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Conflict of laws – Jurisdiction. The claimants brought a claim against the defendants for sums due under a facility agreement and related agreements. The agreements contained non-exclusive English jurisdiction clauses with forum non conveniens (FNC) waivers, whereby the parties waived any objection they might have to the venue of any proceedings. The defendants applied for a stay of the proceedings on the ground that England was not the most appropriate forum. The issue was whether an FNC waiver in the agreements precluded an application for a stay on forum non conveniens grounds. The Commercial Court, in dismissing the applications, held that, a court could grant a stay, even where there was an forum non conveniens waiver with a non-exclusive jurisdiction clause, if very strong or exceptional grounds for granting a stay were demonstrated, provided that those grounds had been unforeseeable at the time the agreement had been made. However, there were no exceptional reasons for granting a stay on FNC grounds in the present case and there had been no abuse of process.
Conflict of laws – Jurisdiction. The claimants brought a claim against the defendants for sums due under a facility agreement and related agreements. The agreements contained non-exclusive English jurisdiction clauses with forum non conveniens (FNC) waivers, whereby the parties waived any objection they might have to the venue of any proceedings. The defendants applied for a stay of the proceedings on the ground that England was not the most appropriate forum. The issue was whether an FNC waiver in the agreements precluded an application for a stay on forum non conveniens grounds. The Commercial Court, in dismissing the applications, held that, a court could grant a stay, even where there was an forum non conveniens waiver with a non-exclusive jurisdiction clause, if very strong or exceptional grounds for granting a stay were demonstrated, provided that those grounds had been unforeseeable at the time the agreement had been made. However, there were no exceptional reasons for granting a stay on FNC grounds in the present case and there had been no abuse of process.
Our call for sufficient resources for the justice system and for the Bar to scrutinise the BSB’s latest consultation
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In conversation with Matthew Bland, Lincoln’s Inn Library
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From a traumatic formative education to exceptional criminal silk – Laurie-Anne Power KC talks about her path to the Bar, pursuit of equality and speaking out against discrimination (not just during Black History Month)
James Onalaja concludes his two-part opinion series
Expectations, experiences and survival tips – some of the things I wished I had known (or applied) when I was starting pupillage. By Chelsea Brooke-Ward
If you are in/about to start pupillage, you will soon be facing the pupillage stage assessment in professional ethics. Jane Hutton and Patrick Ryan outline exam format and tactics
In a two-part opinion series, James Onalaja considers the International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s requests for arrest warrants in the controversial Israel-Palestine situation