Modern day company law has largely moved away from the concept of “ultra vires” which sought to limit the ability of a company to enter into transactions outside its stated objects. The British Virgin Islands officially moved away from the concept in 2005 pursuant to provisions under the BVI Business Companies Act ...
With greater emphasis being placed on employee wellbeing in recent times and in a bid to remain competitive in the market, some employers have sought to increase holiday entitlement and provide ‘unlimited’ annual leave each year. What does this mean? In theory, ‘unlimited’ holiday means employees can take as many paid days off work as they wish. In practice, however, it is not quite as straightforward as it sounds ...
Across the UK, local people are creating businesses that could revitalise town centres – repair and sharing spaces, community bakeries, climate action hubs, genuinely affordable housing – services that develop critical social, economic and climate resilient infrastructure. But a major barrier to their success is the lack of access to affordable, secure, long-term land and property ...
This week, Westlaw Today published an article by Dinsmore partner J.T. Wilson III about the generational shift in attitudes toward racial equity in light of George Floyd's death and about how business owners and employers must react accordingly ...
South Africa is in lockdown in the face of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, and although we aren’t able to meet face-to-face over this period, we know how important it is to stay in touch, and we will continue to keep you up-to-date on recent tax developments. In this regard, it feels like a lifetime ago that the South African Minister of Finance delivered his 2020 Budget Speech on 26 February 2020 ...
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) held two virtual briefing sessions in October 2021 and provided useful guidance on its newest climate-related risk management requirements for fund managers, as detailed in the Consultation Conclusions on the Management and Disclosure of Climate-related Risks by Fund Managers (with amendments to the Fund Manager Code of Conduct (FMCC)) and the Circular issued on 20 August 2021 ...
This sixth edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19 litigation, sees us reporting on many of the same types of cases. Consumers continue to seek refunds for goods and services that have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with colleges and universities being a particular target. Consumers also have targeted retailers for alleged price-gouging behavior ...
This 11th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, identifies news reports placing the number of COVID-19 filings at around 2,700, with insurance coverage disputes former the single largest category. And so unsurprisingly, one of the matters we report this week is the dispute over whether those insurance coverage disputes should be consolidated into multi-district litigation ...
This 12th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation brings new developments in labor and employment cases, consumer protection cases, and civil rights litigation. Price gouging and fraud for personal protective equipment (particularly N95 masks) remain major focuses, with manufacturers, retailers, and governments all taking action ...
This 13th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation brings new developments in everything from constitutional law to tort liability. Shutdown cases show no signs of slowing down, and it seems probable that more will follow as some states reverse reopening plans in response to coronavirus outbreaks ...
This 14th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, showcases new and evolving trends. Employers are facing claims for both doing too much and too little in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shutdown litigation is increasingly focusing on alleged disparate treatment between businesses and protesters, as well as broadening to encompass challenges to mask requirements ...
This 15th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, showcases new and evolving trends. This week we note how COVID-19 has accelerated a pre-existing trend toward class action litigation. And we discuss specific trends involving workplace safety, mask requirements, shutdown orders, quarantine enforcement, and prisoners’ rights. These cases, and others like them, show no signs of cooling down as the summer heats up ...
This seventh edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, sees a continuation of the trend we identified last week: shutdown challenges, workers' compensation claims, and wrongful death lawsuits have dominated the past week’s news cycle. We expect these latter two types of cases, which we consider more broadly as COVID-19 exposure cases, to pick up significantly as the country reopens over the next several weeks ...
This eighth edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, follows what we hope was a restful and meaningful Memorial Day weekend. For the third week in a row, shutdown challenges, workers' compensation claims, and wrongful death lawsuits have dominated the news cycle. But, we are also seeing a continuation in refund claims and an uptick in fraud claims involving everything from alleged misuse of sick days to corporate press releases ...
Our updates about “The REAL Trending Litigation Topics Regarding COVID-19” are now called Unprecedented to reflect the development and adaption of legal theories to address the unprecedented impact from COVID-19. Although the name is new, Unprecedented will continue to bring you the most up-to-date trends in COVID-19 litigation each week. With the first full month of government-imposed shutdowns behind them, some parts of the country are starting to gradually reopen ...
Unprecedented. Have you heard that word a lot in the past 4-5 months? Not surprisingly, the word ‘unprecedented’ is the default word to describe society’s reaction to COVID-19, its effects on our healthcare systems, our behaviours, our compliance (or not) with government directives and guidelines, and the impact to our economy and economic well-being. This is, in our lifetimes, the most rapid response to a threat on a global level ...
This fall, an outbreak of lung illnesses allegedly related to vaping ignited public hysteria and legislative reactions in many states. The vaping and cannabis industries are already paying, and will continue to pay, high reputational and policy costs associated with these events, and the industries should also be aware that the widespread nature of reported injuries could lead to a substantial amount of costly mass tort litigation ...
The Home Office has announced changes to employer right to work checks, effective 6 April 2022 that all employers must be aware of. Carrying out right to work checks is an essential part of the recruitment process and it is important that employers are always up to date with any changes in this area. At present, employers must ask new recruits for physical evidence of their right to work in the UK, such as a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) ...
GERMAN GOVERNMENT INTENDS TO INCREASE HURDLES FOR ACQUIRING GERMAN COMPANIES IN STRATEGICALLY IMPORTANT BUSINESS SECTORS On April 8, 2020, the German government adopted the draft bill of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs to amend the Foreign Trade and Payments Act (Außenwirtschaftsgesetz, AWG) ...
There are several upcoming events and deadlines that are relevant to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (“OSHA”) “large employer” emergency temporary standard (the “ETS”), which require businesses with 100 or more employees to adopt a policy that either (1) requires all employees to be vaccinated, unless otherwise entitled to a medical, disability, or religious accommodation, or (2) requires all unvaccinated employees to be maske
During the US President’s visit to Brussels, President Biden and President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated on Friday 25 March that the parties have agreed on the main principles of a new agreement on the protection of personal data transferred to the United States. While a concrete agreement text has not yet been published, the US White House has published a Fact Sheet explaining the key principles to be expected in the final framework ...
UPDATE: On December 21, 2015, Common Pleas Judge Joseph James struck down the employee sick leave ordinance, ruling that Pittsburgh’s City Council lacked authority to “to enact any ordinance determining any duty, responsibility or requirement of a business or private employer.” The ordinance would have required employers of more than 15 employees to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year and smaller employers to offer up to 24 hours of paid sick leave ...
Every year, several judgments are rendered in penal law cases involving occupational health and safety issues. However, judgments in an occupational health and safety context resulting from the laying of criminal negligence charges are more rare. While the sections of the Criminal Code1 which facilitate the filing of criminal negligence charges are now ten years old2, criminal negligence convictions in Quebec based on breaches of section 217 ...
Under Israeli law, the employment of a foreign employee who is not a citizen or resident of Israel is a criminal offense, except if the person requesting to employ the foreign employee received a special permit from the Population and Immigration Authority (the "Authority") pursuant to the Foreign Workers Law, 5751-1991 ...
