Jurisdiction & the tort gateway

In brief

• Brownlie v Four Seasons (No 2): a binding decision on the meaning of the tort jurisdiction gateway, for now.
• On 29 July 2020 the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in Brownlie (No 2) [2020] EWCA Civ 996, which upheld the decision of Mr Justice Nicol and agreed with the majority of the Supreme Court in Brownlie (No 1), [2017] UKSC 80.

Both the facts and the central legal issue in Brownlie (No 2) are beguilingly simple. In January 2010, Lady Brownlie, together with her husband, the highly regarded international lawyer Professor Sir Ian Brownlie QC, their daughter, and two grandsons, set out on a day trip which they had booked with the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo, where they were staying. Their tour vehicle, which was in poor condition, badly maintained, and negligently driven, went off the road