Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
CONFLICT OF JURISDICTION CLAUSES IN MULTIPARTITE LITIGATION
Andreas Giannakopoulos*
AIG Europe v John Wood
In AIG Europe SA v John Wood Group Plc,1 the Court of Appeal had to construe two apparently conflicting jurisdiction clauses2 in an insurance tower, comprising a primary policy layer and four excess policies. This was necessary to determine whether anti-suit injunctions could be granted on the ground of breach of contract to restrain Canadian proceedings brought against various insurance companies by Wood Group Canada Inc (WGC), a subsidiary of John Wood Group Plc (JWG). The court held that, as between the two terms in the excess policies, one which purported to adopt the jurisdiction of the
* Barrister; Visiting Lecturer, King’s College London.
1. [2022] EWCA Civ 781; [2022] Lloyd’s Rep IR Plus 23 (“AIG (CA)”).
2. The terms “jurisdiction clause” or “jurisdiction agreement” are used for simplicity, though they are open to criticism: see A Briggs, Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments, 7th edn (London, 2021), [23.02].
Case and comment
567