Covid-19: Legal Insights

Coronavirus - how Blackstone Chambers is operating

Blackstone Chambers continues to respond and adapt to the developing coronavirus situation to ensure that both (a) members of Chambers, staff, pupils and clients are as safe as possible, and …

1 Mar 21

Can employees refuse to attend work because of Covid-19?

The Covid-19 pandemic has wrought sudden and drastic changes to the workplace. Many are now working from home, to supress the spread of the virus and protect themselves or their …

7 Jan 21

Tom Lowenthal

Responding to the Covid-19 Crisis: The Case for Primary Legislation

Tom Hickman QC analyses the case for primary legislation as the basis for Government powers needed to respond to the Covid-19 crisis.

30 Nov 20

Tom Hickman KC

Covid-19 and International Law

The types of international dispute that are likely to arise in the wake of the Covid–19 pandemic are many and varied, and so are the sources of international law which …

9 Jun 20

Maurice Mendelson KC

Covid-19 and Limitation Periods in Cross-Border Disputes

This article considers the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on limitation periods affecting international civil litigation in the courts of England and Wales (henceforth, with apologies, the English courts).

29 May 20

Tom Weisselberg KC

Crisis cartels: relying on Article 101(3) in a pandemic

Brian Kennelly QC and Tom Coates examine how businesses might invoke Article 101(3) to justify collaboration during the pandemic.

27 May 20

A Very English Lockdown Relaxation

Tom Hickman QC takes a closer look at the relaxation of the Coronavirus lockdown.

15 May 20

Tom Hickman KC

Who gets the ventilator? Important legal rights in a pandemic

At some point, during this pandemic or the next, all countries will need to answer hard questions about whether and when scarce ICU resources (such as ventilators, beds and staff) …

14 May 20

Stephanie Palmer

Legal Opinion on Technological Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Gayatri Sarathy, along with Matthew Ryder QC and Edward Craven of Matrix and Ravi Naik of AWO, have published an opinion on smartphone contact tracing and other data-driven proposals that …

4 May 20

Gayatri Sarathy

Credit, When Credit Won't Do

The lockdown measures put in place to tackle the Covid-19 epidemic have left many holiday plans in tatters.

4 May 20

New Lockdown Restrictions – Clarification or Confusion?

At 11am today, new Regulations came into force that amend the “lockdown” law in England: the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/47).

22 Apr 20

Rachel Jones

Eight ways to reinforce and revise the lockdown law

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 and the counterpart regulations in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, impose the most drastic restrictions on liberty ever seen in the United …

16 Apr 20

Tom Hickman KC

Civil Procedure, Litigation and the Coronavirus

In the final part of our three-part mini-series, we consider how litigators may use the civil procedure rules to drive litigation forward in the time of coronavirus.

14 Apr 20

Remote Hearings: Some Practical Tips

Having recently completed the first remote Commercial Court trial (National Bank of Kazakhstan & Anr v. Bank of New York Mellon & Ors) and freezing injunction (Motorola Solutions Inc & …

9 Apr 20

Gayatri Sarathy

Mediation for the Future

Why should it take a crisis to discover that video conferencing can provide a more efficient and equally effective way to mediate disputes?

8 Apr 20

Charles Flint KC

Coronavirus and the EU State Aid Framework

Tom Coates considers how the EU State Aid framework will accommodate government financial support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

7 Apr 20

Tom Coates

Coronavirus and Civil Liberties in the UK

On 26 March 2020 the four countries of the United Kingdom became subject to regulations setting out the most severe restrictions on liberty ever imposed. Those restrictions are vitally necessary …

6 Apr 20

Covid-19: resources and useful links

Latest updates and online resources.

30 Mar 20

Covid-19 response: wrongful trading provisions suspended

Andreas Gledhill QC and Peter Head consider the implications of the changes made to insolvency regulations in the Government’s latest response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

30 Mar 20