Applicable law—foreign law

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This Overview considers issues which may arise in proceedings in which the substantive issues are to be determined by the court by application of a foreign law. For information on determining whether foreign law or the laws of England and Wales apply, see:

  1. •

    Determining applicable law in contractual disputes—overview

  2. •

    Determining applicable law in non-contractual disputes—overview

The applicable law is only one consideration when dealing with a cross border dispute. For an insight into the various considerations, see: Cross border considerations—checklist.

Foreign law—what is it and its relevance

Foreign law is generally thought of as laws other than those of England and Wales. However, nuances apply such that it is important to determine whether the courts in which the matter is proceeding will regard the laws to be applied as foreign law. Examples include:

  1. •

    laws of Scotland and Northern Ireland

  2. •

    laws of commonwealth countries

  3. •

    EU law

  4. •

    non national systems of law such as Jewish law

In proceedings in England and Wales, foreign law is regarded as a question of fact. it will therefore need to be proved by ...

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Law360, London: Apple, Visa, Mastercard and Sony told the Court of Appeal that funding agreements driving multiple competition class action claims are unlawful and unenforceable.

The English Court’s powers to issue injunctive reliefs aimed at preserving arbitral confidentia...

Arbitration analysis: This case arises from the claimant’s application for interim injunctive reliefs (the ‘Application’) seeking, among others, to restrain the first defendant (‘Firm B’), including any of its branches from (i) acting for Corporation C in an ongoing arbitration against Corporation D (the ‘Second Arbitration’); and (ii) providing any confidential information from a previous arbitration between the Claimant and Corporation B (the ‘First Arbitration’), to Corporation C. In determining the Application, the Court considered the principles governing the grant of interim reliefs as established in American Cyanamid v Ethicon Ltd. The court also considered the boundaries of arbitral confidentiality by considering what documents and information the obligation of arbitral confidentiality covers, and the relevant exceptions to this obligation. The court concluded that the claimant was not entitled to the requested reliefs. After examining the claimant's allegations of breaches of arbitral confidentiality, the court found no breach, except for some limited settlement information from the First Arbitration. The court was also not persuaded that there was a real risk of confidential information being transferred between Firm B’s London and Asia offices. Consequently, the court decided that granting the injunction would significantly prejudice Firm B and Corporation C, while not granting it would cause no prejudice to the claimant and only minimal prejudice to Corporation D. Written by Dr. Ademola Bamgbose, solicitor advocate and senior associate at Hogan Lovells, London and IfeOluwa Alabi, associate at Hogan Lovells, London.

Dispute Resolution weekly highlights—12 June 2025

This week's edition of Dispute Resolution weekly highlights includes: analysis of a number of key DR developments and key judicial decisions including the Civil Procedure Rule Committee minutes of 9 May 2025 and the Court of Appeal decision in Saxon Woods Investments Ltd v Costa (corporate disputes); dates for your diary; details of our most recently published content; and other information of general interest to dispute resolution practitioners.

Litigation-Funding dispute resumes amid uncertain future

Law360, London: Sony and Apple will challenge the validity of widely used litigation-financing agreements at the Court of Appeal on 10 June 2025 against the backdrop of an influential report calling for legislation to urgently reverse a landmark ruling that shook the funding industry.

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