A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE BUSINESS AND PROPERTY COURTS OF ENGLAND & WALES

[First paragraph] The Business and Property Courts (“B&PC”) were formally introduced on 1st October 2018. They bring together the specialist ‘commercial’ courts of the High Court of England and Wales. It was an initiative conceived and led by the senior judiciary with strong encouragement and support from the UK government. Sir Geoffrey Vos and Sir Brian Leveson, the principal architects of the new B&PC, explained that it would provide the specialist courts with an intelligible user-friendly umbrella term, whilst at the same time preserving the valuable existing brand of individual specialist courts, most specifically that of the Commercial Court. The B&PC also aim to guard the specialist courts from increasing competition from foreign international business courts which have increased noticeably following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union (Brexit). The B&PC also serve an equally valuable domestic function by decentralising the specialist jurisdictions from the Rolls Building in London, to High Court District Registries across England and Wales. Consequently, domestic business litigants may have their disputes heard by specialist judges at their regional B&PC centres rather than incurring the substantial cost, time, and inconvenience of having them listed at the Rolls Building.