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Introduction to statutory interpretation The aim of statutory interpretation is to determine the legal meaning of a statute, that is, the sense that expresses the legislator’s intention. The clearest guide to that intention is the statutory wording itself, read in its context and with its overall purpose in mind, and its broader legislative setting. Courts should seek to fulfil the purpose of legislation by construing its language, so far as they can, in the manner that most effectively serves that purpose. Put differently, the courts’ default method is purposive, and every enactment is to be construed with that end in view. There is a starting presumption that the grammatical and ordinary sense of an enactment reflects the meaning intended by the legislator. Where an enactment reasonably bears only a single meaning, and no other interpretative tools or
This Practice Note addresses identifying a fiduciary, fiduciary duties and obligations, the no conflict rule, the no profit rule, a fiduciary's duty of confidence, and the remedies available for breach of fiduciary duty. Who is a fiduciary? There is no definitive catalogue of relationships that give rise to fiduciary obligations at common law in every situation universally. Certain relationships are inherently fiduciary, eg trustee and beneficiary, solicitor and client, principal and agent, business partner and co-partners, together with mortgagor and mortgagee. The obligations of some fiduciaries have been set out in statute; for instance, trustees owe a statutory duty of skill and care under section 1 of the Trustee Act 2000 (TrA 2000), and directors' relationships with their companies are addressed in the Companies Act 2006 too. For guidance on directors' fiduciary duties, see Practice Note: of directors for further detailed
Definition of ADR Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is defined in the CPR Glossary as a collective label for methods of settling disputes other than through the usual trial process. Some courts adopt the term ‘negotiated dispute resolution’ (NDR) to describe resolution by alternative means; for ease, this Practice Note uses ADR. For guidance on how ADR is addressed in the various court guides, see Practice Note: ADR and NDR in the court guides. In essence, ADR is a means of resolving a dispute outside the court system. It typically involves a neutral third party who either helps the parties reach a negotiated outcome, or issues a determination of the dispute that is legally binding. A binding result can follow where the agreement to refer the dispute to ADR so provides. There are multiple forms of ADR processes. For an outline of the different types and their
In brief The British constitution is uncodified, meaning it does not spring from a single constitutional document or code. It draws on a wide range of written and unwritten sources. Alongside the principal written sources of law in England and Wales—legislation (which has also introduced international and human rights principles into our constitution) and the common law—the constitution also rests on two further unwritten bases within this system: the prerogative, and non-legal constitutional conventions. In addition, on one view the basic or prevailing principle of our constitution, Parliamentary sovereignty, is ultimately grounded in political fact rather than in law. Legislation Legislation is the foremost source of constitutional law. Acts of Parliament may set out detailed constitutional rules, or even pass authority to create them to ministers or to others. Under the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty, legislation is traditionally regarded as taking precedence over any other form or kind of
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ARCHIVED This archived Practice Note explains how coronavirus affected trustees administering pension schemes, summarising the approaches taken by the Pensions Regulator, the Pension Protection Fund, the Pensions Ombudsman and other regulators. It also outlines the consequences for public service pension schemes, including measures under the Coronavirus Act 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges for those running schemes, and this Note records the stances adopted by the various pensions regulatory bodies (including the Pensions Regulator ( TPR) and the Pension Protection Fund ( PPF)) alongside the practical issues trustees encountered. It also addresses the effect of coronavirus on public service arrangements, including impacts arising via the Coronavirus Act 2020. TPR’s position TPR consistently indicated it would regulate in a pragmatic and sympathetic manner where breaches arose from COVID-19. It introduced a number of easements, with some ending on 30 June 2020, for...
This Practice Note outlines the principal differences between Scots law and the law of England from the viewpoint of an English lawyer practising in Construction law. Any questions of terminology are not considered in this Practice Note. Assignment/ Assignation In England, assignment takes two recognised forms: legal assignment and equitable assignment. Under Scots law, the notion of equitable assignment does not exist. The transfer of incorporeal property, including rights arising under a contract, is termed assignation and operates in two stages. First, the parties conclude an agreement to transfer the property, which creates a personal right to demand performance of that transfer. A personal right is enforceable against another person to secure the carrying out of an obligation, here the obligation to transfer the property. Secondly, there is conveyance—the actual passing of legal title—producing a real right in the property once notice has been given to the...
