In this comprehensive analytical article, John-Paul Swoboda and Spencer Turner set out their view of the current position and the implications of Brexit for the future of cross-border civil litigation in the UK.
In Bulmer Ltd v Bollinger[1] Lord Denning spoke of the European Communities Act 1972 as ‘like an incoming tide. It flows into the estuaries and up the rivers. It cannot be held back. Parliament has decreed that the Treaty is henceforward to be part of our law. It is equal in force to any statute’.
In the four decades that followed, the Brussels I (Recast) Regulation, the Rome I and Rome II Regulations, the Service Regulation, and the Lugano Convention revolutionised cross-border litigation and shaped the UK’s civil justice system. As was said by the authors of Dicey, Morris & Collins[2] in the most recent edition of ‘Conflict of Laws’ ‘[b]y far the most significant source of the English conflict of laws … is European Union law’.
On 24 December 2020 it became clear that the tide had turned. The conclusion of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement[3] between the UK and the EU did not include any provisions on judicial cooperation in civil matters (as we discussed here). On 31 December 2020, the UK’s participation in large parts of the EU legal order ended and a new period for private international law began.
In this post we will offer some thoughts and consider the implications from our perspective as travel and personal injury practitioners.
Continue reading “Brexit mini-series: (5) the big picture”