Worldwide: Sovereign Immunity: Public Sector Government

On 14 December 2010, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (the "Proposal").

The Commission has published a legislative proposal to allow it to deal more rapidly with cartel cases. The proposal would enable cartel defendants to enter into settlement discussions with the Commission in exchange for earlier certainty about the level of fines and a yet unspecified reduction in the fines; defendants would admit to their illegal cartel activities and accept liability.

The Finnish Data Ombudsman ruled in November that employers can not use information on their current employees or prospective hires which is obtained by using Internet search engines, such as Google or Yahoo. Employers must collect employee’s personal information primarily from the employee; use of other sources assumes consent from the employee.

The Ministry of Finance recently issued the Report of the Prospectus Liability Working Group (the "Report") concluding that the current Finnish laws regulating prospectus liability are insufficient mainly because of lack of clarity and that they need to be revised.

The Supreme Court recently delivered a judgment in a test case concerning claims for compensation and gifts, including the taxation thereof, between former unmarried cohabitants.

The Civil Partnership and Certain Rights & Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 (the "Act") came into effect from 1 January 2011. It makes fundamental changes in the law by introducing rights for civil partners (same sex couples, who can now register their relationship) and certain cohabitants.

Most people have heard of the trust and the foundation which are available to private individuals in Malta.

"Ó Ceallaigh v An Bord Altrainais" [2011] IESC 50: In December 2011, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed an appeal by a domiciliary midwife from a High Court decision refusing to restrain the continuation of a professional misconduct hearing on the ground of objective bias.

Termination by an employee of a definite-term agreement (judgment of the Supreme Court dated 14 February 2012, file no. III PZP 5/11).

According to a decision of the Regional Labour Court of Düsseldorf dated 7 March 2012 (docket no. 4 TaBV 11/12), an employer may not arbitrarily access data stored on the works council's drive of the EDP system.