The civil courts specialising in international dispute resolution will be known as the “Business and Property Courts of England and Wales” from June 2017.
The courts to be classed as the “Business and Property Courts” are: the Commercial Court (including the Admiralty Court), the Technology and Construction Court, and the courts of the Chancery Division (including those dealing with financial services, intellectual property, competition, and insolvency).
The existing practices and procedures of these courts will continue as before, but there will be more scope for “flexible cross-deployment of judges with suitable expertise and experience to sit on appropriate business and property cases”, according to the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary. There will also be Business and Property Courts in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Cardiff, with expansions to Newcastle and Liverpool likely in the future.
Sir Brian Leveson, President of the Queen’s Bench Division, said: “Cross deployment of judges across the Chancery and Queen’s Bench Divisions for the purposes of the Financial List has demonstrated the real value of flexible deployment in appropriate cases.”
Sir Geoffrey Vos, Chancellor of the High Court of England and Wales, said: “Modernising the courts through innovation and flexibility can bring benefits to international and domestic businesses.”
