July/August 2011

Severe weather events present significant challenges for insurance market | Holman Fenwick Willan

The number and severity of natural disasters so far in 2011 is unprecedented: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South and North America have all been hugely affected. This article looks at how the Australian insurance market has responded to losses as a result of the Queensland flooding and also look at how the London market is …

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Don’t know much about geography: interdicts across the border

Perhaps the most surprising thing about waking up on a Sunday morning in May to be faced with a Sunday paper featuring a close-up photograph of a well-known footballer’s face was that its publication seemed to take everyone by surprise.

Simplification and reduction of burdens for Dutch companies with share capital

In the near future some significant changes will be made to Dutch corporate law, with the chief aim of achieving greater simplicity and reducing the burden for businesses. This article will discuss several expected changes that will specifically affect private companies with limited liability (BVs) and public companies with limited liability (NVs). Some of these …

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Barr v Biffa [2011]: is permit compliance a defence to private nuisance? | Burges Salmon

In April the High Court handed down a landmark judgment on the interaction between the environmental permitting regime and private nuisance. In Barr & ors v Biffa Waste Services Ltd (No 3) [2011] (also known as the Westmill Landfill Group Litigation), the court held that compliance with an environmental permit may be a defence to …

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Mosley v United Kingdom [2011]: super-injunctions and Article 8 | Schillings

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), drafted in the immediate wake of the Second World War as a bulwark against the resurgence of fascism and the spread of Stalinism, guarantees certain fundamental human rights. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) which adjudicates on ECHR, offered first signatory states, then, in the mid-1970s, individual …

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Effective amnesty in UK asylum system: an agency ‘not fit for purpose’ | Magrath Sheldrick LLP

In early June the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee published a report called ‘The Work of the UK Border Agency (November 2010 – March 2011)’, which accuses the UK Border Agency (UKBA) of effectively creating an amnesty for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers whose cases have been delayed for many years.

Moderate revolution in Romanian employment legislation | Wolf Theiss

On 1 May 2011, long-debated amendments to law no 53/2003 (the labour code) finally entered into force in Romania. At the same time, a significant number of laws and secondary legislation were repealed and replaced by the new law no 62/2011 when social dialogue was effected mid-May 2011 (the social dialogue law).

Throttling net neutrality? | Kemp Little

Streaming video recently overtook peer-to-peer networks to become the largest single category of internet traffic, according to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index.1 This is a key reason why global internet traffic has increased eightfold over the past five years.2 With expected further dramatic increases in data traffic (Cisco estimates that internet traffic will increase fourfold over …

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Financial services disputes: the current legal landscape | Eversheds Sutherland

This article sets out a summary of some of the key, recent court cases relating to institutional financial services, looks at some of the themes emerging and gives a view on the outlook for disputes in the sector.

UAE strata law: enforcing the rights of owners’ associations | The In-House Lawyer

On 31 December 2007, Law No 27 of 2007 (concerning ownership of jointly owned property in the emirate of Dubai) was published in the official gazette, which came into force on 1 April 2008. Jointly owned property (JOP) is the term used to describe a building or land that has been divided into units and …

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Fishing from a jetty? Relevance and disclosure in property disputes | Berwin Leighton Paisner

A hypothetical transaction lies at the heart of most valuation exercises, whether a capital valuation or a rental valuation. The parties must address a negotiation on assumed facts, based on ground rules set out in the lease or other contract and in case law. An issue that presents itself is whether documents and information held …

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Dr Dolittle and the ECHR | Kingsley Napley LLP

One of the animals encountered by Dr Dolittle on his travels was the ‘pushmi-pullyu’, a cross between a unicorn and a gazelle. It had two heads, at opposite ends of its body and when it moved it tried to go in two different directions at once. Several recent decisions suggest that there is an element …

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