Australia

Recent Articles

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  10/09/2024

  International

  CMS Annual Review of English Construction Law Developments: An International Perspective

  We are pleased to announce the publication of the 2024 edition of our internationally focused Annual Review of English Construction Law Developments. The Annual Review summarises key developments in English construction law over the previous calendar year including developments in related common law jurisdictions. The publication has been prepared with our international clients in mind and aims to provide a greater degree of background and analysis than our regular Law-Now alert service.This year’s edition has a strong focus on exclusion and limitation clauses, with more than half of the...

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  10/09/2024

  APAC region

  No room for ignorance: Singapore High Court clarifies directors’ duties

  Inter-Pacific Petroleum Pte Ltd (in liquidation) v Goh Jin Hian [2024] SGHC 178 In what could be seen as a wake-up call, the High Court of Singapore clarified the scope of director’s duties in Singapore, emphasizing the minimum standard of care required.BackgroundInter-Pacific Petroleum Pte Ltd (“IPP”), a petrochemical and ship bunkering company, was placed under judicial management in September 2019, and later liquidated in March 2021. IPP had borrowed over US$150 million to fund its cargo trading and bunkering transactions. These sums were never repaid to the banks. IPP’s...

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  30/08/2024

  Southeast Asia

  Malaysia’s new Cyber Security law takes effect

  Malaysia’s Cyber Security Act 2024 (Act 854) (“CSA”), which came into force on 26 August 2024, sets out the national cyber security compliance framework involving the newly established National cybersecurity Security Committee (“NCSC”), the Chief Executive of the National Cyber Security Agency (“Chief Executive”), national critical information infrastructure entities (“NCII Entities”) and cyber security service providers (“CSSPs”).Various regulations have been published alongside the CSA, including the following:Cyber Security (Compounding...

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  26/07/2024

  International

  EU AI Act – Focus on Enforcement: the EU governance structure

  On 1 August 2024, the Regulation laying down harmonised rules on Artificial Intelligence (AI Act) will enter into force. As a European regulation, the AI Act will apply directly in all 27 EU member states and is intended to make a significant contribution to achieving the European digital strategy (A Europe fit for the digital age). In this, the second article in our series on the implementation of the AI Act, we provide an overview of the European AI governance structure. Understanding this structure is important to understand the roles of the administrative bodies that will have oversight...

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  25/07/2024

  International

  EU anti-dumping investigations of Chinese glyoxylic acid imports

  On 25 July 2024, the EU opened an anti-dumping investigation concerning EU imports of glyoxylic acid originating in the People’s Republic of China, which could lead to substantial anti-dumping duties on future imports.The product under investigation for alleged dumping is glyoxylic acid (Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Number 298-12-4), of a purity of at least 95 % by dry weight, whether in solid form or as an aqueous solution with a concentration by weight higher than 40 % thereof.The product under investigation is currently classified under CN code ex 2918 30 00 (TARIC code 2918...

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  22/07/2024

  Australia and Southeast Asia

  Hong Kong’s incoming Security of Payment Regime

  Security of payment legislation to address improper payment practices in the Hong Kong construction industry is a step closer to implementation with the Construction Industry Security of Payment Bill (the “SOP Bill”) being gazetted on 17 May 2024 and introduced to the Legislative Council for its first reading on 29 May 2024. The SOP Bill has been developed to meet the specific needs of the Hong Kong construction industry. However, in concept it is broadly similar to established security of payment legislation that has been in effect for some years in other jurisdictions including...

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