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Public-private partnership (PPP) projects have existed for many years in European countries such as the UK, France, Italy and Spain. In the Nordic region, PPP projects have been carried out in Finland and Norway. In Sweden, though, there has been only one genuine PPP project – the railway between the centre of Stockholm and Arlanda Airport. The main reason for the slow progress is that Sweden has a strong tradition of public responsibility for services such as hospitals and prisons, and also for infrastructure. Various social democratic governments, which have been in power for many years, have upheld this tradition. But since the election in Sweden in September 2006 the four centre right parties have formed a new government. It has a far more positive attitude towards private financing and supply of services and facilities traditionally financed and supplied by the public sector, though no concrete decision to start a Swedish PPP scheme has been made. The new government has appointed a joint working group comprising representatives from the Swedish Road Administration (SRA), the Swedish Rail Administration (Banverket) and the Nordic Road and Transport Research (VTI) to analyse the legal, financial and technical prerequisites for PPP in the road and rail sectors. The joint working group's report was published in June 2007. No specific PPP legislation is in force in Sweden and none is planned. But in the report, the legal analysis focused on the legal consequences of a proposed Swedish PPP model for road and railroad investments and how the Swedish Public Procurement Act could affect the procurement of PPP infrastructure projects.

In an international context characterised by competition and globalisation, control of financing techniques, guarantee mechanisms and risk cover for international trade are essential to the development of Tunisian export companies. Within this framework, the Insurances Code promulgated by Law 92-24 of March 9 1992 was amended by Law 97-24 of April 28 1997 section IV relating to insurance at export, to better meet the needs of exporting companies regarding the coverage of risks. This legislation has the following elements:

Equity Latham & Watkins represented ReneSola in its initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange. ReneSola is a leading Chinese manufacturer of solar wafers. Shearman & Sterling advised the underwriters.

Recently, Slovenia passed so-called anti-tycoon legislation, which restricts certain acquisition financings. The changes affect banking law, takeover law, and corporate law.

The electronic share certificate system in Japan will be implemented on January 5 2009 (the actual date will be confirmed by a Cabinet Office Ordinance) under the Law on Book-entry Transfer of Corporate Bonds, Stocks and Other Securities (shasai-kabushiki-tou-no-furikae-ni-kansuru-horitsu). Upon implementation, shareholders' rights in all listed companies will be recorded and managed electronically in transfer account books (furikae-kouzabo) by record-keeping organisations (kouza-kanri-kikan) such as banks and securities companies. Also, all trades and other transactions involving shares will be conducted through trading accounts opened in the name of individual shareholders.

Chinese counsel seem locked in a game of Fischer's Rules chess. This alternative version of the game, invented by precocious champion Bobby Fisher, switched all the major chess pieces around randomly. He was tired of players memorising opening moves, and wanted to test how good players were if they didn't know where they were starting from. Which is exactly the position of Chinese companies trying to buy overseas.

Linklaters won international law firm of the year at last night's IFLR European awards at the Dorchester in London

While the UK Financial Services Authority's (FSA) discussion paper on listing in London may have laudable objectives, counsel worry that there may be unintentional consequences.

New qualified investor scheme analysed

FSA points to slipping standards