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...

Building on systems theory and the economics of law, this paper argues that evolutionary models can explain certain features of common law reasoning, in particular the way that the doctrine of precedent operates to combine stability with change. The common law can be modeled as an adaptive...

Why are the civil remedies at common law which delivery up specific moveable property to another with greater right to possess so narrow in English law? Historically the equitable remedy of specific restoration returned property more easily than even the rule today; the common law remedy remains...

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...

This article examines the modern 'squeeze' upon court proceedings. England remains committed to attracting cross-border contentious legal work. The administrators of the courts system and of mediation and arbitration bodies share the goal of improving civil justice in all its forms. Mediation is...

The operation of the remedies for breach of the equitable duty of confidence are confused, largely because of a recent tendency to treat the action as a tort, with a consequent lack of emphasis of the equitable origins of the action for breach of confidence. This paper places the action and the...

The fusion of law and equity in common law systems was a crucial moment in the development of modern Anglo-American law, with implications for the procedural, substantive and remedial aspects of law. This paper will introduce a volume of essays in which scholars undertake historical,...

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...