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25 September 2009 / Kristian Grice , Michael Fenn
Issue: 7386 / Categories: Features , Commercial
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Courting controversy

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Michael Fenn & Kristian Grice on why more global disputes are heading for English courts

In the modern world of commercial globalisation, there are an increasing number of relationships between parties that span different legal jurisdictions. When things go wrong, a party may want the security of knowing that the English courts will decide the dispute. In particular, there has been a keen appetite on the part of Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs in recent years to battle out their disputes here, but how certain can any parties be that the English courts will decide their dispute? Two recent cases have provided further judicial guidance on this issue.

Is the English court the natural forum?

There must, of course, be some connection with this jurisdiction for it to be the natural forum in which a case should be tried, being the forum “with which the action ha[s] the most real and substantial connection” (The Abidin Daver [1984] 1 AC 398 (The Abidin Daver)).
Some factors to consider for this include, for example, whether at least

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