Rolls Building courts to be re-styled as the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales

The judiciary has today announced that, from June of this year, the “Business and Property Courts of England and Wales” will be the new name for England and Wales’ international dispute resolution jurisdictions and will act as a single umbrella for business specialist courts across England and Wales.

The new court will encompass the following specialist courts and lists of the High Court:

• the Commercial Court (including the Admiralty Court)
• the Technology and Construction Court (“TCC”)
• the courts of the Chancery Division (including those dealing with financial services, intellectual property, competition, and insolvency)

The judiciary's press release states that the new arrangements will "preserve the familiar practices and procedures of these courts, whilst allowing for more flexible cross-deployment of judges with suitable expertise and experience to sit on appropriate business and property cases".

We presume, therefore, that there will not be immediate changes in practice, including for example the existence of separate court guides for the different courts and lists within the new court, but it will be interesting to see what impact this closer working ultimately has on the differences in procedure that currently exist.