Foreign law—role of the court

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
Published by a LexisNexis Dispute Resolution expert
Practice notes

Foreign law—role of the court

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis

Published by a LexisNexis Dispute Resolution expert

Practice notes
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This Practice Note sets out the role of the English courts when considering a point of foreign law. It considers a wide variety of issues including interpretation of foreign legislation and case law, dealing with conflicting or uncontradicted evidence, the approaches where foreign law is either not pleaded, is pleaded and evidence is adduced, is pleaded and evidence is not adduced or where the evidence adduced is inadequate. It also looks at whether the courts can depart from the evidence, the impact of public policy as well as the application of mandatory English law.

For different aspects of foreign law, see Practice Note: Foreign law—guide for dispute resolution practitioners.

Role of the court

The role of the court in relation to foreign law is to determine all or some of the following:

  1. •

    determine whether the foreign law or English law is to be applied applying conflict of laws rules (if the parties have not agreed which law is to be applied)

  2. •

    determine the scope of, and whether to grant permission to adduce, foreign law evidence

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Related legal acts:

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