The Supreme Court Just Redrew a Jurisdiction Line — Are Your Clauses Ready?
In March 2026, the UK Supreme Court handed down one of the year's most consequential jurisdiction rulings. In The Kingdom of Spain v Infrastructure Services Luxembourg and Republic of Zimbabwe v Border Timbers [2026] UKSC 9, the Court confirmed that sovereign states cannot resist recognition of ICSID awards on grounds of state immunity, holding that accession to the ICSID Convention itself constitutes a sufficiently clear submission to the jurisdiction of the English courts. It's a landmark clarification of exactly the kind of question that keeps jurisdiction lawyers up at night: when has a party actually submitted, and what does that submission actually cover?
That question runs through commercial litigation far beyond sovereign immunity. Since Brexit, practitioners advising on cross-border disputes have been navigating a jurisdiction landscape that is only now becoming settled enough to plan around with confidence — forum selection, jurisdiction agreements, and the remedies available once a dispute is underway all look different than they did five years ago.
Commercial Disputes: Resolution and Jurisdiction, edited by Professor Barış Soyer of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law at Swansea University, gathers academics and practitioners examining exactly this terrain — choice of forum and governing law, remedies in commercial litigation, and jurisdiction in the post-Brexit landscape, across national, international and EU dimensions.
For litigators mapping out a forum strategy, or in-house counsel trying to work out where a dispute is likely to end up, this collection is a current, practitioner-oriented guide to a jurisdiction landscape that keeps shifting — as this year's Supreme Court rulings make clear.
It sits within our Law collection, alongside other current titles on commercial law and dispute resolution.
Q&A
Does this book address recent UK Supreme Court jurisdiction rulings? It is framed around the developing post-Brexit jurisdiction landscape that rulings such as the 2026 Spain/Zimbabwe sovereign immunity decision are actively shaping, rather than analysing that specific case.
What does the book cover? It examines the resolution and jurisdiction of commercial disputes across national, international and EU legal dimensions, including remedies and forum/jurisdiction agreements.
Who edited this collection? Professor Barış Soyer, Director of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law at Swansea University, with Professor Andrew Tettenborn and Professor George Leloudas as consulting editors.
Who is this book for? Commercial litigators, in-house counsel, arbitrators, and academics working on commercial and private international law.
Where can I buy Commercial Disputes: Resolution and Jurisdiction? You can order it directly from CLNZ Books, with secure worldwide shipping.