It will come as no shock to readers, particularly my fellow members of INSOL Europe's Anti-Fraud Forum, that we are all being defrauded.

The new UK Bribery Act will be brought into force in April 2011. You may think: so what, I am in Hong Kong? It is not, however, just UK companies that are at risk. Any overseas company carrying on a business, or part of a business, in the UK can commit the offence of failing to prevent bribery, irrespective of where the bribe is paid or received.

Employers are constantly faced with difficult decisions when it comes to their employees. One issue which has troubled employers is when dealing with the disciplinary process of an employee who has raised a grievance. This often causes confusion. http://www.salans.com/~/media/Assets/Salans/Publications/2010/20100906%20Old%20Brewery%20disciplinary%20case.ashx

Sending employees to work abroad raises many legal issues – not least the question of whether these individuals retain the right to claim unfair dismissal in the UK. This is rarely straightforward, since the employee or the employment relationship may be subject to different legal jurisdictions at different times. http://www.salans.com/~/media/Assets/Salans/Publications/2010/20100917-%20UK%20Dismissals%20Overseas.ashx

The Government has decided to make it unlawful to dismiss employees because they have reached the Default Retirement Age (the "DRA"). It has now published a consultation document setting out how it proposes to phase out the DRA. The DRA will be abolished on 1 October 2011 with transitional arrangements effective from 6 April 2011. http://www.salans.com/~/media/Assets/Salans/Publications/Gov%20abolishes%20retirement%20age_Final.ashx

The UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced on 20 July that the Bribery Act 2010 (the Act) would come into force in April 2011. The MoJ also announced that the Government would launch a short consultation exercise in September, on the guidance which it is required to publish on "adequate procedures". A commercial organisation must have such procedures in place, in order to raise a defence to a criminal charge under the Act of failing to prevent bribery.

The conflict of laws rule as to the capacity of a legal entity and the restitutionary remedies for the return of money advanced under a void contract http://www.salans.com/~/media/Assets/Salans/Publications/IFI%20Update%20August%202010.ashx

Claims for misrepresentation In Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG v. Royal Bank of Scotland plc1 Christopher Clarke J provided a review of the law relating to misrepresentation. The facts concerned a sell-down by an arranging bank to a syndicate of a debt facility that it had put in place to assist in an accounting exercise by the ill-fated Enron group of companies. The claimant was a member of the syndicate which had purchased part of the debt from the defendant arranger.

The UK Equality Act (Act) came into force, for the main part, on 1 October this year. The Act draws together the different strands of UK anti-discrimination law, with the aim of simplifying the legal position, removing inconsistencies currently prevalent in various strands of discrimination law and making it easier for people to understand and comply with them.

Guy Lepage discusses why economic activity may benefit from a legal system favourable to the assignment of receivables, especially in an international context