Varners is closely monitoring the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Our thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis around the world. We urge everyone to take adequate precautions to help mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 and alleviate the burden on healthcare systems worldwide.

On 11 March 2020, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation had declared the outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic. Governments around the world are taking several contingency measures to mitigate the resulting global health crisis, including the imposition of lockdowns and curfews to varying degrees. The effects of the pandemic have sent shockwaves throughout the world and have severely disrupted global markets, trade, and commerce.

A shareholder is defined under Section 86(1)(a) of the Companies Act, No. 7 of 2007 ("Companies Act"), as a person whose name is recorded in the share register, as the holder of one or more shares in the relevant company. The ownership structure of a company can involve both minority and majority shareholdings. A minority interest is said to be existing where an entity/individual holds less than 50% of the voting rights in the company and a majority shareholding is created where 50% or more of such voting rights are held by an entity / individual.

The selection of an appropriate procurement method is essential for successful project development. The most suitable method can lead to increased certainty regarding time and costs and ensure that the completed works are fit for intended use. Construction in the Sri Lankan private sector primarily involves two popular methods of procurement, namely traditional construction contracts (or design bid build) and design & build contracts.

Ouster clauses are statutory provisions that exclude certain actions and decisions from the jurisdiction of competent courts of law. Such clauses prevent the courts from remedying the injustices that can be caused by executive zeal and pose a great peril towards good governance and the goals of sustainable development. In fact, as O. Sambo and Abdulkadir state1 , "it seeks deny the litigant any judicial assistance in respect of the matter having bearing on sustainable development and good govern

Amalgamation is the coming together of two or more companies to form a single unified entity. In simple terms, the combined businesses of two or more existing companies, including all assets and liabilities of such amalgamating companies, are subsumed or transferred by the operation of law into an existing company or a new company formed for such purpose. The shareholders of the existing undertakings thereby become the shareholders of the combined (amalgamated) company. One of the innovative fea

A multinational company with a global reach challenged a small Sri Lankan entrepreneur making and selling bakery items, on the basis that one of the multinational company's trademarks was being used. The action of the multinational company under the Intellectual Property Act (Colombo HC /Civil/26/2014/IP) was unsuccessful and was dismissed with cost by the Provincial High Court of the Western Province in the exercise of its commercial jurisdiction ("Commercial High Court").