‘But I thought it was privileged!’ is a protest that litigation lawyers are used to hearing. Disclosure exercises inevitably raise complex questions about what is and is not privileged: and whenever the more nuanced and difficult questions arise, it is clear that the legal position as to what is, in fact, privileged is rarely as …
Ever since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, the world has been in a constant state of financial, social and political upheaval. The debt crisis has the European region on its knees; uprisings and unrest continue across the Middle East; China’s economy readies itself for a hard landing; the stagnant Japanese economy struggles under …
Continue reading “The changing world of counterfeiting, part 1: strategies for the IP owner”
Most commentators are agreed that 2012 will be an extremely difficult year for business globally and particularly in the eurozone. In the UK, both landlords and tenants are going to have to be acutely aware of their legal rights in a climate where many more business failures are predicted. The law relating to the insolvency …
Continue reading “Administrators, landlords and tenants: an update”
Going into 2012, we’re now a decent enough distance away from September 2008 to know that the world changed and that the next few years will continue to be, well, different or the new normal, depending on your point of view. 2008-09 more or less coincided with the generational shifts that the internet is bringing …
Continue reading “Trends in information technology law: looking ahead to 2012”
The American Journal of International Law was founded by a group of publicists who believed that international law could abolish (or at least substantially diminish) the role of power in world affairs. But numerous articles in the journal focused on this relationship – how power constrains international law, how the powerful can harness international law …
In December 2011 the Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency (UKBA) released three reports: an inspection of the UKBA Visa Section in New York; an annual report 2010-11; and a global review of entry clearance decision making. This article will look at the global review of entry clearance decision making.
The UK government is grappling with the most appropriate way to deal with corporate criminal liability in the context of serious fraud and corruption. Civil recovery orders can sometimes appear too lenient, but a full-blown criminal conviction (whether on the back of a negotiated plea agreement or otherwise) can lead to the complete demise of …
Continue reading “Deferred prosecution agreements: the way forward?”
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act 2010 (Dodd-Frank) passed through US Congress and became law on 21 July 2010. It has been a controversial piece of legislation. In particular, it has significantly enhanced the whistleblower protections afforded by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 (Sarbanes-Oxley). These changes to the whistleblower regime will affect not …
The promotion of renewable energy has increasingly been the focus of the government’s environmental policy in recent years, largely due to the UK’s ambitious carbon emission reduction targets and its underlying objective to source 15% of UK energy consumption from renewable resources by 2020, thus reducing our reliance on imported oil and gas supplies. This …
Continue reading “Where next for renewable energy projects?”
On 12 September 2011 the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) published the revised version of its Rules of Arbitration, updating the 1998 Rules. The new Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (the 2012 Rules)1 will come into force on 1 January 2012 and will be applicable to all ICC arbitrations (with some …
The Court of Appeal was recently given the opportunity to consider the remedy of rescission in Howard-Jones v Tate [2011] and in doing so, stressed a distinction between the remedies that are available to an innocent party where there has been a repudiatory breach of contract, and those situations where rescission ab initio will be …
Continue reading “Court of Appeal denies rescission of transfer of land for breach of contract”
We round up some of the most relevant and interesting developments from 2011 that may affect your business. 2011 CASE HIGHLIGHTS As ever, very few product liability cases made it to court, but of note this year are the following.