Legal News

The latest judgment of the CJEU in Società Italiana Lastre Sp A ( SIL) v Agora SARL offers both reassurance and doubt regarding asymmetric jurisdiction clauses in finance contracts. The court’s ruling delivers long-anticipated legal certainty for clauses appointing the courts of EU member states or courts of Lugano states, affirming their effectiveness under Article 25 of Regulation ( EU) No 1215/2012 ( Brussels Recast). Yet the decision leaves open issues about the enforceability of asymmetric jurisdiction provisions that permit one party to start proceedings in any competent court, including fora beyond the EU. Such clauses, which let finance parties select any competent court for proceedings while confining obligors to a specified jurisdiction/court, are customary in finance documentation, notably in syndicated lending. Background of the case The French Cour de cassation sought a preliminary ruling on the scope and reading of Article 25(1) of...

On 12 December 2024, ESMA released its consultation paper together with draft standards. Stakeholders had until 12 March 2025 to reply to the 22 questions posed. This release provides the first view of: a pan- European regime for open-ended loan-originating AIFs, and the evidence AIF managers may need to present to their home national competent authorities to secure a derogation to offer an open-ended loan-originating AIF The consultation is relevant to managers considering, or already operating, a semi-liquid evergreen loan-originating AIF in Europe. The consultation’s outcome, and the ensuing final standards, will influence whether European open-ended loan-originating AIFs can compete effectively on the global stage. Growth in semi-liquid evergreen funds In recent years, appetite has risen among fund managers and investors for evergreen vehicles pursuing illiquid strategies—such as private credit and private equity—that still provide some liquidity during the fund’s term. These hybrid funds often...

Damages claims—unspecified money claims Technical problem with a Damages claims case: DCPTech Support@justice.gov.uk General questions about a Damages claims case ( DCP- DC case reference): Damages Claims@justice.gov.uk Enquiry after ‘case transferred offline’ on a Damages claims case: contact the Local Court/ CNBC, depending on the owning court/position of the case Questions about your ‘ My HMCTS’ account or sign in issues: My HMCTSsupport@justice.gov.uk Specific examples Application to amend the claim form: email the revised claim form to Damages Claims@justice.gov.uk; do not copy in DCPTech Support As a courtesy, notifying the court of any extension other than a 28 day extension to file a defence: this is not required and the DCP does not support it; if you still wish to do so, email the local court and do not include DCPTech Support Case settled and a listed trial no...

SPP’s 2025 AI survey According to the SPP’s 2025 AI survey, 87% of participants currently deploy the technology within their organisations. Seventy-seven percent reported applying AI to no more than 5% of their service lines in total, though they anticipated this share would rise. Over 40% indicated that they expect to employ AI across as much as half of all their offerings within the next ten years. The SPP did not disclose precisely the number of members surveyed. However, it stated that a representative cross-section of its membership took part. Participants comprised actuaries and consultants, pensions lawyers and professional trustees......

What is the consultation about and what has prompted it? A private prosecution is brought by a private person or organisation, rather than by a statutory prosecuting authority. The entitlement to institute such proceedings is retained by section 6(1) of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985. Various bodies routinely bring cases before the courts of England and Wales on a private footing, exercising the continuing right available to any individual to commence a private prosecution. In recent times, those acting as private prosecutors have faced heightened examination. This is evident in the Justice Select Committee’s 2020 report and its recommendations on safeguards around private prosecutions, as well as in the criticisms advanced, and the evidence provided to, the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. More recently, the quashing of convictions for railway fare evasion offences in 2024 has further fuelled the discussion about private...

Louwman v HMRC [2025] UKFTT 295 ( TC) This appeal examined the taxpayer’s income tax liabilities for the 2018–19, 2019–20 and 2020–21 tax years. She was resident and domiciled in the UK throughout, having become deemed domiciled on 6 April 2018. Before that, she had settled shares into four offshore trusts. Those shares were in companies holding investments that produced offshore income gains ( OIG) and accrued income profits ( AIP) in the years in question. In outline, OIG are gains realised on disposing of an interest in an offshore fund that does not report its income to HMRC, while AIP are profits arising on the disposal of securities to the extent they represent built-up interest. As a general rule, OIG and AIP are treated as income of the year of disposal for the person making the disposal, or anyone treated as doing so. Owing to her...

