIO VPCYB2M1E battery Adidas endorsed Kobe Bryant with the Adidas Equipment KB8 as his first signature shoe until July 2002.[25] The company also endorsed Kevin Garnett until he opted out of his contract in 2010.[26] Gilbert Arenas was an Adidas endorser until 2010.[27] In 2007, Adidas announced the future production of lacrosse equipment, Sony VAIO VPCYB3V1E battery and will sponsor the Adidas National Lacrosse Classic in July 2008 for the top 600 high school underclassmen lacrosse players in the United States.[28] Adidas makes rugby balls and other rugby gear. They are the current kit and ball supplier to the New Zealand All Blacks, Irish Munster Rugby, the French National Team Les Bleus, Sony VAIO VPCY11M1E battery the Italian national rugby team and the South African Stormers andWestern Province rugby union teams among others. Adidas are also the official match ball supplier to the Heineken Cup. Since 2000, Adidas has provided men's and women's gymnastics wear for Team USA, through USA Gymnastics. Sony VAIO VPCS12L9E/B battery In 2006, Adidas gymnastics leotards for women and Adidas men's comp shirts, gymnastics pants and gymnastics shorts have been available in the USA, with seasonal leotards offered for Spring, Summer, Fall and Holidays. Starting in 2009, Adidas gymnastics wear has been available worldwide through GK Elite Sportswear. Sony VAIO VPCF11S1E/B battery Adidas, like other sports brands, is believed to engender high consumer brand loyalty. Brand loyalty towards Adidas, Nike, Inc., Puma AG and several other sportswear brands was examined in a recent study.[35] The study found consumers did not exhibit unduly high loyalty towards such brands. Sony VAIO VPCYB3V1E/R Battery During the mid to late 1990s, Adidas divided the brand into three main groups with each a separate focus: Adidas Performance was designed to maintain their devotion to the athlete; Adidas Originals was designed to focus on fashion and life-style; and Style Essentials, with the main group within this one being Y-3. Sony VAIO VPCF23P1E Battery "Adidas is all in" is the current global marketing strategy for Adidas. The slogan aims to tie all brands and labels together, presenting a unified image to consumers interested in sports, fashion, street, music and pop culture. "Impossible is Nothing" was the previous mainstream marketing slogan for Adidas. Sony VAIO VPCF23N1E Battery This campaign was developed by 180/TBWA based in Amsterdam but also with significant work being done by TBWA/Chiat/Day in San Francisco – particularly for its basketball campaign "Believe In Five".TBWA\Chiat\Day commissioned Zane Peach[36] to produce images for 2007 international ad campaign. Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/L Battery Unhappy with the local price of the Adidas replica All Blacks jersey, New Zealand-based All Blacks fans have asked for price cuts and begun purchasing the jersey from overseas vendors after it was revealed that the local price of $NZ220 was more than twice the price offered on some websites.[39] Sony VAIO VPCY21S1E/G battery Adidas has responded by enforcing cross-border agreements to stop overseas retailers from selling to New Zealand residents. It has been labelled a public relations disaster by leading New Zealand PR firms and Consumer advocate groups. The largest New Zealand sportswear retailer Rebel Sport has stated it is angry and is considering selling the All Blacks Jerseys to the general public below cost. Sony VAIO VPCF24M1E battery As of 9 August 2011, Rebel Sport has decided not to stock the Adidas Rugby Union Jumper.[40] On 14 June 2012 Adidas posted on their Facebook page a picture of a pair of shoes containing shackles. The picture was of a planned shoe line that Adidas intended to release in August. The photo quickly caused controversy including that of Jessie Jackson who was quoted as saying "Sony VAIO VGN-AW110J/H Battery The attempt to commercialize and make popular more than 200 years of human degradation, where blacks were considered three-fifths human by our Constitution is offensive, appalling and insensitive".[41] Jackson threatened a boycott, and NBA commissioner David Stern was at one point reportedly contacted in hopes that he would intervene.[41]Shortly after the outcry the company canceled the product.[41] Sony VAIO VGN-AW11M/H Battery Adidas has been criticized for operating sweatshops, particularly in Indonesia. Between 2006 and 2007, Adidas rejected many of its suppliers that supported unions for subcontractors with less reputable labor rights records.[42] By subcontracting work to different suppliers, it is more difficult for Adidas to ensure company labor standards are enforced. Sony VAIO VGN-AW11S/B Battery