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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.
Chair of the Bar reports back
Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs
A £500 donation from AlphaBiolabs has been made to the leading UK charity tackling international parental child abduction and the movement of children across international borders
Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs, outlines the drug and alcohol testing options available for family law professionals, and how a new, free guide can help identify the most appropriate testing method for each specific case
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Do chatbot providers owe a duty of care for negligent misstatements? Jasper Wong suggests that the principles applicable to humans should apply equally to machines
