This article is an extract from GTDT Market Intelligence Dispute Resolution 2022. Click here for the full guide.
Landscape
Recent events will, in my view, undoubtedly lead to some disruption and change in the disputes landscape generally. It is likely that, in the short term at least, there will be fewer Russian disputes making their way through the courts of England and other common law jurisdictions. That will partly be due to a movement of individuals and assets out of those jurisdictions such that there might be fewer jurisdictional hooks for bringing a claim there, but also because the sanctions regime may result in fewer transactions being concluded with English jurisdiction clauses. That said, there was much speculation at the time of the 2014 Crimea sanctions that there would be a move away from English dispute resoution fora, such as, for example, LCIA clauses, in favour of other arbitral intuitions outside England, but, in practice, little seemed to change. This is very much a case of ‘watch this space’.
Overall, for fraud practitioners, uncertainty in world markets and the repositioning of assets is likely to result in an increase in work. Not only will people be moving their assets across jurisdictions, but they may be moving assets into or out of different types of structures, or transferring them to nominees or custodians. That all gives rise to the potential for fraud to be uncovered, or for fraudsters to commit fraud while assets are moving around….
