Asia: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration

When equipment is hired out but later damaged, hire businesses face a familiar challenge: who says the equipment wasn’t already faulty, who bears the risk, and can the hirer recover the cost of repair? The NSW Supreme Court’s decision in Civiltrak Sydney Pty Ltd v Orange Equipment Pty Ltd t/as Orange Hire offers valuable guidance to solving this puzzle.

Reputation is the essence of an individual’s standing within the community. A person’s goodwill or repute can significantly affect their personal relationships, business prospects, employment opportunities, and overall engagement in society. Damage to reputation, whether through written or spoken statements, can therefore have serious and lasting consequences.

Workplace messages sent through private chat platforms like WhatsApp, Teams, or Slack can give rise to defamation claims in Queensland if they communicate harmful statements about someone's reputation to even a small group of colleagues. Understanding when internal workplace communications cross the line into defamation, what defences are available, and the potential legal consequences for both individuals and employers is crucial for anyone using digital communication in professional settings.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC” or “Code”) seeks to provide for a time-bound resolution of corporate insolvency, maximisation of the value of assets and balancing the interests of stakeholders. A crucial component of this framework is the Committee of Creditors (“CoC”), which evaluates and approves resolution plans in accordance with its commercial wisdom.

Part I built the clause. This article addresses the enforcement architecture, the Indian party’s remedies and exploitation, and the four-step protocol that counters each of them.

This issue examines a consistent judicial theme in contemporary criminal law: coercive powers must be exercised strictly within statutory and constitutional limits. The Delhi High Court has clarified that Look Out Circulars cannot be used as instruments of debt recovery. Mere loan default or financial distress, without allegations of fraud or serious economic wrongdoing, cannot justify restricting the fundamental right to travel abroad. Similarly, the Supreme Court has cautioned against continuing criminal proceedings arising from a predominantly commercial dispute after a settlement has been fully implemented and recognised by the Debt Recovery Tribunal.

The High Court has unanimously ruled that a wife's secret recording of her husband admitting to rape was lawfully obtained and admissible as evidence. This landmark decision significantly expands when covert recordings can be used in domestic violence and sexual assault prosecutions, potentially transforming how such cases are prosecuted across Australia.

When police contact you about a criminal investigation, understanding your rights and obligations becomes critical to protecting your legal position. This comprehensive guide examines what happens during police investigations, whether you should participate in interviews, and how early legal advice can significantly impact the outcome of your case.

Under Queensland's Uniform Civil Procedure Rules, parties to civil litigation face automatic and continuing obligations to disclose all documents in their possession or control that are directly relevant to disputed allegations. This comprehensive guide examines the scope of disclosure duties, the meaning of key concepts like possession, control and direct relevance, and how courts exercise their powers to manage the disclosure process in modern litigation involving both traditional and electronic evidence.

Vietnam's new bankruptcy law introduces a mandatory framework that automatically suspends and potentially terminates arbitration proceedings once a debtor enters insolvency. The legislation creates an explicit sequence of procedures that affects both domestic and potentially foreign-seated arbitrations, raising critical questions about jurisdiction, enforcement, and the interplay between arbitration agreements and insolvency proceedings.

Thai law offers no explicit guidance on how arbitration and insolvency interact, leaving practitioners to navigate the intersection of two separately drafted statutes—the Bankruptcy Act and the Arbitration Act—without settled rules. Key questions about representation, enforcement of awards, and the treatment of foreign insolvency proceedings depend on inference from general principles rather than express provisions.

The Calcutta High Court has ruled on a critical distinction in GST proceedings regarding the timing requirements for demand orders under Section 73 of the CGST Act. When an order is digitally signed within the limitation period but uploaded to the portal after the statutory deadline, does this constitute a valid issuance or a procedural violation that invalidates the demand?