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Earlier this year, the United Arab Emirates ratified its accession to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958, more commonly known as the New York Convention. After the recent satisfaction of certain procedural requirements, the Convention will obtain force of law in the UAE from November 19 2006. By ratifying the Convention, the UAE joined its GCC neighbours Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, where the Convention already enjoys force of law.

A new Mortgage Law became effective on February 25 2006 in Serbia, replacing the old Law on Basic Property Relations. The basic concept of what constitutes a mortgage has remained the same, but the new Mortgage Law has introduced some welcome innovations as to how and when a mortgage can be established over real property in Serbia, and has also introduced new forms of mortgageable property (that is, interests in property).

The pace of the public market's growth in Argentina has been markedly restrained in recent years, to the point where the Argentine stock market is not regarded as a liquid market. During 2006, the Merval (the local index on domestic share returns) has registered a negative return on US dollars, while the Bovespa (one of Brazil's indexes, used as Latin America's benchmark) registered, for the same period, a 35% return on US dollars.

Security interests are increasingly being created as warranty for financing schemes in Albania. Legislation regulates two different regimes concerning the creation and enforcement of security interest.

Like many of its richest and most glamorous citizens, Russia's bigger companies continue to be attracted to foreign markets. Of the five largest IPOs by Russian issuers in the first nine months of 2006, three were dual listed in Moscow and London and another listed solely on Nasdaq. Similarly, English and US firms tend to dominate both local and international legal advice although one local firm, Liniya Prava, is making a name for itself for both debt and equity.

Recommended firms Tier 1 A&L Goodbody Arthur Cox McCann FitzGerald Tier 2 Matheson Ormsby Prentice William Fry Ireland may still be the Celtic Tiger but its capital markets have had a mixed ride in 2006. Economic growth is expected to be around 5% both this year and in 2007, but securities issuance has been up in some areas, down in others and static in still others.

Recommended firms Tier 1 Galicia y Robles SC Mijares Angoitia Cortés y Fuentes SC Ritch Mueller SC White & Case Tier 2 Creel García-Cuéllar y Müggenburg SC González Calvillo SC Holland & Knight – Gallastegui y Lozano Jáuregui Navarrete y Nader SC Kuri Breña Sánchez Ugarte Corcuera y Aznar Martínez Algaba Estrella de Haro y Galván-Duque Santamarina y Steta SC In 2006, the Mexican initial public offering (IPO) market has grown by over 21 times. January to September saw $1.232 billion of offerings compared to only $58 million in the same months of 2005, according to Dealogic. Such results go a long way to proving predictions that improved corporate governance would increase foreign investment.

Recommended firms* Tier 1 Gorrissen Federspiel Kierkegaard Kromann Reumert Tier 2 Bech-Bruun Plesner Svane Grønborg Tier 3 Accura DLA Nordic Jonas Bruun *This table reflects the banking and finance capability of law firms, including capital markets The waters of the Danish equity market are starting to stir again. October saw the IPO of insurance company TrygVesta. At €838 million, it was Denmark's biggest flotation in a decade, and investors in the country are clamouring for more. ISS, whose sale to private equity investors paved the way for the €13 billion leveraged buyout of TDC, is among targets being mooted for re-listing. Denmark's biggest energy company, Dong, is also gearing up for a listing in 2007, which promises to be the country's largest ever IPO.

Recommended firms Tier 1 Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg Osler Hoskin & Harcourt Stikeman Elliott Torys Tier 2 Blake Cassels & Graydon Goodmans McCarthy Tétrault Tier 3 Fasken Martineau DuMoulin Ogilvy Renault Canada experienced rapid and impressive growth in its Maple bond market in 2005 after lifting an anachronistic law limiting pension plans' ability to invest in foreign issuers. The overall capital market appears to be stabilizing this year as figures for bond issuance and initial public offerings (IPOs) have begun to plateau.

Bond issuance enjoyed healthy growth this year in Australia and the Kangaroo bond market (debt securities issued in Australia by foreign investors) showed no sign of losing momentum – 2006 is expected to be another record year. One area of new business is expected to be AAA-rated supranational borrowers or agencies in Europe, which have yet to invest in any numbers in the Kangaroo bond market.