This new work provides an account of the law and practice of commercial dispute resolution, with a particular focus on disputes before the English Commercial Court. Practical in its orientation, with an emphasis on strategic considerations, it also addresses the underlying problems in private international law and international civil procedure at the centre of cross-border commercial disputes. A particular feature of the book is its analysis of the legal risk involved in such disputes, and the ways in which this may be reduced by appropriate planning and drafting. Although concerned with the conduct of litigation it also assesses the impact of litigation on commercial transactions. It discusses important recent developments relating to cross-border injunctions and jurisdiction agreements, and the changes that the Hague Choice of Court Convention might introduce. It considers the implications of the recent European Court decisions in Erich Gasser v MISAT, Turner v Grovit, Owusu v Jackson, and Allianz v West Tankers. It examines the impact of the Rome I and Rome II Regulations in the commercial context, and the practical effect of the new rules they introduce concerning mandatory rules, restitution, and pre-contractual fault in commercial disputes.

I Introduction 1. Introduction II Legal Risk and Multistate Transactions 2. Managing Litigation Risk 3. Managing Transaction Risk III The Laws Governing Multistate Litigation 4. The Laws Governing Multistate Transactions 5. The Dynamics of Choice of Law 6. The Content of Foreign Law IV Commencing Proceedings 7. Strategic Choices 8. The Framework of Jurisdiction 9. Establishing Jurisdiction V Preventing Proceedings 10 Policy, principle and reform. Excluded Claims 11. Declining Jurisdiction: Regulation 44/2001 12. Declining Jurisdiction: Residual Rules 13. Procedural Objections 14. Preclusive Proceedings 15. Restraining Foreign Proceedings VI Recovery and Enforcement 16. Recovering Transaction Loss 17. Preserving Judgment Assets 18. Enforcing Judgment Debts

Richard Fentiman , Lecturer in Law, University of Cambridge

`a most important contribution to a gradual approximation of common law and civil law approaches to the subject' Professor Erik Jayme, Professor of Law, University of Heidelberg and President of the Institut de Droit International