A federal appeals court has rejected two challenges to the environmental review of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (Metro's) planned subway expansion in Downtown Los Angeles. The "Regional Connector" project, approved in 2012, will create a three-station, underground link through Downtown that will allow passengers to travel from points on the Metro Gold Line to the Blue and Expo lines without having to transfer trains ...
The November 2016 issue of the Asian Legal Business (ALB) includes a regional update article entitled “Evidentiary Issues in Arbitration”, contributed by SyCipLaw Partner Ramon G. Songco and Associate Arvin Kristopher A. Razon. The article enumerated and discussed the laws that aimed to address concerns in resolving disputes in arbitration, such as how evidence is presented, assessed for relevance and competence, and protected during arbitration proceedings ...
Although neither of the parties objects to solving the dispute in the state court, the Supreme Court of Lithuania sends the parties to arbitration after it discovers a prior written agreement to arbitrate. The issuer of a promissory note (Claimant) requested the state court to declare the promissory note null and void ...
Article 257 of the UAE Penal Code (Federal Law No. 3 of 1987) was recently amended by Federal Law No. 7 of 2016 to introduce the concept of criminal liability for arbitrators, experts, and translators who issue decisions and opinions ‘contrary to the duties of impartiality and honesty’ ...
Much has been written regarding the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in China, but relatively little consideration is given to the treatment in U.S. courts of awards entered by the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), or to the enforcement of CIETAC arbitration agreements. In fact, CIETAC arbitral awards are rejected by U.S ...
The National Privacy Commission (NPC) has issued the implementing rules and regulations of the Data Privacy Act of 2012. The rules, promulgated on August 24, 2016, will take effect 15 days from publication in the Official Gazette. Download the Client Alert for more information on the new implementing rules for Philippine Data Privacy Act. This alert was authored by SyCipLaw partner Rose Marie M. King-Dominguez and associate Aaron Jeric M. Legaspi ...
Arbitral institutions strive to provide the parties they serve with a fair and impartial dispute resolution process that results in an unassailable final award. Since “evident partiality” in the arbitrators is one of the limited means to attack an award, the selection of unbiased arbitrators is fundamental to that goal, and most arbitral institutions have some requirement or guidance on arbitrator disclosures ...
On August 28, 2016, the Israeli District Court of the Central District issued a decision regarding the right of publicity under Israeli Law (In re Fundacio Gala Salvador Dali v. V.S Marketing (Israel 2005) Ltd.). The right of publicity is the right of a person to financially exploit his name, picture or voice ...
On August 10, 2016, the Québec Court of Appeal authorized a class action pertaining to international roaming fees, thus reiterating, with renewed respect for the opposing view, that meeting the authorization threshold and the criteria respecting the representative's interest is fairly easy under Quebec law ...
The contemporary business world has become fundamentally tied in with the progress of globalisation, and for anyone involved in it, that is no secret. Anybody would be hard pressed to find an industry that can exist and sustain itself in a purely national context, without – at least in some regard – relying on either a piece of legislation or a practice trend that is related to whatever kind of international functioning ...
Acceleration clauses are commonly found in loan agreements that require debtors to make repayment in instalments. A standard acceleration clause provides that if a debtor fails to pay an instalment, the creditor may elect to terminate the loan agreement and demand payment of the full amount owing under the agreement ...
As we explained previously, in April 2016 the Second Appellate District held that California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) creates a separate duty to provide reasonable accommodation to an applicant or employee who is “associated” with a disabled person. On rehearing of the Castro-Ramirez v. Dependable Highway Express, Inc. decision (Case No. B261165, B262524), the Court has retreated from its prior holding ...
Streets named after a country’s heroes and heroines can be a hotly contested and emotive issue, especially in a country such as South Africa, with its colonial and apartheid past. This was illustrated in the recent Constitutional Court case of City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality v AfriForum and Another (the “AfriForum case”), which not only dealt with this sensitive topic, but also clarified an important legal issue – whether an interim interdict can be appealed ...
The most recent example of a fashion designer losing the right to use his/her name came about this week. Karen Millen lost her court battle to challenge the agreement reached after the sale of her business to Baugur for £95m in 2004 which stated that she could not use her name in business in the future ...
Facebook recently won a landmark victory in the Ninth Circuit against a company that accessed Facebook’s computers to help users manage their social network accounts. Now the company, Power Ventures, Inc., says that the Ninth Circuit’s decision risks creating “widespread confusion” about when it is a crime to use a computer to access a website. The issue in Facebook, Inc. v. Power Ventures, Inc., No. 13-17102 (9th Cir ...
On July 5, 2016 the Chilean Congress enacted Law No. 20,931 (“Anti-crime Agenda”), strengthening the prosecution of robbery, burglary, theft and willfully or negligently receiving or possessing stolen goods. The Chilean Criminal Code sanctions any individual who knowingly or negligently possesses, transports, buys, converts or trades goods proceeding from theft, robbery, embezzlement and/or cattle theft. Negligent behavior can also be prosecuted ...
Allied Irish Bank PLC -v- Moloney & anor [2016] IEHC 346 Twomey J, 20 June 2016, concerned an application by Allied Irish Bank (AIB) for summary judgment in the sum of €10.8m. The defendants contested the application claiming that they had a binding oral agreement with AIB, whereby it was agreed that the defendants would sell the properties charged to AIB, and the outstanding loan would be written off. The fact of the borrowings was not disputed ...
According to latest news reports, Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG) has shown significant interest in buying a majority stake of the Montenegrin branch of Telekom Srbija – View More
Dear Sir or Madam,We are pleased to provide you with a brief overview of some recent significant amendments to the legislation in the area of data protection and privacy. The said amendments relate to counterterrorism set of bills (so-called “Yarovaya” law), introduction of the notion of news aggregators as well as restrictions on the activity of debt collectors ...
When the wording of a construction-related guarantee is ambiguous, the intention of the parties involved is key in determining its true nature. This was highlighted in a recent Supreme Court of Appeal (“SCA”) judgment, which found that the best way to determine the parties’ intention was to look at all relevant facts ...
In 2015, according to Sensis, 56% of large and 31% of small-to-medium sized Australian businesses had a social media presence of some kind. Of these, more than half reported measuring the success of their social media investment by their numbers of 'likes', followers and subscribers ...
The recent First Chamber Supreme Court’s (SC) case law has been consistent when determining that the granting of clientele compensation in case of unilateral termination of the distribution agreement by the manufacturer could not be made automatically by analogous application of the Agency Contract Act, but by taking into account the particular casuistry ...
A recent wave of consolidation in the telecommunications sector has seen TPG Telecom acquire iiNet for $1.6 billion, Vocus Communications acquire Amcom Telecommunications for $653 million and Vocus acquire M2 Group in a 'merger of equals' valued at $3.0 billion. These three transactions have now created two industry powerhouses – TPG and Vocus. All three transactions were implemented by way of a scheme of arrangement between the notional target and its shareholders ...
Dear All, ALRUD Law Firm hereby informs that the amendments introduced to Arbitrazh procedural code in accordance with Federal law as of 02 March 2016 No. 47-FZ “On the amendments to APK RF” (hereinafter referred to as – “Law”) will come into effect on 01 July 2016. The Law remains in line with the general trend on reduction of arbitrazh (state commercial) courts workload and speeding up arbitrazh proceedings ...
