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Hedge funds are increasingly interested in Japan as the economy recovers and reforms ease investment. But the regulatory environment remains challenging and funds must be aware of the risks. By Christopher P Wells

Steven Bennett and Sam Millar compare the different approaches to e-discovery in the US and the UK, highlighting the difficulties that international businesses face

Nowadays, the bulk of commercial documentary exchanges are electronic, and thus the scope of parties' rights and obligations in connection with disclosure of so-called e-materials must be properly understood. The provisions of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) were recently clarified in this respect with the update of Practice Direction 31 (PD-31).

On October 15 2005, the Securities and Futures Act of Singapore was amended to introduce changes to the securities offering regime that have clarified the position on public offers. The aim of the amendments is to make fundraising easier and less cost-prohibitive for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by dispensing with the need for a prospectus. The clarity in the definition of what amounts to an offer to the public is achieved by classifying all offers of securities (shares, debentures or units of shares and debentures) as a public offer unless the offer docks within a safe harbour.

Kathleen Ng of the Centre for Asia Private Equity Research considers the reasons for Asia's extraordinary fundraising success over the past year and predicts the challenges ahead

Phillip Fletcher explains the art of negotiating an international project financing to achieve consensus in the absence of set rules

In, AIG Capital Partners v Kazakhstan (October 2005), AIG attempted to proceed against the Kazakh Central Bank's (NBK) assets (consisting of cash accounts and securities) held by a London custodian (AAMGS) in an enforcement action of an arbitral award made in its favour against the Republic of Kazakhstan (RoK).

The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) proposes to amend the Act on Securities Funds to open up the establishment of special funds in Norway. These funds would become a new group of securities funds, through which investors would be offered participation in high-risk investment schemes. Special funds would create a new organization model for venture capital and private equity funds. If the proposition is adopted, hedge funds and derivative funds will be allowed to set up in Norway.

Japan's new Company Law, which is expected to be implemented in May 2006, will replace and significantly modify the current provisions of the Commercial Code that relate to companies. The new Company Law will probably have an impact on the type of entities used as special purpose companies (SPCs) in securitization transactions.

James Rice reveals the locations of choice for law firm expansion and looks at the business reasons underpinning firms' growth strategies