This month the Commercial Court Users Committee adopted, for a trial period, recommendations from a working party set up in 2007.
Practice area: Commercial & Chancery
This month the Commercial Court Users Committee adopted, for a trial period, recommendations from a working party set up in 2007. The changes intend to sharpen the court process, but as the first of these reports argues, focusing on whether the Chancery Division should embrace a list of issues is a “sticking plaster” and does not go far enough.
The second article stresses how important it is for London’s arbitration community to take note of the arrival of credible alternatives, such as a newly opened centre in Dubai. The recent European Court of Justice ruling in the West Tankers case has been viewed by some as a blow to London’s reputation as the pre-eminent international arbitration centre of choice, but can it recover?
The third article looks at a practice direction on pre-action conduct being introduced in April. Claimants in cross-jurisdictional litigation may need to issue proceedings in the court of their choice to avoid seeing them foiled by delaying tactics – the so-called ‘torpedo effect’, where a defendant brings a claim for a negative declaration in a jurisdiction where it knows that the courts are likely to take years to reach a decision.
This week’s special reports
Staying Power
Brussels clout
The big issues
Shorter and sweeter
