The Serbian Government has taken first steps of implementing a new court system with the passing of a new Law on Seats, Jurisdictions of Courts and Public Prosecution Offices (Official Gazette RS no. 101/2013), and amendments to the Law on Organisation of Courts (Official Gazette RS no. 116/2008, 104/2009, 101/2010, 31/2011, 78/2011 101/2011, 101/2013), which came into force on 1 January 2014 ...
The dispute resolution terms of engineering contracts can cause problems. An example is the recent case of Tubular Holdings (Pty) Ltd v DBT Technologies (Pty) Ltd, an unreported decision of South Gautend High Court. DBT Technologies - a subcontractor to Eskom in the Kusile Project 0 further contracted to Tubular Holdings in a deal worth some R 1.3 billion. Contract FIDIC's clause 20 governs the dispute resolution procedure. Clause 20 ...
Effective January 1, 2014, the International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”) replaced its Amicable Dispute Resolution rules with new Mediation Rules. The new ICC Mediation Rules (the “Rules”) set clear parameters for mediating disputes, while also providing for additional flexible procedures that allow the parties to resolve their disputes privately and confidentially ...
A New York appellate court affirmed in Syracuse Univ. v. National Union Fire Ins. Co., CA 13-01056, (N.Y. Sup. Ct. App. Div. Dec. 27, 2013), that an insurer must pay the costs incurred by its policyholder to comply with subpoenas issued to the policyholder as part of a criminal investigation, even where formal charges are not filed ...
Sierra Club v. Bostick (W.D. Oklahoma) In June 2012, environmental groups filed suit in the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma challenging the US Army Corps of Engineers’ issuance of Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12 for utility line projects, and use of NWP 12 for the Keystone Pipeline Gulf Coast Project.Sierra Club v. Bostick, 5:12-cv-00742-R (W.D. Oklahoma) ...
In the United States, new rules will soon be taking effect making consideration of vapour intrusion risk a mandatory step in the Phase I environmental site assessment (ESA) process. Companies should review their real estate portfolios and consider whether properties may be at risk. In Canada, mortgage financing and asset sales are expected to be affected by the new diligence standard (that includes checking for vapour intrusion risks) in the near future ...
In Ass’n For Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., the Supreme Court held that "a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated, but that cDNA is patent eligible because it is not naturally occurring." 133 S. Ct. 1207 (2013). Further, fragments that are "indistinguishable from natural DNA" are not statutory subject matter. Id., 2119 ...
On January 2, the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its first civil enforcement action of 2014 — a consummated merger challenge and settlement resulting from Heraeus Electro-Nite’s (Heraeus’s) $42 million acquisition of Midwest Instrument Company Inc. (Minco). The enforcement action is the latest DOJ challenge to a merger not required to be reported to the US antitrust agencies under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ...
On 22 November 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rendered two very important rulings in the Medeva (C-322/10) and Georgetown (C-422/10) cases. Those rulings however raised new issues that national patent courts quickly referred back to the Court. Yesterday, the CJEU decided on three Medeva follow-up cases. The new rulings brought more clarity about the conditions under which an SPC may be granted ...
The federal Endangered Species Act is designed to prevent the taking of endangered species and imposes a regulatory program geared toward the protection and conservation of federally listed species and their critical habitat ...
In 2012 the Western Cape High Court handed down a trade mark judgement that raised eyebrows. The facts were that the owner of a farm called Zonquasdrift had a trade mark registration for the mark Zonquasdrift covering wine (but not grapes). The owner of another farm in the area sold wine grapes under its name, Zonquasdrif Vineyards (no ‘t’ at the end) ...
The authorities seem to have gone on the offensive on the issue of counterfeits. In the run-up to Christmas, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has called on South Africans not to buy counterfeit goods, even if they are cheaper than the originals (as they invariably are) ...
A Pennsylvania appellate court in Indalex, Inc. v. National Union Fire Ins. Co., No. 612 WDA 2012 (Dec. 3, 2013), found that a general liability insurer must defend a window and door manufacturer against claims alleging that defects in the manufacturer’s windows and doors caused damage to property and bodily injuries ...
Institutional Shareholder Services ("ISS") recently announced its updated voting policies for the 2014 proxy season. The policies will become effective for shareholder meetings held on or after February 1, 2014. We have summarized below four policy updates relating to corporate governance matters that may be of particular interest to US corporations. Simplified Pay-for-Performance Executive Evaluation ISS revised its policy relating to executive pay-for-performance evaluations ...
THE 1979 STATUTE It is well known that, under the legal regime for the protection of agricultural lands, the acquisition of agriculturally zoned lands with a surface area of four hectares or more by a person not residing in Quebec is subject to the authorization of the Commission de protection des terres agricoles. This is the object of the Act respecting the acquisition of farm land by non-residents (CQLR chapter A-4.1) (the “Act”), which has been in force since December 21, 1979 ...
Purchasers and lessees of commercial or industrial properties know to obtain Phase I environmental site assessments to identify the presence of contamination - so-called recognized environmental conditions (RECs) - because of the very substantial liabilities these conditions may create. And their lenders generally require them. The industry standard for Phase I’s is based on EPA regulations that flesh out Superfund’s “all appropriate inquiry (AAI)” standard ...
In 2010, the New York State Bar Association’s (NYSBA) Task Force on New York Law in International Matters (Task Force) recommended the creation of a permanent center for international dispute resolution in New York.1 And on June 17, 2013, the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC), a non-profit providing world-class arbitration facilities and educational programs about international arbitration, opened its doors ...
Introduction Last week, the federal government took a big step toward bringing the Fisheries Act (Canada) and its application into line with the federal government’s responsible resource development plan ...
The European Parliament’s Auken Report made it clear that Spain is coming up short as far as protecting its coastline is concerned. Application of Coastal Law 22/1988, of July 28, 1988, fast-tracked in recent years, not only brought with it no little confusion for all concerned, it also failed to contribute to the protection of the coastline, which clearly leaves a great deal to be desired along certain stretches of the Spanish coast ...
On 3 October 2013, DG Environment of the European Commission published its final report following the public consultation on ‘Unconventional fossil fuels’ (e.g. shale gas). Since this is an important stage in the legislative process, the purpose of this note is to provide you with a brief outline of its findings and follow up. Importantly, the European Commission has announced that in December 2013 the impact assessment will follow ...
On December 2, 2013 the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in BG Group v. Argentina, addressing for the first time the applicable rules when a US court reviews an international arbitral award made under a bilateral investment treaty. This case has earned the attention of the international arbitration community, given its potential impact on future arbitral practice in the United States and abroad ...
Background Following a recent YouGov survey's finding that 85 per cent of SMEs in the UK have been affected by late payments over the past two years, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that the UK government is to launch a consultation this year to examine ways of reducing this problem, and find solutions to ensure payments are made more timeously to SMEs by larger companies ...
In a highly-anticipated and extremely significant pair of decisions for businesses and consumers alike, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) ruled on Thursday (October 31, 2013) that the ultimate consumers at the end of a supply chain can effectively leap-frog the supply chain by having direct legal recourse in a class action against a manufacturer who illegally overcharged for the product supplied ...
