English and Welsh law is a significant UK export that is increasingly being used in emerging markets, including Russia, Law Society president Lucy Scott-Moncrieff will tell an audience of leading UK and international businesses and lawyers today.
Speaking at the British Consulate in St Petersburg as part of the St Petersburg International Legal Forum, Ms Scott-Moncrieff will say English commercial law can provide foreign businesses with 'predictability of outcome, legal certainty and fairness'.
Russian litigants are already using UK courts to settle disputes. In recent years, litigants from Russia have made their way to London's Rolls Building, a hi-tech court complex built to resolve multi-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional financial, business and property disputes.
But English and Welsh law is increasingly being used within commercial cases in foreign jurisdictions, including Russia.
Parties to a contract can agree that the contract will be governed by English law. If things don't go smoothly, the contract can then be subject to resolution by arbitration or litigation in London, which is the most favoured seat of international dispute resolution in the world.
Earlier this year, justice secretary Chris Grayling announced an action plan aimed at promoting UK legal services internationally.
The UK legal services market is worth £26.8bn and employs up to 320,000 people in England and Wales alone. It contributes a net £3bn to the UK's balance of trade.
Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, president of the Law Society, is expected to say:
'No matter where you are in the world, you always have the choice to use English and Welsh law.
'English commercial law provides predictability of outcome, legal certainty and fairness.
'When international corporations, commercial parties or states choose English and Welsh law, they know the process will be fair and independent, they know it will be presided over by an impartial judge, and they know it will be based on hundreds of years of case law, respected and enforceable across the world.'
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