Law digests: 20 October 2023

Conflict of laws

Zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn v De Borbón Y Borbón [2023] EWHC 2478 (KB), [2023] All ER (D) 45 (Oct)

The King’s Bench Division ruled, among other things, that the High Court of England and Wales lacked jurisdiction to try the claimant’s claim against the former King of Spain, alleging harassment. The claimant was a Danish national and a long-term resident of Monaco. She also had a home in England. The parties had had an intimate relationship, which had came to public attention. In allowing the defendant’s jurisdictional challenge, the court held that: (i) the claim had not been brought against him in his country of domicile (Spain), as was his default entitlement; (ii) the claimant did not have a good arguable case that her claim fell within an exception to that default rule, because she had not sufficiently established that the ‘harmful event’ (harassment by the defendant) had happened in England; and (iii) the defendant had not, or should not be deemed to have, submitted to the jurisdiction of the High