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R (Greyhound Board of Great Britain Ltd) v Welsh Ministers [2026] EWHC 670 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling reinforces the constitutional divide between the courts and the legislature. It explains that the scheme and framework of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (GWA 2006) embody that separation of powers, and that any judicial attempt to recognise and enforce a common law obligation on Welsh Ministers to consult prior to introducing legislation in the Senedd would trespass upon that boundary. This is not a departure from established principle; case law has already upheld comparable rules for lawmakers in Scotland and at Westminster. However, this is the first express confirmation of the position for Welsh lawmakers, and the first time this dimension of the GWA 2006 has been analysed in such depth. The court examined earlier
The solution arrived through the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), a quasi‑judicial body handling mass claims, created under UN Security Council Resolution 687. By addressing environmental harm—most notably via its ‘F4’ claim class—the UNCC set a seminal benchmark shaping how international law and contemporary arbitral panels allocate financial responsibility for wartime ecological devastation. With present-day wars in areas such as Eastern Europe and the Middle East bringing dam breaches, strikes on chemical facilities, and the burning of farmland, the UNCC’s legacy endures as an essential reference point for states, global investors, and companies engaged in post‑conflict arbitration. The F4 claims: Quantifying the unquantifiable Prior to the 1990s, mechanisms in international law for war reparations overwhelmingly favoured property loss, foregone earnings, and bodily injury. The natural world was commonly treated as a mute, non-compensable victim of armed hostilities...
Understanding the farming business as a business Many farms still use long-standing structures that arose by habit, not strategy. Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common. While once effective, such setups can cause major issues around succession, tax planning and involving the next generation. A corporate team can take a fresh, business-led view of the farm, asking: Who owns the land and other critical assets? Who manages daily operations? Who carries the risk and who enjoys the return? What is the enduring plan for succession? From this review, the team can confirm whether the current setup is fit for purpose or if an alternative — for example an updated partnership agreement, a company, a limited liability partnership, or a blended model — would better meet the family’s aims. Tax efficiency through joined-up advice Tax sits at the centre of most
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The High Court found that Spectrum Insurance Services Ltd had undertaken to The Motoring Organisation Ltd not to profit from an opportunity to supply cover to Ssang Yong dealerships in the UK until any merger between Spectrum and TMO had completed. On liability, Judge Simon Birt KC held that Spectrum breached contract, fiduciary obligations and confidence by advancing the Ssang Yong prospect while talks over a potential merger with TMO were ongoing in late 2018, which did not proceed and never went ahead at all......
In this issue: Coronavirus ( COVID-19) Ukraine conflict Cases and decisions Market practice Regulation Solvency II New and updated content Case trackers Key dates Daily and weekly news alerts Lex Talk®Insurance: a Lexis®Nexis community Coronavirus ( COVID-19) Business interruption ( Gatwick Investment Ltd and others v Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe Se and other cases) The Commercial Court determined certain preliminary questions raised by multiple claimants pursuing the defendants under business interruption insurance. Emerging from the coronavirus pandemic, the disputes focused on policy construction, including whether sums received as furlough payments under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ( CJRS) ought to be taken into account. The claimants were businesses which, in line with government guidance, had been compelled to close during the pandemic. The defendants were the insurers of those various claimants and had...
Tyson International Company Ltd applicant and Partner Reinsurance Europe SE, [2023] EWHC 3243 ( Comm) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment stands out for three main reasons of practical significance. First, it addresses how to resolve clashing jurisdiction clauses within a suite of contracts. Secondly, it examines whether market custom and practice can influence the construction and understanding of a contract. Finally, it surveys the principles to be applied when dealing with anti-arbitration and anti-suit injunctions in this context. Where a single contract contains both an exclusive jurisdiction provision in favour of a court and an arbitration clause provision, English courts have previously read that seemingly pathological pairing as signifying that the designated court has supervisory jurisdiction as the seat of the arbitration, with the merits of the dispute to be determined by the stipulated arbitral process. This decision...
