The unique advantages from a choice of law perspective that English law brings within its scope are as follows
Doctrine of judicial precedent
Under English law, court judges in order to provide a judgment on a case are bounded by any a higher court previous decision or on their own previous decisions that like cases should be decided alike if the facts of the instant case are materially the same as the facts of a previous case already decided.
Global Reach of English Law
The legal systems of British Empire countries and Commonwealth nations embraced the English common law principles because it is well understood and the English court decisions continue to be highly regarded and followed even to this day.
Therefore, when those countries are involved in international transactions, English law often becomes a natural choice for parties to those agreements.
English law and the European Union
The United Kingdom is a member of the European Union and English law is well regarded by its member nations. Under the Brussels Regulation and the European Enforcement Order, many English judgments and court settlements can be easily enforced within the European Union.
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) case settlement
English courts are helping parties to settle cases outside the court process and resolve their legal disputes amicably without the need to litigate. The U.K. is party to a number of international reciprocal arrangements, including the New York Convention (English law does not lag far behind New York LAW in terms of its popularity or convenience), allowing for mutual recognition and enforceability of arbitral awards.
The English language as “lingua franca”
The wide prevalence of the English language in combination that
English professionals are widely dealing with international commercial disputes makes the English law an ease to the decision-making process as an excellent choice of law and jurisdiction in cross-border deals.
Freedom of contract and party autonomy
English common law makes the difference emphasizing in clarity and approaches with simplicity the freedom of contract and party autonomy whereby most civil law-based legal apply to systems of stringent rules derived from codified statutes.
Statute of limitations
The “deadline” for initiating legal proceedings after a certain event has happened under the civil law of England and Wales, (The Limitation Act 1980) for making a claim for ordinary English contracts is generally three years. If a contract is executed as a deed the length of time can be extended to 12 years. Exceptions to the Statute of Limitations exist also when there is a conflict with other legislation, when the claimant is not considered capable of supporting their claim or when special circumstances occur.
Limitation of liability allowances
The courts under English Law are amenable to permitting and enforcing causes, waivers of consequential loss, liquidation of anticipated damages, time and procedural bars on claims which makes companies choosing the English Law as the governing law for cross-border contracts and international transactions.
The duty of Good faith
A duty of good faith requires neither party to take advantage of the other. Unlike in other jurisdictions, in commercial contracts under English law, there’s no implied overarching duty of good faith.
The contract is the oral, or in writing agreement made between two or more parties to do or to refrain from doing, a particular thing in exchange for something of value.
The elements to show that a contract exists between two or more parties are as follows:
Offer
An Offer is a statement of the terms where one of the parties (offeror) is expressing to the other party (offeree) its willingness to do some specified action in the future with definite and certain terms by which the offeror is willing to be bound. There will be a time frame usually written into the contract. It has to be precise, an offer does not include estimates, proposal requests, expressions of interest, or letters of intent.
Acceptance
An Acceptance is a final and unqualified expression of assent to the terms of an offer. Again, there must be an objective manifestation, by the recipient of the offer, of an intention to be bound by its terms. The acceptance must mirror the terms of the offer and ALL terms must be accepted.
Consideration
The consideration is basically a trust agreement between the parties usually accepted in monetary values as the agreed “something of value” which is given for a promise and is required in order to make the promise enforceable as a contract.
