The ebbs and flows of judicial cooperation in the common law

The Privy Council, final court of appeal for a number of countries and territories in the Commonwealth, has brought an end to the saga begun in the case of Cambridge Gas. The case of Singularis, on appeal from Bermuda, has set a limit on the permissible extent of judicial cooperation in the absence of a domestic cooperation provision or an international text (convention or Model Law). While the judges in that case accepted that the common law should evolve tools to assist in instances of cross-border insolvency, they said that judges should be careful not to trespass on the prerogatives of the legislature by fashioning rules beyond their permissible constitutional role as interpreters of the law. As such, judges should be cautious in seeking to create rules except where there is a sound and pragmatic need for intervention to assist the management of cases with an international element.