Our clients are increasingly conducting their business on an international, even global, scale.  It means that we are frequently instructed to advise on commercial disputes with international aspects.  This requires a thorough grasp of the principles that apply both within Europe and internationally for deciding which country's courts will have jurisdiction to decide the dispute, and which country's law will apply to the dispute.  Very often clients will have a choice and need practical advice on the comparative systems of law in different countries, as well as on the practicalities of enforcement of any decision in their favour.

We have extensive experience of advising on matters such as these in an international context.  We also have established relationships with reliable law firms throughout the world who we can call on to assist where necessary at short notice in an international commercial dispute, and we have the advantage that many of our lawyers speak a number of foreign languages.

Increasingly our clients are relying on arbitration to resolve their disputes in an international context and we have considerable experience within the team of advising and acting in complex arbitrations before the major international arbitral institutions, including the London Court of International Arbitration, the ICC International Court of Arbitration and the London Maritime Arbitrators Association.

Mathew Rea and Stephen Ralph are both Fellows of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators,  Sarah Radford is an Associate of the Chartered Institute, and many of us are members of the London Court of International Arbitration.

Examples of some of the international disputes in which we have recently acted include:

• An LCIA arbitration for a Swiss company in relation to the sale of electro-voltaic copper cathodes  to Turkey
• ICC arbitration in Zurich for a Portuguese company in relation to the sale of shares in a cement company
• A successful challenge to the English Court's jurisdiction in relation to a dispute involving the sinking of a fishing vessel off the Shetland Islands
• LCIA arbitration for a Cypriot company in relation to the purchase of a shipment of chrome concentrates from Brazil
• A challenge to the English Court's jurisdiction in relation to a dispute involving competing jurisdictions of England and Denmark
• ICC arbitration in Singapore for a Swiss company in relation to the purchase of a bulk shipment of coal from Indonesia
• Court proceedings in England for an Italian joint venture in relation to defamatory articles published in Italian, in Italian current affairs publications
• Potential arbitration for a Cypriot company in relation to investments made into diamond exploration production projects in Africa
• A high profile $1.6b multi-jurisdictional joint venture dispute in the LCIA relating to shareholdings in a metal production facility in Russia
• LCIA arbitration for a listed English company in relation to delivery of Russian pig iron to the Czech Republic
• Court proceedings in India to enforce an arbitration award made in England
• Defending Court proceedings in India with the assistance of local lawyers relating to a claim arising out of bulk shipments of coal for Indonesia
• LCIA arbitration for a Cypriot company in relation to the sale of bulk shipments of coking coal from China to India.