Limited partnerships (LPs) have received considerable press and policy attention over the past five years, culminating in legal reforms which provide an ability to align LP law more closely to company law. This paper challenges the wisdom of exercising this ability without prior analysis. It draws on historical, conceptual, and empirical methodologies to make three arguments. First, the LP is conceptually different from the company, with LPs being a legal transplant copied from other legal systems, and remaining distinctive: with (mostly) one manager which is meant to have unlimited liability. Secondly, LPs have clear policy aims which are different to those in company law. I use limited liability of an illustration of a policy issue that will be missed by aligning LP law to company law. Thirdly, the LP is overwhelmingly a Scottish vehicle. Recent company law reforms have been argued to be dissonant to Scottish company law, questioning the wisdom of aligning the LP’s regulation to companies.

This paper considers how education can address two persistent problems concerning directors of smaller companies. Virtually anyone can be a company director, even though this is a complex role with significant impacts. Director disqualification is the main filter, to instil market morality and improve standards among directors. Yet disqualification lacks any rehabilitative element, and it is doubtful whether it is effective in raising standards, given persistent problems, including phoenix companies and rogue traders. We consider whether education might usefully improve the effectiveness of disqualification through a rehabilitative element. Rehabilitative approaches can also potentially help other directors, who have failed, to try again. We also consider the potential of an optional education programme for directors who have experienced company failures and have not been disqualified.

Drawing upon examples of education being used to raise standards in other contexts, as well as educational theories in relation to adult learners, the paper shows how education might: (1) strengthen the disqualification system; and (2) support directors who are outside the disqualification system to start again after a failure. Both aspects are important to market integrity as well as economic opportunity.

The aim of this study was to explore legal educators’ perceptions of the evolving relationship between legal education and the legal profession. Through their work, do legal educators see themselves as positively influencing the development of the legal profession for the benefit of society (‘reformers’), or as merely supporting and responding to what the profession says it needs (‘reinforcers’)? Using the jurisdiction of England and Wales as a case study, the authors conducted 30 semi-structured interviews and identified common themes using template analysis. The data suggest a crisis of identity, purpose, and empowerment within this legal education community. Few participants felt they had any significant opportunity to influence reform within the legal profession, with some rejecting outright the notion that this might even be an appropriate aspiration for legal education. By contrast, most believed that law firms had a significant and increasing influence on their curricula, though there was no consensus on the legitimacy of this power. The authors argue that – in the case study context and beyond – legal educators, regulators, and policy makers must proactively monitor and respond to the evolving power dynamics within legal education, to ensure that it maximises its value for society.

Intimate image abuse is a problem that is shared by many societies, and jurisdictions are learning from each other about how best to address this issue. In 2021 Hong Kong enacted four new intimate image abuse offences. Based on 15 semi-structured interviews with service providers and legal professionals, this study explores stakeholder perceptions of the effectiveness of the new offences in Hong Kong. Themes that emerged included why there was a need for specific offences, the impact that the new offences have had and whether further criminal law or non-criminal law reforms are necessary. A key finding from this research is that crafting offences to specifically target intimate image abuse is important to strengthen community awareness of the wrongfulness of intimate image abuse, enhance protection of victims and increase prosecutions. To be most effective, however, criminal law reform should be accompanied by holistic education and police training. Other non-criminal law reforms, such as working with providers and developing alternative complaints mechanisms, are also necessary to successfully combat intimate image abuse.

This paper considers the status of reverse veil piercing (RVP) in the UK courts and provides a framework for developing it in a coherent manner. It considers the recent emergence of RVP and then considers the concept of separability with regard to corporate personality and its impact on veil piercing. In doing so it draws out the important difference between RVP, which impacts entity shielding, and forward veil piercing (FVP), which impacts limited liability. It then considers US jurisprudence on RVP and the development of RVP in the Delaware courts, and then the historical development of shadow RVP in the UK courts. The paper concludes that continuing the process begun by the Supreme Court in Hurstwood Properties Ltd v Rossendale Borough Council of unbundling FVP from RVP opens the way for the reemergence of RVP that sets the limits of evasive entity shielding in a similar manner to the Delaware courts and the UK historical shadow case law, while also weighing the wider third party considerations in an RVP. Without this we would argue our law risks judicial intervention through RVP being eroded and evasive entity shielding becoming a mechanism for unscrupulous debtors to avoid outstanding liabilities.

