It has been confirmed that the Hague Judgments Convention (“Convention”) will enter into force following the accession of the European Union (excluding Denmark) and the ratification by Ukraine on 29 August 2022. Under the terms of the Convention, the Convention will enter into force on the first day of the month following the expiry of 12 months after two states formally ratify or accede to it. The Convention will therefore take effect for the EU…
After the invasion of Crimea and Donbas in 2014, several countries imposed economic sanctions on the Russian Federation and on Russian companies. The sanctions have been tightened after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and an end to the sanctions and to a possible further tightening is not in sight. The sanctions had and continue to have a significant impact on the resolution of disputes with persons/entities affected by the sanctions: counsel may no longer be able…
In brief On 24 May 2022, the Dutch Supreme Court passed judgment between, on one hand, the Royal Dutch Shell PLC and 15 of Shell’s in-house lawyers (“Shell”), and on the other hand, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service.[1] The Supreme Court held that both Shell’s and the Public Prosecution Service’s complaints were inadmissible because the decision of the court of first instance should be considered as an ‘interim decision’ (in Dutch: ‘tussenbeschikking’), and interim decisions are not…
The Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 (the “Act”) received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022. The Act is based on the Judicial Review and Courts Bill (“Bill”) which was introduced to Parliament on 22 July 2021 after the Independent Review of Administrative Law (IRAL) had been carried out. The IRAL was established following the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto commitment that it would “ensure that judicial review is available to protect the rights of the…
Replacement of the Brussels Recast Regulation In brief The mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters between the UK and the Netherlands used to be governed by the Brussels Recast Regulation. Today, post-Brexit, it is not an easy task to determine which rules apply. The key issue is whether the Convention between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland providing for the Reciprocal…
IN BRIEF On 14 December 2021, the UK Government launched a consultation on proposals to reform the Human Rights Act 1998 (“HRA”) entitled “Human Rights Act Reform: A Modern Bill of Rights” (“Consultation”). The Consultation recently closed for most recipients, and its outcome could reshape existing constitutional norms and protections, as well as opening a path to the light-touch regulatory economy reportedly envisaged as part of the UK’s post-Brexit future. IN DEPTH (a) Background to…
Bucking the trend of recent certification decisions, the Competition Appeal Tribunal refused to grant an opt-out collective proceedings order in favour of either of the two competing proposed class representatives in the foreign exchange follow-on claims.[1] In a significant victory, the respondent banks succeeded in their argument that the claims brought by O’Higgins and Mr Evans should not proceed on an opt-out basis. The Tribunal has given O’Higgins and Evans three months to decide whether…
On 8 March 2022, the Competition Appeal Tribunal published its summary of the opt-out collective claim filed by Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen against Meta, in relation to alleged abuses of dominance imposed through Facebook’s terms and conditions.[1] As the 17th application for a collective proceedings order made since the class actions regime changed in 2015, it seemed an opportune time to reflect on a few trends in collective claims. More often than not, those claims…
Draft Terms of Reference were published on 10 March for the COVID-19 public inquiry, chaired by Baroness Hallett (see here ). A consultation on the Terms of Reference is open until 7 April 2022. Scope of the inquiry Based on the draft Terms of Reference, the inquiry will: examine the COVID-19 response and the impact of the pandemic, and produce a factual narrative account; and identify the lessons to be learned to inform the UK’s…
1. Introduction Swiss civil procedural law today only provides for very limited possibilities of collective redress, which the Swiss Federal Council has recognized in a report back in 2013 as insufficient. However, the issue of how exactly collective redress shall be strengthened is highly controversial. A first proposal by the Federal Council was rejected by Parliament in 2014. Relevant amendments were also initially included in the draft of the revised Civil Procedure Code (CPC) in…