After the Brexit referendum in 2016, European jurisdictions began to create their own specialist commercial courts, given the potential impact of leaving the EU on the UK’s own courts.

We need permission from France, Germany et al to rejoin an international treaty or risk hamstringing a large part of Britain’s legal services industry.

On 4 May 2021, the European Commission formally recommended that the EU should not consent to the UK's application to accede to the Lugano Convention. The Commission has also indicated that it is planning to propose that the EU joins the Hague Judgments Convention in the near future.

UK law enforcement can no longer immediately access real-time data about persons and objects of interest, including wanted and missing persons.

As the UK attempts to join the Lugano Convention, questions are being asked about London's position as a litigation and arbitration centre.

The Brexit agreement, greeted by lawyers with “sighs of relief”, had led to a “much more clunky world” for legal services, with important issues like privilege unresolved, the president of the Law Society of England and Wales said yesterday.

‘We have a choice about what sort of country we want to be,’ Law Society says.