Who uses the Commercial Court?
The Portland Disputes practice study, Who Uses the Commercial Court?, found that foreign litigants dominate the Commercial Court while British litigants’ use is decreasing. Portland undertook this research to inform the debate about the influx of foreign cases to the British courts, which was sparked by the blockbuster Berezovsky v Abramovich trial. The study reviewed all 705 judgements from the England and Wales Commercial Court between March 2008 and March 2013 and, for the first time, recorded the nationality of the parties involved.
About Portland The Portland Disputes practice specialises in managing highstakes and sensitive issues for individuals, corporations and institutions involved in a legal dispute. The Portland team is drawn from the worlds of politics, media and business. Our professionals have led communications in military conflicts, political campaigns, high-profile legal battles and transactions.
Ou findi
Foreign UK
100 %
80 %
60 %
40 %
20 %
0%
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
ur ings Over the period of five years, 35% of all parties were British while the rest were foreign. The number of foreign litigants grew by 30 percentage points while British nationals decreased by 11 percentage points.
2013
Litigants by region 200
The number of European litigants
180
in the Commercial Court increased by
160
165% since 2008. While Eurasian
140
litigants comprised the next biggest
120
group, Russian and Kazakh
100
parties together constituted about
80
6% of foreign litigants, a share
60
that has decreased since 2011.
40
20
0 2008
Africa Benin Chad DRC Gabon Ivory Coast Kenya Liberia Mauritius Mozambique Nigeria Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone South Africa Tanzania Zambia Australasia Australia New Zealand
2009
2010
2011
2012
UK
MENA
Caribbean
S America
Ind. Sub
Europe
Africa
Eurasia
Brit Cr Dep
Australasia
N America
E asia
SE Asia
C America
S Pacific Islands
British Crown Dependency Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Caribbean BVI Aruba Bahamas Barbados Bermuda Cayman Islands Netherlands Antilles St Vincent & Grenadines Turks & Caicos Islands Central America Panama
East Asia China Hong Kong Japan Mongolia South Korea Taiwan Eurasia Armenia Georgia Kazakhstan Russia Europe Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic
Denmark Finland France Germany Gibraltar Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Monaco Norway Poland Portugal Romania San Marino
Serbia Slovakia Spain Sweden Switzerland Netherlands Turkey Ukraine Indian subcontinent India Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka MENA Bahrain Egypt Iran Iraq Israel
Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Libya Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Syria Tunisia UAE North America Canada Mexico United States South America Argentina Belize Bolivia Brazil
Chile Uruguay Venezuela South Pacific Islands Marshall Islands Samoa Southeast Asia Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Singapore Thailand Vietnam UK United Kingdom
Switze rland (3%)
ates United St (6%)
sia Rus ) (3%
Map of litigants
United Kingdom (35%)
Bri t Vir ish Is gin l a n (3% ds )
K a z akh s (3% tan )
Top 20 litigants 1.
UK
880
2. US
146
3. Kazakhstan
86
4. Switzerland
86
5. BVI
83
6. Russia
75
7.
70
Germany
8. Italy
48
9. Greece
45
10. Luxembourg
42
11. India
38
12. Netherlands
37
13. France
32
14. Brazil
29
15. China
29
16. Norway
27
17. Nigeria
26
18. Singapore
26
19. UAE
26
20. Cyprus
23
Methodology Portland reviewed 705 judgements handed down by the Commercial Court of England and Wales between March 2008 and March 2013. The judgements are the source of the data, augmented by research to identify the nationalities of the parties. This is because judgements are consistently
recorded and reflect a legal action that has gone past the early stages. When reviewed over years, this provides a substantive measure of the nationalities in the court system and the legal teams acting for them. Students from the School of Law at the University of Westminster provided research support.
• Nationalities were recorded based on the frequency of involvement in judgments. • The solicitors and barristers were recorded as named in the judgements. • Rankings are based on the number of judgements in which they were named. • Law firms that merged during the period 2008-2013 are treated as they were named rather than being combined for total numbers.
London 1 Red Lion Court London EC4A 3EB Nairobi 4th Floor, Laiboni Centre Lenana Road Kilimani, Kenya New York The Chrysler Building 405 Lexington Avenue 26th Floor New York, NY 10174 t: +44 (0) 20 7842 0123 f: +44 (0) 20 7842 0145 www.portland-communications.com info@portland-communications.com Twitter: @PortlandComms
EMEA Public Affairs Consultancy of the Year
Winner 2012