A "loan participation" is a transfer or acquisition of a lender's interest in a loan.

Typically, the interest transferred or acquired will be less than 100%, with the originating bank retaining a percentage interest in the loan and, often, retaining responsibility for servicing the loan and maintaining direct interaction with the borrower as the "lead bank". The acquiring bank, often referred to as the "participant", will (if the transaction is properly structured) become an "owner" of a portion of the loan with all benefits of full performance and all associated risks of loss, as if the participant had originated the loan itself.

The Council of the European Union adopted on 16. 12. 2002 the new Council Regulation (EC) No. 1/2003 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Article 81 and 82 of the Treaty Establishing the European Community. The new Council Regulation, which came into force on 1. 05. 2004, replaces the 40 years old Antitrust-Regulation No. 17, thus bringing fundamental changes in the application of European competition law. The new Regulation is designed to respond to the current requirements of the competition policy of an enlarged and more mature European Union and to overcome the inefficiencies present in the old antitrust enforcement system. The European Commission also adopted a series of documents, regarded as the Modernisation Package, which complete the landmark modernisation of the European Union's antitrust enforcement rules and procedures. Not surprisingly, such a radical reform raises a number of questions of interpretation and as to how the new rules will work in practice. After a brief discussion of the legislative history, we will, in particular, look at what the system of legal exception will mean for the legitimate demands of undertakings for legal certainty.

The Australian Government’s National Water Initiative (NWI) is an issue of critical importance for Australian industries, according to Mr Kym Livesley, National President of AMPLA, the peak Australian energy & resources law association. Mr Livesley is also a corporate partner at Gadens Lawyers and national leader of the firm’s energy & resources group.

The present "Trademark Law" was first adopted on August 23rd, 1982, and implemented from March 1st, 1983. After the amendments of the PRC Trademark Law in 1993 and 2001, the renewed text of the law has come to meet the basic principles and the minimum requirements in the TRIPS agreement and those in some other international conventions, such as the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, and the Madrid Protocol. It can be said that the legal scope and level of trademark protection in China has gradually become compatible with international standards.

As widely documented, over the last twenty years and particularly in the past five, China has widely opened its doors to foreign investment. Though there is much news regarding the overall liberalization of markets, there is often still a great deal of mystery surrounding specific investment vehicles available for corporate entry into the Chinese market. This article will seek to shed some light on these issues and introduce the investment environment of the People’s Republic of China.