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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

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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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Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
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