After Brexit: is international commercial litigation in London doomed? Pippa Rogerson examines the evidence
- Unfounded predictions of decline of the Commercial Court.
- Common law rules on jurisdiction and enforcement should be extended to cover all cases and Brussels I Regulation Recast should not be replicated in English law.
- Hague Conference must be joined and the Convention on Choice of Court Agreements ratified.
- Rome I Regulation on choice of law should be replicated in English law.
Post-Brexit will English jurisdiction agreements and English choice of law clauses be less effective? Continental commentators have suggested the demise of the English commercial court as international commercial litigation will move to Europe. In the short term, the UK government has to decide whether to replicate the existing private international law instruments in English law. In the longer run, it will have to decide whether to negotiate with the EU for common rules on the jurisdiction and enforcement of judgments.
I do not believe many of the concerns are well founded. True, the UK will become a third state once it leaves the EU and that has unwelcome consequences
