On 17 March 2023, the Swiss Parliament approved a revision of the Swiss Civil Procedure Code (CPC) introducing key amendments intended to facilitate the practical application of the CPC and improve access to courts in Switzerland. This includes, among others, the introduction of legal privilege of in-house legal counsel in civil proceedings. Moreover, the revised CPC lays the foundation for cantons to create international commercial courts, where parties can choose English as the language of…
In January 2023, the German Federal Ministry of Justice published “Guidelines for the strengthening of the courts in commercial disputes and for the introduction of (English speaking) commercial courts” (Guidelines). The Guidelines are the first step in implementing a legislative project of the labor/liberal/green coalition. In their coalition agreement, the three parties had agreed to “allow the introduction of English-speaking specialized chambers for international commercial and business disputes.” Currently, the possibilities to conduct civil/commercial proceedings…
Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan[1] is now reviewing the draft of the Commercial Case Adjudication Act (“Act”) proposed by Taiwan’s Judicial Yuan. The Act aims to establish a Commercial Court to speed up the litigation process for select commercial disputes in Taiwan. Recent experiences have shown that several major commercial disputes in Taiwan endured lengthy litigation for years, including the infamous SOGO department store management fight, which began in 2002 and lasted well over 10 years. In…