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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

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

DWF—David Abbott & Claire Keat

Senior appointments in insurance services and commercial services announced

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Clyde & Co—Nick Roberts

Aviation disputes practice strengthened by London partner hire

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Ellisons—Marion Knocker

Residential property lawyer promoted to partnership

NEWS
he abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
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