Last week I talked about making sure that, as a hiring manager, you get proper input from the rest of the team of people involved in the hiring process before making a candidate an offer. Besides being good practical advice, it is also important legally. Once you or your company make that job offer to the candidate, you are legally bound to hire the person. Suddenly having one of your internal team members oppose a hiring (which subsequently requires you to withdraw a job offer) opens you up to a lawsuit and claims for compensation. This is especially so if the candidate can prove that they have already resigned from their existing job on the basis of having received your offer. The last thing you want is to have to pay some disappointed candidate’s salary for three months or more while they find a replacement job – not to mention having to deal with their anger over your causing them to put their personal financial security and career at risk.

Japan is known as a haven for disaffected Japanese spouses who, in getting divorced, abscond with their kids back to Japan. However, in a breakthrough agreement, Japan has announced it will sign a Hague treaty whereby children who are illegally removed from their country of habitual residence must be returned, and the jurisdiction for subsequent court decisions is taken out of the hands of the Japanese courts.To find out why this is a huge step forward for Japan, Read Terrie's Take Now