Continental challenges to London’s position as the centre of commercial dispute resolution stepped up a gear yesterday with the granting of formal approval for a bilingual international commercial court in Paris. The international chamber of the Appeal Court of Paris will take into account common law and publish judgments in English as well as French, the justice ministry said.

Justice minister Nicole Belloubet yesterday signed formal protocols to establish the court, which is due to begin work by the end of March. Belloubet, whose professional background is in academic law, has specifically cited Brexit as the reason for the court, saying that when the UK leaves the EU ’London’s attraction as a centre for dispute resolution will be supplanted by other European jurisdictions’. 

Plans for the court were announced last summer. Similar initiatives are under way in Germany and the Netherlands.