Anti-bribery & Corruption

Recent Articles

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  14.03.2023

  China

  China has ac­ceded to the Hag­ue Con­ven­tion of 5 Oc­to­ber 1961 Ab­ol­ish­ing the Re­quire­ment of Leg­al­isa­tion for For­eign Pub­lic Doc­u­ments

  On 8 March 2023, the People's Republic of China (the "PRC") has (finally!) acceded to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (the "Convention").The Convention between the PRC, as the acceding state, and other member states (which will not have raised an objection; see below) will enter into force as of 7 November 2023.This constitutes a long-awaited and very positive development.Please click here to read the full article.

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  07.02.2023

  United Kingdom

  HM­RC up­date guid­ance on wheth­er off­shore unit trusts are re­quired to re­gister on the Trust Re­gis­tra­tion Ser­vice

  HMRC have updated their Trust Registration Service (“TRS”) manual to state that unauthorised unit trusts (such as JUTs and GUTs) will need to consider whether they are required to register trust details on the TRS. Previous guidance stated that “unit trusts both authorised and unauthorised are not required to register”. We understand that the reason for this change is that, previously, HMRC had considered unit trusts not to be “express trusts”. If trustees have no UK tax liability, they will only be required to register trust details on the TRS if the trust is...

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  05.01.2023

  United Kingdom

  Im­port­ant dead­line im­min­ent for Eco­nom­ic Crime Act

  Summary The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 has set up a new Companies House register for overseas entities that own certain property registered at the Land Registry in England and Wales or the Land Registers of Scotland or Northern Ireland. The Companies House register contains information about the entity and its beneficial owners and the Act impacts on real estate transactions and their registration. There is an important deadline on 31 January 2023 for applications to Companies House to register on the new register and failure to do so may lead to criminal penalties....

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  04.01.2023

  Ukraine

  Ukraine amends pro­ced­ure for se­lec­tion of Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court judges

  On 13 December 2022, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a new law that amends the selection procedure of candidates for Constitutional Court judges and establishes the Advisory Group to conduct candidate evaluations. The law came into force on 23 December 2022. The Advisory Group is a body, which evaluates the moral qualities and legal competence of judicial candidates, and decides on whether to recommend a candidate for a position on the Constitutional Court. Only recommended candidates can be appointed to the Constitutional Court’s bench. According to the law, Advisory Group members must...

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  03.01.2023

  Ukraine

  Ukraine li­quid­ates con­tro­ver­sial Ky­iv Dis­trict Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court

  On 13 December 2022, the Ukrainian parliament adopted the Law of Ukraine “On Liquidation of the District Administrative Court of the City of Kyiv and Establishment of the Kyiv City District Administrative Court” (the “Law”), which was signed by the President of Ukraine and came into force on 15 December 2022. The District Administrative Court of Kyiv has thus been disempowered, and its judges are no longer entitled to carry out justice. Cases that fall under the jurisdiction of the city of Kyiv should further be considered by the newly established Kyiv City District Administrative...

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  10.08.2022

  United Kingdom

  Up­com­ing dead­line for re­gis­ter­ing non-tax­able trusts on HM­RC’s Trust Re­gis­tra­tion Ser­vice

  Trustees should be aware that the deadline for registering certain express non-taxable trusts on HMRC’s Trust Registration Service (“TRS”) is now round the corner. The obligation to register has a significant look-back period – in some cases, non-taxable trusts which were in existence on 6 October 2020 must be registered – so it may not be immediately obvious to trustees that they need to engage with the TRS. Particularly of note will be that the deadline for registering: in-scope non-taxable UK trusts which were in existence on 6 October 2020, or which were established...

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