CASE HUB ARCHIVED This archived case hub records the position as at the judgment dated 11 March 2020; it is no longer maintained. For more, see the timeline and any relevant or related cases. Case facts Outline Appeal against the General Court’s judgment in Case T‑263/17, which upheld an action seeking annulment of the Commission decision ( SA.35388) concerning aid for establishing the Gydnia‑ Kosakowo airport. Latest developments On 11 March 2020, the Court of Justice delivered its ruling, setting aside the General Court’s judgment due to errors and referring the case back to the General Court. Parties Appellant: European Commission Respondents: Gmina Miasto Gdynia ( Gdynia) Port Lotniczy Gdynia‑ Kosakowo sp. z o.o ( Kosakowo) Background Gdynia and Kosakowo are two Polish municipalities. In July 2007, Gydnia and Kosakowo created, and owned 100% of, Port Lotniczy Gydnia Kosakowo ( PLGK) with the goal of converting the Gdynia‑ Oksywie military airport for...
This Practice Note has been prepared in collaboration with Josephine Howe, partner, and Grace Gao, counsel, both of Ogier. On death, where a person leaves assets situated in the British Virgin Islands ( BVI), those assets are automatically immobilised until a grant is obtained from the BVI court. Shares in a BVI company, whether owned directly or through a nominee, likewise become immediately and effectively frozen on the shareholder’s death. A BVI grant is necessary before the deceased shareholder’s shares can lawfully be transferred. With effect from 1 November 2017, the BVI formally brought into force the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court ( Non- Contentious Probate and Administration of Estates) Rules 2017 (the 2017 Rules), which repealed the previous probate rules. From that date, every new and outstanding application is now governed by the 2017 Rules, regardless of when death occurred. Unless stated...
Practice Note More and more employers are striving to strengthen diversity and equality within their organisations. This Practice Note outlines several voluntary charters and programmes that employers may join to demonstrate and advance their pledge to foster diversity and equality—and to back colleagues with particular protected characteristics—across their workplaces. It includes the Race at Work Charter, Change the Race Ratio, the Disability Confident Scheme, the Mindful Employer Charter, the Mindful Business Charter, the Stonewall Proud Employers Programme, the Women in Finance Charter and the Dying to Work Charter. The motivation to enhance workplace diversity and equality can arise from a range of factors, such as: recognising the significant commercial gains of a diverse workforce and recruiting from the broadest possible talent pool a conviction that taking such steps is the ethically right course lifting morale by ensuring staff feel valued, understood and...
CASE HUB ARCHIVED — this archived case hub records the position as at the judgments of 4 March 2020 and is no longer maintained. See further: timeline and relevant/related cases. Case facts Outline Appeals against the General Court’s rulings in Cases T‑185/16 and T‑186/15, which dismissed actions seeking annulment of the Commission’s decisions in State aid Cases SA.35842 and SA.35843— PSO compensation relating to Buonotourist and CSTP Azienda della Mobilità. Latest developments On 4 March 2020, the Court of Justice delivered its judgments and dismissed the appeals in full. Parties Appellants: Buonotourist S.r. L. ( Buonotourist). A privately owned provider of local public transport services operating under regional and municipal concessions. In particular, throughout the period examined it managed a network of bus routes as concessionaire for the Italian region of Campania (the Region), covering around 1.8m km per year. Consorzio Salernitano Trasporti Pubblici Sp A ( CSTP). A...
STOP PRESS: The UK prospectus framework presently draws on the EU Prospectus Regulation, preserved in domestic statute following Brexit as the UK Prospectus Regulation. The UK is reassessing this regime within broader moves to reshape the capital markets in the UK and further bolster the country’s appeal as a leading global listing venue for potential issuers. As part of this, the......
FORTHCOMING CHANGE The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 obtained Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. For guidance on the Act’s effect on residential tenancies in England, see Practice Note: Renters’ Rights Act 2025—key provisions. The Practice Note outlines, for both residential and commercial leases, what a break clause is, the circumstances in which it can be exercised—including construing typical deadlines for serving a break notice and the meanings of ‘year’, ‘month’ and the ‘corresponding date rule’—and the required form of a break notice. It also surveys case law on mistakes in meeting break notice requirements, with particular emphasis on the reasonable recipient test in Mannai, and how that principle applies to familiar categories of error. In addition, it addresses the application of Mannai to the service of statutory notices and the types of mistake frequently encountered, namely completion errors and errors of form......
