Slaughter and May
Authors
Articles by company
Retained EU Law: the implication of keeping s 6 dormant
Nearly five years after the end of the Brexit transition period, legacy EU law continues to occupy a substantial place in the UK legal system. Legislation enacted in 2023 was designed to reduce the scope and status of this body of domesticated EU law. Most of these measures were brought into force on 1 January 2024, but one major element of the reform – intended to encourage UK courts to depart from pre-Brexit EU case law – was not due to come into effect until 1 October 2024. But at the end of September, the new government quietly announced that commencement of the new rules would be postponed. In this In Practice article we examine the rules, how they would fit into the scheme of changes already in force and what we can expect now.
24 OCT 2024Okpabi v Royal Dutch Shell: will Brexit mean more jurisdiction skirmishes?
In Okpabi & others v Royal Dutch Shell plc & another [2021] UKSC 3, the Supreme Court held that the claimants had an arguable case that Royal Dutch Shell, the UK-incorporated holding company in the Shell group, owed a duty of care to people affected by the operations of a Nigerian subsidiary. The claims will now return to the High Court, which will decide whether in fact such a duty was owed and, if so, whether it was breached and caused the loss claimed. Some commentators have seen the decision as heralding a new wave of international tort claims in the English courts. However, changes brought about by Brexit, as well as the court’s earlier judgment in Lungowe v Vedanta, may complicate this analysis.
1 APR 2021Last but not least: consultation involvement key to avoiding regulatory divergence in public and private securitisations
In this In Practice article Kate Patane considers the growing divergence between EU and UK reporting obligations in public and private securitisations and how detailed feedback can drive internal “change management” processes and encourage the authorities to increase regulatory alignment.
31 MAR 2024ESG: authorities’ potential enforcement action against companies
The environmental regulatory risk landscape is evolving in ways that companies may not yet have considered. It is already well-known that financial regulators are working to protect capital market participants from greenwashing by the adoption of sustainability disclosure standards and the creation of a green taxonomy. Comparatively less attention has been paid to authorities with broad regulatory remits covering most or all sectors of the economy, which are increasingly using their powers to take enforcement action or cause reputational harm in respect of companies who engage in greenwashing. Meanwhile, private actors such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with ESG mandates can opportunistically seek to trigger or encourage investigations by such authorities, so as to pressure businesses to change behaviours. In this article, we examine the role of two such authorities: the Competition and Markets Authority and the UK National Contact Point.
1 APR 2022Soaring inflation and the case for index-linked baskets
In this In Practice article, Latifah Mohamed discusses the impact of current rates of inflation on baskets and other monetary limits in loan agreements, and considers the case for, and practical implications of, indexing such baskets and limits in response.
1 NOV 2022Overhauling the rules on the law of the arbitration agreement?
A departure from Enka v Chubb amongst the Law Commission’s proposals to finetune the Arbitration Act 1996.
1 NOV 2023
