The European Commission has formally rejected the UK’s application to join the Lugano Convention.

The news is a further blow to post-Brexit legal cooperation, the UK Law Society Gazette has said.

The Lugano Convention is an international agreement setting out which country’s courts may hear cross-border disputes and which decisions can be enforced.

Loss of framework

Losing the framework means reverting to the national laws of each country to decide which court has jurisdiction over an issue and whether a judgment will be recognised. 

The Swiss Federal Council, which acts as the official depository of the 2007 agreement, has received a Note Verbale from the EU Commission that it is ‘not in a position to give its consent to invite the United Kingdom to accede to the Lugano Convention’.

In May, the European Commission recommended that the EU should block the UK’s accession because the convention is a ‘flanking measure of the internal market and relates to the EU-European Free Trade Association (EFTA)/European Economic Area context’.

Third country

“The UK is a third country without a special link to the internal market. Therefore, there is no reason for the European Union to depart from its general approach in relation to the UK,” it said.

However, UK Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland (pictured) said the arguments put forward by the commission have "no legal basis" and will "harm our joint communities, particularly consumers, SMEs and financially-vulnerable families".