ARCHIVED: This Practice Note is archived and no longer updated. It is preserved for historical reference and to give practitioners a concise snapshot of developments in extradition case law across 2020. The tracker summarises extradition appeal judgments handed down during the United Kingdom’s Brexit implementation phase, spanning 31 January 2020 to 31 December 2020 ( IP completion). Throughout that period, the UK continued to be treated as a Member State for extradition arrangements with the remaining 27 EU Member States ( EU27), and, accordingly, appeals concerning those countries proceeded under Part 1 of the Extradition Act 2003 ( EA 2003). Section 6 of the European Union ( Withdrawal) Act 2018 ( EU( W) A 2018), as amended, stipulates that retained EU law which has not been altered on or after IP completion day—and any issues as to its validity, meaning or effect—is to be...
CASE HUB ARCHIVED – this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the decision of 30 January 2020; it is no longer maintained. See further, timeline, commentary and related cases. Case facts Outline The European Commission conducted an Article 101 TFEU inquiry into vertical restraints affecting cross‑border sales of licensed merchandise displaying Minions, Jurassic World and other images and characters from NBCUniversal’s films. The practices were attributed to NBCUniversal and other entities within the Comcast group ( AT.40433). Latest development On 30 January 2020, the Commission adopted an infringement decision against NBCUniversal, imposing a €14,327,000 fine, following an ‘informal settlement’. The penalty concerned the application of vertical restrictions on cross‑border trade in licensed products featuring Minions, Jurassic World and other images and characters from NBCUniversal’s films, contrary to Article 101...
ARCHIVED : One persistent challenge for dispute resolution practitioners is staying current with case law developments that influence their speciality, or that bear on civil litigation procedure more broadly. This Practice Note distils the principal appeal authorities—namely rulings of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court and, where pertinent, selected judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union ( CJEU)—that we have covered, giving users straightforward access to those rulings; see: Key civil litigation appeals in review—2020. You can navigate this material via the table of contents in the left margin, or search this tracker with [ CTRL]+[ F]. The Practice Note also flags a number of anticipated appeals, where identified, to support horizon scanning. It is not designed to be a comprehensive catalogue of every appeal and/or significant decision of interest to dispute resolution...
This Practice Note examines the expression ‘deemed service’. The term appears in CPR 6.14, and this Practice Note explains its meaning and function when read alongside the period of validity for a claim form under CPR 7.6 as set out there. Be aware that the deemed date may not correspond or align with the real date on which the defendant actually receives the claim form in practice. For users of Money Claims online, CPR 6.14 does not apply at all. For further details, see: Deemed date of service for Money claims online below. Also note that the deemed service rules for a claim form in CPR 6.14 are distinct from the deemed service rules for other documents; those are contained in CPR 6.26. For help, see the Practice Notes: Serving the defence— Deemed service ( CPR 6.26) and Serving documents...
CASE HUB ARCHIVED This archived case hub records the position as at the judgment of 6 June 2020 and is no longer being maintained. For further details, see: timeline, relevant/related cases and commentary. Case facts Outline Appeal against the General Court’s judgment in Case T‑216/15, which had upheld an action by Dôvera zdravotná poisťovňa challenging the Commission decision SA.23008. That decision concluded that SZP (a State‑owned health insurance company) had not received unlawful State aid via capital injections from Slovakia. Latest developments On 11 June 2020, the Court of Justice delivered its judgment, allowing the appeals brought by Slovakia and the Commission, thereby setting aside the General Court’s 2018 judgment. Parties Appellant: Slovakia European Commission (the Commission) Respondent: Dôvera zdravotná poisťovňa, a.s. ( DZP) Background Background In 1994, Slovakia’s health insurance framework shifted from a unitary system, with a single State‑owned health insurance company, to a pluralistic model in which public and...
This glossary provides brief explanations and definitions of key investment funds terminology, also covering pertinent tax and property terms... A Alternative investment fund ( AIF) Any collective investment undertaking, including an AIF’s investment compartments, that gathers capital from multiple investors to deploy it under a specified investment policy for those investors’ benefit, and which is not a UK undertaking for collective investment in transferable securities ( UCITS) ( AIFM UK Regulations, SI 2013/1773, reg 3(1)). An AIF may hold traditional or alternative assets and can be private or listed, authorised or unauthorised... Alternative investment fund manager ( AIFM) A legal person whose habitual business is the management of one or more AIFs ( AIFM UK Regulations, SI 2013/1773, reg 4(1)). ‘ Managing AIFs’ means carrying out at least portfolio management or risk management for one or more AIFs ( AIFM UK Regulations, SI 2013/1773, reg 4(2)). For further...
