Determining Governing Law Not A Separable Issue

The High Court¹ recently deemed that the question of determining which governing law applies to a dispute should not be dealt with as a separate and distinct matter in isolation from a ruling on the relevant facts. Although to an extent this is fact specific, parties should be mindful that where a dispute arises and there is a question over the applicable law, the Irish courts may require all aspects of the dispute to be determined at the same time. Accordingly, it is not necessarily the case that the governing law is to be determined separately from questions regarding liability.

Background

The underlying proceedings involved a claim by the plaintiffs for declaratory relief and damages arising out of an alleged breach of contract and negligence on the part of the defendant in connection with the supply of magnets to the plaintiffs for use in wind turbines. The defendant denied liability and counterclaimed in respect of unpaid invoices and loss of profit. A