Martin v Mc Laren Construction Ltd and Mc Laren Construction Ltd v Martin Dawn Plc [2025] EWHC 406 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision confirms that a debtor cannot fend off winding-up or bankruptcy petitions merely by disputing the sum claimed or pointing to set-offs or counterclaims exceeding the petition debt, in order to resist such relief. The court will interrogate the parties’ material in depth, weighing what is produced on both sides, and will apply an approach comparable to that used on a summary judgment application when assessing whether there is a real defence. While recognising that conspiracies are typically concealed and often difficult to evidence directly, a litigant advancing such an allegation must still produce some evidential foundation for it, particularly where the contention is not inherently convincing or appears improbable on its face. The...

The Court of Appeal declined to halt a rescue plan that, according to the High Court, would enable Thames Water Utilities Holdings Ltd (the UK’s largest water company) to avoid being placed into special administration. A coalition of junior creditors and Liberal Democrat MP Charlie Maynard challenged the decision after the High Court signed off the arrangement in February 2025. Most of the company’s biggest creditors backed the package. In an order sealed on 17 March 2025, the Court of Appeal confirmed the plan remained sanctioned and dismissed the appeals......

Background and procedural history This dispute originates from an International Chamber of Commerce ( ICC) arbitration between two Indian companies. In 2005, Devas Multimedia, an Indian telecoms business, entered into a contract with Antrix, a state-owned enterprise, to deliver telephone and internet services to Indian users via government-owned Indian satellites. When Antrix brought the agreement to an end in 2011, Devas commenced an ICC arbitration seated in India and governed by Indian law, ultimately securing an award of US$562.5m—later accruing to US$1.3bn with interest. In September 2018, Devas applied to the US District Court for the Western District of Washington to recognise the award under the FSIA arbitration exception, which removes a foreign state’s immunity in proceedings to enforce an arbitral award against a foreign state, as defined in the FSIA, provided specified conditions are satisfied. Antrix sought dismissal of the...

HM Treasury has tasked the Law Commission with looking at the regulations for friendly societies and potentially overhauling them. Friendly societies are mutual providers of pensions or insurance, collectively owned by their members. Leading examples include: Royal London Shepherds Friendly Their operations sit within a patchwork of legislation, parts of which still date from 1974. On 12 March 2025, the Law Commission opened a consultation, running until June, to examine how the legal framework could be reshaped. According to the Commission, the present rules for friendly societies are fragmented, out of date and in need of modernisation......

Competition policy HM Treasury has released a policy paper outlining the government's strategy on regulation and regulators to promote sustained economic growth. It also issued an action plan detailing the next steps to ensure regulation and regulatory bodies actively better support economic growth and innovation going forward......

What new offences, powers or reforms in relation to corporate crime are being proposed? This Bill is remarkably broad, spanning multiple governmental policy aims and priorities......

In a six-page decision, emergency arbitrator Nicholas A. Gowen directed Wynn- Williams to halt promotion of her 400-page title, released on 11 March 2025 after a brief, limited media push. Gowen found that Meta had demonstrated a strong and credible likelihood of success on its contractual non-disparagement claim against Wynn- Williams, and that, without urgent relief, immediate and irreparable harm would follow. The emergency order further forbids Wynn- Williams from issuing any denigrating, critical, or otherwise harmful remarks about Meta Platforms Inc — owner of Facebook, Instagram, Whats App and other apps — and extends that prohibition to comments about Meta’s staff and leaders, its products, and the circumstances of her 2017 severance agreement. The ruling also compels Wynn- Williams to withdraw any disparaging statements she has made, and instructs her to cease publishing and distributing the book insofar as it lies within her...

Motorola Solutions Inc and another v Hytera Communications Corp Ltd and others [2025] EWHC 257 ( Comm) What are the practical implications of this case? The decision establishes that, pursuant to CPR 3.1(7), the court has power to revoke a final order that gives effect to a foreign judgment where that judgment is later overturned on appeal. It further sheds light on the substantive and procedural framework governing recognition and enforcement of overseas judgments. Key points include: For common law purposes, a foreign judgment remains ‘final and conclusive’ notwithstanding an existing or potential appeal. That said, the English court will proceed on the basis that a successful appeal will bear upon enforcement, even where an order enabling enforcement has already been made This approach is consistent with authorities granting a stay of enforcement of orders founded on foreign judgments in the face of a realistic prospect of...

