Where do we go from here? The development of private international law in the UK and the post Brexit environment.

On 2 March 2018 Prime Minister May said: "We will want our agreement [on the future relationship between the UK and theEU] to cover civil judicial cooperation, where the EU has already shown that it can reach agreement with non-memberstates, such as through the Lugano Convention, although we would want a broader agreement that reflects our uniquestarting point." Whether such a broader agreement that would encompass more areas of private international law (PIL)than the civil and commercial issues covered by the Lugano Convention is possible or even desirable if the UK is not aMember State of the EU and does not accept the jurisdiction of the CJEU will be one of the central issues analysed by theAHRC Network on PIL.12AH/S004939/1Page 2 ofDate Saved: 07/06/2018 11:01:10Date Printed: 21/06/2018 09:09:43Proposal original proforma document OutputsThe main outputs of the researchEthical InformationProvide details of what they are and how they would be addressed [up to 1000 characters]PIL arises when a case comes before a court with a foreign connection. PIL is concerned with three issues; does the courthave jurisdiction, which law applies and can a foreign judgment be recognised and enforced. A major part of UK PIL is EUlaw. The rationale behind EU civil judicial co-operation is to "facilitate the free circulation of judgments and to [...] enhanceaccess to justice" in cross-border cases. The EU model for jurisdiction and recognition and enforcement of judgmentscreated by the Brussels Ia Regulation often provides claimants with a choice of jurisdiction. The Rome I&II Regulationsensure that the same set of applicable law rules apply within the EU in contractual and non-contractual obligation cases.The EU has developed Regulations on family law (Brussels IIa and Maintenance). The high quality of the UK judiciary andlegal professions with a particular expertise in resolving cross-border disputes makes England and Wales one of theleading jurisdictions in the world, attracting high value claims and facilitating litigants' access to effective legal remedies.The EUPILLAR project, funded by the EU Commission, conducted by several EU Universities and led by the current PI,considered how the EU PIL framework was functioning in the EU before the Brexit vote, exposing the problems with EUPIL. A major weakness of the EU framework is that some deficiencies in the functioning of national judicial systems areexported through recognition and enforcement of judgments under Brussels Ia and IIa based on the principle of mutualtrust. A substantial international regime in PIL is provided by Hague Conventions which for external purposes are part ofthe EU acquis (Choice of Court, Child Abduction, Children and Maintenance) shortly to be added to by a new Recognitionand Enforcement Convention which will hopefully become part of that acquis. Furthermore there is a Commonwealth modellaw regime for recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters and in maintenance. Finally, thereis an EFTA regime for jurisdiction and recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (LuganoConvention). The post-Brexit PIL landscape therefore presents opportunities to diverge from the EU internal regime in ourrelationship with other EU Member States and to utilise a reinvigorated external competence to develop a new PIL strategyfor relations with other States.The research questions are: How could Brexit impact on the cross-border litigation pattern in the UK? How might differentPIL regimes affect the number of PIL cases litigated in the UK? What is the appropriate mix of international,Commonwealth, EU/EFTA and intra-UK harmonisation of PIL post Brexit? Pre-EU data and recent data, both gathered aspart of a pilot study, will be compared. The new datasets will clarify the PIL legal landscape in the UK and begin to gaininsights into litigants' current strategies in cross-border cases. This will help to identify the challenges faced by UK policy-makers to create the best post-Brexit PIL regime. UK policy makers will take a lead in progressively unifying global PIL atthe Hague Conference and in the development of judicial cooperation in the Commonwealth