english commercial law

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The decision confirms that the UK government can recognise one person as de jure head of state of a foreign state and implicitly recognise another person as the de facto head of state.

By Charles Claypoole and Isuru Devendra

The English Court of Appeal’s recent decision in The “Maduro Board” of the Central Bank of Venezuela v The “Guaidó Board” of the Central Bank of Venezuela & Ors[i] concerned who controls Venezuela’s gold reserves in England: the ad hoc board of the Central Bank of Venezuela appointed by Mr. Juan Guaidó (the Guaidó Board) or the board of the Central Bank of Venezuela appointed by Mr. Nicolás Maduro (the Maduro Board).

By Jonathan Hew

Lord Thomas has delivered a speech calling for the relationship between arbitration and the courts in England and Wales to be rebalanced. This has elicited strong responses from prominent members of the arbitration community, including Lord Saville and Sir Bernard Eder.

The Judges’ Arguments

Lord Thomas emphasised that publicly-debated court decisions are important for the continuous development of English commercial law. His concern was that this development has been stifled by the diversion of claims from the courts to arbitration, the diminishing number of appeals that come before the courts and arbitration’s lack of openness.