Asian Legal Review

A Filipino documentary spotlighting the daily struggles of fishermen, naval cooks and coastguard personnel in the contested South China Sea has earned international recognition, with its director telling This Week in Asia that the award was a validation of honest storytelling in the face of political pressure from Beijing to cancel its screening.
Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea took home the Tides of Change prize at the Doc Edge Festival in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 3….

When Tim Grassin sold his fintech start-up in the Philippines, he mapped out his next move the way any good analyst would: with a spreadsheet.
After comparing the region’s top destinations for remote workers, the French-Canadian entrepreneur landed on the Thai capital.
“Bangkok won,” he told This Week in Asia.
Drawn by its affordable healthcare, robust infrastructure and vibrant lifestyle, Grassin settled in the city in 2023 and eventually qualified for the Destination Thailand Visa (DTV) – a…

High in the Himalayas, the tiny kingdom of Bhutan, long known for its pursuit of “gross national happiness”, has now set its sights on a new measure of contentment: cryptocurrency.
In a move that has startled some of its neighbours and inspired global fintech champions, the “Land of the Thunder Dragon”, home to around 800,000 people, is using state-mined bitcoin to fund public salaries and lure a new wave of tourists.
Bhutan became, in May, the world’s first nation to unveil a countrywide,…

Three sacks weighted with sandbags recovered from the depths of a Philippine volcanic crater lake have added a dramatic new twist to the chilling case of at least 34 missing cock fighters, bolstering claims by a whistle-blower that the killings were orchestrated by a gambling tycoon with powerful political and police connections.
The first sack, pulled from the murky waters of Taal Lake on Thursday, contained charred bones, according to the Department of Justice. Forensic tests have yet to…

The new German government has laid out a series of measures to crack down on white-collar crime and intends to rewrite the Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains as part of its common legislative goals for the next four years.

Businesses and their in-house counsel should be aware of the risks at stake as the impact and scope of climate-related litigation continues to expand, experts have said.

The decision to retain a single national, wholesale electricity market is evidence of the UK government’s focus on accelerating clean power without causing disruption to the market at this time, an expert has said.

Back to April 2016, at the Qingfeng steamed bun restaurant in Beijing’s bustling Xicheng district, Jin Liqun lunched with the Asia editor of the Financial Times to introduce himself and China’s newly created Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Beijing’s decision to establish a development bank reflected in part a deep frustration with the reluctance of the world’s leading economies to give China (and other leading developing economies) more influence in Bretton Woods institutions such…

A new bill that seeks to establish a new civil registration system in the Philippines in a bid to prevent “more Alice Guos” is a step in the right direction, but may not be adequate to address the country’s deep-seated patronage politics and bribery, observers warn.
Filed by Philippine Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, the bill proposes to create a new civil registration and vital statistics system that aims to prevent foreigners from acquiring Philippine citizenship through fraudulent means, such as…

Property owners in Britain are facing increasing regulation following the Grenfell Tower fire in London and because of policy reactions to the climate emergency.