On April 20, 2009, the Court of Appeal issued its judgment in three related cases(1) concerning a defect in a fireplace that caused a fire resulting in the partial loss of the building owned by Alpha’s insureds. Alpha sued the immediate seller to its insureds, Basque, as well as the prior owners, Caron and Pellerin, under the rules governing the warranty against latent defects ...
1. The court system What is the structure of the civil court system? In Italy there are three levels of courts: first-instance courts (justices of the peace and tribunals); second-instance courts (courts of appeal for judgments rendered by tribunals, and tribunals for judgments rendered by justices of the peace); and the Court of Cassation (Supreme Court) ...
Insurers have lodged a Judicial Review against The Damages (Asbestos-related conditions) Scotland Act. The Act, which was passed on 17 April 2009, made compensation available for the victims of pleural plaques in Scotland. The insurers are bringing the action in an attempt to avoid having to pay compensation for this condition ...
Indonesia has been described as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In 2008, the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index stated that Indonesia ranked 130th least transparent out of 180 countries. However, the continued existence of the Corruption Court in Indonesia which has tried many corruption cases and is trying to improve Indonesia’s anti corruption activities, is now under threat ...
Commission adopts temporary State aid 'credit crunch' framework The European Commission has adopted a temporary state aid framework, designed to help tackle the spiralling negative effects of the 'credit crunch' on the real economy. Under the framework, Member States can - after notifying the Commission - put into effect a range of aid schemes aimed at helping otherwise sound companies that are finding it difficult to access funding ...
Mind Your Belgian Distributor! FAQ on the Belgian Law of 27 July 1961 on the Unilateral Termination of Exclusive Distribution Agreements of Indefinite Duration. Belgium is one of the very few countries in the world with a specific legal regime for the termination of certain distribution agreements, in addition to a law on agency contracts ...
On 10 November 2008, BAPEPAM-LK issued Regulation X.E.1 concerning the obligation of securities companies to submit periodic reports. This Regulation X.E.1 replaces a regulation issued in 2006 and is basically intended to improve the provisions of the previous regulation, especially on the procedures for submission ...
Decree of the Minister of Finance No. 424/KMK.06/2003 (as amended) which contains the guidelines on the financial condition of insurance and reassurance companies has been further amended by Regulation of the Ministry of Finance No. 158/PMK.010/2008 ...
In August 2009, the Court of Appeal issued a judgment(1) in which it ruled on the foll owing interesting practical issues relating to liability insurance:1) what is the appropriate procedural vehicle for a liability insurer to exercise recourse against another insurer in situations where there is overlapping insurance?2) does the exception respecting members of the household of the insured (article 2474 C.C.Q ...
The Supreme Court of Canada ended a lengthy legal saga on November 20th, 2008 when it ordered St.Lawrence Cement Inc. to compensate residents of Beauport living near its cement plant. Comments on prescription, the assessment of damages and the granting of future damages. The Supreme Court's decision was expected and will have a major impact. Indeed, this decision imposes a burden that will be almost impossible for businesses to meet ...
Family Intervention Tenancies (FITs) are a new type of tenancy to be introduced by Sections 297-298 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. They will be another tool for registered providers (the new term for both Registered Social Landlords and local authorities to tackle anti-social behaviour ...
Today when financial experts are busy in measuring the depth of present financial turmoil, layman is cursing Governments and experts are blaming sub-prime mortgage payment defaulters but no-body in the economic fraternity could appreciate that it was a policy failure. Moreover, no one in the financial world could imagine the enormous size of the trouble that lending on sub-prime would bring the world’s biggest financial catastrophe of the century ...
Following consultation with national competition authorities and the public, the European Commission has published enforcement priorities guidelines, which it will follow when applying Article 82 to exclusionary conduct by dominant companies. Throughout the guidelines, the Commission reiterates that Article 82 should protect competition and consumers – rather than individual competitors (an approach previously advocated by Commissioner Kroes) ...
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 ...
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 ...
On 16 September 2008, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave a preliminary ruling in joined cases C-468/06 - C-478/06 specifying that a refusal by a pharmaceutical undertaking that holds a dominant position on a relevant pharmaceutical market to supply wholesalers with a view to impeding parallel export of such wholesalers from one Member State to other Member States constitutes an abuse of a dominant market position under Article 82 of the EC Treaty ...
The Minister of Law and Human Rights issued Regulation No. 03.HT.03.10 of 2007 on 8 November 2007. Under Law No ...
In May 2008 the government of the Republic of Indonesia issued Government Regulation No. 39 of 2008 regarding the Second Amendment to Government Regulation No. 73 of 1992 regarding Insurance-Related Business Activities (Usaha Perasuransian) in order to anticipate the developing national insurance-related industries, including, among other things, insurance companies (perusahaan asuransi) ...
As national governments have taken increasingly drastic steps to shore up their banking systems so the Commission has been working overtime dealing with the State aid fallout. Many of the measures taken by Member States could distort competition - a serious worry in the current volatile climate. Against this backdrop, the Commission has been keen to stress that it wants to work with Member States to ensure financial stability ...
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 ...
A new Swedish Competition Act will enter into force on 1 November 2008. The Act was passed by parliament on 11 June 2008. The new legislation means further harmonisation with EC competition rules and it also introduces a number of new features in order to enhance cartel enforcement. One of the new features is the introduction of trading prohibitions. The rules regarding fines will become both clearer and stricter in an aim to enhance legal certainty ...
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 ...
The Chinese insurance market has grown considerably after China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. For example, China’s annual premium income has increased from 210.9 billion yuan in 2001 to 703.6 billion yuan in 2007 and for the first half of 2008 insurers in China have collected premium income of 561.79 billion yuan which exhibits continuing growth ...
