French Employees Could Completely 'Disconnect' From Work Communications Through New Law

A new bill gives French workers the "right to disconnect" from their jobs -- including all emails and calls -- starting this January 2017. Companies with more than 50 workers will be required to set out hours when staff must not receive or send any emails. This will complement better stress management for employees who are working 35 hours since the year 2000.

Stress management for employees is difficult with consistent connection to technology allowing work responsibilities to creep in during their rest periods. The new law will prevent them from feeling any stress, burnout, sleep problems and relationship difficulties because of work emails arriving and being sent.

The new law was introduced in May as a proposal. Many French employees found the law appealing as it did not generate any protests and strikes. Employees found it attractive to join companies that offer "no email" or work communications during their off-work hours.

In Europe, Daimler -- one of Germany's vehicle giants -- said it would delete all new emails when they were away as an optional service for their employees going away on a holiday.

Almost seven out of 10 workers in the world receive work-related emails during their weekends, holidays and vacations. Having to think of work is one of the leading causes of burnout among employees especially those working in renowned companies.

While no official laws have been introduced in other countries, France's work can be considered revolutionary for its employees.

UK's Single Market Membership Up For Debate: Courts Will Decide Final Outcome

The UK's single market membership in the European Union where non-EU members including Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein participate is up for debate between the UK and EU courts. 

Should the EU courts leave the matter to Parliament, pro-single market MPs promise to vote the UK's remain in the single markets.

Analysts at British Influence have written to Brexit Secretary David Davis about its position for a formanl judicial review of the government's position. For the EU courts, there is an air of uncertainty regarding the UK's European Economic Area membership as UK government lawyers believe the UK has a different legal bind with the EEA and the EU membership itself.

The EEA allows the UK to move its goods without paying for tariffs. These include money and people having no additional costs to move in and out in the European Union. The void of this membership could mean the UK loses one of its largest markets as analysts expect post-Brexit upon the outcome of an Exit vote.

Once the two sides settle the matter, the UK's MPs could vote to stay in the single market to the UK's economic advantage. All EU member states believe the UK will leave the EEA upon the invocation of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. The matter can only be settled if the UK finds it is a member of the EEA legally independent on any binding or agreement stated on its EU membership.

US Senate May Block HFC Landmark Climate Treaty

The US Senate could choose to approve or block the landmark HFC climate treaty that bans the use of climate-changing chemicals.

While the United Nations climate talks have approved and supported the climate treaty on the ban on HFC chemicals and finalised deals with countries to avoid using the chemicals in refrigerators and air conditioners, the US senate may vote not to ban the products.

Coinciding with the climate treaty approval is the enforcement of the Paris agreement.

American experts on international environmental law said the new HFC agreement may require two-thirds of the votes from the Senate. The new treaty on HFCs could only start in 2019 if enough countries formally agree to join the treaty.

“This is different from Paris, in that it requires ratification — and that’s concerning to me,” said Michael Wara, and expert on energy and environmental law at Stanford. “This is going to require getting Republicans to vote for it.”

If Trump wins next month’s election, his campaign statements on environmental issues strongly suggest he would not pursue American ratification of the HFC agreement. But even if Hillary Clinton wins, Republicans may yet be able to block America from entering into the agreement.

“I worry about her ability to have enough cocktails with enough Republican senators to get this over the hump,” Wara said. “That’s a heavy lift.”

Brexit Threatens Equal Laws Between Men and Women

Equality law and developments on equal pay had been "profoundly driven" by Europe. As the UK had voted out of its EU membership, equal pay laws for men and women may find different standard as future governments may attempt to tamper the laws.

The UK government said the Parliament will repeal the equality laws through a vote.

According to Professor Aileen McColgan and Professor Catherine Barnard of Kings College London, the laws would depend on the government of the day.

She said that nothing may change after the UK leaves the EU as most directives was implemented by 

UK law.

"But on another level it means there would be no underpinning or demand for maintenance of the current provisions, so... it is very troubling as the whole thing could be knocked away", she told MPs.

