On Friday, September 22, 2017, the Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) officially withdrew two guidance documents issued under the Obama administration regarding implementation of Title IX on school campuses. In place of these guidance documents, the OCR issued new interim guidance documents regarding how schools should handle sexual assaults. The OCR indicated official guidance and directives will be issued after a formal notice and comment period ...
In line with the state policy set out in the Philippines Constitution to recognise the indispensable role of the private sector in national growth, encourage private enterprise and provide incentives to attract needed investment, the Philippine government has long resorted to public-private partnerships (PPPs) to address problems of national interest ...
The final Default Regulations, issued in terms of section 36 of the Pension Funds Act, were recently issued by the South African Minister of Finance. They aim to provide retirement funds with greater discretion and flexibility in relation to their default investment portfolios and annuity strategies. To comply with the regulations, many funds will need to amend their rules and investment policy statement ...
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently granted a petition for interlocutory review to decide whether a violation of the FCA’s first-to-file rule can be cured by filing an amended pleading. Both the D.C. Circuit and Fourth Circuit1 recently addressed this issue, concluding that the plain language of the first-to-file rule precludes amending around the rule ...
Yesterday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos addressed the public regarding a controversial and difficult issue – Title IX. In her statements, she announced the new administration will change the way colleges and universities handle incidents of sexual assault on campus ...
After getting the knowledge of GPA Model and PPP Model, the bidders need to know how to make preparation during the pre-bid stage. Following are the responses to some most frequently asked questions regarding bidding qualifications, based on which the foreign bidders can make its preparation plan ...
In its flagship report entitled Global Economic Prospects released in January, the World Bank observed: “The Philippines is particularly weak with regard to transport and trade-related infrastructure … with particularly low rankings for the quality of its seaports and airports. About one-quarter of the population remains without electricity.” Yet growth in the Philippines is projected to accelerate to 6 ...
In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, franchisors should take action to avoid potential liability for price gouging committed by franchisees in affected areas. Price gouging occurs when a seller increases prices of goods, services or commodities to a level that is exploitive and unethical. Texas law explicitly prohibits price gouging following a natural disaster, and fines for price gouging can be up to $20,000 per violation ...
It is rare that FCA defendants have their legal defenses paid for, and rarer still that DOJ must bear the expense. In United States ex rel. Wall v. Circle C Construction, the Sixth Circuit held that the government must pay roughly $500,000 in legal fees and expenses the defendant incurred as a result of the government’s unreasonable litigating position ...
New Way of Claiming Damages for Competition Law Infringements in Croatia News Karanović & Nikolić On the 22nd of July, 2017, the Law on Actions for Damages for Competition Law Infringements came into force in Croatia (the "Law"), implementing the EU Damages Directive ...
Design of the Models Taiwan law provides for two models for private parties to participate in governmental infrastructure projects. One is the model under the Government Procurement Act (“GPA Model”) and the other is the Public-Private Partnerships Law (“PPP Model”). The most significant difference between the two models lies in the funding entity ...
Focal Point of the Infrastructure Program In line with the trend of green traffic and the increasing need for rail transportation in Taiwan, the Infrastructure Program features a focus on the establishment of the national railway network including the full-scale planning of the railway structure, city lines and metropolitan railway establishment ...
Medical Cannabis approvals in the City have been the subject of intense negotiations, hearings, and appeals in the last two months. First, our law firm assisted the Apothecarium - Sunset (an additional location in the Sunset District for the medical cannabis dispensary called The Apothecarium currently near the Castro), in obtaining an approval at the Planning Commission ...
A recent Tenth Circuit decision shines light on a new avenue to challenge cannabis businesses, even in states where medical and recreational marijuana is legal. Although the potential federal criminal threat to cannabis businesses in states that have legalized medical or recreational cannabis has been relatively well-discussed, the potential civil threat has received little attention. In Safe Streets Alliance v. Hickenlooper, 859 F.3d 865 (10th Cir ...
We previously reported on recent efforts to rescind the Obama Administration’s rule amending the Clean Water Act’s “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) definition. This followed, as we also reported, the Sixth Circuit’s nationwide stay of the Obama Administration’s WOTUS rule ...
What’s in the Infrastructure Program? To fortify infrastructure, unlock economy growth potential, and to ramp up investment momentum, lawmakers in Taiwan passed a special bill for Forward-looking Infrastructure Program earlier this year, allocating a budget of NT$420 billion to develop infrastructure needed for the next thirty years ...
On January 1, 2019, local agencies will be required to comply with new requirements for posting agendas on their websites (AB 2257). The California Brown Act requires that any local agency must post an agenda 72 hours in advance of a regular meeting. If an agency has a website, then the agency is required to post the agenda on their website ...
The Interinstitutional Committee for PPP has enacted new regulations for submission of PPPs Projects for its analysis and approval. This new regulation contains the minimum requirements and guidelines that a PPP Project must fulfill to obtain the prior authorization of the Interinstitutional Committee for PPP, before the public entity initiates the bidding process ...
Recent proposed amendments to the rules of Strate, South Africa’s central securities depository (the “Strate Rules”) will effect a significant change to how uncertificated securities are pledged, but will not solve all of the problems that market participants hoped would be addressed ...
On 30 June 2017, after an initial round of public commentary undertaken by the JSE Limited (“JSE”) on the proposed amendments to the JSE Debt Listings Requirements (“DLRs”), the South African Registrar of Securities Services announced that “Part 2” of the 2016 amendments are available on the Financial Services Board’s website for further public comment. The deadline to review and comment on the proposals is 14 July 2017 ...
Earlier this year, the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg published the new law on the renewal of aid schemes for research, development and innovation (hereafter, the “RDI”) and on the missions of the national Agency for the promotion of innovation and research. This law amends the Law on the promotion of research, development and innovation.This reformed law aims at exploiting in Luxembourg all the potential offered by the EU rules related to State aid to RDI ...
On June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court held in California Public Employees’ Retirement System v. ANZ Securities, Inc., that the three-year time limit in the Securities Act of 1933 is a statute of repose that is not subject to equitable tolling. This means that shareholders will not be able to rely on the filing of a proposed class action lawsuit to suspend the running of a statute of repose on their individual claims ...
The purpose of this article is to highlight the principal changes to the rules and procedures governing national public procurements in Argentina, introduced by Decree 1030/2016. The new Regulation does not introduce substantial changes to its predecessor, although it does include some relevant modifications. Introduction In September 2016, the government of Argentina modified some of the rules and procedures governing national public procurement ...
Prior to imposing, extending, or increasing any tax, a public agency must submit the tax to a vote of the electorate. However, public agencies need no such approval to impose certain types of fees. In Jacks v. City of Santa Barbara, the Supreme Court considered whether and when municipal franchise fees—fees charged to utilities and others for the use of public rights of way—constitute taxes requiring voter approval ...
The European Parliament and the Council of the EU have issued statements of non-objection to the revised draft RTS under the PRIIPs Regulation which were endorsed last month by the European Commission. Finally, the long-awaited level 2 measures have been agreed on and further guidance on level 3 as well as level 4 by the ESAs and the European Commission is expected in the near future ...
