“Commercial Awareness Is Global.”
By: Ainsley Brown Four white farmers who had their farms unlawfully seized under the regime of President Robert Mugabe are to seek by all accounts gain compensation in South Africa. A South African court has ruled recently that the farmers have the right to seek out and seize Zimbabwean government property in South Africa. The North Gauteng High Court ruled
By: Ainsley Brown While terrorism, terror financing and constitutional principles such as the rule of law and Parliamentary supremacy are not the usual subjects covered here at Commercial Law International, this seeming break from tradition is in fact not such a stretch. As our moniker indicates Commercial Awareness is Global – it is important to note and as will soon
By: Ainsley Brown The UK taxman is now using YouTube to get its message across. I mean literally the “UK Taxman” – Permanent Secretary for Tax in HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), Dave Hartnett. And what is his message. Well you guessed it, pay your taxes or else. Yes I know, that’s just a little bit too simplistic but it
By: Ainsley Brown The Russian Federal Customs Service has dropped its $22.5 billion suit against Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), the world’s largest custodian of assets. Yes, you read that correctly that 22.5 Billion with a B. The suit was brought by the Russian Federal Customs Service in 2007 alleging that BNY was at the centre of illegal money
By: Ainsley Brown A 47 year old former engineer from the Ford Motor Company has been charged with stealing some of the company’s trade secrets. The engineer, a one Xiang Dong Yu, also known as Mike Yu, was charged last week after traveling from China to the US. Mr. Yu is accused of unauthorized computer access; theft, and attempted theft
By: Ainsley Brown The first prosecution under the UK’s Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 has been adjourned until October. The Act seeks to make convictions of companies with respect to deaths at the workplace much easier. Under English law a corporation as a juridical person is capable of both committing and being convicted of crimes. However, as an
By: Ainsley Brown UBS, the world´s largest wealth manager, has found itself embroiled in a diplomatic row between Washington and Bern. At issue is the interpretation of the current US-Swiss double taxation treaty and at stake is the newly inked, yet to be ratified, revised US-Swiss double taxation treaty. Does the future of the revised US-Swiss double taxation treaty depend
By Charles Wanguhu The doctrine of Forum non conveniens offers a court the opportunity to decline, in the interest of justice, to exercise jurisdiction, where the suit is between aliens or nonresidents, or where for kindred reasons the litigation can more appropriately be conducted in a foreign tribunal. Placing the above in context, what is Kenya’s interest in a British
By Charles Wanguhu The above move by the Kenyan freedom fighters to sue the British government has elicited some very interesting responses from some readers of the times online paper: This is all about money and bashing the UK. Africa does not want to take responsibility for its current problems Also if this happened in the 50’s so why have
By: Ainsley Brown The House of Lords, with its Judicial Council of the Privy Council hat on, as Jamaica´s court of final appeal, handed down a judgment that is set to have repercussions well beyond the interests of the parties involved. In fact the consequences of his judgment go beyond just banking or investing but engages commercial dispute resolution, specifically