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Japan is going through significant changes in its legal system. The long period of economic stagnation following the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s has spurred Japanese lawmakers to modernize commercial laws to make it easier for Japanese companies to undertake necessary restructurings and engage in more sophisticated financing techniques. Many legal and regulatory reforms have already been implemented and a final round of corporate law amendments is expected to be completed in 2005. Articles in the following pages look at a number of areas where the movement toward legal reform and deregulation is already seeing positive results.

James Hume, executive vice-president of the Dubai International Financial Centre looks at the history and potential of the Islamic financial sector

Islamic finance has greater potential growth than any other single area of finance. Although its precise size is hard to assess, most estimates say the assets of those who might invest in Islamic financial products amount to more than $250 billion.

International companies are needlessly applying for Austrian merger clearance, just to be on the safe side. Dr Ferdinand Graf of Graf, Maxl & Pitkowitz explains

Malaysia is applying a more relaxed approach to M&A regulation and foreign interests. Wong, Tat Chung of Wong Beh & Toh explains

Michael Duncan, Bimal Desai and Julie Rieger of Allen & Overy discuss the techniques used in joint international/Islamic-funded project finance

Russia needs to resolve the conflict between corporations carrying out transfer pricing deals and disgruntled minority shareholders if it wants to attract investors says Dmitry Davydenko of Monastyrsky Zyuba Stepanov & Partners

Margaret Boswell and Grigory Marinichev of Gide Loyrette Nouel explain the slow progress of securitization in Russia and why Russian companies prefer to launch their securitization programmes overseas

Bruno Bartocci and Paolo Iemma of Gianni, Origoni, Grippo & Partners outline how the Bank of Italy's approach to security offer notification procedures is changing to protect retail investors

Ayman H Abdel-Khaleq of Vinson & Elkins LLP highlights legal considerations pertinent to offering Islamic investment products in the EU and the US