Commercial and Financial Law Reporter

By Saumya Vanwari, Fourth Year Student at Institute of Law, Nirma University

The long-awaited dispute on the enforceability of “Emergency Award” was finally settled by the Supreme Court in ‘Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC v. Future Retail Limited & Ors.’ The two-judge bench ruled in favour of Amazon and declared the Emergency Arbitration (“EA”) passed by the Singapore Arbitrator as enforceable in India. It also concluded that except SLP, the single judge’s order on emergency award was not appealable within Section 37(2) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act (“A&C Act”).

By Ankur Mishra, Fourth Year Student at Institute of Law, Nirma University

On 26 July 2021, the Hon’ble Supreme Court in M/s. Orator Marketing Pvt. Ltd. v. M/s. Samtex Desinz Pvt. Ltd. analyzed the status of interest-free loans as financial debt. The SC categorically observed that an interest-free loan, which is advanced to finance the business operations of a corporate body, qualifies as financial debt under Section 5(8) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 (the Code). The Court remarked that lenders of such debt would qualify as Financial Creditors and would be competent to initiate Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) against the defaulting debtors under Section 7 of the Code. This article seeks to analyse the Supreme Court’s judgment vis-a-vis the NCLT and NCLAT’s decision in the same case while highlighting the other significant rulings in this regard.

By Anmol Ratan, Fourth Year Student at NLSIU Bangalore

Back in 2010, Dani Rodrik, a renowned economist at Harvard proposed the idea of the political trilemma and hyper-globalisation in his book, The Globalisation Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy (W.W. Norton, 2010). Over the course of his book Rodrik hinted at the latent yet potent tension amidst ‘national sovereignty, democracy and hyper-globalisation’. Calling the trio the ‘Political Trilemma of the World Economy’, he argued that a nation cannot have all the three constituent phenomena all at once. It was also put forth by him that the neoliberal agenda of hyper-globalisation is not just hostile to the ideals of sovereignty and democracy but is also counterintuitive to their project. While some have disputed Rodrik’s bold claim for being abstract, there is more to it than what meets the eye. Rodrik has illustrated his thesis and meta-argument well in his book, however, his proposed idea of the sheer incongruity of hyper-globalisation with sovereignty and democracy seems to have been reinforced yet again by the recent developments in the laws of taxation.

By Sharvari Manapure and Priya Ganotra, Students at National Law University of Nagpur

Introduction

The capital market around the globe has been scaling up and the American notion of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”) has emerged into the limelight for investors. The SPACs are characterized as shell companies incorporated for the sole purpose of raising capital for acquisition of operational target companies without following the traditional process of initial public offering (“IPO”). This makes SPACs the foremost means for the operational target company to go public since the traditional method is often burdened with indirect expenses and delays, and SPAC counters this with quick execution and fewer expenditures. Additionally, SPACs are appealing because they are typically branded by reputed and high-profile founders and experienced management that leverage their expertise and hold credibility to create synergy.