News & Events
News & Events
Alex Haines authored chapter 20 of Lissack & Horlick on Bribery and Corruption. Alex’s new chapter focuses on the Sanctions Regimes of Multilateral Development Banks. As part of a serialisation of chapters that members of Outer Temple contributed to in this latest edition, the authors have been summarising their chapters every week. Introduction In Summer 2020, it was announced that USD $250 billion would be deployed over the next 18 months in spare lending capacity by Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) following the continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nature of MDB financing makes MDBs vulnerable to a range of corruption risks from an array of different agents. Increased activity from the MDBs’ increasingly sophisticated and well-resourced investigatory offices…
Business Crime, Legal Blog & Publications, News 25 Nov, 2020
We are delighted to announce that the Third edition of Lissack and Horlick on Bribery and Corruption has been published by LexisNexis Butterworths. The practitioner’s book was edited by Fiona Horlick QC and Richard Lissack QC, and was contributed to by a number of Outer Temple members. In 2010, the UK’s law on bribery changed from a collection of ancient statutes, distorted in some cases by contradictory authority, to a single statute often regarded as one of the most rigorous, and wide-ranging in application, in the world. Since coming into force in 2011, numerous prosecutions were brought on the basis of the Bribery Act as well as five of the eight deferred prosecution agreements reached in the UK to date. It…
Business Crime, Business Crime, Legal Blog & Publications, News 30 Sep, 2020
The Caribbean Development Bank (“CDB”) has appointed John McKendrick QC to the role of Sanctions Appeals Officer and Alex Haines to the role of Sanctions Officer. The Caribbean Development Bank The CDB is a regional financial institution, established by an Agreement signed on 18th October 1969, in Kingston, Jamaica. The CDB came into existence for the purpose of contributing to the harmonious economic growth and development of member countries in the Caribbean, and promoting economic cooperation and integration among them. It is headquartered in Barbados. It has 19 borrowing members countries and is supported by 9 non-borrowing member countries, including the United Kingdom. The CDB’s Office of Integrity of Integrity, Compliance and Accountability (“ICA”) supports and reinforces institutional integrity within…
News, International 23 Jul, 2020
On 23rd July, Alex Haines will be moderating a panel of experts at the 2020 Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists Virtual Sanctions Summit. Alex Haines has been invited to chair the panel, who will be discussing US, EU and UK sanctions. Featured speakers at the event will include: Kelvin Ong (Director for United Nations Sanctions in the Security Council Affairs Division in the Department of Political Affairs), Aimee Langley (Head of Compliance at OFSI), Amalie Wedege (Head of Sanctions Framework & Compliance for the Danske Bank Group) and Sheila Jassies (COFCO International’s lead counsel for Europe, the Middle-East and Africa). The 2020 Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists Virtual Sanctions Summit will be taking place virtually on 23rd July 2020. You…
Events, News, International 7 Jul, 2020
In March 2020, the European Court of Justice was asked, for the first time, for the proper interpretation of Article 5 of the Blocking Regulation in the case of Bank Melli Iran v Telekom Deutschland GmBH. John McKendrick QC and Alex Haines examine the Bank Melli case and Blocking Regulation below. The Background On 28th November 2018, after US secondary sanctions on Iran came back into force earlier that month, the Hamburg District Court granted an interim injunction in Bank Melli Iran v Telekom Deutschland GmBH 319 O 265/18 on the basis of the EU Blocking Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No 2271/96). The court ordered Deutsche Telekom, the defendant, to reinstate internet and telephone services to the claimant, Bank Melli Iran, after it had stopped services…
Legal Blog & Publications, International 3 Jun, 2020
John McKendrick QC, Nicholas Johnson QC and Alex Haines were instructed on behalf of the Respondent in an international commercial dispute worth over £115 million. Between January and April 2020, John McKendrick QC, Nicholas Johnson QC and Alex Haines were instructed on behalf of the Respondent in an international commercial dispute worth over £115 million. The dispute was between two parties in a former Soviet Republic, involving high value commodities. The arbitration took place under LCIA Rules and John and Alex represented the respondent at the hearing, which took place virtually. One witness was cross-examined from his overseas location and the legal representatives and Tribunal all participated remotely. The team successfully reduced the respondent’s liability to less than 50% of what…