Under the Companies Act 2006 ( CA 2006), there are two categories of members’ meetings: general meetings and annual general meetings ( AGMs). Members can be convened to a general meeting at any time, and as often as required in a year, to pass resolutions authorising particular changes or endorsing specific actions. A public company must hold an AGM every year within six months starting the day after its accounting reference date. A private company is not obliged to hold an AGM annually, although it may elect to do so, or its articles of association may stipulate an annual AGM. The CA 2006 contains the detailed rules for calling and conducting a general meeting. A company must also adhere to any provisions in its articles regarding convening general meetings. For the essentials of calling a general meeting, see Practice Note: Calling a general...
CASE HUB This archived case hub sets out the position as at the decision date of 14 November 2019; it is no longer maintained. See also the timeline. Case facts Outline Case C‑585/17 Dilly’s Wellnesshotel—a preliminary reference from Austria requesting clarification on, amongst other matters, a modification to an approved aid scheme—where a Member State opts to cease using the approval of that aid in connection with a defined particular category of beneficiaries, and thereby simply reduces the amount of aid provided under an existing aid measure—constitutes a change to an aid scheme that falls under the duty to notify laid down in Article 108(3) TFEU......
This Practice Note explores the place of state immunity within arbitration under German law. For a broad overview, see Practice Note: State immunity and arbitration—general considerations. For additional Practice Notes covering state immunity across multiple jurisdictions (including England and Wales), consult our ‘ State immunity’ subtopic: State immunity and arbitration. Note: the German decisions cited in this Practice Note are not reported by Lexis Nexis®. The law on state immunity in Germany Whether assets belonging to a foreign state can be enforced against in Germany is determined by German law, not by the law of the state targeted by enforcement. Germany has no standalone statute on state immunity; instead, international law applies directly. For most states, Article 25 of the German Constitution ( Grundgesetz ( GG)) and section 20 of the Court Constitution Act (...
CASE HUB ARCHIVED — this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the judgment of 7 November 2019; it is no longer maintained. See further: timeline, commentary and relevant/related cases. Case facts Outline Appeal before the General Court challenging the European Commission’s infringement decision on the car battery recycling cartel, seeking to set aside the finding and the penalty imposed ( Case AT.40018). Latest developments On 7 November 2019, the General Court delivered its judgment, agreeing that the Commission rightly held that Campine had joined an unlawful cartel. The Court also held that: the Commission failed to substantiate Campine’s participation for a 22-month period; and given Campine’s limited involvement, a larger reduction of the fine was warranted. As a result, the Court cut Campine’s fine from €8.1m to...
CASE HUB Archived — This archived case hub captures the position as at the date the transaction was abandoned on 2 February 2021 and is no longer being updated. See further: timeline and commentary. Case facts Outline European Commission merger review of Fincantieri’s proposed purchase of a 50% interest in Chantiers de l’ Atlantique ( Case M.9162). The deal raised horizontal overlaps in cruise shipbuilding markets. Latest developments On 2 February 2021, the notification to the Commission was abandoned and withdrawn. Parties Fincantieri S.p. A: An Italian shipbuilding group majority-owned by Cassa depositi e prestiti, itself majority-owned by the Italian State. Fincantieri focuses on designing and building merchant and military vessels and high‑tech offshore ships. It also serves shipowners and produces systems and components. Chantiers de l’ Atlantique ( CAT): A French shipbuilder majority-owned by the French State via the Agence des...
This tracker considers the case law on vicarious liability. These decisions show how the courts have treated this developing area. They are arranged chronologically to trace the doctrine’s growth. When liability is in issue, a claimant usually seeks to prove fault by a named defendant (in workplace matters, often the employer). Sometimes an alternative route exists—the employer’s vicarious liability for the acts or omissions of its employee or agent. It is called vicarious because the breach of duty is the employee’s. The employer’s liability is often described as strict; it arises without proof of any breach by the employer. As Gross LJ noted in Allen v Chief Constable of the Hampshire Constabulary, to succeed against a defendant on vicarious liability for an employee’s negligence, the claimant must meet a two-stage test: there must be a relationship between the employer and the tortfeasor...
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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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