Defendant actions that do or do not amount to submission to the English court’s jurisdiction: CPR-based examples and case law
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Practice notes
This Practice Note outlines examples of how a defendant may voluntarily accept the English court’s jurisdiction. It further considers whether there is submission where the court has required the defendant to act. For guidance on assessing if a party has submitted to the court’s jurisdiction, see Practice Note: Challenging court jurisdiction—has a party submitted to a jurisdiction?
Service of the defence
A defendant who serves a defence in the proceedings will ordinarily be treated as having submitted to the English court’s jurisdiction. An exception arises where the court orders the defendant to serve their defence. Compliance with that order is not treated as submission and so does not prevent the defendant from advancing a jurisdictional challenge. The authorities on this point were reviewed by the Court of Appeal in Deutsche Bank AG London Branch v Petromena ASA (2015). In Ablynx NV v Vhsquared (2019), the claimant applied for an order compelling the defendant to serve its defence. The judge, considering Deutsche Bank, held that such an order could be made without affecting the defendant’s jurisdictional challenge, but that granting the order was not automatic...
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Web page updated on 21/05/2026
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