On 3 December 2016, the US President-elect Donald Trump exchanged telephone conversations with Ms. Ying-Wen Tsai from Taiwan sparking a multitude of reactions from major news sources and social media all around the world. The Atlantic noted this as a “sharp breach of protocol” that could set off a crisis in the Sino-American relationship, even though the US “maintains a strong “unofficial” relationship with Taiwan”. Mr. Trump later publicized the occasion via Twitter that h

In the UK case JS –v– M and F before the High Court of Justice in the Family Division, a 14-year-old-girl diagnosed with cancer wished to be “cryo-preserved” to give her a chance “to be cured and woken up, even in hundreds of years’ time”. This controversial case came before the Court due to its novelty and the parents’ disagreements over the arrangements after the child’s death. Cryopreservation or cryonics is the preservation of a dead body via freezing for future resusci

On November 24, 2016, Liu & Partners attended the 2016 UNCITRAL Vietnam Workshop on harmonization of trade law and outlook for practitioners in ASEAN held at the Foreign Trade University in Hanoi, Vietnam. Over 150 lawyers, judges, academics and students from Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Hong Kong, Fiji and Sri Lanka attended the event to discuss Vietnam’s accession to the CISG coming into force on January 1, 2017. Professor João Ribeiro, the Head of UNCITRAL-RCAP opened t

依照美國法律，只要是美國的公民、居民（綠卡持有人），或是任何在美國有資產的外國人，都負有美國遺產稅的納稅義務。基於節稅的考量，上述人士都可能有事先規劃遺產的需要。以下簡要介紹關於美國遺產相關法律的基本概念： 1. 被繼承人的遺產如果沒有特別使用遺囑安排，會依照遺產所在的州法規定的繼承順位進行繼承。 2. 美國各州有不同的繼承法，規定遺囑的成立與執行程序，以及特留分的保護等事項。如果被繼承人的遺產分布在不同的州，就需要注意遺囑的分配是不是符合各州的繼承法。如果質疑遺囑的成立，繼承人可以在美國起訴主張遺囑無效。如果被繼承人的配偶是美國公民，美國稅法上有保護配偶的節稅工具，在進行遺產安排時需要一併規劃。 3. 依照美國法律所訂立的遺囑，需要依照各州規定的程序執行，有時相當費時，但可以指定律師為遺囑執行人，由律師來執行遺囑記載的相關事項。美國遺囑執行的步驟與臺灣大致相同，都要經過：一、釐清遺產範圍；二、清償債務；三、分配遺產的流程。 4. 將財產進行信託，可以避免上述繁瑣的遺產執行程序，使信託財產於信託人死亡時，自動歸屬於受益人。由於各州的信託法規與遺產