Articles tagged as Commercial Law
Latest Law Papers tagged as Commercial Law
Including law essays, dissertations, problem questions, case summaries, and law lectures, suitable for law students working towards their LLB / LLM qualifications or those studying for the new SQE.
Mastercard Incorporated and others v Walter Hugh Merricks CBE [2020] UKSC 51
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court dismissed Mastercard’s appeal and held that the Competition Appeal Tribunal had applied the wrong legal tests when it refused to certify a vast opt-out consumer claim. Difficulties in quantifying the alleged loss, and a proposal to share any award equally, were not in law reasons to shut the claim out at the […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Enka Insaat Ve Sanayi AS v OOO Insurance Company Chubb [2020] UKSC 38
Case Summaries
The parties chose London as the seat of arbitration for a Russian construction project but did not expressly choose a law for the contract. The legal question in 2020 was which law determined the scope of their promise to arbitrate. This mattered because a subrogated insurer had brought proceedings in Moscow. The contract and the […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Halliburton Company v Chubb Bermuda Insurance Ltd (formerly known as Ace Bermuda Insurance Ltd) [2020] UKSC 48
Case Summaries
An arbitrator accepted an appointment in a related insurance dispute without telling Halliburton. The Supreme Court distinguished the question he should have asked at the time of appointment from the question the court had to decide later: did the circumstances known at the removal hearing give a fair-minded observer reason to doubt his impartiality? The […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R & S Pilling t/a Phoenix Engineering v UK Insurance Ltd [2019] UKSC 16
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held that a motor insurance policy did not cover a car owner's liability for a fire caused while he was carrying out substantial welding repairs to his vehicle on his employer's private premises. The policy had to be read so as to meet the compulsory cover required by the Road Traffic Act […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Sveriges Angfartygs Assurans Forening (The Swedish Club) and others v Connect Shipping Inc and another [2019] UKSC 29
Case Summaries
After a fire aboard the RENOS, her owners claimed a constructive total loss from the hull insurers. The Supreme Court held that the cost of repair includes salvage and safeguarding costs incurred before notice of abandonment, but not SCOPIC charges incurred to prevent environmental damage. It set aside the earlier order and remitted the question […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Singularis Holdings Ltd (In Official Liquidation) (A Company Incorporated in the Cayman Islands) v Daiwa Capital Markets Europe Ltd [2019] UKSC 50
Case Summaries
Daiwa transferred about US$204.5 million on the fraudulent instructions of a director authorised to act for Singularis. The trial judge found that obvious warning signs should have led Daiwa to make inquiries before paying. The Supreme Court considered whether the director’s fraud could be attributed to Singularis so as to defeat the company’s negligence claim. […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
MacDonald and another v Carnbroe Estates Ltd (Scotland) [2019] UKSC 57
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held that Grampian’s off-market sale of its principal property to Carnbroe for £550,000 was not made for adequate consideration under section 242 of the Insolvency Act 1986. The sale formed part of an informal winding-up, and Carnbroe had not shown that a sale by the security holder or a liquidator would have […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Burnden Holdings (UK) Limited v Fielding and another [2018] UKSC 14
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held that, on the facts assumed for the appeal, two directors of Burnden Holdings could not have a claim against them summarily dismissed as outside the ordinary six-year limitation period. The claim concerned an allegedly unlawful distribution of the company’s share in a subsidiary to another company which they controlled. The directors […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Navigators Insurance Company Limited and others v Atlasnavios-Navegacao LDA [2018] UKSC 26
Case Summaries
Unknown smugglers strapped cocaine to the hull of the ship B Atlantic in Venezuela. After the drugs were found, the authorities detained her for more than six months, and her owners claimed her insured value from war risks insurers as a constructive total loss. The Supreme Court dismissed the claim: the smugglers were not “acting […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Goldman Sachs International v Novo Banco SA [2018] UKSC 34
Case Summaries
The Bank of Portugal transferred part of a failing bank’s business to Novo Banco, then ruled that a disputed loan liability had never passed. The English claims depended on Novo Banco being bound by the loan’s jurisdiction clause. The issue was whether an English court could recognise the first decision while disregarding the second. The […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Barclays Bank plc v Quincecare Ltd [1992] 4 All ER 363
Case Summaries
Barclays Bank plc v Quincecare Ltd [1992] 4 All ER 363: when suspicious instructions from a customer’s agent require a bank to inquire, and why Barclays was not liable on the facts. ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Diarra v FIFA (FIFA v BZ), Case C-650/22, ECLI:EU:C:2024:824
Case Summaries
In FIFA v BZ (Diarra), Case C-650/22, the CJEU examined transfer rules restricting players’ free movement and competition between clubs. Judgment of 4 October 2024. ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Dooneen Ltd (t/a McGinness Associates) and another v Mond [2018] UKSC 54
Case Summaries
