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Recent Articles

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  30.05.2023

  UAE

  UAE Se­cur­it­ies and Com­mod­it­ies Au­thor­ity in­tro­duces two new vir­tu­al as­set reg­u­la­tions

  The UAE has seen a number of developments in the virtual assets space over the last 18 months, including the UAE designating the Securities Commodities Authority (“SCA”) as the UAE’s federal regulator for virtual asset service Operators (“VASP”) (see our summary here). In addition to this, there has also been the introduction of a virtual assets regime in the Emirate of Dubai and the establishment of the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (“VARA”), which, through the delegation by the SCA pursuant to Cabinet Decision 111 and 112,  is the regulatory...

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  26.05.2023

  International

  Per­form­ing ser­vices in a de­cent­ral­ised man­ner un­der Mi­CAR

  At the end of April 2023, the European parliament decided on a uniform regulation of crypto assets across the EU by voting on the MiCA regulation (i.e. markets in crypto-assets). The intended innovations are "explosive" for activities related to crypto assets, in particular if they were not yet regulated in Germany where the legislator had provisions already in place, which are similar to those under MiCAR.MiCAR regulates a broad range of crypto-asset services and requests providers to obtain a license from the competent authorities (e.g. BaFin in Germany). It is therefore crucial to identify MiCAR's...

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  25.05.2023

  International

  North Sea Strikes and Force Ma­jeure

  The latest in a series of strikes by oil & gas workers in the North Sea continues to test the operation and efficacy of force majeure (“FM”) provisions in oil and gas industry contracts.There is no single “industry standard” FM clause, and so each contractual FM clause must be carefully considered in its contractual context to determine how it operates.With many North Sea oil and gas industry contracts based on industry model forms, such as LOGIC and OEUK (formerly OGUK), we consider below the impact of the recent (and proposed) North Sea strike actions.  A review...

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  24.05.2023

  International

  De­Fi and MiCA: How much de­cent­ral­isa­tion is enough?

  The European Union Council has recently adopted a regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) that applies to crypto-assets, their issuers and service providers, and covers a range of services that are not addressed in the European financial regulation.However, for blockchain-based financial services developed in a highly automated manner with minimal or no intermediaries (commonly known as Decentralised Finance or DeFi) determining whether the MiCA regulation covers these services is not a straightforward task. This issue particularly challenges the provision of crypto-asset exchange services...

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  16.05.2023

  International

  In­ter­na­tion­al De­vel­op­ments in Pri­vacy En­han­cing Tech­no­lo­gies (PETs)

  In March the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (“OECD”) became the latest in a long line of organisations / public bodies to publish a report (Emerging privacy enhancing technologies: Maturity, opportunities and challenges (oecd-ilibrary.org)) focused on the benefits of PETs (the technology tool, rather than furry kind).  The OECD report reviews recent technological advancements and evaluates the effectiveness of different types of PETs, as well as the challenges and opportunities they present. It also outlines current regulatory and policy approaches to PETs,...

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  09.05.2023

  International

  Oil & Gas and Geo­therm­al: like steam, the oil & gas in­dustry could rise to the oc­ca­sion

  With a significant number of industry conferences targeting geothermal being held around the world this year, the oil & gas industry is starting to recognise the potential of geothermal as an energy source where the technical, commercial, financial and legal challenges are very similar to (and the associated experiences are readily transferrable from) oil & gas projects.As has been seen with wind and solar (and now hydrogen and carbon capture), the decades of experience in engineering and project management of oil & gas companies is showing its worth in the transition to clean energy...

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