High Court shake-up sees creation of new Business and Property Division
The Chancery Division, one of the oldest parts of the High Court, is on its way out, replaced by a new Business and Property Division under reforms announced by the judiciary and backed by the government.
The new division will bring together all of the Business and Property Courts, which are currently split between the King’s Bench and Chancery Divisions, under one roof. Think commercial disputes, insolvency, intellectual property, construction and technology cases, all the big-ticket litigation that keeps City law firms ticking.
The Business and Property Division will sit alongside the King’s Bench and Family Divisions, rounding out the High Court’s top-level structure. The Chancellor of the High Court will take on the new title of President of the Business and Property Division.
The reforms are intended to make it easier for court users to understand where to bring their cases, and to strengthen the international standing of the Business and Property Courts, which already handle a large volume of cases involving international parties.
Subject to an Order in Council, the new division is expected to be up and running at the start of the next legal year.
An act of constitutional vandalism with very little justifiable reasoning. I cannot identify anyone who actually benefits from this change.
Why go after the Chancery Division (a term with centuries of history, popularised by Dickens, and seen globally as the traditional home of equity) whilst keeping the King’s Bench Division the same?
It is very arguable that the KBD makes even less sense and is more confusing to the lay litigant than ChD: as it is the home of some commercial matters, administrative matters, some criminal matters, tortious matters…
Much of what this government does seems to have very little justifiable reasoning, or any reasoning at all…