Legal News

Brown v Ridley [2025] UKSC 7 Background This case concerns adverse possession. Mr Brown holds the registered title to a parcel of land situated to the west of the Promenade in Consett, County Durham, acquired in September 2002 (the ' Brown land'). Mr and Mrs Ridley are the registered proprietors of an adjoining plot of land, purchased in July 2004 (' Valley View'). An earlier proprietor of Valley View put up a fence and planted a hedge along a line they thought marked the boundary between the Brown land and Valley View; the parties now accept that this line in fact enclosed a portion of the registered Brown land as registered, referred to as the 'disputed land'. The Ridleys initially treated the disputed land as part of their garden and later incorporated it into the footprint of a new dwelling (into which they...

Kennedy and others v Fonds Rusnano Capital, SA [2025] EWHC 112 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? When bringing a Paragraph 71 application, administrators should show that they have done all they reasonably can to supply adequate information to the secured creditor(s) in advance of issuing the application and have given that creditor a chance to respond. The material required will depend on the particular circumstances, but may include: a review of contingency options; information about any marketing process (accelerated or otherwise); and details of the company’s financial position. The scope and depth of the material provided will be shaped by the particular situation facing the company concerned. In every case. Administrators are obliged to achieve proper and fair value for the assets (i.e. a 'proper price'). To do so, they must obtain sufficient valuation evidence of the assets’ market value and be...

Oil Basins Ltd vs Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd [2025] VSC 34 What are the practical implications of this case? This case examines the compulsory operation of section 7 of the International Arbitration Act 1974 ( Cth) ( IAA 1974). Where an arbitration agreement exists and the proceedings concern a matter capable of resolution by arbitration, a court is obliged to stay the court proceeding and refer the dispute to arbitration. Arbitration practitioners generally acknowledge the mandatory character of s 7 and recognise that, unless a court concludes the arbitration agreement is null and void, inoperative, or incapable of being performed, the court must stay the court proceeding and send the matter to arbitration. Nevertheless, an exception to this otherwise strict obligation has been recognised overseas and, in Australia, within the domestic arbitration context. Under that exception, a court may decide a challenge to the...

Antitrust Court of Justice confirms a dominant firm's refusal to enable interoperability with a third-party app can breach Article 102 TFEU The Court of Justice handed down its judgment in Case C-233/23, Alphabet and Others, a national reference from Italy asking for clarification on whether Google’s choice to refuse third-party access to Android Auto (a mobile app for Android devices) breaches Article 102 TFEU. The Court of Justice confirmed that a dominant company’s refusal to make a third-party app interoperable can amount to an abuse of dominance, even where the platform is not indispensable to the app’s commercial operation. Background Google is the developer of Android OS, an open-source operating system for Android mobile devices. In 2015, Google launched Android Auto, an app for mobile devices with an Android operating system that allows users to access selected apps on their smartphone via a car’s...

On 21 February 2025, Nigel Cooper KC, acting as a High Court judge, decided that GIC ( Re India Corporate Member Ltd) was not entitled to challenge a January 2025 decision which awarded Tyson International Co Ltd permanent anti-suit protection against New York arbitration. In his 22 January 2025 judgment, he found that the parties’ reinsurance contracts carried inconsistent dispute resolution terms. However, he held that a so‑called confusion clause clarified that the English law and jurisdiction wording in one agreement overrode the New York arbitration clause in the other. Returning to the matter on 21 February 2025, Judge Cooper stated that the court had not misread the confusion clause, contrary to GIC’s argument. ‘ I accept that GIC’s reading of the confusion clause is possible,’ he wrote......

Introduction Directive ( EU) 2024/2853, the Revised EU Product Liability Directive, was adopted on 23 October 2024 and must be implemented by EU Member States by 9 December 2026. The Revised EU Product Liability Directive reshapes the liability risk landscape for manufacturers of automated vehicles ( AVs). It constitutes a substantial overhaul of Directive 85/374/ EEC, the EU Product Liability Directive, aiming to strengthen consumer protections and respond to the challenges created by ever more complex and technologically advanced products, including AVs. In this article we outline what AV manufacturers selling products in the EU need to understand about the new product liability regime and how they can mitigate rising product liability risks. We also note that the UK product liability system is currently governed by the Consumer Protection Act 1987, which implemented the existing Product Liability Directive into UK law......

