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14 June 2024 / Simon Cohen
Issue: 8075 / Categories: Features , Profession , Technology , Jurisdiction , Career focus
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Digital nerve centre

The common law gives England & Wales the flexibility to be a technology hub—and the draft digital assets Bill reinforces that, writes Simon Cohen
  • The Law Commission is seeking to cement England and Wales as the leading jurisdiction for digital assets law and disputes.
  • The draft Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill would put a third category of personal property on a statutory footing.

Steeped in history (English legal memory began in 1189) and always forward-looking, English common law has repeatedly proven itself permissive, adaptable, commercially minded and—crucially—certain.

These are the reasons why common law systems across the world (all of which have their origins in English law) have the advantage over the fixed and rigid (some might argue sclerotic) codified systems of law that are prevalent in, among other places, continental Europe. It is the reason why entrepreneurs and businesses with no connection with Britain, and whose arrangements may have little to no nexus with these shores, repeatedly choose to have their commercial agreements governed by English law and

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

WSP Solicitors—David Ashcroft & Jessica O’Shea

WSP Solicitors—David Ashcroft & Jessica O’Shea

Commercial property and child law teams expand with senior hires

Duxton Hill Chambers—Lucas Bastin KC & Joshua Hiew

Duxton Hill Chambers—Lucas Bastin KC & Joshua Hiew

Set expands London and Singapore offering with senior international disputes hires

Gilson Gray—Gregor Duthie & Stephen Forsyth

Gilson Gray—Gregor Duthie & Stephen Forsyth

Firm strengthens real estate and litigation teams with partner promotions

NEWS
Behind the profession’s polished exterior, lawyers are ‘internally drained rather than physically tired’, according to a stark assessment of burnout in legal practice
Five years after the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 came into force, concerns remain that the family courts continue to minimise allegations of abuse in child contact disputes
Uber has built a formidable strategy for insulating itself from liability for drivers’ conduct, but the legal terrain differs sharply between the US and England and Wales
The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026 marks a constitutional watershed by severing the centuries-old link between hereditary titles and automatic membership of the upper chamber
The Civil Justice Council’s review of Part III of the Solicitors Act 1974 could mark the end of what one commentator calls an ‘outdated’ and overly technical regime governing solicitor-client fee disputes
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