On Monday, June 29, 2004, the United States Supreme Court issued a compromise decision that leaves many corporations in the mining or oil and gas industries still susceptible to allegations that their operations abroad (often in conjunction with foreign governments) have inflicted labor or human rights abuses on foreign workers, but which may help limit the types of claims they face.

On December 26, 2011, the National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRC) released the Circular of the National Development and Reform Commission on Initiating Pilot Reforms for Natural Gas Price Formation Mechanisms in Guangdong Province and Guangxi Autonomous Region, NDRC Pricing [2011] No. 3033 (the "Circular"), promulgating rules that authorize a pilot reform program for wholesale and retail natural gas prices in Guangdong and Guangxi.

Effective August 18, 2011, there will be changes to the reporting requirements under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (the "HSR Act").

Dealing a blow to the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently rejected the notion that corporate profit-seeking is presumptively fraudulent under the FCA.

On August 15, 2012, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) issued the Final Drilling Safety Rule.

In the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub. L. No. 109-58), Congress exempted hydraulic fracturing from Underground Injection Control (UIC) regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).

Although scheduled to end on December 9, the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change carried on for two extra days and reached a deal that surprised many observers on Sunday.

The U.S. Supreme Court on October 5, 2012, granted review in Bowman v. Monsanto, Corp., a case involving patent exhaustion.

On November 30, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Association of Molecular Pathology, et al. v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., et al. (No. 12-398), with the grant limited to petitioners’ first of three questions.

In a recent order issued by the Eastern District of Texas in the Uniloc litigation, Judge Davis recognized that multiple-defendant suits can be effectively and economically managed by modifying the typical scheduling procedures to encourage early mediation and settlement.

This e-lert focuses on certain issues regarding "push out" elections under the BBA partnership audit regime.

A recent bench ruling by Travis County District Judge John Dietz overturned prior Texas Comptroller’s policy and concluded that various items of machinery and equipment used to extract oil and gas from wells were exempt from sales and use tax as property used in manufacturing.

Last week, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida sentenced Joel Esquenazi, the former president of Miami-based Terra Telecommunications Corp., to an unprecedented 15 years in prison.

The Arctic is a vast frontier, rich in oil and gas resources. In 2009, the United States Geological Survey estimated that about 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil may be found north of the Arctic Circle.

On January 10, 2013, the Supreme Court held that a trademark plaintiff’s voluntary dismissal of its infringement suit, together with a broad covenant not to sue, removed the district court’s Article III jurisdiction and therefore barred consideration of the defendant’s counterclaim of trademark invalidity.

Several recent developments have underlined the growing importance of the IRS’s tax whistleblower program about which businesses and their tax departments should be aware.

While the U.S. was an early leader in applying antitrust concepts, it continues to be a leader in applying the most modern technology and economics to merger control.