Does the Chancery Division Still Exist? How the New Business and Property Division Works

Does the Chancery Division still exist? Not under that name: from today, 1 October 2026, the Business and Property Division (BPD) has come into effect, replacing the Chancery Division and gathering the High Court's specialist business courts into one division. The Commercial Court, the Admiralty Court, the Technology and Construction Court and the Circuit Commercial Courts leave the King's Bench Division and sit alongside the Business List, the Insolvency and Companies List, the Patents Court and the other former Chancery lists. The head of the new division, the President of the Business and Property Division, replaces the title of Chancellor of the High Court. This analysis explains what the legislation and rules actually change, what stays the same, how existing claims and claim forms are treated, and why the reform matters for international parties who choose London to resolve their disputes.

Does the Chancery Division still exist? The short answer

The Chancery Division has not been abolished so much as renamed and enlarged. The legal mechanism is an Order in Council, the Senior Courts (Transfer, Amendment and Consequential Provision) Order 2026 (SI 2026/723), made on 8 July 2026 and in force from 1 October 2026. It amends section 5(1)(a) of the Senior Courts Act 1981, which lists the divisions of the High Court, by substituting "Business and Property Division" for "Chancery Division", and it replaces the reference to "the Chancellor of the High Court, who shall be president thereof" with "the President of the Business and Property Division". Its explanatory note describes the instrument as transferring the Admiralty Court and the Commercial Court from the King's Bench Division to the Chancery Division and renaming the Chancery Division "in consequence of this transfer".

In other words, the existing Chancery Division is the legal vehicle for the new division. That has practical consequences. The judges, Masters and Insolvency and Companies Court judges of the former Chancery Division continue in post as judges of the BPD, and the cases already pending there simply continue. The National Archives' Find Case Law service now lists a separate "High Court (Business and Property Division)" court for new judgments, while earlier Chancery judgments remain available under the Chancery Division heading.

The word "Chancery" does not disappear from ordinary usage. In his address to the Chancery Bar Association on 8 September 2026, Sir Colin Birss, then Chancellor of the High Court, said he expected people to keep using the name "in a natural way" if they wish, and that the Association need not change its name. But as a matter of statute, procedure and court headings, "Chancery" and "Chancellor" no longer apply. Sir Colin explained the logic plainly: once the Commercial Court, Admiralty Court and TCC join the existing Chancery courts and lists, the division cannot sensibly be called "Chancery", because whatever the word means, it does not describe that combination.

What changed on 1 October 2026: the timeline

The reform moved from announcement to implementation in four months. On 2 June 2026 the Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, and David Lammy, as Deputy Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor, announced the new division jointly, and the government laid written ministerial statement HCWS79 in the Commons the same day. The statement said that "relevant Business and Property Courts will be transferred into the Chancery Division, which will be renamed the Business and Property Division", and that the change would be made by an Order in Council alongside updates to the Civil Procedure Rules, practice directions and court materials.

Date (2026)	Step	Instrument or document
2 June	Joint announcement by the Lady Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor	Judiciary announcement and HCWS79
8 July	Order in Council made	SI 2026/723
9 July	Civil Procedure Rule amendments made	Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2026, SI 2026/817
15 July	Both instruments laid before Parliament	SI 2026/723 and SI 2026/817
16 July	Practice direction amendments published	196th Practice Direction Update
8 September	Chancellor explains the reform to the Chancery Bar Association	Speech published 16 September
28 September	Practice Note on CE-File, titles and neutral citations	Practice Note issued by Sir Colin Birss
1 October	BPD comes into effect; new rules and practice directions in force	SI 2026/723, SI 2026/817, 196th PD Update
5 October	CE-File court and case categories updated	Practice Note, paragraph 1
1 November	Sir Colin Birss becomes Master of the Rolls	Appointment announced 9 July

The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2026 are drafted so that the "BPD changes" come into force on the same date as, and immediately after, the Order in Council. A LexisNexis summary of the 196th Practice Direction Update records that the update principally implements the reorganisation, including the movement of the Commercial Court, Admiralty Court, Circuit Commercial Courts and TCC into the new divisional structure.

Which courts and lists are now in the Business and Property Division

Every court and list that used to sit under the "Business and Property Courts" umbrella is now part of a single division. The Law Society Gazette's report of the June announcement listed the Commercial Court, the TCC and the Admiralty Court, then in the King's Bench Division, alongside the Business List, Financial List, Competition List, Insolvency and Companies List, Intellectual Property List, Property, Trusts and Probate List and the Revenue List. The amended section 6(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981 now provides that there shall be, as part of the Business and Property Division, a Patents Court, an Admiralty Court and a Commercial Court.