Aercap Ireland Ltd v Aig Europe SA and other companies [2024] EWHC 144 ( Comm) What are the practical implications of this case? The judgment offers strong comfort that brokers may share Russian aircraft lessees’ insurance and reinsurance policies and related paperwork to help determine the scope of cover in the Russian aviation disputes without breaching sanctions, even absent a court order. Butcher J identified three principal strands, likely of near-universal relevance in these matters, that underpin voluntary disclosure: The materials were not being provided to a person connected with Russia; The disclosure concerned policies/claims that sat outside the sanctions framework; The disclosure did not enable the use of aviation goods within Russia. Whether brokers will feel sufficiently assured by this obiter analysis to disclose voluntarily remains uncertain. Strictly, the ruling is persuasive, not determinative; the application before the court involved an order rather than a...
Dassault Aviation SA v Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 5 What are the practical implications of this case? This decision will interest anyone concerned with the canons of contractual construction. Those who draft or advise on non-assignment clauses will find it especially pertinent. Where an absolute bar on assignment is intended, wording must be explicit and unambiguous. Accordingly, drafters seeking to preclude transfers must choose language that leaves no room for implication. In Dassault Aviation, the Court of Appeal confirmed that it is inadequate to contend that a party should have appreciated, or in fact did appreciate, that assignment was a likely result of its conduct where the transfer is not the party’s own act but instead arises by operation of law. The Court’s stance can fairly be characterised as a strict black-letter approach. That black-letter reading is...
WTW noted that the sixty islands forming the Lau group, lying to the east of the Fiji archipelago, face heightened exposure to sea-level rise, warmer oceans, acidification and tropical cyclones. Such pressures threaten coral reefs and undermine the incomes and wellbeing of local communities reliant upon them......
In this issue: Coronavirus ( COVID-19) Ukraine conflict Market practice Regulation Solvency II New and updated content Case trackers Key dates Daily and weekly news alerts Lex Talk®Insurance: a Lexis®Nexis community Coronavirus ( COVID-19) Business interruption ( Gatwick Investment Ltd and others v Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe Se and other cases) Hotel operators and the upmarket Liberty department store achieved a partial success on 26 January 2024 on elements of their claims for cover arising from lockdown, after the court concluded that enforced closures did activate business interruption insurance. See News Analysis: Hospitality businesses get mixed result for coronavirus ( COVID-19) payouts in LMIE test cases and LNB News 26/01/2024 70. Ukraine conflict Aviation claims ( Aercap Ireland Ltd v Aig Europe SA and other companies) The Commercial Court allowed the claimant’s application for third party...
The demands of the Consumer Duty introduced by the FCA have blurred the boundary between advice and guidance. Information presented as free guidance can be taken to mean paid-for advice. Regulatory lawyers say the duty’s insistence on good consumer outcomes, alongside unclear signals from the City watchdog on what counts as ‘advice’, is clouding the compliance landscape for financial advisers. This room for misunderstanding has triggered legal unease about how impartially the Financial Ombudsman Service ( FOS) might resolve complaints alleging poor advice under the new consumer protection regime created by the duty. By lifting the compliance threshold and prioritising outcomes, the duty increases the likelihood of advisers slipping up when assisting consumers. A further concern is that advisers, faced with two fresh and potentially conflicting compliance rule books, may hold back from offering constructive guidance or advice. According to Clive...
Judge Jacobs reached decisions on a series of claims lodged by hospitality firms for losses arising from shutting sites across the UK during the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, finding partly in the businesses’ favour. However, he pared back recoveries by siding with the insurers on policy limits and on whether government job retention payments must be deducted from any payouts. The action is fronted by Gatwick Investment Ltd, which trades as Crowne Plaza London Gatwick Airport, and features the Hollywood Bowl Group, brewer and hotelier Fuller Smith & Turner, and theatre operator International Entertainment Holdings. Most of the claims target Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe ( LMIE), while Aviva and Allianz are also defendants to a claim brought by a group of horse-racing tracks. The policies at issue provide cover where the act of a statutory authority, responding to danger or...
