Exorbitant Jurisdiction and the Common Law

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores two perennial themes in the distinguished career of Lord Lawrence Collins QC in legal practice, the judiciary, and academia. The first is the topic of the common law rules on civil jurisdiction, including in particular the exercise of jurisdiction over defendants who are not present in England at the time of commencement of proceedings. The second is the relationship between public and private international law, two bodies of law which have sometimes been viewed by academics as unrelated, but which are frequently entangled in questions of legal practice. The common law approach to civil jurisdiction has traditionally been based on an unfortunate conflation between adjudicative and enforcement jurisdiction as those concepts are now understood in public international law. This has led to some suggestions that the exercise of civil jurisdiction over non-present defendants necessarily raises significant concerns and may thus generally be labelled ‘exorbitant’. Some of the grounds of jurisdiction under which the common law rules permit the exercise of jurisdiction over non-present defendants are, however, contentious as jurisdictional justifications, and their rationales deserve closer consideration.