In December last year, the House of Lords handed down its judgment in the case of R (on the application of Laporte) v Chief Constable of Gloucestershire. The case considered the proper balance to be struck between an individual's Article 10 and 11 rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association under the European Convention on Human Rights ('ECHR'), and the Police's powers to prevent breaches of the peace ...
This month the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 ('the Act') comes into force. It is one of the Government's key legislative proposals for 2006, designed to promote productivity and ease the burden of regulation. The Act replaces the Regulatory Reform Act 2001 and is part of the UK Government's Better Regulation Action Plan 2005 ...
On October 31, 2006, the Court of Appeal rendered two key decisions on the issue of neighbourhood annoyances in Quebec. It is greatly to their credit that these two judgments represent a return to more reasonable legal bases on this issue. The decisions are Ciment du Saint-Laurent inc. / St. Lawrence Cement Inc. v. Barrette and Cochrane(2) (hereinafter “St. Lawrence Cement”) and Comité d’environnement de Ville-Émard (C.E.V.E.) and Michaud v ...
When the government and a contractor negotiate a construction contract, they usually stipulate in the contract that, in case of any dispute arising from the contract, such dispute shall be submitted to the engineer or the architect for decision before such dispute is submitted for arbitration. This is what is commonly referred to as a¡§pre-arbitration¡¨ procedure ...
Intellectual Property is important. Although never at the forefront of our thinking (IP Lawyers aside) the role of patents, trade marks and copyright in shaping the business and leisure aspects of our lives is immense ...
Amendment (6) to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China was adopted at the 22nd Session of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China on 19 June 2006 and promulgated by President Hu Jintao on 29 June 2006. The Amendment, which entered into effect on the date it was promulgated, introduces penalties for a range of economic crimes ...
1 When Do We Need a Building Permit?As a rule, the construction of or any structural alterations to any building situated on theRomanian territory requires a building permit. Few are the contexts where this rule is notapplicable. These situations usually refer to the repairing and maintenance works to the existingbuildings, which do not involve changes in the initial features of the buildings ...
On 26 October 2006, the Antitrust Court issued a decision, from a defense of competition perspective, in connection with the legality of the behaviors between Voissnet S.A. ('Voissnet') and Compañía de Telecomunicaciones de Chile S.A. ('CTC-CHILE'). Voissnet, a company that provides telecommunication services consisting of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), accused CTC-CHILE of performing acts against free competition ...
Pursuant to the so-called Four Years Act, owners may unilaterally increase the rent for certain apartments during the period of 2007 to 2010 for once a year up to the target value. The calculation method is set forth by law and the target value will be announced by the Ministry for Local Development in the Collection of Laws. The written announcement of the increase must be duly justified. The lessee may file an action in respect of invalidating the increase ...
As concerns the contents of the Act, we can say primarily that certain proven principle and institutes reappeared known from original Act No. 199/1994, Coll., on Public Procurement which Act No. 40/2004, Coll ...
The Sappier Decision: Supreme Court of Canada Recognizes Aboriginal Right to Timber for Domestic Purposes and Clarifies Requirements for Establishing an Aboriginal RightOn December 7, 2006, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision in the cases of Gray v. R and R. v. Sappier and Polchies ...
During the past decade, project financing structures have been actively used in Colombia in connection with the construction and improvement of infrastructure facilities and the expansion of access to basic public services. In particular, private investment has been active in concessions, the privatization and capitalization of public entities, BOT, BOO and BOLT schemes and other financing techniques ...
The legal systems of the nations that comprise the Gulf Cooperation Council -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- have undergone dramatic, radical and progressive change and development in the past 25 years, which is continuing ...
On 4 December 2006 the Disability Equality Duty will come into force. It will join the broadly similar Race Equality Duty, which has existed under the race relations legislation since 2001. Meanwhile, an analogous Gender Equality Duty is due to come into force in April 2007.The intention behind the creation of these new duties is to ensure that bodies which exercise public functions “mainstream” equality issues when exercising those functions ...
He may be a knight, one of the most successful music artists and a noted viniculturalist, but Sir Cliff Richard is not resting on his laurels. Add legal reform campaigner to this list as the Peter Pan of Pop leads the quest to change UK copyright law.Copyright can be deceptively simple on the face of it, but scratch the surface and you reveal the complexity of co-existing legal rights. Take Sir Cliff's 1959 best selling single 'Living Doll' ...
Bolivia has just culminated the step that will have the greatest impact in the process of creating a new constitution for Bolivia. On Sunday July 2, Bolivia elected the constituents to the assembly that will be in charge with providing structure and substance to the new constitutional norm ...
On 11 July 2006, six Chinese ministries (Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, The People’s Bank of China, State Administration for Industry and Commerce and State Administration of Foreign Exchange) jointly issued a circular “Opinions on Regulating the Entry into and the Administration of Foreign Investment in the Real Estate Market” Jianzhufang [2006] Circular No ...
The removal of the Crown’s immunity from English planning law will make buying and developing such land much easier, says Shoosmiths’ planning law team. Crown Immunity dated back to the 1960s and included government departments such as the MOD, Her Majesty’s private estates, the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall and the Crown Estate Commissioners. In the past the Crown had only to consult with local planning authorities before carrying out development ...
The revelations of the intercepted phone messages from Prince Harry and Prince William earlier this year are a reminder of how vulnerable personal data can be. Proposed changes to the law will mean that those who hold confidential personal information must be even more vigilant about what they do with that data. Most businesses will be familiar with the Data Protection legislation but it is important not to be complacent ...
For many years, parties have created various legal tools to grant others the right to use a portion of their lands. Prior to the imposition of statutory controls on the subdivision and leasing of land, this could simply be accomplished by the property owner granting exclusive possession over a portion of their land to a tenant by way of a lease and everyone was happy. Everyone that is but the local and provincial governments ...
There has been a great deal of interest generated by the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc (Scotland) Bill on its passage through the Scottish Parliament ...
The House of Lords has clarified what makes a message sent by means of a public electronic communications network "grossly offensive" and therefore capable of amounting to a crime under the Communications Act 2003 ("Act") ...
Disputes are the bane of all construction professionals lives, but unfortunately no matter how hard one tries to avoid them (partnering, mediation and the like) there are always some matters which require formal dispute resolution to resolve them. PFI is one area where efforts have been made in the last few years to streamline disputes and where appropriate to consolidate disputes. While such aims are to be applauded they can in themselves lead to difficulties ...
• Directors of NPOs are subject to substantially the same duties and liabilities as directors of for-rofit companies • Being a director of an NPO is not merely an honorary role • The corporate governance rules recommended for or imposed on reporting issuers are examples of best practices for NPOs; however, like for small businesses, they should be adapted, depending on the situation, to avoid unduly complicating the NPO’s processes • Special attention should be paid to certain differenc
State Aid is something of a European hot potato as the European Commission is currently in the process of reforming the rules surrounding State Aid. This reform process is the key priority for Robert Hankin, head of the Regional Aid Unit at the European Commission. State Aid involves support given by a member state to businesses, in the form of subsidies or tax breaks for example, and has a wide-ranging impact throughout Europe ...
