Asian Legal Review

ANALYSIS: The much-anticipated NEC4 Alliance Contract has now been published, allowing parties to construction projects to collaborate more closely and equally share in that project’s risks and rewards.

A Japanese lawmaker said on Thursday he heckled a lung cancer patient during his parliamentary testimony on an antismoking bill because of his “feelings that smokers should not be overly discriminated against”.
Yoichi Anami, a House of Representatives member from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, jeered “Enough already” when Kazuo Hasegawa, who heads a group of lung cancer patients, was speaking to the lower house Committee on Health, Labor and…

Malaysia will reopen an investigation into the murder of a Mongolian model in 2006, the country’s police chief said on Thursday, in a case that could spell more trouble for former premier Najib Razak.
Two former police officers, who were serving as members of Najib’s personal security detail at the time of the murder, were sentenced to death for the crime.
Najib, who was defeated in an election last month after nearly a decade in power, has denied knowing the woman, but the question…

Plans to introduce a minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol have been approved by members of the National Assembly for Wales.

The Court of Appeal has awarded additional ‘exemplary’ damages in a case involving a “sophisticated and sustained fraud” against an insurer.

Lieutenant Colonel Hwang Myong Jin has been a guide on the northern side of the demilitarised zone that divides the two Koreas for five years. He says that since the summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the presidents of South Korea and the United States, things have quieted down noticeably in perhaps the last place on Earth where the cold war still burns hot.
“A lot of things have changed. Listen to how quiet it is,” he said as he stood on the balcony of a large…

Cambodia’s former opposition leader faces royal insult charges punishable by a jail term, according to a court summons, the first prominent figure to be accused under the new law.
The adoption of the law in February triggered alarm from rights groups who warned it would become another tool for Prime Minister Hun Sen to stifle dissent.
The strongman premier is seeking to prolong his 33-year grip on power in a general election next month and has used the courts to cripple his opponents….

In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post this week, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad opened up about relations with China and his ideas for getting his country going again. But he deflected questions on whether he wants to stay on as premier beyond the two years he has promised to stay in office. Below is an excerpt of the interview at his Putrajaya office.
***********
Q: Selamat Hari Raya. We hear you had a big Hari Raya celebration (to mark the end of Ramadan) at…

A widely-drafted exclusion clause in the standard terms of a fire protection system provider was not unreasonable, and therefore should be upheld, the Court of Appeal has confirmed.

The Philippines’ top court heard arguments on Tuesday for the legalisation of gay marriage, a historic first in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation.
Two same-sex couples denied licences to wed urged the Supreme Court to strike down a 1987 law that states marriage must be between a man and a woman.
“When the right to marry, a decision so personal, so intimate and so life-changing, is denied to LGBT people, the state is not valuing their dignity,” lawyer Jesus Falcis, who is also…