Off the back of an extraordinary year of growth, modest economic expectations in the year to come are the current trend. Asian-Counsel provides a regional overview in addition to special features on Islamic finance in Japan, recent developments in Malaysian securities law and regulations and Islamic banking and finance regulations in the United Arab Emirates.

Throughout Asia, 2007 may be remembered as a year of significant labour law reform. While amendments may be symptomatic of the strength of the region’s economy as a whole, the changes are unique to the realities of the nations who have enacted them.

Melinda Finch considers what 2007, the year of the pig, holds in store for in-house counsel, private practice lawyers and their firms in the region. Where will the areas of opportunity be and what challenges can they expect to face?

It seems everyone’s building a bridge, villa, apartment complex, office tower or shopping mall in China these days and with the economy experiencing double digit growth there are great expectations for the sector. Melinda Finch considers whether they will be met.

In the ongoing transformation of Asian capital markets, money flows are changing direction and new industries are rising across the region. But Hong Kong and Singapore regulators still set the pace, reports Eric J. Brooks.

Acceleration in planning of the PRC’s proposed national security review mechanism for foreign investment in China is causing investors uncertainty on a number of issues, says partner Peter Wang of Jones Day.

A proliferation of consumer protection laws and a more demanding public look to set the scene for a host of liability claims in the PRC, explains lawyer Willi Vett of Beiten Burkhardt’s Shanghai office. Is your company prepared?

Adrian Emch of Hogan Lovells’ Beijing office explains why a recent decision on cartel behaviour may herald a new era in the enforcement of the PRC Anti-Monopoly Law.