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Worth Knowing

Contractual boilerplate becomes unexpectedly . . . riveting

Warren Buffett famously said that “only when the tide goes out, do you discover who has been swimming naked”, which neatly captures the idea that it is only when there is a contractual problem, do you discover whether your contractual drafting has given you the protection that you need.  In a series of cases against

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September 1
2022
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution

“You know how to whistle, don’t you? You just put your lips together and blow.”

Whilst the key to whistling may have been summed up by Lauren Bacall to Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not, it is, unfortunately, not nearly so easy to summarise Australia’s new whistleblower laws which took effect on 1 July 2019. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistleblower Protections) Act 2019 (Cth) provides a single,

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September 23
2019
Employment Law Litigation and dispute resolution

The governing law of international arbitration agreements

For many years, Angus has coached intervaristy mooting teams in competitions which involve international disopute resolution (and in particular, international commercial arbitration).  Last year, he coached students from the Thomas More Law School at the Australian Catholic University (who were good enough, despite Angus’ coaching, to finish 27th out of 372 universities competing in Vienna).

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September 16
2019
International dispute resolution International trade law

When will “leave it to the experts” be a terrible idea?

There are many different ways to resolve contractual disputes.  As a consequence, when a contractual dispute arises, the question of which dispute resolution mechanism to use may become a further source of disputation.  For that reason, it is often a good idea to put some thought into dispute resolution clauses when the contract is being

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September 7
2019
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution

Health (and safety) is other people – the wide reach of section 19(2) of the harmonised WHS Acts

Jean-Paul Sartre, as it turns out, never said, “Hell is other people” (although he did use that line in his 1944 play called Huis Clos, or No Exit).  Nor, as far as our researches have disclosed, did Sartre have much to say about work health and safety.  This is perhaps surprising, given the importance of duties which are

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September 9
2018
Work health and safety

Avoiding contempt of court for breach of freezing orders: it’s a matter of trust

When we are not writing about things which we think are worth knowing here on the “Worth Knowing” section of this website, we can sometimes be found writing about things which we think are worth knowing in other publications. This month, Angus has an article in the Law Society of NSW Journal on a recent

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September 3
2018
Litigation and dispute resolution SVL in the community

The receivers tried to take this company’s stuff and you won’t believe what happened next

OK, we apologise for the clickbait headline, but this is an article about the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) (the PPSA) – and we know that much of the PPSA is so snooze-worthy that cases concerning its application are recommended by 9 of 10 doctors as emergency substitutes when your prescription sleeping medication runs

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September 28
2017
Commercial Law Litigation and dispute resolution PPSA Law

High Court to review employer duty of care in workplace investigations

The High Court of Australia has granted special leave to appeal in a case concerning the duty of care which an employer owes to an employee when conducting workplace investigations.  The grant of special leave does not necessarily mean that the law will change, but it does provide a useful opportunity to consider some of

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September 19
2017
Employment Law

Today’s forecast: showers in Paris, jurisdiction in Singapore

it is sometimes said that there is no limit to the ingenuity of lawyers, which may go some way to explaining why a plaintiff complaining of a slip and fall in a Paris hotel shower was suing a Singapore company in the Supreme Court of New South Wales last month. However, the plaintiff did not

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September 10
2017
International dispute resolution International trade law