Administraion of Justice update

National roll-out for new Business and Property Courts

The new Business and Property Courts (B&PCS) of England and Wales were launched in London on 4 July, and were opened in five main regional centres later that month.

The B&PCS launch event in the Rolls Building in London was the first of a series of launches across the country to mark the roll-out of the courts across the country. The other launches took place in Birmingham on 6 July, in Leeds on 10 July, in Manchester on 11 July, in Bristol on 14 July, and in Cardiff on 24 July (see text box opposite). The ‘go-live date’ for all the courts is 2 October 2017.

An explanatory statement issued by Sir Geoffrey Vos, chancellor of the High Court, and Sir Brian Levenson, president of the Queen’s Bench Division (QBD), in May, described the advantages expected from the new B&PCS as follows: an intelligible name; regional B&PCs joined up with London; flexible crossdeployment of judges; and familiar procedures.*

The new arrangements

The Judicial Office says that new arrangements will ‘enhance the connection’ between the specialist business and property work undertaken in the regions and in London’. While in London these specialist jurisdictions operate together at the Rolls Building, it is said that the new arrangements will ‘enhance the connection between the courts in London and in the regions’.

The Business and Property Courts will be the new name for England and Wales’ international dispute resolution jurisdictions, and will ‘act as a single umbrella for business specialist courts across England and Wales’. The courts or lists that will make up the B&PCS are as follows:

The new arrangements will ‘preserve the familiar practices and procedures of these courts, while allowing for more flexible cross-deployment of judges with suitable expertise and experience to sit on appropriate business and property cases’. This new structure, ‘together with the Financial List and the Shorter and Flexible Trial Scheme, will enhance the UK’s already respected reputation for international dispute resolution; and will play a part in ensuring that Britain continues to provide the best business court-based dispute resolution service in the world, served by a top-class independent judiciary’ says the Judicial Office.

The role of the judiciary

​The Business and Property Courts will be the new name for England and Wales’ international dispute resolution jurisdictions, and will ‘act as a single umbrella for business specialist courts across England and Wales

All the judges, masters, and registrars in bankruptcy of the Rolls Building will be involved in the B&PCS, as will many judges in the specialist district registries of the High Court outside of London. The current position is that judges who are experts in a particular area are not readily deployed to sit in cases in that area in another court. For example, highly expert competition law judges in the QBD cannot easily sit on the bulk of competition law cases which take place in the Chancery Division.

*Available at: http://tinyurl.com/y9xz9mw5

 

INAUGURATION OF THE B&PCS IN WALES

Frances Edwards FCILEx, CILEx Council member and past president 2014/15, writes:

In March of this year, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas announced the forthcoming introduction of the Business and Property Courts (B&PCS) of England and Wales.¹ These courts, which are to be based in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester and Wales as well as in London, will provide a single umbrella for courts specialising in business and property work. They will encompass the Chancery Division, the Commercial Court, the Mercantile Court and the Technology and Construction Court, and will create a super highway between courts in London, and those elsewhere in England and Wales, to ensure that international businesses and domestic enterprises are equally supported in the resolution of their disputes.

The B&PCS for Wales was oficially opened by the Lord Chief Justice on 24 July at Cardiff Civil Justice Centre.² I had the pleasure of attending the opening in the company of some of the great and good. As well as Lord Thomas, also present was Mick Antoniw, Counsel General for Wales, Mr Justice Clive Lewis, Mr Justice Guy Newey, Mrs Justice Nicola Davies DBE, HHJ Milwyn Jarman QC, retired Mr Justice Wyn Williams, the former Presiding Judge for Wales, and Sir Geoffrey Vos, chancellor of the High Court, to name but a few.

We were told by the Lord Chief Justice that the B&PCS terminology is to be user friendly and provide connectivity to jurisdictions. Lord Thomas warned that failure to ensure mutual recognition of court judgments in the UK and EU in advance of Brexit will threaten British business and the status of English law. He added that mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments was in the ‘respective interests’ of both London and Brussels.

He sent a clear message to the Brexit negotiating team that City of London businesses expected them to cut a deal. ‘It is obvious to any business or lawyer that, when entering into a contract which either has a jurisdiction clause for UK jurisdiction on which might involve the necessity for the recognition or enforcement of any judgment in the European Union in the years after March 2019 (on the assumption that a dispute would arise), there must be certainty now … because contracts are being made now which will have effect for years ahead.’

 

1 ‘Business and Property Courts’, Judicial Office media release, 13 March 2017, available at: http://tinyurl.com/yaascrcs 
2 ‘Speech by The Lord Chief Justice: Opening of the Business and Property Courts for Wales’, available at: http://tinyurl.com/ycnowkyf

 

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