Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

One of the trends in the practice of law noted in the book is the increased globalisation of the provision of legal services. Two recent Government announcements indicate just how important this work is, not just to our legal system but to the overall economy. They also indicate how competitive the legal services market is becoming in a globalised world. If the UK does not offer what global businesses want, business will go elsewhere.

The Government’s Action Plan ‘Promoting the UK’s Legal Services Sector’ was published in May 2011. It is available at http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/publications/corporate-reports/MoJ/legal-services-action-plan.pdf.
It sets out objectives which the Government will be seeking to support over the next few years, which will be incorporated in the upcoming MoJ Business Plan.
The second announcement is that a new ‘state of the art’ court building for dealing with commercial disputes – the Rolls Building – is scheduled to open in the Autumn 2011. A note on the progress of this initiative, for which the judiciary and commercial lawyers have long been pressing, was made at the end of May 2011. See http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/features/feature310511a.htm