The visiting Lord Mayor of the City of London and a delegation of senior British business leaders yesterday visited the DIFC Courts, Dubai's English-language commercial courts.
Alderman Alan Yarrow, the 687th Lord Mayor of the City of London, is in the UAE as part of a series of visits to the world's leading commercial and financial centres.
Dubai and the City of London have built strong legal links in recent years. In 2013, the DIFC Courts and the Commercial Court of England and Wales, both of which are recognised as being leading English language commercial courts, signed a Memorandum of Guidance defining such issues as the mutual enforcement of money decisions.
The Memorandum is designed to provide greater certainty to investors, businessmen and lawyers in the UK who wish to develop closer trade and investment links with the emirate, and vice versa.
Sir John Chadwick, Deputy Chief Justice at the DIFC Courts, said, "The sense of shared interest and the spirit of cooperation between London and Dubai seems to grow stronger ever year. It was a privilege to show Alderman Yarrow how the DIFC Courts are not only empowering regional commerce through additional contract clarity and certainty, but also enabling British businesses to access new opportunities across the Middle East, Africa, Asia via the DIFC." Alderman Alan Yarrow commented, "It is great to see the DIFC Courts go from strength-to-strength, and I applaud the global connections they are building, which started with the UK and now extend into Africa and Asia. It is becoming ever more important for commercial courts to work together to protect global investments.