LS503M: INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL LITIGATION (2022-2023)

The course focusses on the relevance of Private International Law (PIL) for international commercial litigation. Of the legal issues that are relevant to the decisions to: a) litigate and b) to litigate in a given venue it is often PIL issues that will be determinative.

This course identifies and examines these PIL issues but also refers to other venue-specific issues (e.g. procedural factors) relevant to the decision to litigate commercial issues across different legal systems.

The course will feature an introductory lecture – positioning international commercial litigation in a post-Brexit world and with regard to the alternative represented by international commercial arbitration.

Then there will be six seminars to cover issues such as:

1: Jurisdiction and recognition and enforcement considered against ‘UK’ principles, EU principles, EFTA/EU principles and with reference to the HCCC 2005. We will consider how Brexit appears likely to affect these matters and hence will affect the attractiveness of the UK and the EU as venues for international commercial litigation.

2: We will examine different ways to get the case heard where you want it to be heard and how to protect this determination. We will explore how enforcement considerations affect the decision of where to litigate and consider whether and how Brexit appears likely to affect these matters. 

3: We will explore the different restrictions PIL imposes on the freedom of parties to choose jurisdiction - exclusive Jurisdiction, protective Jurisdiction, Lis pendens, and enforcement factors.

4: We will address the selection and determination of the applicable law of contractual obligations via both the EU’s Rome I Regulation and via the non-Rome I (domestic / common law) methods of determining the applicable law for contractual obligations excluded from the Rome I Regulation. We will consider also the promised UK version of the Rome I Regulation.  

5: We will address the selection and determination of the applicable law for non- contractual obligations (for torts / delicts) arising in the context of international commercial litigation via the EU’s Rome II Regulation. Also, we will consider the promised UK version of the Rome II Regulation. 

6: We will examine different ways that the recognition and enforcement of a commercial judgment may proceed under the different jurisdictional regimes we have studied and how these factors presently and post-Brexit may affect the decision to litigate.

The teaching of the course will conclude with a two hour revision lecture.

The course will be assessed by a coursework essay worth 25% and an exam worth 75%.

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

More Information about Week Numbers

There are no assessments for this course.