A New-Found Significance for Non-Exclusive Jurisdiction Agreements?

Abstract

This article examines the English and local cases dealing with jurisdiction agreements that point non-exclusively to a particular forum. It considers the effect the law has accorded, and should accord, to such agreements in two main contexts: the granting of leave for service out of jurisdiction or the stay of proceedings commenced in the local forum, as the case may be, and the granting of anti-suit injunctions to restrain parties from commencing or continuing with foreign proceedings in non-contractual fora. It argues that an approach sensitive to the parties' intention for having such agreements, the inference of which depends on the finding of particular factors in each case, would perhaps provide the best guide for the effect the law should accord to such agreements.