By Jacqueline Cook, Senior Knowledge Development Lawyer

The uneasy rumblings in the media recently on whether the UK would be welcomed back by the European Union (EU) into the Lugano Convention family were confirmed on 4 May 2021, when the European Commission issued its 'Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council'[1] with its assessment on the application of the UK to accede to the 2007 Lugano Convention on the jurisdiction and recognition and enforcement of judgments (Lugano Convention). It recommended that the EU should not give its consent to UK accession. This communication has been met with disappointment by the legal profession[2] and characterised by the media as a political decision, rather than one based on common sense. However, there is room for hope — this is not quite the last chapter in the saga of the EU/UK relationship in the area of choice of court agreements, jurisdiction and judgments.

By Jacqueline Cook, Senior Knowledge Development Lawyer

The end of March has welcomed Spring, and this year it marks a new era for the financial markets, particularly for loans and financial products which would usually use Sterling LIBOR as the benchmark for calculation of interest, default interest or to calculate a discount rate. After 31 March 2021, alternative rates or benchmarks should be used in place of Sterling LIBOR.

By Jacqueline Cook, Senior Knowledge Development Lawyer

In a flurry of last-minute negotiations, the EU and the UK agreed on the form of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU, European Atomic Energy Community and the UK on 24 December 2020 ("TCA") to bring about the "Brexit deal" on their future relationship. As timing was extremely tight, with the end of the Brexit transition period looming a week later¹, ambassadors for each EU member state approved the TCA in principle, so it passed through EU Parliament unopposed. It was then signed by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission for the EU.