News, International 26 May, 2020
Business Crime and Regulation specialist, Alex Haines, gives a webinar to 150 members of the finance and business industries on US sanctions and the EU Blocking Statute. On 19 March 2020, Alex Haines, member of Outer Temple Chambers’ Business Crime and Regulation Team, gave a webinar to a 150 participants from an array of different industry (including HSBC, Allianz, Nasdaq and Michelin) on US sanctions and the EU Blocking Statute. The Blocking Statute The webinar, titled ‘The Blocking Statute: Deciphering its Provisions, How to Handle the US/EU Conflict, and Actions to Date’ , was organised by the Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists (“ACSS”). It covered: The history and aims of the Blocking Statute The four mechanisms of the Blocking Statute Temporal…
News 24 Mar, 2020
On 20 February 2020, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Administrative Tribunal (EBRDAT or Tribunal) delivered four judgments (Cases No. 2019/AT/02+03+04+05 ) in cases involving the right of contractors (as opposed to traditional employed international civil servants) to access the EBRD’s internal justice system. Alex Haines, having been instructed in 2019 and assisted by Chloë Bell in the litigation, appeared on 14 January 2020 on behalf of four contractors before the full Tribunal in London, the first time in its history that all five judges heard an oral hearing together. He argued that all four contractors had been de facto members of EBRD staff, that the EBRD had failed to accord them several of the rights and benefits available to…
News, International 2 Mar, 2020
OTC International Team successful in three UNAT judgments In early 2019, Alex Haines, assisted by Stephen Butler, was instructed in three cases before the United Nations Appeals Tribunal (UNAT) in New York. The UNAT is the UN’s highest court for institutional matters. All three appeals were allowed in the UNAT’s last session of 2019. The cases involved the reclassification of posts within the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), a UN specialised agency responsible for regulating shipping based in London. In the cases of Sheffer v Secretary-General of the IMO, Judgment No. 2019-UNAT-949 and Dispert & Hoe v Secretary-General of the IMO, Judgment No. 2019-UNAT-958, the UNAT held that there were fundamental problems with the manner in which the IMO had dealt…
News, International 21 Jan, 2020
Amanda Pinto QC (33 Chancery Lane and Chair of the Bar of England and Wales 2020) and Alex Haines (Outer Temple Chambers) have co-written a chapter on Economic Sanctions in Oxford University Press’ Smith, Owen, and Bodnar on Asset Recovery – Criminal Confiscation and Civil Recovery. The new chapter examines the sources of sanctions law and the implementation of sanctions as well as the practical application of sanctions breaches in the UK. Of particular relevance given the UK’s imminent departure from the EU is the analysis of the recent UK legislation: the Policing and Crime Act 2017 and the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018. The book covers the expanding law and practice of asset recovery in the UK, European,…
News 17 Dec, 2019
In an article published on the Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists (ACSS) website, John McKendrick QC and Alex Haines examine the effect of the UK’s departure from the EU on the domestic sanctions framework. Post Brexit, the UK’s rather sizeable influence over European sanctions policy will naturally diminish. But what of the legal force of EU Council Decisions and Regulations in the UK? How will UN sanctions measures be implemented in the UK? The article also looks at the recent UK legislation designed to fill the legislative lacuna created by Brexit as well as what this means for due process. John McKendrick QC, former Caribbean Attorney General, practises internationally from Outer Temple Chambers. Alex Haines, called to both the English…
Legal Blog & Publications, News, International 12 Dec, 2019
Following John McKendrick QC and Alex Haines’ successful sanctions seminar – in conjunction with Central America’s largest law firm Consortium legal – in Managua on 30 August 2019, the Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists (ACSS) has published their article The ‘Nica Act’: The Nexus, Effect, and Long-Arm Reach of US Sanctions Against Nicaragua on its website. The Nicaraguan Human Rights and Anticorruption Act of 2018 (NHRACA) seeks to hold violators of human rights and corrupt actors in Nicaragua accountable. It also instructs the US president to impose individual sanctions on members of the Nicaraguan government deemed responsible for human rights violations against the post-April 2018 protesters, as well as current and former Nicaraguan government officials involved in significant acts of…
News 22 Nov, 2019