A derivative action is an action brought by a shareholder on behalf of the company when a wrong has been committed against the company. In the case of Foss v. Harbottle (1843), the court decided that the proper claimant in an action in respect of a wrong alleged to be done to a company is, prima facie, the company itself. However, there are several exceptions. In relation to hedge funds, the question is whether a shareholder who owns shares in a parent company to the subsidiary which has suffered a loss can bring an action on behalf of the subsidiary company because of the indirect loss suffered by the parent company. [read more]

A secret regulation cannot be enforced against individuals, ruled the European Court of Justice in a judgment announced on March 10, 2009. In Case C-345/06, proceedings brought by Gottfried Heinrich, the court established that a list of articles that are prohibited on board aeroplanes had no binding force on individuals because it had not been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. [read more]

The U.S. Supreme Court has found that private gun owners have a constitutional right to keep handguns for private use in their own homes. [read more]

Certain things just cannot be litigated. This is what one individual in England has found out after trying to have a decision to ban him from a number of pubs in Buckinghamshire reviewed by a court. After an incident outside a pub in March 2008, the Buckingham Pubwatch Scheme (a group of publicans in the Buckinghamshire area) decided to ban the individual from their pubs for three years. As there was no remedy under private law which the individual could seek, he applied for a judicial review of the decision to ban him for three years. [read more]