Jurisdiction and applicable law

This chapter addresses the question of how jurisdiction and applicable law will be determined by the English courts. It considers the circumstances in which a claimant might be entitled to serve the process of the English court on a foreign defendant, and the method by which such a claimant will seek to bring that defendant before, and under the jurisdiction of the English courts. The chapter reviews existing case law where claimants seeking to vindicate rights in cryptoassets applied for permission to ‘serve out’ on foreign defendants who misappropriated or otherwise acquired those assets. It then considers, using case law, the application of the Rome I Regulation, as retained post-Brexit, and how it might apply in determining the applicable law of a relationship or transaction conducted on a distributed ledger.