South Africa

Recent Articles

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  13/05/2024

  South Africa

  An overview of the proposed JSE Market Segmentation Project

  IntroductionThe Johannesburg Stock Exchange (the "JSE") has seen an uptick in delisting transactions across various sectors in recent years. Various reasons have been cited as driving this trend, including the cost of compliance associated with being listed on the JSE. On 18 April 2024, the JSE published a notice announcing various proposed amendments to the JSE Listings Requirements ("Listings Requirements") as part of their market segmentation project. It appears that these proposed amendments are aimed at reducing the legal and administrative requirements imposed in connection with certain corporate...

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  07/05/2024

  International

  Energy and climate change: The most significant climate change litigation decision yet?

  In Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland (application no. 53600/20), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued arguably the most impactful and far-reaching ruling on climate change by any European court. The decision has the potential to impact individuals, businesses, and governments in a radical way by casting the law (and courts) rather than governments (and parliaments) as the ultimate body responsible for deciding whether public authority action and inaction are appropriate in the context of climate change. Furthermore, if NGOs determine that a public authority...

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  03/05/2024

  South Africa

  Access to the beneficial ownership register

  IntroductionFollowing the coming into effect of the General Laws of the Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting Terrorism Financing Amendment Act, 22 of 2022 ("GLA 2022"), companies and close corporations have had to familiarise themselves with the requirements of the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission ("CIPC") requiring them to keep beneficial ownership information and, in certain circumstances, to file such information with the CIPC.The keeping of beneficial ownership information was initially meant to serve as a repository of natural persons who own or exercise control over legal entities...

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  29/04/2024

  International

  On your radar | Key employment issues to be aware of internationally

  We are delighted to share with you our latest and largest edition of On Your Radar, with contributions from 35 countries. As ever, you will find employment law updates covering a diverse range of topical developments, for example:Several countries report changes to their rules on hiring foreign workers – Hungary, Serbia and Romania.Belgium explains that companies with over 50 employees must appoint a person of trust who plays an important role in protecting employees against psychosocial risks in the workplace including sexual harassment. At a time when employers are looking for ways...

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  18/04/2024

  International

  Transforming the Legal Landscape? The Impact of LLMs

  Large Language Models (LLMs) are a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that can generate human-like text based on deep learning techniques. LLMs are trained on massive amounts of textual data, such as books, articles, and websites, and learn to recognise patterns, structures, and relationships within the data. By doing so, they develop the ability to produce text on various topics. The presence of LLMs in the legal sector is increasing and, with this, the ability of lawyers to understand and use LLMs in providing quality advice to their clients is becoming more important. CMS have a dedicated...

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  12/04/2024

  International

  Oil & Gas: English court restrains foreign JOA proceedings in breach of arbitration provision

  In The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited v Sunlink Energies and Resources Limited [2023] EWHC 3135 (Comm), the English Commercial Court demonstrated its willingness to ensure that a joint operating agreement’s arbitration provisions were preserved, and backed by real action by the court for a party seeking to circumvent them.BackgroundThe claimant, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (“SPDC”), and the defendant, Sunlink Energies and Resources Limited (“Sunlink”), were parties to a 2005 Joint Operating Agreement (the “JOA”)...

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