The recent amendment to the test for dishonesty in the Corporations Act 2001, which lowers the burden on the prosecution will have implications for the concept of 'community expectations' into the criminal law. ...

Australia's modern slavery reporting regime was introduced one year ago, and 2020 will see the first set of modern slavery statements published by reporting entities. ...

With negotiations underway for the free trade agreement between Australia and the European Union (the A-EU FTA), Australian businesses that produce, buy or sell EU and non-EU food, agricultural goods and spirit drinks have to confront the possibility that Australia will agree to give much stronger protection to the names of hundreds of EU products that indicate their geographical origin. We look at some of the key issues in the EU's proposal that would impact Australian businesses' operations and IP portfolios, and consider some of the agreed compromise positions in the EU's other recent FTAs. ...

Legislation focusing on imposing new obligations on design consultants and builders was recently introduced to the NSW Parliament. Importantly, the Design and Building Practitioners Bill creates a statutory duty of care owed by builders, and others, for economic loss for defects in construction serv ...

The Australian Government has tabled the Crimes Amendment (Combatting Corporate Crime) Bill 2019 (the 2019 Bill) in the Senate, and the Attorney-General's Department has released Draft Guidance on the steps a body corporate can take to prevent an associate from bribing foreign public officials for public consultation (the Draft Guidance). Like the 2017 version of the Bill that lapsed earlier this year (the 2017 Bill), if passed, the 2019 Bill will strengthen Australia's foreign bribery laws, including by introducing a new corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery by an associate, and will introduce a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) scheme for resolving serious corporate criminal matters. Partner Rachel Nicolson, Senior Associate Andrew Wilcock and Associate Lewis Winter report on the key differences between the 2017 and 2019 Bills, and the content of the Draft Guidance. ...

Time to act on Australia's social infrastructure deficit: four steps to address the increasing shortfall ...

In her summary my colleague, Michelle Levy, said her initial reaction was that the recommendations in the Final Report were modest but, on a second reading, some would set a cat among the pigeons. ...

Throughout the Royal Commission, Commissioner Hayne grappled with the difficulties of striking an appropriate balance between ensuring that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have access to credit, and imposing standards on the provision of that credit to protect SME borrowers and third-party guara ...

During the agricultural round of hearings, and in his Interim Report, the Commissioner asked if there should be special rules for farmers to address the particular challenges of the sector, and if so, who should bear the added cost? ...

The Supreme Court of Western Australia has rejected a wide-ranging attack by a contracting party preferring litigation to arbitration on the operation of an arbitration clause Partner Andrew Maher reports ...