Steven Barrett

The EU needs to stop playing politics with law

(Getty images)

The Lugano convention – part of a tapestry of complicated international law agreements ensuring the courts of one country recognise the courts of another – has a dull name but it matters a great deal. Since the EU referendum, the convention has played a small role in the great internecine conflict between Britain and Brussels. Much energy has been wasted in this series of pointless bust-ups.

And now, the EU is determined to use the Lugano convention – a playing field it claims to control – to ensure Britain pays a price for Brexit, by effectively blocking us from rejoining the convention.

Why does this matter? Because without the convention, business suffers. If a court in Germany finds you owe Barry £200,000, then the UK will let Barry enforce that debt over your London house. You can reverse the countries (or change Barry’s name) but that is the gist of it. And this is all possible thanks to the convention.

Like squabbling parents who have taken their divorce in to their child’s school, it is at best unseemly

This is important in a world of 193 countries (and even more sovereign legal systems) which imagine they enjoy sole dominion over the earth. Of course they don’t, which is why we need conventions and international treaties to ensure everyone’s’ courts will respect everyone else’s court. It seemed obvious that the European Commission would allow Britain to rejoin the convention. Yet at a closed-doors meeting this week, the Commission decided to play stubborn and prevent Britain from doing so.

Enforcing a national court judgement between the UK and EU will get harder without Lugano. Pointlessly.

When the Lugano convention was dreamed up it was (genuinely) a progressive step on getting international courts to work together. That in turn makes foreign property ownership easier, which promotes trade and makes everyone richer.

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