In his February 11, 2022 Blackstone Lecture, The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Ian Duncan Burnett (Baron Burnett of Maldon), made the following point about business courts:
The United Kingdom has a longstanding commitment to the rule of law. Specific features of the rule of law include easy access to the courts, the quality of justice delivered, and predictability and stability in the law. Businesses factor in these features when considering the suitability of a particular jurisdiction for investment. If it is difficult, time-consuming or disproportionately expensive to access the courts – a rule of law problem – that will be factored into the cost of doing business. If the quality of justice is poor, a function of both the quality of the legal profession and of the judiciary, that too will be a factor.
It is therefore unsurprising that countries around the world are engaged in the development of international business courts, not just to attract international disputes to their jurisdiction, but also as a means to promote improvements in the operation of their domestic courts.32 They are doing so to foster confidence from the business community and encourage domestic and international investment.
FN 32 See, for instance, S. Ramani Garimella & M. Z. Ashraful, Commercial Courts in India – All for Ease of Doing Business in X. E. Kramer and J. Sorabji (eds), ibid.
A link to a transcript of the full lecture can be found here.
