Publications
It is an integral part of our business to alert our clients to new legislation and case law that may affect their business. As part of this service, we provide a range of legal publications and updates across practice, industry and geographical areas.
You can use the search box on the right to conduct a full-text search of all the client publications and newsletters (in pdf format) on our website.
Most of the publications here can be viewed immediately, but in some cases you will need to order a publication by placing a tick beside its title, and filling in and submitting the form at the bottom of the page.
Briefings
Here you can find briefings, guides and information cards on a range of topics of interest to our clients.
Newsletters
Many of our practice and industry teams produce regular newsletters to keep clients up to date with legal developments in their area.
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Recent publications in English
| Date | Title | Group | Language |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31/1/2012 | Insurance and reinsurance news: January 2012 | Tax; Financial institutions | English |
HM Treasury (HMT) has been consulting on substantial UK tax law changes to be introduced in 2013 in two areas relevant to insurance groups. The first is the taxation of controlled foreign companies (CFCs). The existing CFC regime has been blamed for several UK-headquartered insurance groups leaving the UK. HMT hopes that changes to the system will reverse this trend and encourage groups to relocate their headquarters to the UK, as Aon has recently done. The second is the taxation of life assurance business. The current tax system relies on regulatory returns, which following the implementation of Solvency II will not provide the necessary information. The current life tax system must therefore be overhauled. In December 2011 and on 31 January 2012 further papers and draft legislation were published in respect of these two topics. Consultation is ongoing and therefore this newsletter summarises key points, rather than describing the detail of the draft legislation. (January 2012) | |||
| 25/1/2012 | Directors’ remuneration – the government’s proposals for reform | Employment, pensions and benefits; Corporate | English |
The government has announced proposals that will make significant changes to the governance and disclosure of directors’ pay. Taken together, we think the proposals are pretty sensible, though their success depends on shareholders becoming more activist on director pay issues. But there is room for improvement – for example, having to boil down the value of each director’s package to one figure will grab a headline, but isn’t necessarily useful information for shareholders. Although the full details will not be available until the spring, this briefing summarises the proposals and our views on a number of the key issues. (January 2012) | |||
| 25/1/2012 | Belgian competition law report: Issue 32 | General | English |
| 23/1/2012 | Insurance brokers entitled to receive commission payments | Dispute Resolution | English |
The Hong Kong Court of First Instance has upheld the long-established common law position that commissions paid by insurers to insurance brokers do not constitute an illegal secret profit unless it is in excess of what is normally paid within the insurance market. In this briefing, we look at the implications of this decision for insurance companies and agents. (January 2012) | |||
| 20/12/2011 | Insurance and reinsurance news: December 2011 | Financial institutions; Dispute Resolution | English |
In this newsletter we give an update on progress with the Solvency II project. The project is intended to create a new regime for the prudential regulation of insurance in the European Economic Area. We have described it in general terms in our client guide Solvency II: the new prudential regime for the insurance industry. | |||
| 20/12/2011 | Government and utility buying – a new approach | Dispute Resolution | English |
Today, the European Commission published proposals to reform the procurement regime with new directives for public contracts, utilities and concession contracts. The proposals are the culmination of reports and consultations recently conducted by the Commission with a view to increasing the efficiency of public spending and maximising value for money. In this briefing we highlight seven features of these proposals. The first six apply to the public sector and utilities, unless otherwise stated. The last addresses the concessions proposal. | |||
| 16/12/2011 | European market abuse news: Winter 2011 | Dispute Resolution; Financial institutions | English |
This fourth issue of our European market abuse newsletter focuses on the proposals to replace Directive 2003/6/EC on insider dealing and market manipulation (MAD) published by the European Commission on 20 October this year. We summarise the key issues of the proposals from an enforcement perspective and then consider the comparative effect of the proposals on enforcement of market abuse in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. | |||
| 15/12/2011 | Indochina notes: December 2011 | Corporate; Infrastructure and transport | English |
Legal updates on investment, infrastructure and finance | |||
| 13/12/2011 | Reform of the EU Takeover Directive and of German Takeover Law | Corporate | English |
In autumn 2010, the European Commission commissioned a "Study on the Application of Directive 2004/25/EC" based on the revision clause in Article 20 of the EU Takeover Directive. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer wants to support the European reform discussion and has developed an expert survey in this context. In August/September 2011, 375 experts were asked about their general opinion of the European takeover market and about specific legal aspects of national takeover law. The report presents the result of this expert survey. (November 2011) | |||
| 9/12/2011 | Perspectives on the GAAR report: is a clearance procedure needed? | Tax - External publication | English |
This article was published in Tax Journal. (December 2011) | |||