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This case concerned an attempt by predators based in New Zealand, Malaysia and Hong Kong to gain control of, and strip assets and cash from, a publicly listed New Zealand company (ENC). The predators included a New Zealand businessman, a Malaysian stockbroking firm and two gentlemen referred to throughout the case as ‘Koo’ and ‘Ng’. Koo and Ng were employed by the appellant company, Meridian Global Funds Management Asia Ltd (Meridian) and were, respectively, its chief investment officer and a senior portfolio manager. The appellant company was a Hong Kong investment management company with an Australian parent company, and although Koo was at the relevant time under the appellant's managing director in the corporate hierarchy of Meridian, in practice the evidence showed that he was given a very free rein in the conduct of the business of the company. The group of predators intended ultimately to finance their purchase of a controlling interest in ENC by using its own assets but interim finance was needed in order to buy the shares which would give them control of ENC's monies and assets. This was provided by Koo and Ng out of funds managed by Meridian as they improperly used their authority to act on behalf of Meridian and bought and re‐sold shares in various Asian companies (using the Malaysian stockbrokers who were also involved in this asset‐stripping raid on ENC). However, the plan went awry at the final stage when independent directors of ENC frustrated the predators' use of ENC's funds to repay Meridian. The result was that Meridian's Australian parent had to make good the losses suffered by the managed funds' beneficial owners.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how public law regulates the relationship between private landowners and users of town and village greens. It explores the scope of the public law which permits the exercise of customary rights of recreation over private property, and considers the limits that exist within the current regulatory framework. In particular the paper explores how subsidiary considerations such as protection of the environment have become increasingly relevant to the disputes involving town and village greens.

The analysis is based on a critical appraisal of recent judgments, academic literature and policy papers which address the regulation of town and village greens.

The paper determines that the current regulatory framework fails to sufficiently protect landowners against opportunistic claims for registration of a town and village green. Specifically the paper identifies that gaps exist both in the substance of the statute and the judicial application of these provisions, and that the Human Rights Act 1998 offers insufficient protection for landowners.

The paper examines recent case law where there is evident judicial conflict on the scope and application of the legislative provisions. The paper considers this judicial debate within the context of the DEFRA consultation document 2011 and the Growth and Insfrastructure Bill 2012.

Takes a practical look at what is expected of a mortgage valuation and the main problem areas when it comes to claims. Discusses the difference between valuation and survey. Concludes that if a surveyor (valuer) misses a defect because its signs are hidden that is a risk that his client must accept.

Explores judicial attitudes in professional negligence cases affecting liability for property investment advice. Focuses on the standard of work required to discharge the legal duty of care and on apparent contradictions in approach by the courts. Reviews a series of cases which are taken to exhibit traditional attitudes to professional liability and studies modern cases which are irreconcilable with those attitudes. Includes liability to third party mortgagors and to third party mortgagees in an analysis of the duty of care, and considers the implications of the perceived expansion of the advisor′s professional duties, which include potential conflicts of interest and the dichotomy between the standards current among professionally qualified and unqualified practitioners. Suggests that judicial attitudes are influential in shaping the practice of property investment advice, but that this intervention is fraught with difficulties as it creates uncertainty among professional advisors about the nature of the tasks undertaken.

Under Anglo-American law, the consent of the masochist furnishes no defense to a charge of assault arising from sadomasochistic sexual practices. Our unwillingness to recognize consent in this context suggests disquiet with the ways in which S/M reflects the operations of law. Although the case law casts the masochist as a victim, other accounts represent masochism as a forceful enactment of submission. Masochism also challenges certain ideals of masculinity central to legal reason. Misgivings about the legitimacy of consent to S/M find a useful analogy in critiques of psychoanalytic treatment that understand consent in that context as irreducibly fraught.