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A New York Court of Appeals case in May suggested that the US may introduce a system like the UK Mareva injunction to protect assets in insolvency. By Ronald L Cohen of Seward & Kissel, New York

When a railroad tank car explosion forced 1,000 residents of the New Orleans neighbourhood of Gentilly to evacuate their homes for 36 hours in 1987, the incident attracted little attention outside Louisiana. After all, there were no deaths and the residents did not suffer any serious damage or injuries. But 10 years later, after a New Orleans jury awarded US$3.4 billion in punitive damages against five companies found to be at fault, the case, In re New Orleans Train Car Leakage Fire Litigation, No. 97-CC-2547, suddenly captured the eye of the legal community and national media, earning itself the nickname 'The Great New Orleans Train Robbery'.

Decree 3119 of 1997 regulated, for taxation purposes, the amounts allowed as deductions from net income when associated with articles imported massively as contraband.

Without recourse to international arbitration under the BOT Decision, foreign investors have stopped financing Turkish infrastructure projects. International treaties may offer a solution. By H Elizabeth Kroeger and Timothy Kautz of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, Frankfurt

The Companies (Amendment) (Segregated Portfolio Companies) Law 1998 was recently passed and incorporated as a schedule to the Companies Law. The new legislation will affect only those companies which undertake captive insurance business in the Cayman Islands and hold an Unrestricted Class B Insurers Licence issued under the Insurance Law.

Confidentiality issues can affect not only how you issue project bonds but whether a deal is even possible. Richard Forster reports on the disclosure issues facing sponsors and bankers

The partial privatization of Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), a company operating nine airports, is completed. The Government of South Africa sold 20% of the issued share capital of ACSA to a consortium led by the Italian Aeroporti di Roma. The consortium also received an option to buy an additional 10%of the issued share capital. The Government intends to sell 10% of the capital to disadvantaged South Africans and 9% to ACSA employees and management. US firm White & Case advised the South African Ministry of Transport. Johannesburg-based partner Darryl Deaktor led the team. Also involved were partners Ron Goodman and John Janks, in Johannesburg, and David Eisenberg in London.

New York firm Donovan, Leisure has been crippled by the loss of two-thirds of its lawyers to Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, the California-based firm which has been expanding aggressively in New York. The two firms had been discussing a merger, but when the talks failed Orrick hand-picked the lawyers it wanted, including 14 partners and chairman Peter Coll. "Our primary interest was the litgation department," says New York managing partner Michael Voldstadt, soon to transfer to the new London office. "But there were other parts of the firm that interested us. The fact is that law firm mergers rarely happen. There was also a conflict issue that took a long time to resolve — eventually we just drifted apart."

On April 1 1998, the Third Financial Market Enhancement Act (Drittes Finanzmarktförderungsgesetz) entered into force amending various German statutes and covering stock exchange and securities trading law, investment fund law as well as the laws on venture capital companies, mortgage banks and public banks. The most important changes relate to the Stock Exchange Act (Börsengesetz), the Securities Trading Act (Wertpapierhandelsgesetz) and the Investment Companies Act (Kapitalanlagegesellschaftengesetz). In the area of stock exchange and securities trading law, the amendments include the following:

The Ministry of Finance issued a Decision on listing particulars on March 19 1998. The Decision concerns listing particulars to be published when an application for listing securities has been filed with the stock exchange or when securities subject to listing application are offered to the public. Shares, bonds, convertibles, warrants and depository receipts entitling to shares are subject to listing particulars requirements governed by the Decision.