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Two recent decisions by US federal courts appear to have nullified an important legal weapon in the fight against insider trading. By Jonathan Blackman of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, New York

The Danish securities market was reformed by the Danish parliament in December 1995. The Act on Securities Trade and the Act on Stockbroker Companies (together with amendments to the Banking Act and the Mortgage Credit Act) implemented the Investment Services Directive (93/22) and the Capital Adequacy Directive (93/6). The Act came into force in 1996 and the relevant executive orders under the Act have been issued, so that we also now have some impression of the first effects of the reform.

US chocolate company Hershey has agreed to buy the North American confectionery business of Leaf Inc, the US subsidiary of Finland's Huhtamaki. The price is US$440 million plus annual licensing fees. Hershey has also agreed to sell Huhtamaki its two European operations, Germany's Gubor and Italy's Sperlari, for US$110 million.

The dissolution of the international partnership between Canadian firms Ogilvy Renault and Osler Hoskin & Harcourt was coolly calculated many months in advance by Ogilvy. This much is revealed by an Ogilvy Renault internal memo dating from 1995 obtained by International Financial Law Review which discusses the future of a potential independent Ogilvy Renault office in London. The official reason given by both firms for the split in London in February 1996 was that Ogilvy Renault had announced it was to open an office in Toronto in the summer of 1996. However, the memo states that in mid-1995 Ogilvy Renault was "considering various alternatives" to its arrangements with Osler Hoskin. The memo was addressed by then managing partner of the London office, Michael Fortier (now based in Montreal), to managing partner Raymond Crevier.

UK fund manager Invesco is buying US competitor AIM Management Group for US$1.6 billion. The deal creates a top five independent fund manager with more than US$150 billion under management.

The new presence of foreign law firms aggressively staking out territory in Germany is putting pressure on local firms. A second wave of mergers seems to be beginning. Samantha Wigham reports

New York-based Chadbourne & Parke, a general practice firm with a strong energy and projects practice, has poached Ian Johnson from Ashurst Morris Crisp. Johnson, head of Ashurst's energy and major projects group, will be the first English solicitor to be a partner at Chadbourne. He starts at the firm on March 1 1997.

The single market has promoted growth, employment and competition, but the EU still has some way to go towards meeting the target of creating a set of truly common rules. This is the theme of a major new report to be presented by the Commission at the next European Council meeting in December. The report took two years to complete and gives an overview of the impact and effectiveness of the single market since its inception nearly four years ago.

Recent developments in the legal field in Turkey include the following:

The concept of lending money is relevant to a number of pieces of legislation in Australia and can be either the trigger for the imposition of restrictions or the basis of exemptions.