On any view, the decision of the Court of Appeal in Lucasfilm Ltd v. Ainsworth 1 is remarkable. For those, such as the present author, whose memories of growing up are marked by visits to the cinema to see the early Star Wars films, the case provides an interesting insight into the creative processes that led to on-screen success. For intellectual property lawyers, the court’s judgment contains a detailed (but largely otiose) account of the development of copyright and design protection for sculptures. For private international lawyers, the judgment (1) confirms that the growth of the internet has not impacted on the common law rules for the recognition and enforcement of judgments, and (2), more significantly, asserts that a claim based upon an infringement of a US copyright (or other non-Member State intellectual property right) is not justiciable in England, even if the defendant is domiciled in a Member State of the EU and the Brussels I Regulation2 confers “jurisdiction” on the courts of the United Kingdom. The focus of this note is on the last of these issues, which marks a new front in the battle between the rebellious common law and the growing empire of EU private international law.