A significant report, called Harnessing English Law for Economic Growth, was published just before Easter, and deserves wider coverage.
It was produced by Hook Tangaza, a consultancy focused on the legal sector, and commissioned late last year by the Ministry of Justice. It was launched by the deputy prime minister/lord chancellor himself, alongside the English Law Promotion Panel.
The report comes in at 140 pages, and is full of useful information and advice.
Before describing some of its chief nuggets, the background is really the result of our government suddenly discovering what should have been obvious from the lessons of the Roman Empire. Centuries after the Roman Empire ended, I studied Latin at school and Roman law at university. And so it has happened that our own law and language continue to be widely used in the outside world after the demise of our own Empire.
The report aims to exploit the benefit of this survival by analysing what has made English law so durable and economically successful, with recommendations to make it more so.
First, it usefully separates out three different strands of the UK legal sector: the services provided by our lawyers (transactional and advisory services, dispute resolution); international dispute resolution in the UK (courts, arbitration); and – the subject of the report – English law itself.
The statistics are staggering. For instance (with sources cited in its pages):
- 28% of global agriculture trade is governed by English law;
- over £250 trillion of the outstanding value of global derivatives were governed by English law Master Agreements in 2025;
- half of all international seaborne trade is governed by English law contracts per year (estimated at over £13 trillion in 2025);
- 7% of Global Gross Written Insurance Premium is governed by English law, amounting to £73-83 million in 2025.
It usefully analyses why English law has been chosen in the first place, with recommendations on how to give greater support to this choice.
For instance, English law is often built into standard contracts and Master agreements – therefore, we should seek opportunities to influence potential new and emerging standard contracts.
Then again, the views of the funders and finance decision-makers enabling the transaction will be crucial in deciding governing law – so we should invest in a communications strategy with the finance sector, and target financial sector decision-makers, especially in areas like private equity which lean towards the US.
Or public procurement policy might bar English law – therefore, we should seek to influence local procurement policy where it acts as a bar.
The interesting aspect is that it is the Ministry of Justice which is usually nominated as the lead to take forward future engagement (often in co-operation with others). The report wants a reorientation of government-led trade missions towards the buyers of legal services and those that can influence them, like general counsel conferences, financial sector networks and trade associations. The government’s role is to provide the platform, and to highlight key messages. Doubtless, the Ministry of Justice will accept this role and act accordingly.
Other recommendations in the report that I liked are that:
- the government needs to pay attention to international rule of law indices and improve its rankings, since these influence rating agencies, which in turn influence the pricing of financial risk management products to the UK; this is part of the UK’s necessary reputation management;
- visa access for foreign lawyers and arbitrators must be improved if the UK is not to lose competitiveness against other dispute resolution hubs which offer more certainty and speed for practitioners seeking a work visa; and more foreign students of international law should be encouraged to come to study and to qualify here; and
- there should be more investment in keeping our law updated (among other things, English law should be positioned as the oil in the engine of the global AI/tech economy), with more support for the Law Commission.
The world has changed fast while the report was itself being produced. For instance, the threat to the UK posed by regional legal and financial hubs like Dubai and other Gulf states (which have used English law as a starting point for their offer) is given a lot of space. That is understandable when considering that, in just over twenty years, Dubai has attracted over eight hundred law firms and is now the largest overseas base for solicitors from England and Wales. But the Iran war is likely to have reminded people of the exact geographical location of the Gulf states, and made their offer distinctly less attractive.
As well, the United States is going through so much tumult, including in the constitutional and legal sphere (executive orders, threats to the judiciary, immigration crackdown), that its own attractiveness for investment and dispute settlement may be dented.
These developments, while happening in ugly and deeply unwelcome circumstances, will also support our promotion of English law.
Jonathan Goldsmith is Law Society Council member for EU & International, chair of the Law Society’s Policy & Regulatory Affairs Committee and a member of its board. All views expressed are personal and are not made in his capacity as a Law Society Council member, nor on behalf of the Law Society
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