Court or list	Division before 1 October 2026	Division from 1 October 2026	Neutral citation suffix
Commercial Court (including the London Circuit Commercial Court)	King's Bench	Business and Property	(Comm)
Circuit Commercial Courts outside London	King's Bench	Business and Property	(Comm)
Admiralty Court	King's Bench	Business and Property	(Admlty)
Technology and Construction Court	King's Bench	Business and Property	(TCC)
Patents Court	Chancery	Business and Property	(Pat)
Intellectual Property Enterprise Court	Chancery	Business and Property	(IPEC)
Business List, Insolvency and Companies List, Property, Trusts and Probate List, Revenue List, Competition List, General IP List	Chancery	Business and Property	(BP)
Financial List	Joint Commercial Court and Chancery list	Business and Property	Not separately listed in the Practice Note

The citation suffixes come from the Practice Note discussed below; the Financial List row reflects Sir Colin's account that the list, created in 2015, was a joint venture between the Commercial Court and the Chancery Division. Revised Practice Direction 57AA, now titled "Business and Property Division", sets out where each can be started. At the Rolls Building in London claims may be issued in the Admiralty Court, the Appeals List, the Business List (including a Financial Services and Regulatory List and a Pensions List), the Commercial Court (including the London Circuit Commercial Court), the Competition List, the Financial List, the Insolvency and Companies List, the Intellectual Property List (comprising IPEC, a General IP List and the Patents Court), the Property, Trusts and Probate List, the Revenue List and the TCC. For readers following patent disputes, the Patents Court, which hears FRAND licensing fights of the kind seen in the Optis v Apple dispute, is now a BPD court, which is also relevant to how London sits beside the Unified Patent Court for European patent strategy.

The move matters in particular for shipping and insurance users. Admiralty claims under CPR Part 61 and commercial claims under Part 58, including marine and war risk insurance disputes, now proceed in a BPD court, though the judges hearing them and the procedure they apply are the same.

What does not change

The central message of every official statement is continuity of jurisdiction. The June judiciary announcement said that the individual courts and lists "will continue their work as they do now, keeping their existing jurisdictions, identities and areas of expertise", and that the changes "will not affect the wider structure or work of the King's Bench Division, or the existing courts and lists of the High Court". In his speech Sir Colin said: "Apart from the name changes, users will notice little change in the ways of working."

Several specific points of continuity are written into the rules:

• Names of courts and lists. The Commercial Court, Patents Court, Business List and other courts and lists keep their existing names in the rules, and Insolvency and Companies Court judges keep that title.
• Procedure. Parts 58 (Commercial Court), 59 (Circuit Commercial Courts), 60 (TCC), 61 (Admiralty), 62 (arbitration claims), 63 (intellectual property) and 63A (Financial List) all still apply; the amendments mainly change divisional references.
• Enforcement of money judgments. New rules 58.16, 60.8 and 61.14 provide that, unless the court orders otherwise, enforcement of money judgments of the Commercial Court, the London TCC and the Admiralty Court may be exercised by a Master of the King's Bench Division (and, for the Commercial Court, by a District Judge), preserving the existing enforcement machinery.
• Vacation arrangements. According to Sir Colin, vacation arrangements do not change for now.
• Case numbers. The September Practice Note confirms that case numbers will not change.

One operational change does take effect: out-of-hours work for the Commercial Court and TCC is being amalgamated with the existing Chancery out-of-hours scheme. Urgent applications, such as freezing injunctions sought late in the day, should therefore follow the BPD's combined arrangements.

Is the King's Bench Division in the Business and Property Courts?

No longer. Before 1 October 2026 the honest answer to this common search was "partly": the Business and Property Courts were an umbrella launched in 2017 that included King's Bench courts such as the Commercial Court and TCC as well as the whole Chancery Division, while the divisional structure stayed split. Sir Colin's speech described how that split administrative structure "created some unnecessary complexity for court users", and how businesses, practitioners and international litigants sometimes found it difficult to understand which division was responsible for particular disputes.

Now the High Court has three divisions: the King's Bench Division, the Business and Property Division and the Family Division. The King's Bench Division keeps its general civil work, its crime and Administrative Court work and its other courts and lists. What it loses are the Commercial Court, the Admiralty Court, the TCC and the Circuit Commercial Courts.

The judicial links between the two divisions do not disappear. Sir Colin explained that Commercial Court and TCC judges based in the Rolls Building already sit outside it in crime, the Administrative Court and general King's Bench cases, and that this scheme will continue, so a specified number of BPD judges will sit outside the division. Because the scheme is now set up on a cross-divisional basis, former Chancery judges may in future also sit in the King's Bench Division, and King's Bench judges in the BPD. The government's statement presented this as a governance benefit: a "single point of leadership" for business and property work.

