From Land’s End to John O’Groats, roving reporters, tabloid writers and broadsheet columnists, have been riding on the wave of the new freedom of information acts. As a result of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, and its UK counterpart, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the public now has a statutory right to recorded information held by most public sector bodies. Although the new right only came into force on 1 January 2005, its effect is retrospective ...
The first legal issue to consider is whether your company has the power to carry out non-commercial dealings such as making political or charitable donations. The company's constitution should be reviewed to ensure the company is expressly empowered to make such donations. If no express power exists you could consider putting a relevant amendment of the constitution to a shareholders' vote ...
Despite rumours from Westminster that the Pensions Bill was to be dropped to make room for the anti-fox hunting Bill, it looks certain that the Pensions Bill will finally receive Royal Assent in November. In its final form, the Bill now extends to over 350 pages. Those looking for simplification will be disappointed to say the least ...
In November the UK government bowed to pressure from unions and bereaved relatives and announced its intention to produce a draft bill on corporate killing for England and Wales. This bill, if successful, would have enabled companies to be prosecuted for management failures that resulted in a person's death. No such government bill has however, been forthcoming. Nor is it likely that any such government bill will appear before the 2005 general election ...
Introduction Advocate General Jacobs, in delivering his Opinion in Syfait and others v Glaxosmithkline (Case C-53/03, 28 October 2004), has found in favour of Glaxosmithkline (GSK) by stating that the refusal by a dominant pharmaceutical company to fulfil all orders from wholesalers does not automatically constitute an abuse of a dominant position, despite such refusal clearly limiting parallel trade of the products in question ...
This article is intended to provide some solutions on how to reduce the amount of parallel imports of your products into Ireland without breaching European law. Parallel trade of products occurs within the European Union (EU) as EU legislation provides for the free movement of goods within the EU. This rule frequently results in products being imported from cheaper countries within the EU (for example Greece) to more expensive countries within the EU (for example Ireland) ...
This will depend on how much money you are trying to raise and the number of people to whom you intend to offer the shares. The biggest change to the current AIM prospectus will occur if you are raising more than EUR 2.5 million (about £1.7 million) and you are offering shares to more than 100 people. If that is the case, the prospective directive (PD) will apply and the company will need to produce a PD prospectus ...
With more than 13 million working days a year lost to stress at an estimated cost of £3.8 billion to the economy, managing employees’ anxiety levels has never been more important Although the figure of half a million workers in the UK experiencing work-related stress at intolerable levels appears manageable, this is really only the tip of the iceberg with up to five million people feeling 'very' or 'extremely' stressed by work ...
Foreign arbitral awards and court judgments in Lithuania may be enforced only after having been recognised and authorised for enforcement by the Court of Appeals of Lithuania, an authority empowered by the State to recognise awards/judgments and authorise their enforcement ...
The year 2004 saw increased M&A activity in the Ukrainian banking sector. Some of the notable acquisitions include equity transfers in Kredit Bank (to PKO Bank Polski S.A.), Transbank (to Bank TuranAlem of Kazakhstan),Bank Leader (to Renaissance Capital of Russia), and, of course, the benchmark deal of the year — acquisitionby Vilniaus Bankas, a Lithuanian subsidiary of the powerful SEB Group of Sweden, of the Joint Stock Bank Agio ...
After long years of fierce debate, the Kyoto Protocol finally came into force on 16 February 2005, imposing obligations on states parties to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. This article takes a look at the background to the Protocol, and the many new and varied opportunities for businesses in Scotland and across the globe. The Protocol itself was adopted at the Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Kyoto on 11 December 1997 ...
Limited Companies (LCs) and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) are corporate structures that exist as separate legal entities and afford members limited liability. LCs and LLPs can enter into contracts, hold property, sue and be sued, grant fixed and floating charges and are subject to similar disclosure, accounting and filing requirements. The main distinction between them is that while an LC is treated as a taxable entity an LLP’s members are taxed as individuals ...
What is State Aid? The State aid rules seek to control the aid or assistance which is provided by EU Member States to businesses. Article 87 of the EC Treaty states that “any aid granted by a Member State or through State resources in any form whatsoever” is incompatible with the common market. The Commission and the European Court of Justice have a considerable discretion in determining what amounts to State aid and have given the term a wide definition ...
Outsourcing is not a new phenomenon. As business processes become more complex and costly many Irish companies are concentrating on their core activities and handing over responsibility for running expensive systems and managing large numbers of employees to expert third parties, for an agreed price. Irish companies are also increasingly outsourcing for strategic reasons, looking to leverage the specialist expertise of service providers to open new product and market opportunities ...
In part two of his article on Near and Offshore Outsourcings Dominic Conlon of A&L Goodbody sets out a list of issues which should be considered by any company looking to outsource its service requirements to a provider based in a foreign jurisdiction ...
2004 has again been a very busy year on the M&A and Corporate Finance front, with the building materials, financial services, media and the property sectors dominating. The take private arena has been particularly active. Having been privatised in 2002, eircom was floated again earlier in the year with a market capitalisation of €1.1 billion ...
The article appeared in the 2005 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Environment Law; published and reproduced with kind permission of Global Legal Group Ltd, London ...
The EU Directives on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and the Restriction of certain Hazardous Substances in Electronic and Electrical Equipment (ROHS) are due to take effect from 13 August 2005. The Department of the Environment recently produced draft regulations to implement these directives and make the necessary amendments to existing waste legislation ...
Under the current law, for an organisation to be liable for a fatality the 'identification' principle must apply. This first requires an individual to be personally guilty of the wrongdoing. This individual must then be identified as the "controlling mind" of the company. There are several problems with the current system. It is often impossible to identify the "controlling mind" behind the decision which results in the death ...
Enron, WorldCom, Tyco International and Parmalat: names associated with tales of corruption, mismanagement and financial irregularity. But these names are now also synonymous with something else: a raft of reforms to company regulation worldwide. Two such reforms being felt in the UK are the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004, and the FTSE Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) Corporate Governance Index Series ...
In this edition - Corporate Manslaughter Bill Moves Closer to Reality - Are You Relying on Existing Rights of Drainage to Service Your Development? - Does Your Architect Know He is Working for Free? - SDLT on Development Agreements - Equity Share Mortgages - Tree Huggers - Use Classes Order
Inheritance tax is often assumed to be a rich man's concern, but the recent housing boom means that this is no longer the case. The sharp rise in house prices has completely outpaced tax thresholds, meaning that there has been a huge increase in the number of families who could face large bills for Inheritance Tax (IHT) when the homeowner dies ...
This article, published in International Corporate Governance Review (published by Euromoney Yearbooks), aims to provide an overview of what the Baltic States are offering to owners of capital in regard of effective control over invested capital, its use, disposal and return. Accession of three Baltic States to the EU and NATO in 2004 proves the reliable status of these countries for foreign partners and makes no doubt regarding the guaranteed protection of investments made in this region ...
In case of a dispute arising between the parties, it may be advisable initially to solve it without the recourse to the courts, i.e. through sending a letter - claim or a warning, signing the court approved settlement agreement, obtaining an executive record of the notary public according to promissory notes or cheques, whether protested or not, or by seeking compromise through negotiations, etc. If the parties fail to solve a dispute amicably, the dispute may be referred to the courts ...
