Dispute resolution

2024 got off to a flying start with the welcome news that the UK Government had signed the 2019 Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters (2019 Hague Convention), a framework of rules facilitating the recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial court judgments between contracting states.

Since the end of the post-Brexit transition period in 2020, there has been no comprehensive reciprocal regime in place between the UK and EU member states for the enforcement of each other's civil and commercial judgments. A regime for the recognition and enforcement of civil and commercial judgments arising from disputes governed by qualifying exclusive English jurisdiction clauses does exist in the form of the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements (2005 Hague Convention). However, judgments arising from disputes governed by non-exclusive or asymmetric English jurisdiction clauses are outside that regime's scope. One of the benefits of the 2019 Hague Convention, to which all EU member states except Denmark are parties, is that the need to draw distinctions between judgments arising from disputes governed by exclusive jurisdiction clauses, and those arising from disputes governed by non-exclusive or asymmetric jurisdiction clauses, will fall away. The 2019 Hague Convention will therefore go a long way to ensuring that all types of English civil and commercial judgments can be quickly and easily enforced in both the EU and, as other states join the Convention, around the world.

The 2019 Hague Convention will come into force 12 months after ratification, which has not yet happened. Should you need advice in the meantime on the appropriate jurisdiction clause for a contract, please get in touch.

Read our quarterly Dispute Resolution round-up for more about developments in the dispute resolution sphere. This edition considers reforms to the Arbitration Act 1996 and the consequences of the Supreme Court's recent decision in PACCAR (on which our firm acted) for the enforceability of certain litigation funding arrangements. And finally, the long tail of Italian swaps cases continues to play out in the financial markets disputes arena, generating an important Court of Appeal decision.