Product Liability

Project Finance Outlook and the Selection of Counsel

Jonathan Marsh

In the integrated oil and gas sector, three main trends underway currently should affect projects over the near term. Host countries increasingly challenge private sector contractual rights. In the face of this challenge, there is tremendous liquidity in the markets, targeting comparatively higher yield,lower risk, long term non-recourse project finance, coupled with relatively high commodity prices, despite recent market corrections. I believe that despite the property rights challenge, we can be fairly confident that the oil and gas industry will continue to see robust investment in major projects over the coming years, although we can expect the jurisdictions most hostile to foreign private investment to suffer from under-investment and delayed development.

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Continuing Developments in Product Liability Litigation

Yves St-Arnaud

Director of legal services Bombardier Recreational Products Inc

While the substantive law of product liability is well-settled in the United States, the amendments incorporating electronic discovery into the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure add a level of complexity to product liability litigation, which in its own right is already complex. Litigants have little choice in the matter, however: electronic discovery in the federal courts is mandatory.

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Product Liability in Europe: The Hot Topics for 2007 and Beyond

Rod Freeman

Matthew Hibbert

The product liability risks in Europe for product manufacturers are very different to those they face in the United States. There is no question that the risks of uncontrollable litigation do not exist in the same way in any European country as they do in the US. However, product manufacturers must now deal with an increasingly challenging legal and regulatory regime, and it is now recognised that the European product liability environment, while different to that in the United States, presents significant risks that need to be understood and managed. It is also a changing environment, with important developments emerging on a number of fronts, both at EU and national levels.

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Update on Pre-emption in Pharmaceutical Product Liability Cases

Chilton Davis Varner

Stephen B Devereaux

Meredith A Bunn

In January 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued regulations concerning prescription drug labelling. As part of the final rule, the FDA issued a formal statement of its position on a longrunning and hotly contested legal debate: pre-emption in pharmaceutical product liability cases.

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