In the first article of this three-part series we looked at the future of personal transport. In this second piece, we turn to consider mass public transport and how it could play a significant part in the future of commuting. Birmingham is beginning to make substantial changes to its transport infrastructure, but are the changes big enough? The Metro Opened on 30 May 1999, the West Midlands Metro provided a link between Wolverhampton and Birmingham ...
Over the past ten or so years, imaginative plaintiffs have pressed “climate change cases” in federal and state courts across the United States. In these cases, plaintiffs (most commonly states, municipalities, or environmentalists) sue defendants (often energy companies, states, or municipalities themselves) seeking damages related to climate change. While these cases have proliferated across the country, Florida saw very few in the early going ...
Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act B.E.2562 (“PDPA”) governs the cross-border transfer of personal data. The PDPA sets out a condition, among other things, that personal data may be transferred to another country or to an international organization (the “Recipient”) provided that they have in place an adequate level of personal data protection according to the adequacy decision as decided on by the Personal Data Protection Committee ...
Broadly speaking, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing is understood as investing that incorporates ESG factors in investment decisions. It is often used interchangeably with the terms sustainable investing, responsible investing, ethical investing and impact investing ...
Recent developments such as the invalidation of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework under the Schrems 2.0 decision and Brexit will have a significant impact on how businesses transfer their data internationally. Recap: For more information see our previous webinars: on the Schrems 2.0 case: What is the Schrems 2.0 case about? on Brexit 2 ...
According to an anonymous source, a ‘Centre for Economic Situation Administration’ (“CESA”) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha was held on Friday 4 June that approved (in-principle) a set of proposed stimulus measures aimed at encouraging wealthy expatriates to Thailand ...
On March 11, 2021, Christie’s auction house made a landmark sale by auctioning off an entirely digital artwork by the artist Beeple, a $69 million transaction in Ether, a cryptocurrency.1 In doing so, the famous auction house put non-fungible tokens (“NFT”), the product of a decentralized blockchain, in the spotlight ...
The Planning and Development (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021 is being expedited through the legislative process. It will provide for extensions to a number of time limits, including for the passing of development plans. Importantly however it will also allow for extensions, or additional extensions, to existing planning permissions to allow projects be completed. Planning permissions have a fixed duration, usually five years ...
The draft Occupational Pension Schemes (Climate Change Governance and Reporting) Regulations 2021 (‘Regulations’) have been laid before parliament and are due to come into effect on 1 October this year. The Pensions Minister announced on June 8 the final version of the Regulations which are designed to regulate how trustees of certain trust-based occupational schemes must engage with, and report on, climate change risk as part of their duties ...
On 2 June 2021, four months after the UK’s formal application, it was announced the UK can start the process of joining the 11-country Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (“CPTPP”) ...
Free movement of workers from the European Economic Area (EEA) was ended by Brexit and the UK Government introduced the EU Settlement Scheme to bridge the gap between the UK’s two immigrations systems of those coming from the EEA, and those coming to the UK from outwith the EEEA. The EU Settlement Scheme is a mechanism for any EEA citizen who lived in the UK before 31 December 2020 to remain lawfully in the UK ...
Agricultural rent reviews have been a source of controversy within the industry for many years. After a period of 15 years or so where there was little rent review activity in the agricultural tenanted sector between the early 1990s and the mid-2000s, a sharp spike in commodity prices during the course of 2007 led to a large number of rent review notices being served ...
The headline announcement of Freeports in the Chancellor’s Budget made it clear that they will have an important role in regeneration and supporting the delivery of the UK’s clean energy revolution ...
The final phase of the Esterra Park development in Redmond, Washington, is a carbon-neutral development. Schwabe client JTM Construction is the general contractor for that project. As attorneys, we are interested in staying up to date on market trends, so we asked JTM to put together a panel to brief Schwabe’s Real Estate and Construction industry group on the carbon-neutral aspects of the project ...
On May 28, 2021, Exempt Resolution No. 310, dated April 16, 2021 of the Ministry of the Environment was published in the Official Gazette. By means of such resolution, the Ministry of the Environment initiates the process of drafting the Supreme Decree that will set forth collection and recovery goals and other related obligations for batteries and electrical and electronic devices. Regulated priority products: "Batteries" and "Electrical and Electronic devices" ...
The Ministry of Security, through theExecutive Decree No. 199 of May 7th, 2021(hereinafter the “Decree”), adjusts the requirements for obtaining atemporary residence permitand apermanent residence permitas a Forest Investor, as follows: The forest investor residence permit may be requested in the following modalities: (i) temporary residence permit, (ii) permanent residence permit in 2 stages, and (iii) permanent residence permit in 1 stage ...
On March 18, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021 (HR 1603) (FWMA).1 The proposed FWMA would streamline the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program, providing a path to legal immigration status for undocumented farmworkers and their family members. The FWMA would also require all agricultural employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their workers ...
On 14 May 2021, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Justice and the Vice-President of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) signed a record of meeting concerning mutual recognition of and assistance to insolvency proceedings between the courts of Mainland China and Hong Kong (Record of Meeting), which signifies the consensus on the mutual recognition of and assistance to insolvency proceedings between the two jurisdictions in accordance with the principle of reciprocity and with a view to p
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) recently discussed possible approaches to establishing an interoperating central bank digital currencies (CBDC) arrangement as the future of cross-border payments. Although not an “official” definition, CBDC generally refers to a new form of digital currency issued by a central bank, denominated in an existing unit of account operating as a store of value and a medium of exchange ...
The ethical consumer market in the UK has increased four-fold since 1999, and now is conservatively estimated at over £40bn per annum. Consumers are actively changing their behaviours in favour of more sustainable and ethical choices. As a result, companies are increasingly creating or adapting their offerings to appeal to these consumer preferences ...
There is a growing consensus among business stakeholders and society at large that mere compliance with legal rules is not enough tolive up to the requirements of business integrity. Moreover, legal rules often use vague concepts and ethics are also useful to give concrete expression to the required practices ...
Legal due diligence processes are widely known in the context ofmergers and acquisitions (M&A) and corporate reorganisation projects. Their aim is to analyse the operations and organisation ofcompanies to identify their degree of compliance with applicable legal and contractual regulations, the level of risk of non-compliance, and the potential sources of legal and contractual liability ...
The Brazilian Secretariat of Foreign Trade, of the Ministry of Economy, published Notice nº 32/2021, initiating public consultations on the negotiations of Free Trade Agreements between Mercosur and Vietnam and Mercosur and Indonesia ...
The International Council on Mining & Metals published new standards for tailings management, aiming to assist mining companies to improve their performance and to comply with safety and environmental requirements ...
