The key issue before the formal body of advisers to the UK sovereign was whether the trustee of a settlement “exercised for a proper purpose” an express power contained in the trust deed to add and exclude discretionary objects, having added a purpose trust as an object and removed all family members comprising the entire class of objects. The Background The trust settlors were two brothers who founded Formosa Plastics Group, one of the largest business conglomerates in Taiwan ...
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc., v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc., v. University of North Carolina (collectively “SFFA”) that Harvard and the University of North Carolina (“UNC”) violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by impermissibly considering race when making undergraduate admissions decisions ...
At the end of its 2023 term, the United States Supreme Court handed down several buzz-worthy decisions. Two opinions may have substantial and lasting impacts on employers and their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion. In Groff v. DeJoy, Postmaster General, the Court addressed religious accommodation and clarified the parameters of its “undue burden” standard set forth in its prior decision in Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, 432 U. S. 63 (1977). 2023 U.S. LEXIS 2790 ...
Background FK Construction Limited (“FK”) was sub-contractor to ISG Retail Limited (“ISG”) for works involving roofing and cladding in relation to ISG’s Project Barberry. FK issued an application for payment of £1,691,679.94. ISG failed to issue a payment notice, submitting a pay less notice instead. The sum sought by FK was not paid, and FK referred the dispute to adjudication ...
‘Flexibility becomes the norm as businesses look to build resilience in their real estate portfolio and workplace strategy.’ That is the key takeaway from Colliers’ recently released Global Occupier Outlook 2023 report, which found that two-thirds of corporate occupiers active in EMEA anticipate that up to 20% of their commercial real estate portfolio will move from traditional leases to flex leases within the next five years ...
Labour party donor and entrepreneur, Dale Vince, has put the spotlight back on the controversy surrounding the tax treatment of carried interest received by private equity fund managers, by instructing The Good Law Project to serve a “pre-action protocol” letter on HMRC seeking judicial review of its practice of taxing such carried interest as capital gains as opposed to income ...
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its much-anticipated decision in Abitron Austria GmbH, et al. (“Abitron et al.”) v. Hetronic International, Inc. (“Hetronic”) regarding the extraterritorial reach of the Lanham Act, the comprehensive trademark statute in the United States ...
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was enacted in 1996 to provide websites with immunity from liability arising from posting third-party content. For a service provider to be immune, however, the information at issue must be provided by another information content provider. This begs the question of whether website operators provide the content on their platforms or act solely as intermediaries for third-party content ...
In its second major False Claims Act decision in as many weeks, the Supreme Court sided with the Department of Justice in U.S. ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources, Inc., holding that the government may move to dismiss actions over the objections of the relator (whistleblower) even in cases where the government initially declined to intervene ...
The Supreme Court of the United States has denied a plea[i] to resolve a 20-year circuit split regarding the extent to which the Copyright Act preempts private contracts involving a promise not to copy digital content. The case stemmed from the petitioner Genius’s allegation that Google copied song lyrics from Genius’s website without permission and used them in connection with Google’s competing website ...
When scoping a new development, sewerage and drainage may not be the first thing to spark everyone’s interest, but they are an essential component. Effective drainage is key to the functionality and success of any development. This article examines the legal position and regulations around drainage, with the aim of demystifying common queries and misconceptions ...
SyCipLaw’sTax Department has prepared Tax Issues and Practical Solutions(T.I.P.S.) for May. Please read the full text hereor via this link.SyCipLaw’s Tax Department has prepared Tax Issues and Practical Solutions (T.I.P.S ...
As the Building Safety Act 2022 slowly comes into force, the government has been required to publish various amendment Regulations that make clarifications and changes. It is no secret that the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) and its provisions are often difficult to untangle and interpret ...
Joseph Raczynski joins Paul Caddy to discuss horizon-gazing and what the future might hold. Joseph is a leading technologist and futurist. He speaks globally on subjects like blockchain, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, the Metaverse, NFTs and cybersecurity. Joseph hosts Technology Snippets Today a video podcast series which explores cutting edge technology and innovation ...
The recent British Property Federation discussion ‘Can UK Real Estate rise to the Net Zero Challenge?’ struck an optimistic note. While leaving no doubt about the scale of the challenge facing the real estate industry, the Panel acknowledged a number of positive trends. Despite ongoing regulatory challenges - in an area where there is large consensus that more regulation would be welcome - there is a definite growth in engagement ...
The Supreme Court (“Hof van Cassatie/Court of Cassation”) overruled on 26 May 2023 a decision that determined that Article 1722 (old) Civil Code (a partial or total “destruction” of the leased premises) does not apply for the tenant that can not operate its premises due to the measures taken by the Belgian Government in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, because there was only a temporary impossibility and thus only a temporary loss of enjoyment ...
More than a month after the G7 meeting in Hiroshima, the EU has reached an agreement on the 11th sanctions package against Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The key focus in the novel sanctions package is the mitigation of diversion and circumvention risks. The 11th sanctions package has been much anticipated since the G7 meeting at the end of May 2023 ...
Krysta Gumbiner is a litigation partner at Dinsmore. She co-wrote this article for DRI's June issue of For The Defense. A surety may allow its bond principal to negotiate settlements with claimants after the surety has received a payment or performance bond claim ...
In Dubin v. United States, the Supreme Court gave a narrowing construction to a federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1028A. This statute provides that whomever, “during and in relation to any [predicate offense], knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person” is a guilty of a crime ...