Latest SIs laid for sifting On 24 February 2025, one SI was formally placed for sifting: New Heavy Duty Vehicles ( Carbon Dioxide Emission Performance Standards) ( Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2025 A complete register of all proposed negative procedure SIs under REUL( RR) A 2023 is available here. Sifting process for proposed negative procedure SIs introduced under REUL( RR) A 2023 REUL( RR) A 2023 provides various delegated powers enabling the government and devolved administrations to make SIs to update assimilated law where necessary. Key legislative powers appear in REUL( RR) A 2023, ss 11–16, and are detailed. Principal procedural requirements, including parliamentary scrutiny routes, for these instruments are contained as prescribed in REUL( RR) A 2023, s 20 and Schs 4–5......

WRBC Corp Member Ltd and a second syndicate, Canopius Corporate Capital Ltd, reached settlement terms, as recorded in a consent order made in the High Court by Judge Christopher Butcher on 18 February 2023. The details of that accord were not made public. In January 2024, WRBC brought proceedings at the court against a cohort of 13 underwriters and insurers. The Lloyd’s syndicate stated that the cohort—with AXA XL Syndicate Ltd acting as lead reinsurer—declined to release sums it said were due after it issued policies that covered businesses for the risk of event cancellations during the pandemic and associated issues and related matters also......

The Court of Appeal held that a ‘reasonable policyholder’ would recognise that firms supported by the state furlough scheme did not have to meet their own payroll and, as a result, ought not to receive indemnity for those losses. However, the judges found for policyholders on a distinct point in the test case concerning so‑called composite insurance policies. The court handed down a split decision three weeks after the hearings, which ran from 21–28 January 2025. It ranks among the biggest test cases on the fraught question of COVID‑19 business interruption cover since the Financial Conduct Authority prevailed against eight insurers on policyholders’ behalf in 2021. In the judgment, Justice Julian Flaux explained that, ultimately, the insureds did not have to carry the cost of wages and, to that extent, the business’s charges or expenses were reduced. The decision was endorsed by...

The history of arbitration laws in Peru can be divided in three stages. The earliest phase dates back to the mid-sixteenth century, when Peru remained within the Spanish Empire. Norms on arbitration were limited, yet the Recopilación de Leyes de las Indias required that arbitral decisions be carried out in accordance with the law, and the Spanish Constitution of 1812 acknowledged the possibility of resolving disputes by arbitration. The second phase opened with Peru’s independence and displayed clear resistance to arbitration. The 1823 Constitution declared that only constitutionally created courts were accepted, and that no proceedings other than the ordinary process set by law would be valid. Thereafter, arbitration received a cautious nod, treated essentially as a stiff, highly formal judicial mechanism. The third phase arose in the 1990s, as Peru moved to update its framework and rejoin global markets after a...

What is the Deepseek AI model? Deep Seek AI is a cutting-edge artificial intelligence system built by Deep Seek, a company based in China. The organisation’s mission centres on stretching the limits of AI to deliver tools that empower enterprises and elevate human capability, while keeping advanced AI accessible, ethical and meaningful. Established in 2023, Deep Seek rose swiftly through the AI ranks by releasing free, open-source language models. Most recently it unveiled two high-end models: V3, aimed at broad use cases such as chat-style applications, and R1, tailored for reasoning-heavy work, including programming and maths challenges. R1 has drawn notable media interest by offering cost-conscious AI performance when set against leading US counterparts. Why is it having a big impact on technology markets around the world? Deep Seek AI is reshaping global tech markets largely through its cost efficiency. Reports suggest the company trained its system for...

What key areas are they looking at? The expert review on removing or amending the presumption invites submissions on how ‘evidence’ should be defined and what ought to be encompassed within the scope of any legal reform. The MOJ sets clear parameters around what material they consider in scope. The call for evidence specifies that any change will be narrowly limited to ‘that evidence which is generated by software, including Artificial Intelligence and algorithms’. By contrast, material ‘merely captured or recorded by a device’, such as digital communications, is to be excluded. It is deemed ‘vital’ to define computer evidence with clarity so that relevant material is correctly included or excluded, given that such evidence ‘now proliferates […] many prosecutions’, and any legislative change must be informed by the need to maintain the effective operation of the criminal justice system. Another central concern is...

A personal injuries action stemming from a 2016 road traffic collision has been thrown out by the High Court. In Dalyv Ryans Investments Ltd T/ A Hertz [2024] IEHC 703, the judge placed significant weight on the plaintiff’s choice not to call her treating GPs, as well as the GP whose report was submitted to the Personal Injuries Resolution Board ( PIAB), to give evidence in reaching its conclusion. Background Liability for the crash was accepted by the defendant, whose car struck the passenger side of the plaintiff’s vehicle at a roundabout. She alleged a right shoulder injury from the impact and said she reported pain to her GP within a few days of the accident. Ongoing symptoms, she contended, culminated in surgery in 2022. The defence maintained the shoulder condition was not caused by the accident, asserting instead that it was...

