Cross-border Issues in Civil Litigation
A panel discussion event to be chaired by HHJ Pearce
Court 47, Manchester Civil Justice Centre, 7 December 2023
17.15 registration for a 17.30 start, followed by Q&A, and drinks at 19.00
Victims of crypto frauds commonly complain about the law not doing enough to help them keep up with fraudsters and chase after their assets abroad. But lawyers today dealing with any case involving a party in another jurisdiction may need to know how to navigate the jurisdictional issues, particularly the rules for serving proceedings abroad or even enforcing the judgments of foreign courts. These may seem daunting and unwieldy at the best of times. But for the UK Brexit has created further complexities, putting the UK out of scope of various EU instruments. Further, the divergence of rules applying between the UK and in the EU, for example in relation to sanctions, creates wholly new challenges.
There have been a number of positive developments in the UK however. The recently signed Singapore Convention provides for the enforcement of cross-border mediation settlements, a development in sync with the new mediation mandate for small claims track matters in England and Wales. Speculation is also rife that the UK may soon sign the Hague Judgments Convention 2019. English and Welsh lawyers also have been helped by new gateways in the applicable Civil Procedure Rules to facilitate serving disclosure orders in other jurisdictions, as well as by creative alternatives to service being developed by judges, including permitting service on persons unknown, service by NFT and service on directors of UK companies resident abroad. With these developments in mind, it is a good time to take stock of cross-border aspects of the civil procedure in England and Wales and further afield. Come and hear from our panel of experts, including: Mrs Justice Sara Cockerill, Gerard McDermott KC, Paul McGarry SC, Jemma Fleetwood, Paul Johnson & Evanna Fruithof.
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