April 2021

With the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement signed and Brexit now becoming an increasingly settled fact, the areas of potential divergence between the UK and the EU are becoming clearer.  The strategy appears to be to identify those areas in which the UK already enjoys a competitive edge over its rivals and then work out…

This is the fourth in our series on “The ABCs of the AJP.”

The White House’s recent announcement of the American Jobs Plan (AJP) highlights the establishment of a “$27 billion Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator to mobilize private investment into distributed energy resources.”  While distributed energy resources (DERs) are only mentioned once in the…

In July 2020, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate (i.e. China’s highest prosecutorial office) began a three-year campaign to strengthen public interest litigation in China, including by focusing on lawsuits involving violations of food safety regulations.[1]

China’s Civil Procedure Law in 2012 authorizes the government to initiate a civil action against individuals and non-governmental entities engaged…

This blog is the third in a series, “The ABCs of the AJP.”

An animating principle of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan (AJP) is the urgency to address climate change.  But a cross-current is competition with China.  This comes through not as subtext, but as the stated purpose.  According to the White House, “the…

Effective March 29, 2021, California employers with more than 25 employees must provide up to 80 hours of paid sick leave for certain COVID-19-related reasons.  The new law, Senate Bill 95 (adding Labor Code Sections 248.2 and 248.3), is retroactive to sick leave taken beginning January 1, 2021.  The law will expire on September 30,…

When China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress (“NPC”), enacted the Cybersecurity Law (“CSL”) in 2017, it set into motion a new era of data governance in China.  Three years later, in 2020, the NPC followed up this landmark act with two other legislative milestones in this space: the draft Data Security Law (“DSL”) (see our…

This blog is the second in a series, “The ABCs of the AJP.”

The American Jobs Plan recognizes that a net-zero economy will require significant innovation in and deployment of energy storage technology.  For example, the President’s efforts to decarbonize the power sector by 2035 will include increased reliance of renewable energy sources, which will…

The election of President Joe Biden in the US and the fast-approaching COP26 have focused minds on the importance of taking concrete steps to tackle climate change. This week has been an important part of the build-up to Glasgow and has witnessed a number of important climate change events. The European Commission released its Draft…