In our July 2006 legal update, we reported on a ground-breaking agreement (Agreement) signed by the Hong Kong and Mainland China Governments, under which they agreed to recognise and enforce judgments made in each others courts. Legislative changes are now underway in Hong Kong in order to implement the Agreement ...
Advocate General Sharpston has recently expressed her opinion in the Commission v Republic of Finland case that ensuring a sufficient degree of transparency for the award of sub-threshold procurements should be determined by national law, rather than Community law. If these views were to be followed by the ECJ, it would provide renewed impetus to create national rules on low value awards and represent a meaningful evolution of the ECJ's past case law ...
British Airways' 14-year long wrangle with Virgin and the European Commission ended yesterday, when Europe's highest court confirmed that the Commission was right in fining BA EUR6.8m. For BA this comes at an inopportune moment, as it is currently under investigation by both the US Federal Trade Commission and the EU Commission for alleged breaches of anti-cartel provisions ...
The U.S. Department of Justice’s revised corporate charging policy, which was named after deputy attorney general Paul McNulty, was unveiled in December 2006. In the wake of its predecessor document, the 2003 Thompson Memo, we have seen a steady increase in the resolution of corporate criminal investigations without indictments or trials ...
On 15 March 2007, the European Court of Justice confirmed that the European Commission had been correct to fine British Airways £6.8 million for abusing its dominant position by operating loyalty enhancing performance bonus schemes for travel agents since the schemes had the effect of excluding competitors without any objective economic justification ...
In accordance with its announcement in its Notice of Intent published on October 21, 2006(1), the federal government, on April 26, published the regulatory framework it favours for greenhouse gases emissions and other air pollutants.The “Regulatory Framework for Air Emissions”, despite its title, is not a restrictive regulation ...
On May 25, 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered a unanimous decision in favour of our client, Transat Tours Canada Inc., a subsidiary of the Transat A.T. Inc. group, which ranks among the ten largest tourism businesses in the world. This precedent is of crucial importance for Canadian firms carrying on business abroad ...
The Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce upholds a strong position as one of the most important centres of international arbitration. The steady growth in the number of cases involving foreign parties that are administered by the Arbitration Institute convincingly demonstrates its worldwide popularity and reputation ...
The Federal Circuit, in an opinion written by Judge Rader and joined by Judges Lourie and Prost, has determined that a termination of a contract for the government’s convenience does not terminate obligations to perform warranty and software upgrade services under the contract. The Court of Federal Claims, in a well-reasoned opinion by Judge Miller, had determined otherwise ...
Civil Dispute Resolution in TaiwanSeptember, 2007ForewordTaiwan is a civil law jurisdiction, and its courts are charged principally with interpreting statutory laws and have limited ability to create new remedies or laws where there is no statutory basis. Civil, criminal, and administrative cases fall under the jurisdiction of separate court systems. In addition to civil litigation, civil disputes can also be handled through arbitration, mediation, or settlement ...
On November 21, 2007, the Supreme Court of British Columbia released the decision of Mr. Justice Vickers in Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia(1). The decision dealt with a claim brought by Chief Roger William of the Xeni Gwet’in First Nation, on behalf of the Xeni Gwet’in First Nation and the Tsilhqot’in Nation ...
The rule that a party receiving documents in litigation holds them subject to an implied undertaking to use them only in the proceedings in which they were produced has been a fixture of practice in British Columbia since 1995. However, while the rule is easy to state, it often proves more difficult to apply in practice and carries with it the potential for very serious sanctions for breach ...
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Finds that Student Who Was Abused Multiple Times by Fellow Students Was Entitled to Multiple Per-Claim Limits Because Each Assault Was a Separate “Claim”.In Essex Insurance Co. v. Doe, No. 06-7163, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 94 (D.C. Cir. Jan ...
For the first time, the Court of Appeal has rendered a decision on a class action instituted under the Competition Act. A unanimous decision in favour of our client, Toyota Canada Inc. and 37 of its dealers in the Montreal region, was handed down on February 26, 2008 ...
1. This paper will address of a number of issues with respect to the pollution exclusion clauses commonly contained in Commercial General Liability (“CGL”) insurance policies. In particular, this paper considers how Canadian courts have interpreted and applied the standard wording of pollution exclusion clauses, and whether the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Zurich Insurance Co. v. 686234 Ontario Ltd ...
On April 24, 2008, the Union des Municipalités du Québec announced the launching of the Sustainable Mobility and Transport Policy. This purpose of this initiative is to develop a new culture regarding mobility and transport, reduce dependency on motor vehicles, facilitate access to affordable public transport, decrease energy consumption and reduce environmental impacts, including those related to greenhouse gas emissions ...
Commercial disputes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are generally resolved through litigation in the courts or arbitration. Arbitration is becoming an increasingly popular way to resolve disputes. The UAE recently signed the UN Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958 (New York Convention). General overview and court structure The UAE is a federation of seven Emirates established in 1971 ...
Decision-making in the planning process continues to be a complex issue. The process has been regularly challenged in the Scottish Courts through statutory appeals and judicial review, and for many years in Scotland there was a very low success rate for parties bringing such proceedings. Courts implied that they did not want to be used as a further appeal mechanism ...
The Civil Justice Reforms will come into effect on 2 April 2009. The new court rules aim to improve cost-effectiveness and reduce complexity and delays in court proceedings. The purpose of this bulletin is to briefly highlight some of the majorchanges to the High Court and District Court Rules, which will come into effect on 2 April 2009. Subsequent bulletins will deal with these topics in more detail.1 ...
In its decision of 10 September 2008, the Market Court held that eight retailers of Volvo and Renault cars in southern Sweden were guilty of fixing sales prices and discounts on new cars, dividing the market for new car sales and fixing acquisition and sales prices on used cars. This behaviour was deemed to constitute such a limitation of competition as is prohibited under Section 6 of the Competition Act and Article 81 of the EC Treaty ...
This legal update follows our September 2008 issue which gave a general overview of the major changes to the High Court and District Court Rules to come into effect on 2 April 2009. This and subsequent issues deal with those changes in more detail. This issue deals with the new "underlying objectives" and active case management by the court ...
The Minister of Law and Human Rights issued Regulation No. 03.HT.03.10 of 2007 on 8 November 2007. Under Law No ...
As the economic outlook continues to look gloomy we are noticing a considerable increase in employment litigation work - this doesn't just point towards more people being dismissed (although this is certainly a factor) but also that as money gets tighter individuals feel they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by bringing claims. For employers this is obviously a headache ...
Commercial disputes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are generally resolved through litigation in the courts or arbitration. Arbitration is becoming an increasingly popular way to resolve disputes. The UAE recently signed the UN Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958 (New York Convention). General overview and court structure The UAE is a federation of seven Emirates established in 1971 ...