Liberty Mutual Insurance Europe Se and other companies v Bath Racecourse Company Ltd (and 21 other Claimants listed in Appendix 1 to the Particulars of Claim) and other cases [2025] EWCA Civ 153 What are the practical implications of this case? Composite policies are often adopted as an efficient way to cover multiple insured parties, especially members of corporate groups, within a single policy instrument. The Court of Appeal’s reasoning that such a policy operates as a bundle of distinct insurance contracts between the insurer and each insured, together with its ruling here that each insured enjoyed a separate limit of indemnity, signals that limits in composite wordings will usually be treated as attaching to each individual contract, unless the language expressly provides that the limit is aggregated across all insureds under the composite arrangement. The court’s finding that insureds had to give credit for...

At the High Court, Deputy Judge David Quest KC determined that under the FA’s regulations, football intermediary Saif Alrubie’s row with Chelsea Football Club and former director Marina Granovskaia must go to arbitration rather than be litigated in the courts, in this case. The judge concluded that Ms Granovskaia had demonstrated that she and Mr Alrubie are bound by the Rule K arbitration clause, that the current allegation of inducing a breach of contract falls squarely within its ambit, and, moreover, that Mr Alrubie has not established that the clause is null, void, inoperative, or incapable of performance. In September 2024, at that hearing, Alrubie told the court that Granovskaia — who also served for over a decade as chief assistant to ex‑ Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich — had assured him he would receive a commission if he could secure a club willing to pay at...

Crew v Oakley [2024] EWHC 2847 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? There are four key takeaways from this judgment. First, where Wills of frail, older testators are concerned, particularly amid capacity questions and familial discord, it is paramount that a senior private client solicitor is engaged. Second, and linked to that, strict adherence to the Golden Rule is crucial: secure a contemporaneous medical evaluation of the testator’s capacity and produce a comprehensive attendance note charting the Will‑making steps. The court further observed that, where appropriate, solicitors might record their attendance by video or another electronic means (subject to consent and privacy considerations). Third, difficulties about the weight and reliability of a solicitor’s testimony can arise if they are a partner at the firm acting for a party who stands to benefit from that evidence. Although the court accepted that the...

Re Thames Water Utilities Holdings Ltd [2025] EWHC 338 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? Under the plan, TWUL will receive up to £3bn in liquidity from a cohort of its current senior lenders (‘the Class A Creditors’), whilst it continues to take steps to implement a stable, long‑term restructuring plan. As Leech J observed, it seems improbable that TWUL will carry the entire debt burden over the long term—he considered it likely that the Class A Creditors will accept a ‘substantial haircut’ to deliver the long‑term restructuring. Liquidity from existing senior creditors will underpin a stable, long‑term restructuring plan in full. Leech J’s judgment is dense with familiar yet critical practical guidance, emphasising: the need to file expert evidence precisely directed at the issues under consideration; the pitfalls where factual witnesses are unfamiliar with the documents on which they give...

The ECJ held that the General Court, when reviewing the European Council’s move to sanction Igor Shuvalov, was justified in concluding there was adequate evidence that he had supported Russia since 2014 ‘on a continuous basis’. As recorded by the ECJ, the General Court considered that, by virtue of his role as president of VEB RF, Shuvalov implemented the Russian government’s economic policy and thereby contributed to Crimea’s economic development, so it could be concluded that he provided active support, the ECJ found. Shuvalov, previously deputy prime minister in Dmitry Medvedev’s cabinet and, before that, in the cabinet of now- President Vladimir Putin, had sought to set aside a February 2024 General Court judgment that upheld the Council’s sanctions on the former statesman......

Latest SIs laid for sifting The following statutory instrument was re-laid for sifting on 12 March 2025: The Companies Act 2006 ( Recognition of Third Country Qualifications and Practical Training) ( Amendment) Regulations 2025 An earlier iteration of this draft SI was withdrawn from consideration. A list of proposed negative procedure SIs under REUL( RR) A 2023 can be found here. Sifting process for proposed negative procedure SIs introduced under REUL( RR) A 2023 REUL( RR) A 2023 provides a range of delegated powers enabling the government and devolved administrations to make SIs to reform assimilated law. The principal legislative powers are contained in REUL( RR) A 2023, ss 11–16. The core procedural requirements, including parliamentary scrutiny arrangements, for these instruments are set out in REUL( RR) A 2023, s 20 and Schs 4–5. Where the......