In Ward and others v Savill [2021] EWCA Civ 1378, the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal against a ruling that the claimants could not rely on a declaratory judgment obtained in earlier proceedings, to which the defendant was not a party, to found a proprietary claim against the defendant. In so doing, the court considered the circumstances in which a judgment may take effect as a judgment in rem, binding the whole world. It also confirmed that the rule in Hollington v Hewthorn [1943] KB 587 is not limited to findings of fact but extends to the legal consequences of those findings.
Acknowledgment: Reuters, Practical Law Dispute Resolution.
Judge Malcolm Simmons served as an international judge from 2004 to 2017 hearing war crime and serious and organised crime cases. He presided in some of the most complex war crime and serious organised crime cases in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo during their troubled post-war periods. He served as President of EU International Judges from 2014 to 2017. He is particularly well-known for his judicial reform work and has more that 20 years experience training judges, prosecutors and lawyers. He has worked in judicial reform projects in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Pakistan and Maldives.