The UK’s appeal to businesses as a centre for dispute resolution will be boosted by the signing of the 2019 Hague Convention on private international law, the government said today. The treaty, signed in the Netherlands by justice minister Lord Bellamy this week, creates international framework of rules for recognition and enforcement of judgments in cross-border civil disputes.
The convention currently has 29 contracting parties, including the EU member states and Ukraine; Uruguay will join in October this year. The US has signed, but not ratified the convention. The government said the convention has a potentially global reach through the 91 members of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH).
In a statement, Bellamy said joining the convention ’marks a significant step forward for the UK within private international law and strengthens our appeal to businesses as a centre for dispute resolution’. Confidence in the mutual recognition of judgments ’will particularly benefit businesses and people who live and work between the UK and other countries’, he said.
The Law Society has backed accession to the convention, while stressing the need to continue discussions on joining the Lugano Convention on jurisdiction, the UK’s membership of which lapsed with Brexit.