The irony behind a simple definition of ‘[t]rusts for the transfer of money or other property for a specified purpose’1 is that, in continuing to name them after Barclays Bank v Quistclose Investments,2 the doctrine seems to be as elusive as ever.3 In China Life Trustees v China Energy Reserve and Chemicals Group Overseas Company,4 the task of throwing light on the Quistclose trust fell to the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (HKCFA) for the first time.

Where, on the face of a contract, the existence of a debt is conditional on the occurrence of a particular fact, and that fact has not occurred, because the person who promised payment has prevented it from occurring, does the debt arise nevertheless on the notion that the condition is then to be deemed fulfilled? In King Crude Carriers SA v Ridgebury November LLC,1 a unanimous Court of Appeal, reversing the judge, endorsed the effect of that notion while appearing to resituate it as a matter of contractual construction, based upon the objective intention of the contracting parties. That would be a step in the right direction. The precise nature of that notion remains murky, however, and would profit from further clarification.

Natasha Abrahart was a physics student at the University of Bristol. She was suffering from depression and social anxiety disorder, which seriously impacted her ability to partake in oral assessments. Eventually, Natasha sadly took her own life. Her father, Dr Robert Abrahart, as personal representative and estate administrator, sued the University of Bristol for negligence and breach of sections 15, 19 and 20 of the Equality Act 2010, read with section 91(2)(a) and/or (f) of the same Act.1 Under such provisions, universities have a duty to provide reasonable adjustments and support, in educational provision and assessments, to disabled students, defined by section 6(1) of the Equality Act 2010 as ‘a physical or mental impairment’ which has ‘a substantial and long-term adverse effect’ on the ability to ‘carry out normal day-to-day activities’. However, Schedule 13, para 4(2), to the Equality Act 2010 exempts those assessments which constitute a competency standard, defined as ‘an academic, medical or other standard applied for the purpose of determining whether or not a person has a particular level of competence or ability’.2

To promote cooperation among stakeholders in different jurisdictions to facilitate coordinated insolvency proceedings, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) adopted the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (MLCBI) in 1997. The MLCBI harmonises certain procedural aspects of the cross-border insolvency process, though states may choose to make modifications when adopting the MLCBI in their own legal systems. This was completed in Singapore in 2017, and the Singapore Model Law (SML) can now be found in the Third Schedule to the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (2020 Rev Ed) (IRDA 2018). One topic that has been the subject of much debate internationally is whether foreign solvent proceedings can be recognised under the MLCBI or the corresponding provisions in various jurisdictions: the Nevada Bankruptcy Court first answered this question in the affirmative, but this was explicitly rejected by the High Court of England and Wales (EWHC) in Re Sturgeon Central Asia Balanced Fund Ltd (in liquidation) (No 2) (Re Sturgeon). In Ascentra Holdings, Inc (in official liquidation) v SPGK Pte Ltd (Ascentra), the Singapore Court of Appeal (SGCA) held that foreign proceedings concerning solvent companies may be recognised under the SML. This commentary addresses the salient points of the SGCA's judgment and highlights the positive impact of this gradual harmonisation of the approaches taken in different jurisdictions to the MLCBI. Through a comparative analysis of the conflicting Re Sturgeon decision, three additional justifications based on the preparatory documents pertaining to the MLCBI, relevant authorities in the UK and a purposive reading of the MLCBI are provided for the approach in Ascentra. It is contended in closing that these reasons support the argument for definitively overruling the Re Sturgeon decision in the UK.