"My particular concern would be about equal pay... because it's probably economically rational to pay women as little as you can get away and if you don't have strong legislative provisions to prevent that, that is one of the areas that could be very problematic."

Catherine Barnard, professor of European law at Cambridge University, told MPs it would be very difficult for a government to repeal protections against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or religion and belief, as it was "so politically sensitive".

If the UK opted for a Norway-style model, and remained a member of the European Economic Area, 

EU laws would continue to apply, Prof Barnard said.

"More difficult is if there is no model at all or a really hard Brexit," she added, as the UK would "lose EU law acting as this floor" and lobby groups were worried that a government may then "decide to lower the standards".

It could be "a complete free-for-all as far as employment law and equality legislation are concerned", she said, as it would be "for the government to decide which rules it wanted to keep" - although she acknowledged any changes would require parliamentary approval.

Firms Moving To Ireland For Business

A massive migration of major operations from the market circle of UK's legal firms saw a huge influx of solicitor registration in Ireland due to the Brexit.

Freshfields, Hogan Lovells, Slaughter and May and Allen & Overy have put forward applicants to join their roll of solicitors in the Republic of Ireland. They have proceeded as well before the EU referendum last June 23.

Eversheds plans to launch the Eversheds Consulting. Its focus would be in Ireland working alongside a team from Dublin. Meanwhile, Slaughter and May would fund its Brussels based competition partners to help them join the Irish solicitor roll. Others are seeking partners as well.

Ciara Kennedy-Loest, partner at Hogan Lovells, said the firm was registering lawyers from its competition practice in London and Brussels in Ireland and from its IP practice.

She said: “Competition is one area where we have registered lawyers and intellectual property is another because lawyers registering trademarks have to deal with Europe’s trademark office. To do so you have to be a lawyer from a qualifying state in the EEA.”

EU antitrust or cartel investigations can last for many years and the UK will have just two years to leave the EU once the Article 50 process is triggered.

Can You Be Arrested When You're Playing Pokemon Go?

Pokemon has become an international phenomenon. By augmenting reality allowing players view otherwise-invisible Pokemon in the world to catch and train, Nintendo and Niantic Labs had created a truly cute and large monster.

However, the GPS-based game leads players to different areas. Sometimes, these are private properties that serve as 'gyms' or 'pokecenters' where they could perform special activities.

One incident involved people flocking to a church because it was a Pokemon Gym. Another was that the presence of "offensive Pokemon" such as "Koffing" and "Weezing" in the Holocaust Museum had brought in people who do not observe the Museum's sanctity just to catch Pokemon.

Can people be imprisoned for doing this?

British Privacy Lawyer John Spyrou talks about how this could all come to be.

Mr Spyrou believes that if strangers head to a person's garden simply because they want to catch a Pokemon, they can still be charged as trespassing. The resident still has grounds to call the police even if the situation will descend into a minor scare.

Mr Spyrou also made clear that Niantic is not "legally responsible" for people heading to locations with Pokemon as shown in their map. The Niantic Terms and Conditions for playing Pokemon Go may include players are responsible for local rules and must detach themselves from liability by not brekaing local laws.

How The EU Is Damaging Our Legal System

The fight for Britain's EU membership starts the following week and I've seen a major turnaround towards the Vote Leave campaign.

I've been wondering why. I'm a Vote Remain guy simply because I'm also an investor in many companies involving EU. To leave the EU would mean a drastic change in my investments.

The United Kingdom is a counrty where almost anyone can afford top-notch legal services with government and tax subsidy. What scares most people is the fact that EU laws are tampering with our own.

Here, to be honest, I can say that Vote Leave is just messing with you. The EU laws can talk more about taxation and economics. However its laws are for uniformity and "housekeeping rules" including crime, traffic, infrastructure development and others, are rooted from England and Wales, 

Scotland and Ireland's own ancient traditions and morals.

Many are scared because in France nowadays you could be detained while investigations are still ongoing. You're guilty until you're proven innocent. According to scaremongers for Vote Leave, you have a European Arrest Warrant that would detain you for life instead of using the UK law that allows detainment but only for a period of time.

But I'm more of an economist, I should say and that's where I want to go. So I vote to stay.