The High Court has interpreted a jurisdiction clause as granting exclusive jurisdiction to the English courts in respect of claims made by a hedge fund. It therefore granted an anti-suit injunction restraining proceedings commenced in New York: BNP Paribas SA v Anchorage Capital Europe LLP and others [2013] EWHC 3073.
The court reached this conclusion despite the absence of the word “exclusive” in the clause in question; the essential question was whether on its proper construction the clause obliged the parties to resort to the jurisdiction of the English courts. A jurisdiction clause will normally be expressed to be ”exclusive” where the parties intend to confer exclusive jurisdiction on a particular country’s courts. This decision shows, however, that the absence of the word need not be determinative. Read more from our Litigation notes.
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