Deutsche Bank AG v Sebastian Holdings Inc and Vik [2025] EWHC 283 ( Comm) What are the practical implications of this case? The decision underlines that, although the court typically accommodates efforts by a judgment creditor to uphold a court order and is usually disinclined to support judgment debtors who have acted contemptuously, constraints remain, both as to jurisdiction and the deployment of judicial resources. The respondent was a contemnor against whom multiple findings of dishonesty had been made. Nonetheless, he lived outside the jurisdiction and was already bound by the very order pursued in this further application. This furnished him with essentially procedural bases on which to resist the application. Notably, the court would, in any event, have rejected the application because pursuing it would be futile. Judicial resources are limited and must remain accessible to all users of the court....

The statement follows: EU justice ministers plan to examine ways to establish ‘pre-pack insolvency proceedings’ in the EU on 7 March 2025, according to a discussion note prepared for the meeting and viewed by MLex. A pre-pack is a legal mechanism that enables arranging and preparing the sale of a failing company ahead of the commencement of the formal insolvency process. The paper adds: ‘ This allows the sale to be carried out and the proceeds allocated soon after the official opening of insolvency proceedings’, the document says......

Deep Seek has been asked to explain how it protects the data of UK residents, the ICO has told MLex. The ICO is now also among a widening group of jurisdictions scrutinising the Chinese artificial intelligence ( AI) developer, with several renewing their enquiries after the company revised its privacy policy in what appears to be an effort to meet elements of data-protection legislation. The watchdog confirmed to MLex that it has 'written to Deep Seek, requesting information on its approach to data protection for UK residents', a spokesperson said......

At a White House news briefing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump revealed the move, coming before a 4 March 2025 cut-off for tariff measures targeting Mexico and Canada. ' We are on schedule with the tariffs, and it appears they are progressing very quickly and efficiently,' Trump stated there as planned......

HMRC v Asset House Piccadilly Ltd [2025] UKFTT 206 ( TC) HMRC applied, pursuant to section 314A of the Finance Act 2004 ( FA 2004), for an order that AHP’s 'corporate remuneration trust scheme' arrangements were notifiable arrangements within FA 2004, s 306(1). Those arrangements, put in place by AHP, allowed directors to extract profits from the company without an income tax charge, by having loans advanced in place of a reduced salary. In its application, HMRC specified AHP as the 'promoter' of the arrangements. The FTT held that the arrangements were notifiable under FA 2004, s 306(1) because they enabled participants to obtain a tax advantage; the securing of that advantage was a main benefit; and the arrangements fell within the prescribed descriptions of confidentiality, premium fee and standardised tax products. Accordingly, they were notifiable under FA 2004, s 306(1)......

Background to the 2025 Act which amends the Arbitration Act 1996 The Arbitration Act 1996 (the AA 1996) has played a central role in the growth of arbitrations seated in London. More contracts now select London as the seat, bringing notable gains to bodies such as the London Court of International Arbitration ( LCIA). By simplifying the resolution of commercial disputes, the AA 1996 has strengthened London’s international appeal. In 2022, the Law Commission of England and Wales launched a review and consultation of the AA 1996 to modernise it and safeguard London’s standing as a leading global centre for commercial arbitration. Its Recommendations, published in September 2023, found that the AA 1996 remains effective, while justifying targeted refinements ( Summary of Recommendations at 1.22) ( Law Commission Documents Template). The Conservative government accepted those proposals and introduced a Bill to the House of Lords on 21...

Companies falling under the scope of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due- Diligence Directive could face weaker obligations for in-depth checks, civil liability and green transition plan provisions under the upcoming ‘omnibus’ regulation The draft legislation, viewed by MLex, seeks to ease the administrative load of three flagship Green Deal instruments: the Corporate Sustainability Due- Diligence Directive ( CS3D), the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Taxonomy Regulation (see here). The European Commission plans to table the final proposal on Wednesday. While still provisional, the text revises core elements of the current regime by tightening the boundaries of supply‑chain monitoring. For companies within the CS3D’s reach — those operating in the EU with over 1,000 employees and a net worldwide turnover above €450m — due‑diligence requirements would be scaled back, moving from comprehensive checks across entire supply chains to prioritising “direct business...