![]() In the House of Lords Lord Hoffmann said ( 1 Lloyd's Rep 254 13): It will be noticed that Longmore LJ approached both jurisdiction clauses and arbitration clauses in the same way. Such jurisdiction shall be exclusive unless the parties have agreed otherwise." Go to If the parties, one or more of who is domiciled in a Member State, have agreed that a court or the courts of a member State are to have jurisdiction to settle any disputes which have arisen or which may arise in connection with a particular legal relationship, that court or those courts shall have jurisdiction. Article 23 of Council Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 ("the Judgments Regulation") provides: Equitas Ltd v Allstate Insurance Company EWHC 1671 (Comm) 64). I am also inclined to agree that the court should not, under the guise of case management, achieve by the back door a result against which the ECJ has locked the front door (cf. I am inclined to agree with Mr Hollander that the decision of the ECJ in Owusu has now removed discretionary considerations (such as those relating to forum non conveniens) from playing any part in the decision of a court in a Member State from staying its own proceedings. The principal justification for the decision was that it promoted legal certainty, and that legal certainty would be undermined if discretionary doctrines could defeat the allocation of jurisdiction under the Convention. ![]() The ECJ ruled that a court which had jurisdiction under article 2 of the Brussels Convention (which corresponds to the Judgments Regulation) could not decline to exercise that jurisdiction by the application of the discretionary doctrine of forum non conveniens. The defendants invited the court to decline jurisdiction on the ground of forum non conveniens, saying that Jamaica was the right place to try the claim. ![]() ![]() In addition to the English domiciliary, there were a number of Jamaican defendants to the claim. While on holiday the claimant was seriously injured and he brought an action in England for damages. In that case the parties (both of whom were domiciled in England) entered into an agreement about the hire of a holiday villa in Jamaica. The second step is said to flow from the decision of the ECJ in Owusu v Jackson QB 801. The first step in this argument is established by article 23 itself and I agree with it. ![]()
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