January 2000

28 January 2000

Dear Ms Zicci

Herewith I am glad to write in accordance with my forthcoming visit to Greece as a participant to ASIA FORUM 2000 which is to be held in Thesalloniki on 7-8 February.

I was a great pleasure to meet you during my visit to Athens in July.

Taking the chance of going to Greece I would greatly appreciate if you could find a few minutes in your dense business schedule and meet me and discuss the issues of mutual interest.

Thank you in advance for your kind cooperation and assistance.

Looking forward to meeting you, I remain

Sincerely yours

Gennady Bogachev

Deputy Minister

аспирантура (канд. экз.)

Экзаменационный билет (на 2 листах) по дисциплине

английский язык

(специальность: международное право; европейское право)

Task I. Translate from English into Russian in writing using a dictionary. Your time is 45 minutes

At present, only Germany and Portugal have a coherent group law, while other states make do with a few isolated rules scattered in their national company laws. The draft will define when a group exists. The decisive factor in this will be the parent company's controlling influence in law or de facto. Based on the German model, the draft will also state that dominance agreements must be drawn up between the parent company and the subsidiary, whereby the parent company directly takes over the management of the subsidiary. The 'price' for this is to be a closely defined indemnification of the subsidiary's minority shareholders and creditors. It is regrettable that it has proved impossible so far to establish a uniform group law in the Union, because the uncertainty surrounding the state of law for a transnational group is considerable. Development in European group law is virtually at a standstill, and many would welcome the adoption of the Ninth Directive, perhaps in yet another, even simpler form. Until then, group law will continue to develop in an ad hoc manner.

It is, however, an interesting aspect of this development that in its case law, the European Court has undertaken a de facto further development of group law albeit only in certain areas. One of the core questions of group law that national and/or Community law provisions ought to decide is the extent to which the group has a right, or perhaps an obligation, to be considered as an entity. This means that the plurality of legal persons making up the group will be deemed to be one with regard to rights and obligations. In a number of situations, the core area of group law is the important factor when looking at whether the group should be treated as an entity or as a plurality. Subsequently, the choice arises between separate or joint treatment of the group's legal persons. In this area, the Court has demonstrated a flexibility and a will to develop which is scarcely evident in national legislators. I shall mention only a couple of examples from the Court's work.

Clearly the dominant principle within group law, as a branch of company law, is that the individual group company is deemed to be an independent entity with regard to both rights and obligations. Group companies are not liable for one another, no set-offs are allowed between one company's trade debtors and another company's debts, etc. This principle is no obstacle, of course, to the individual group companies accepting liabilities or finan­cial guarantees for one another.

European Business Law Review. September/October, 1998

Task II. Translate the letter from English into Russian without a dictionary. Your time is 5-7 minutes

To: Mr Joe Smith

Director General

Fair Trade Commission

USA

Re: New Informational and Communication Technologies. Review and Perspectives

20 August 1999

Dear Mr Smith

We have the pleasure to invite you to participate in the International Conference

" New Informational and Communication Technologies. Review and Perspectives".

This high-level International Conference will take place in London, 8-9 November 1999. It will host participants from competition authorities representing foreign and international organizations, governmental, academic and business circles.

The working languages of the Conference are English and French.

We would highly appreciate your participation in this event.

For further details please contact Ms Johnston (tel.: 456 899 01)

William Brandt, Minister

Task III. Conversation on the topic of your thesis

аспирантура (канд. экз.)

Экзаменационный билет (на 2 листах) по дисциплине

английский язык

(специальность: международное право; европейское право)

Task I. Translate from English into Russian in writing using a dictionary. Your time is 45 minutes

Law and the Rule of Law

Lauterpacht located the International Court at the centre of the international legal order, arguing that the Court's original and primary purpose was to decide disputes between States and, by fostering the rule of law among them, to contribute to international peace. That purpose has not wholly materialized owing to the political conditions prevailing after the Second World War and to the reluctance of Governments to confer upon the Court the requisite jurisdiction. These conditions are not necessarily of a permanent character ... It is that purpose which, notwithstanding temporary setbacks, must remain the abiding purpose of the judi­cial organization of the community of nations under the rule of law.

Within this structure, legal officials, such as judges, play an indispensable role in securing the Rule of Law as when they apply the necessary abstract rule of law to the concrete case, they create the legal rule for the individual case before them.

The object of law to secure order must be defeated if a controversial rule of conduct may remain permanently a matter of dispute ... it is essential for the rule of law that there should exist agencies bearing evidence, and giving effect, to the imperative nature of the law. The law's external nature may express itself either in the fact that it is a precept cre­ated independently of the will of the subjects of the law, or that it is valid and continues to exist in respect of the subjects of the law independently of their will.

The importance of the judicial function permeates Lauterpacht's concept of law. This is expressed in his argument for obligatory jurisdiction that is itself a conse­quence of the emphasis which Lauterpacht gives to the gradual concretization of law. Apart from the search for a basic norm, this is the most prominent aspect of Lauterpacht's concept of law which is primarily associated with Kelsen. Norms are relatively indeterminate as they cannot specify all the conditions for their application.

The actual operation of the law in society is a process of gradual crystallization of the ab­stract legal rule, beginning with the constitution of the State, as the most fundamental and abstract body of rules, and ending with the concrete shaping of the individual legal rela­tion by a judgement of a court, or by an adjudication or decision of an administrative authority, or by an agreement of the interested parlies.

lain J. M. Scobbie. The Theorist as Judge. European Journal of International Law. Vol. 8 No 2, 1997.

Task II. Translate the letter from English into Russian without a dictionary. Your time is 5-7 minutes

INTERNATIONAL & PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPT.

Athens, 29 December 1999

Mr. Alexey PROKOFIEV

Vice Minister

Subject: EOMMEX's data base

Dear Sir,

The Hellenic Organization of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises and Handicraft (EOMMEX) is the Public Body supporting the SME's in Greece supervised by the Ministry of Development.

EOMMEX, is trying to enrich it's data base with all the existing nformation, in order to help the Greek SME's develop transnational co-operations.

Therefore, we would very much appreciate if you would send us all the available information concerning the following topics :