Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

From June 2017, ‘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.

This is rather more than a simple re-branding. The main objective of the new arrangements is that it will enable appropriately qualified judges to be deployed more flexibly so that their expertise can be used in whatever forum it is needed.

Business and Property Courts brings under a single umbrella the following existing courts and lists:

• The Commercial Court (covering all its existing subject areas of shipping, sale of goods, insurance and reinsurance etc.)
• The Admiralty Court.
• The Mercantile Court.
• The Technology and Construction Court (covering all its traditional areas of major technology and construction cases).
• The Financial List (covering banking and financial markets).
• The Companies and Insolvency Court.
• The Patents Court.
• The Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court (the “IPEC”).
• The Competition List.

Other courts and lists will be added in future to include the existing business and property cases in the Chancery Division.

There will also be Business and Property Courts in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and in Cardiff, with expansions to Newcastle and Liverpool likely in the future.

Although the framework will be new, existing  practices and procedures will be retained, at least for the time being.

The details are in https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/announcements/business-and-property-courts-media-release/