Conflict of laws

The Queens Bench Division dismissed the fourth and fifth defendants’ application, challenging its jurisdiction in proceedings brought by AMT Futures. The defendants had submitted, among other things, that the exclusive jurisdiction clause on which the claimant had based the jurisdiction of the present court was displaced by Art 18 of Council Regulation (EC) 44/2001. The court held that, having regard to the fact that the (recast) Regulation did not provide, at any point, for merits-based matters to be debated at the jurisdictional stage, that ground had to fail. None of the grounds put forward by the defendants provided support for a conclusion that the court had no jurisdiction.