In this issue: Ukraine conflict Coronavirus ( COVID-19) Cases and decisions Market practice Regulation New and updated content Case trackers Key dates Daily and weekly news alerts Lex Talk®Insurance: a Lexis®Nexis community Ukraine conflict This week, a policy institute’s report indicated the UK insurance market is still covering roughly a third of Russian oil shipments, notwithstanding sanctions imposed following the invasion of Ukraine almost two years ago. See News Analysis: UK insurers covered €120bn of Russian oil at sea, report says. The conflict has fundamentally disrupted the aviation insurance landscape. Focus has turned to claims under aviation policies as lessors attempt to recoup losses for aircraft located in Russia—typically retained and operated by Russian airlines. As a result, a surge of proceedings has been brought in the English, US, and Irish courts. For...
That represents a 14% rise on the £1.8bn collected in the third quarter of the 2022 to 2023 financial year. HMRC released the data as part of its monthly bulletin on tax receipts. Cara Spinks, head of insurance at actuarial consultancy OAC, noted that many policyholders are likely to have seen premiums climb over the past year as inflationary pressures push up costs for insurers across every segment of the market. Spinks added that, while households face a further pinch on budgets, the Treasury appears on course for another bumper year of [insurance premium tax] receipts......
Axis Specialty Europe Se v Discovery Land Company Llc and other companies [2024] EWCA Civ 7 — What are the practical implications of this case? Condonation This appears to be the first time the Court of Appeal has addressed the meaning of the condonation clause in the SRA’s Minimum Terms of Cover ( MTCs). Although the outcome depended on its own facts, the Court of Appeal nonetheless set out some general guidance in that context: To ‘condone’ does not demand a positive act; passive tolerance or approval of another’s wrongdoing is sufficient on its own The MTC condonation wording also embraces claims ‘directly or indirectly arising out of, or in any way involving’ dishonest or fraudulent acts, errors or omissions committed or condoned by the insured. The court stated there must therefore be a causal nexus between the condoned conduct and the claim...
2024 Climate and Catastrophe Insight Report On 23 January 2024, Aon plc stated that the 2023 total far surpassed the long-run average of 43 disasters leaving bills above US$1bn. Of the 66 events recorded, 37 — including storms and floods — each produced insured losses of at least US$1bn, the reinsurer added. Earthquakes generated the highest overall economic losses, according to Aon’s analysis, while severe storms inflicted the greatest costs on insurers. Yet despite the unprecedented number of high-impact events, aggregate insurance payouts declined to US$118bn in 2023 — a 24% decrease from the previous year, when the figure was US$151bn......
According to a High Court action, Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe SE failed to honour its policy with Paul Wilson — proprietor of the Bolton Castle pub in north‑west England — and other firms, by leaving their claims neither reviewed nor paid. In a claim dated 29 December 2023, recently disclosed, Wilson states he sought indemnity in July 2022 after three government lockdowns compelled the Bolton premises to shut, leading to loss‑making ‘interruption’ and ‘interference’. The filing adds that Liberty Mutual declined cover for Wilson and other claimants including pub operators, a café, a hotel and a salon, who pursue insurance payouts. The quantum of their claim has not yet been finally fixed......
The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air ( CREA) reported 20 January 2024 that the UK is the leading underwriter of seaborne Russian oil, with marine insurers backing roughly €120.6bn of exports from March 2022 to November 2023. The UK permits services, including insurance, for ships transporting Russian oil, as long as the price paid for the oil sits below a price ceiling set by G7 leading industrial nations, presently US$60 per barrel for crude oil......
Representing the owners of the Win Win, Peter Mac Donald Eggers KC of 7KBW told the court that the Indonesian navy’s 2019 decision to hold the vessel after it drifted into the south-east Asian nation’s waters was ‘a new phenomenon’. He further described the step as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘a new state of affairs’. According to the barrister, the seizure reflected a recent shift in naval enforcement aimed at detaining ships that anchor unlawfully off Bintan. The Win Win, which had departed Singapore in company with 20 other vessels, was taken into custody and was not freed for more than a year. The master later faced prosecution for the illegal entry into Indonesia’s territorial seas......
