Our new "Handy client guide to jurisdiction under recast Brussels Regulation: England and Wales"

In light of the upcoming changes to the EU rules governing jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments, which will apply to proceedings commenced from 10 January 2015, we have published a new client guide to the English court's jurisdiction under the recast Brussels Regulation (No 1215/2012). The guide features a decision tree, which is intended as a quick reference to help determine whether the English court will have jurisdiction over a dispute under the new rules.

The guide is available as an interactive PDF by clicking on the image to the right, or via the “jurisdiction guide” tab on the top menu. Or click here for a printer-friendly version.

In broad outline, the main areas of reform under the recast Brussels Regulation are:

• extending the rules relating to jurisdiction agreements and defusing “torpedo” actions
• clarifying the extent and effect of the exclusion of arbitration from the ambit of the Regulation
• new rules on stays in favour of proceedings in a non-member state
• extending the rules relating to consumers and employees to apply to non-EU domiciled traders and employers
• making Member State judgments immediately enforceable across the EU