News – barlex

Merger between Credit Suisse and UBS

On March 19, 2023, the two large Swiss banks Credit Suisse and UBS entered into a merger agreement. UBS acquired the bank Credit Suisse. The transaction was agreed following the intervention by the Swiss Federal Department of Finance, the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA. In his article published in «iusNet Corporate Law» dated March 24, 2023 (in German; Link iusNet; Login required), Harald Baertschi analyzes and assesses this landmark transaction, taking into account the respective official support measures.

Analysis of Court Decision on Liability Law

The commentary on the Swiss Federal Supreme Court Decision 148 III 11 on the liability under corporate law written by Harald Baertschi (published in Aktuelle Juristische Praxis 31 [3/2022], p. 269–278) is available under this link (PDF, 1.1 MB, in German).

Whitepaper about Distributed Ledger Technology

The following Whitepaper explains the technical and legal framework for applying the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).

The Whitepaper is divided into four parts, corresponding to the four core pillars of the DLT:

Configuration (synchronisation of information on- and off-chain)
Consensus (interoperability) between protocols
Custody of digital assets
Transactions (transfers of assets)

Document: website of digitalswitzerland (PDF, 2.6 MB)

Sustainability

Sustainability becomes more important for enterprises, also from a legal perspective. Harald Baertschi has been involved in several publications about this topic. In a contribution to a Festschrift, he examines the legal qualification of social entrepreneurship. Another article has been prepared by an interdisciplinary working group. It examines the sustainability reporting and proposes a new Swiss Code of Sustainability Reporting. The transparency regarding sustainability issues and an increased comparability – thanks to a standardized reporting – help to promote a sustainable development of the economy.

Responsibility for Social Entrepreneurship (PDF, 2.3 MB, in German)

Swiss Sustainability Reporting (PDF, 1.5 MB, in German)