1. Investment and trade that .......... national boundaries are frequently influenced by public international law issues dealing with the relations among independent states.

2. When these issues involve conflict between a sovereign state and a private party, the latter could face substantial obstacles to .......... its rights and defending its interests.

3. Since 1958, Sillitoe & Smith have been advisors to the Rule of Law Committee, a committee of legal representatives of American multinationals with an interest in monitoring, answering and .......... the important issues of public international law.

4. Sillitoe has been working .......... to cause national governments to be more responsive to the rule of law and to devise better legal protection for parties operating internationally.

5. A major concentration of Sillitoe's law practice and a central concern of the RLC has been international claims, specifically those that have arisen from the .......... of private property by a sovereign state.

6. Sillitoe worked with the American State Department to ensure that claims arisen from the Gulf War were handled without .......... procedural delay and that funds to pay these claims became available.

7. Such issues are some of the essential elements for maintaining the viability and .......... of the procedures for international claims.

8. For cases in which a tribunal has been set up to .......... an international claim, Sillitoe & Smith have often represented claimants in the processes of preparation, filing, and litigation of their claims.

9. Sillitoe has also filed .......... briefs before the United States Supreme Court and advocated and explained the limitations of international law upon the international assertion of American employment law.

10. Sillitoe & Smith also have extensive institutional knowledge concerning and experience with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which governs situations involving the sea floor and the .......... seas.