Years after a Scottish debtor’s protected trust deed appeared to have ended, compensation for mis-sold payment protection insurance came to light. The Supreme Court held that the trustee’s decision to pay a final dividend ended the trust and discharged the debtor, so the former trustee was not entitled to the newly discovered asset. His appeal […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Volcafe Ltd and others v Compania Sud Americana De Vapores SA [2018] UKSC 61
Case Summaries
Coffee beans shipped in unventilated containers were damaged by condensation. The Supreme Court held that, under a bill of lading incorporating the Hague Rules, the carrier bears the legal burden of proving that the damage was not caused by a failure to take reasonable care, including care to protect the cargo from its own hygroscopic […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
IPCO (Nigeria) Limited v Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [2017] UKSC 16
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation did not have to provide a further 100 million US dollars of security before the English courts would decide its challenge to enforcement of a Nigerian arbitration award. IPCO had sought enforcement in England since 2004, while NNPC said that the award had been obtained in […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Akers and others (Respondents) v Samba Financial Group (Appellant) [2017] UKSC 6
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held that a trustee’s transfer of legal title to shares held on Cayman Islands trusts for a company in liquidation was not a “disposition” of the company’s property under section 127 of the Insolvency Act 1986. The company’s rights continued after the transfer unless overridden under the law of the shares’ situs, […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
AIG Europe Limited v Woodman and others [2017] UKSC 18
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court decided how far claims by investors in two failed property developments against their solicitors could be aggregated under the compulsory professional indemnity insurance terms. It held that claims arising from similar acts or omissions may be treated as one claim where the underlying transactions have a real connection and fit together. On […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Financial Conduct Authority v Macris [2017] UKSC 19
Case Summaries
Following major trading losses, the Financial Conduct Authority issued notices recording failings by the bank. The notices criticised “CIO London management” without naming Mr Macris. The question was whether that description identified him for the purpose of section 393 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and entitled him to the protections it gave […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Gard Marine and Energy Limited v China National Chartering Company Limited and another [2017] UKSC 35
Case Summaries
Two hazards threatened the Ocean Victory at the same time. Long swell made it dangerous to stay at the berth, while a northerly gale made it dangerous to leave. Whether that combination was a normal characteristic of Kashima determined who bore the loss of the ship. The Ocean Victory, a bulk carrier, grounded while trying […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
The Joint Administrators of LB Holdings Intermediate 2 Limited v The Joint Administrators of Lehman Brothers International (Europe) and others [2017] UKSC 38
Case Summaries
When Lehman Brothers’ European trading company entered administration, few expected it to pay ordinary creditors in full. Once a surplus appeared, a different question mattered. Who was entitled to the money left over? The seven issues in the “Waterfall I” appeals concerned creditors who had agreed to be paid last, creditors owed foreign currency, and […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Taurus Petroleum Limited v State Oil Marketing Company of the Ministry of Oil, Republic of Iraq [2017] UKSC 64
Case Summaries
An oil company sold cargoes under letters of credit issued by a London bank. The bank had to send the proceeds to an account in New York belonging to the Central Bank of Iraq. When an unpaid arbitration creditor tried to attach the money in England, the court had to distinguish the person entitled to […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Mitsui & Co Ltd and others v Beteiligungsgesellschaft LPG Tankerflotte MBH & Co KG and another [2017] UKSC 68
Case Summaries
After Somali pirates seized the chemical carrier Longchamp and demanded a US$6 million ransom, her owners negotiated for 51 days and paid US$1.85 million. That ransom was accepted as a general average expense, to be shared between ship and cargo. By a majority, the Supreme Court held that about US$160,000 in vessel-operating costs incurred during […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Asset Land Investment Plc and another v The Financial Conduct Authority [2016] UKSC 17
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Asset Land Investment plc and its principal director, Mr Banner-Eve, and held that their plot sales were a collective investment scheme under section 235 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Buyers took title to individual plots, but the arrangements were that the company would seek to […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
BNY Mellon Corporate Trustee Services Limited v LBG Capital No 1 Plc and another [2016] UKSC 29
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court decided whether Lloyds Banking Group could redeem early £3.3 billion of enhanced capital notes carrying interest of more than 10 per cent a year. The notes, issued in 2009, were redeemable if regulatory changes meant they ceased to be taken into account in a stress test of the bank’s core capital ratio. […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
Brown and another, the Joint Administrators of Loanwell Limited v Stonegale Limited [2016] UKSC 30
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal concerning four Glasgow properties transferred by companies which later entered administration. Stonegale Ltd and Norman Ralph Pelosi received the properties but paid nothing. A sum paid to the bank was the price of a different property, used to obtain the release of securities, and was not consideration for these […] ...
Last modified: 3rd Nov 2026
