An article by Ian Bergson on the recent Supreme Court decision in FS Cairo (Nile Plaza) LLC v Lady Brownlie [2021] UKSC 45; [2021] 3 WLR 1011 has been published in the Law Quarterly Review for April.
The appeal is a significant decision on the conflict of laws and the second time the Brownlie case has been to the Supreme Court on the same issue: concerning the English Court’s jurisdiction in respect of tort claims against foreign parties.
The appeal considered the scope of the tort gateway where a claimant seeks to serve a defendant out of the jurisdiction on the basis that damage has been suffered in England and Wales. By a 4-1 majority, the Supreme Court has definitively held that a wide interpretation should be adopted, upholding the earlier conclusion of the Supreme Court by a 3-2 majority obiter at an earlier stage of the same case.
Brownlie II is also an important decision on proof of foreign law in the English Courts, and has been cited in the newly released 2022 edition of the Commercial Court Guide (at C1.3 and H3.1).
A copy of the case note on Brownlie II is here. For Ian’s note on the earlier Supreme Court decision in Brownlie I, please see here.
(This material was first published by Thomson Reuters, trading as Sweet & Maxwell, 5 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AQ, in the Law Quarterly Review as “Case Comment: Service Out in the Supreme Court (Again)” (2022) 138 L.Q.R. 199, 205 and is reproduced by agreement with the publishers).
