International investment tribunals, like all other international courts and tribunals, are created equal. This chapter focuses on genuine decisional fragmentation and the coordination of proceedings within the investment treaty regime, i.e. between parallel and subsequent investment arbitrations...

China's rapid growth in the absence of autonomous legal institutions of the kind found in the west appears to pose a problem for theories which stress the importance of law for economic development. In this article we draw on interviews with lawyers, entrepreneurs and financial market actors to...

This short paper analyses Lord Toulson's judgment in Patel v Mirza [2016] UKSC 42, and argues that that judgment is better analysed as ruling that in cases where a defence of illegality is advanced, the courts should adopt a 'structured discretion' in determining whether to allow the defence...

Private enforcement is an increasingly prominent and important aspect of EU competition law. The impending Directive on damages actions aims to strengthen and, to a degree, harmonise procedures for private competition litigation, while recent cases of the Court of Justice have consistently...

This paper is a case note on Ilott v Mitson [2015] EWCA Civ 797. The judgment concerns the appropriate remedy following a successful claim by an estranged adult daughter under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. The charities who were named in the mother’s will have...

This article focuses on the increased scope for tension between obligations under investment treaties, particularly fair and equitable treatment, and the interpretation of national patent law by domestic courts. Precisely because investment treaties were created to protect investors from...

In England 'multi-party' litigation can take various forms, of which the most important are (a) the opt-in system of Group Litigation Orders and (b) the opt-out system of Representative Proceedings. Category (b)n can yield damages to be distributed amongst the represented class, as recent case...

Modern legal systems, including the English, emphasise the need to promote mediation, uphold arbitration (which bypasses the courts), and achieve settlements. These are regarded as preferable to lengthy court proceedings culminating in trial. In England the Jackson reforms of April 2013 aim to...

The English costs rules were amended in April 2013 to implement Sir Rupert Jackson's Costs Inquiry (2010). Proportionality has become (see sections II to IV of this paper) the final determinant when assessing standard basis costs, supplementing but also trumping the pre-existing criteria of...

Fundamental choices are to be made when fashioning a system or combination of systems concerning multi-party and collective relief (see section II of this article). These include:economic access to justice (section III), opt-out 'class' litigation (notably the status of `representatives' suing...