It is now common knowledge that after January 2, 2022, issuing a cheque that is dishonoured for the lack of funds is no longer going to be a criminal offence in the UAE (for a primer on the changes made to the law, clickHere). But what of ongoing complaints and criminal cases regarding cheques that were dishonoured prior to January 2? Circular No. (9) of 2021, issued by the Dubai Public Prosecution Department on 19 December 2021, helpfully clarifies how such cases are to be handled ...
Law 9/2022 was published in Diário da República, the Portuguese official gazette, on 11 January 2022. This new law establishes measures to support and speed up corporate restructuring processes and payment agreements. It is the result of the incorporation into Portuguese law of Directive (EU) 2019/1023 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 (“Directive (EU) 2019/1023”) ...
In May 2021, the UK Government commissioned an independent, fan-led review of football governance in England following three “crisis events”. The report has thus far received a varied reception. Some have welcomed its recommendations, and believe that they will bring about much needed reform of the current model of football governance ...
I have recently been advising a farmer in relation to an appeal against a department penalty imposed for an alleged breach of GAEC (Good Agricultural Environmental Conditions). These are the conditions farmers claiming agricultural support payments must comply with, and which are designed to safeguard soils, habitats and landscape features on agricultural land. A breach of GAEC can lead to financial penalties being imposed on the farmer ...
The Court of Session has considered whether court proceedings can be raised to interrupt time bar, despite a contractual provision requiring adjudication before litigation. The issue Construction contracts often provide a hierarchy of dispute resolution processes. Before a party is permitted to litigate (or arbitrate), it is often required to attempt to resolve the dispute through another method (or methods) of dispute resolution ...
The recent case of John Doyle Construction (JDC) v Erith Contractors Limited provides two lessons for the construction sector concerning the enforcement of adjudicators’ decisions by companies in liquidation. First, “clear, evidenced, and unequivocal security” is necessary before enforcement is possible. Second, where a solvent and paying party asserts set-off and counter-claims, enforcement is prohibited in most circumstances ...
Certain claims in contentious executry matters, such as challenging a will, must be made within a specific time period. Where a dispute arises, seeking legal advice about the relevant time period at the earliest opportunity is of fundamental importance. In Scots law, the loss of a claim due to the passage of time is known as prescription and is presently governed by the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 ...
The unquantifiable part of subjecting a dispute to the arbitration of a court is the litigation risk. We explore what those risks are and why it is essential that they should never be ignored. The cornerstones of any case should be clear, solid and documented evidence, a series of strong witnesses and in the ideal world and a juicy piece of case law (precedent) that ties it all together and gives the judge/panel a map to direct them to their decision ...
In the second part of this article, we look at the problems that can arise through the interpretation of evidence by the tribunal and look at ways to mitigate litigation risk by ensuring that the story of the case is presented as clearly as possible ...
A question that is often asked about the parental status of female same-sex parents is: do they both have the same legal rights in relation to their child? The law changed on 6 April 2009 by virtue of sections 42 and 43 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, so that both the birth mother and her partner (referred to here for ease as the ‘non-birth mother’) can be recognised as legal parents for conceptions that took place after that date ...
Employment Law An examination of the case ofTelekom Research andDevelopment Sdn Bhd v Ahmad Farid Bin Abdul Rahman by the Court of Appeal Introduction The Industrial Court had ruled that the company, Telekom Research and Development Sdn Bhd (“Telekom”), had proven the misconduct against a former employee, the claimant Ahmad Farid Bin Abdul Rahman (“Ahmad”), and that the dismissal was justified ...
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation v. Accord Healthcare, Inc., Appeal No. 2021-1070 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 3, 2022) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s bench trial finding that claims of a pharmaceutical patent were supported by adequate written description under 35 U.S.C. § 112(a) ...
Introduction The Joint Committee of Parliament (“Committee”) appointed to review the draft Personal Data Protection Bill submitted its report to Parliament on December 16, 2021. The report also includes a revised draft Bill which has now been renamed as the Data Protection Bill, 2021 (“Bill”). As there is less than a week left of the winter session of Parliament, it is very unlikely the Bill will be passed by Parliament in 2021 ...
No fault divorce is due to come into effect in England and Wales on 6 April 2022. From this date couples will be able to get divorced without one person needing to blame the other. This change will also apply to civil partnership dissolution. The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 will be the biggest reform of divorce law in fifty years and means that you’ll no longer have to make allegations about your partner’s conduct to obtain a divorce ...
The Oregon Supreme Court recently reversed a decision of the Oregon Court of Appeals and determined that the lease of a vested hydroelectric water right to the state for instream uses did not qualify as the “use of water under a hydroelectric water right” under Oregon Revised Statute 543A.305(3). WaterWatch v. Oregon Water Resources Department, 369 Or. 71 (2021) (hereafter referred to as Warm Springs Hydro, after intervenor respondent Warm Springs Hydro LLC) ...
The Oregon Supreme Court recently reversed a decision of the Oregon Court of Appeals and determined that the lease of a vested hydroelectric water right to the state for instream uses did not qualify as the “use of water under a hydroelectric water right” under Oregon Revised Statute 543A.305(3). WaterWatch v. Oregon Water Resources Department, 369 Or. 71 (2021) (hereafter referred to as Warm Springs Hydro, after intervenor respondent Warm Springs Hydro LLC) ...
The possibility of having, in the short term, a new statute on personal data protection, which updates the current regulation of Law No. 19,628 on the protection of private life, is rather unlikely. Bulletin 11144-07, which modifies said Law, remains at the initial legislative stage in the Chamber of Origin, therefore it is not feasible to foresee the approval of this bill in the medium term. On the other hand, the recent publication of Law No ...
On January 4, 2022, 13 ministries and commissions, including the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (“CSRC”), jointly promulgated the Final Measures for Cybersecurity Review (the “Final Measures”). The Final Measures are binding and will become effective on February 15, 2022 ...
On January 4, 2022, 13 ministries and commissions, including the Cyberspace Administration of China (“CAC”) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (“CSRC”), jointly promulgated the Final Measures for Cybersecurity Review (the “Final Measures”). The Final Measures are binding and will become effective on February 15, 2022 ...
1. Introduction Law 2/2020 of 22 January (the “VideoSurveillance Law”) establishes the legal framework applicable to the authorisation, installation and use of video-surveillance systems for capturing, recording and processing images and sound. The law is based on a fundamental notion: security. There was a need to intervene by legislating on this matter to maintain public safety and to help all entities involved in matters of this nature ...
Intel Corp. v. Qualcomm Inc., Appeal Nos. 2020-1828, -1867 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 28, 2021) The Federal Circuit issued two precedential decisions this week—both arising from IPRs filed by Intel against patents owned by Qualcomm. In our Case of the Week, we focus on the first of those cases. In our Also This Week section below, we cover the second case ...
First of all, we are proud of Jan Magne Langseth and Christian Reusch who assisted Bank Norwegian in a principle matter before the Supreme Court of Norway between Ikano Bank et al versus Bank Norwegian. The case concerned the use of competitor’s brands in key word advertising on Google ...
Record number of fines in 2021 At European level, a record number of fines have been issued during 2021 for violating the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Since the GDPR entered into force in the EU on 25 May 2018, the supervisory authorities have imposed or notified fines in approx. 900 cases with an accumulated amount of approx. EUR 1.3 billion. As many as 500 of these cases are from 2021 with accumulated fines of as much as EUR 1 ...