Insurance & Reinsurance weekly highlights—18 January 2024 In this issue: Ukraine conflict Coronavirus ( COVID-19) Cases and decisions Types of insurance Market practice Regulation Solvency II New and updated content Case trackers Key dates Daily and weekly news alerts Lex Talk®Insurance: a Lexis®Nexis community Ukraine conflict This week, Scottish practice Brodies LLP confirmed it had supported Ukraine’s Export Credit Agency on an innovative war risks insurance mechanism, extending protection to shipowners and charterers and enabling the nation to move cargo across the Black Sea amid ongoing hostilities with Russia. See News Analysis: Brodies steers war risk insurance for Ukrainian exports. The conflict in Ukraine has profoundly reshaped the aviation insurance sector. Claims on aviation policies have become a central battleground as lessors try to recoup losses for aircraft left in Russia (typically still held and operated by Russian carriers). Consequently, a wave of proceedings has been commenced before the English, US, and Irish courts. For more detailed...
Gunvor International BV Gunvor International BV maintained it was not liable to the vessel owner, Herculito Maritime Ltd, for US$5.9m representing its stake in the MT Polar’s cargo after Somali pirates seized the ship off East Africa in 2010. However, the Supreme Court justices, acting unanimously, affirmed the Court of Appeal’s ruling that the bills of lading did not relieve the company from contributing to losses arising from the vessel’s capture. The Supreme Court further held that a war risks clause in the charterparty did not amount to an agreement insulating Gunvor International from responsibility. Accordingly, Gunvor remained obliged to share losses caused by the capture......
See also: Treasury Committee publishes summary of ‘ Sexism in the City’ engagement event, LNB News 17/01/2024 15 FCA Chief Executive Nikhil Rathi, together with colleagues, told the Treasury Committee, a cross‑party group of lawmakers, that the regulator is surveying wholesale finance firms to gather statistics on non‑financial misconduct cases—and on how such matters are spotted and resolved. Sarah Pritchard, the FCA’s director of supervision, said they are quite deliberately pressing ahead with that supervisory work programme right now, so they can use its findings to set out what constitutes best practice at the close of this exercise and, crucially, to shape their supervisory programme when the new rule sets take effect. The FCA’s industry survey spans wholesale insurance intermediaries and broking, as well as both banks and insurers. Wholesale markets link individuals and institutions seeking to invest funds with others that require them; retail...
According to the study issued on 16 January 2024 by the Confused.com car insurance price index and insurance broker WTW, the rise was labelled an ‘extraordinary’ jump. Tim Rourke, UK head of pricing, product, claims and underwriting at WTW, said the cost of motor cover rocketed in 2023 chiefly because used car prices surged, though there are signs of a market correction as values have fallen over the last four months. He added that insurers have had to reflect higher costs for spare parts and materials, pricier repairs as vehicles become more advanced, labour shortages, and longer vehicle hire periods. The research shows insurance premiums have climbed in every region of the UK over the past year, according to the latest published findings......
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When evaluating a general damages claim, the practitioner ought initially to refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG)...
This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews mechanisms used in settling litigation. A Tomlin order consists of a consent order paired with a schedule. It operates to stay proceedings on terms that have been agreed. The provisions contained in the schedule may remain confidential. This Practice Note describes the scope of confidentiality attaching to the schedule and sets out how it differs from a standard consent order. Sample wording for a Tomlin order is included, alongside links to precedents, as well as guidance on court approval. It also addresses varying, setting aside and enforcing a Tomlin order, including the considerations the court will take into account when handling applications for each. Further guidance is provided on interpreting and applying the relevant provisions of the CPR; however, some courts and divisions impose very specific requirements for both drafting and approval, and for approaching the schedule and confidentiality issues. Accordingly, you must consider the particular rules and court guide provisions in the forum where your claim is proceeding when drawing up the Tomlin order...
Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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