“Commercial Awareness Is Global.”
By: Ainsley Brown The Indian newsprint industry is thriving despite the general global trend for decline in this industry and the global recession. It could even be said that part of the industries success could even be attributed to the global recession itself. So what’s behind the success? There are four interrelated reasons for the industry’s tremendous success in India. The
By: Ainsley Brown It has been reported in the Times that ¨up to 5, 000 British investors have an estimated £3 billion stashed away in secret accounts in Liechtenstein. It is a good thing then, well good from the perspective of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), that Liechtenstein and the UK Government have reached an agreement on the sharing of
By: Ainsley Brown This is part of the Middle Passage Law Series on Law is Cool. Why am I wearing all black today? Am I in mourning? No, not exactly. Then why? Well it is August 1: Emancipation Day. I am wearing black today not to so much mourn but to remember. To remember that it was today 175 years
By: Ainsley Brown The shareholders of Northern Rock, lead by hedge funds SRM Global and RAB Capital, have lost their judicial review appeal at the Court of Appeal this week. This ruling should end the saga of the shareholders´ attempting to use human rights law in order to gain – to their mind – just compensation from the nationalization of
By: Ainsley Brown Anti-dumping investigations rose by more than 25% in 2008 over the previous year, says the World Trade Organization (WTO). The 2008 numbers, 208 in total, are to be contrasted with the peak of 366 in 2001 and the eleven year low of 2007 of only 163. It will be interesting to see what the numbers will be
By: Ainsley Brown The African Development Bank (AfDB) has engineered a legal support wing charged with the responsibility of evening out the imbalance in legal expertise that many African nations face when negotiating complex commercial transactions. It will also serve as a necessary firewall for these nations by providing top notch legal advocacy when facing litigation, especially from vulture funds.
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: Ainsley Brown A potential GreenTech war is brewing between Japan and China, location Bolivia. The salt flats of Bolivia´s Salar De Uyuni, where most recent James Bond movie was shot (Quantum of Solace) seems like the most unlikely place for a green technology war, much less one between Japan and China. However, it very much is. Both countries through
By: Ainsley Brown The question that faces Australian securities regulators is what to do about two or more Chinese state owned enterprises together owing substantial shareholdings in an Australian company? At first blush it would appear that this is a case of China take over fear, however there is much more to the story than this. Indeed, there is a
By: Ainsley Brown The world economic down turn has had many knock on effects, many of which unexpected. It seems that bad times has the uncanny effect of making the once unthinkable, unsayable and undoable all very much possible. The Swiss banking model can be best characterized with one word: Secrecy. This don’t ask don’t tell attitude is more than