Conflict of laws

It was settled law that the competence of a foreign court to summon a defendant depended, in the absence of any form of submission to the jurisdiction, on his physical presence in the country concerned at the time of suit. Further, when a person submitted to the jurisdiction of a foreign court in respect of a claim made against a plaintiff or claimant in those proceedings, he could also be taken to have submitted to its jurisdiction in respect of: (i) claims concerning the same subject matter; and (ii) related claims. Moreover, it was an established principle that two policies supported the doctrine of res judicata estoppel: (i) the interest of the community in the termination of disputes and the finality and conclusiveness of judicial proceedings; and (ii) the right of the individual to be protected from vexatious multiplication of suits and prosecutions.