Who leads the Business and Property Division

The head of the division is the President of the Business and Property Division (PBPD), a role that replaces the Chancellor of the High Court. The first holder is Sir Colin Birss, who, according to the Law Gazette, was sworn in as Chancellor in November 2025. His tenure as President will be short: on 9 July 2026 the judiciary announced that the King had approved his appointment as Master of the Rolls, following the retirement of Sir Geoffrey Vos, and he takes up that office on 1 November 2026.

Sir Colin set out the interim arrangements in his speech. When he becomes Master of the Rolls he will retain strategic oversight of the new division until a new President is appointed. In the meantime there will be a temporary deputy President of the BPD, and the process for selecting a permanent President was due to start "very soon". The identity of the temporary deputy President and the timetable for the permanent appointment had not been announced at the time of writing.

The change of title runs right through the statute book. The Order in Council substitutes "President of the Business and Property Division" for "Chancellor of the High Court" in provisions of the Senior Courts Act 1981 dealing with the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the appointment, tenure and precedence of judges, and the power to alter divisions, as well as in the County Courts Act 1984 and the Public Notaries Act 1843, among others. The Chief Chancery Master becomes the Chief Master of the Business and Property Division.

Sir Colin has also served as the judiciary's Lead Judge for Artificial Intelligence, and he flagged that the challenges of AI and digital assets will apply across the whole division, a theme that runs across the whole of the division's work.

What happens to existing claims: the transitional rule

Existing claims do not need to be reissued or transferred. Rule 2 of the Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2026 provides that any claims, applications, petitions or appeals filed or issued in, or transferred to, the Admiralty Court, the Commercial Court, a Circuit Commercial Court, the TCC or the Chancery Division before the BPD changes come into force "shall proceed from that date as if filed or issued in or transferred to the appropriate court or list of the Business and Property Division".

The Practice Note adds three practical points for pending cases:

• Titles. There is no requirement to amend the title of proceedings in documents filed before 1 October.
• Case numbers. Case numbers will not change.
• CE-File. The "Court" and "Case Category" fields on CE-File will be updated automatically for cases existing at 6pm on Friday 2 October. CE-File will be unavailable from 6pm on Friday 2 October to 6am on Monday 5 October, and the CE-File website is to give directions on filing during that period. Users filing on 1 or 2 October should select the most appropriate existing options.

For international parties with live proceedings, the transitional rule means existing orders, timetables and trial dates are unaffected by the restructuring itself. Documents created from 1 October onwards should use the new heading, which is where most day-to-day questions will arise.

How to title claim forms and court documents in the Business and Property Division

New documents should carry a three-line heading. The Practice Note issued on 28 September 2026 says that documents in BPD proceedings should be titled in accordance with the relevant practice directions, forms and court guides, and that in general the format is "IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE", then "BUSINESS AND PROPERTY DIVISION", then the court, list or sub-list, with the venue specified where appropriate. Its examples include headings for the Commercial Court, the TCC, the Patents Court, the London Circuit Commercial Court, the Business List in Wales, the Appeals List at the Rolls Building and the Property, Trusts and Probate List in Birmingham.

Neutral citations also change. Judgments handed down in the BPD will generally be cited as [20XX] EWHC XXXX (BP). The exceptions keep their familiar suffixes: (Admlty) for the Admiralty Court, (Comm) for the Commercial Court including the Circuit Commercial Court, (IPEC), (Pat) for the Patents Court and (TCC). The Practice Note says the 2002 Practice Direction on neutral citations will be updated in due course.

Court forms are being revised too. HM Courts and Tribunals Service has published a collection of Business and Property Division forms, dated 1 October 2026, covering orders such as service out of the jurisdiction, service by an alternative method, transfer and injunctions. Service questions remain a live issue for cross-border creditors, as the English court's decision to set aside a service order in Emirates NBD's bankruptcy claim against Al Kuwari showed. Sir Colin also noted that court seals have been amended, including replacing the Queen's crown with the King's crown.

The rule and practice direction changes practitioners should know

Beyond the headline, the amending rules make targeted changes that affect where and how cases are started. The most significant are:

• A new Part 57A. Part 57A, now titled "The Business and Property Division", defines the "Business and Property Division at the Rolls Building" and the "BPD DRs" (district registries specified in Practice Direction 57AA), and requires proceedings to be started in accordance with that practice direction. It also allows proceedings that may be started in the BPD to be started in the County Court instead, in accordance with paragraph 4.1 of Practice Direction 57AA.
• Choosing the list. Practice Direction 57AA requires a claimant to choose the court, list or sub-list based on the principal subject matter of the dispute and, where aspects point to different lists, to consider which aspects require a specialist judge.
• Competition claims. Rule 30.8 now refers to transfers of competition claims to the Competition List of the BPD at the Rolls Building, rather than to the Chancery Division at the Royal Courts of Justice. The Competition Appeal Tribunal, where much funded collective litigation takes place, is a separate tribunal and is not among the courts and lists of the new division.
• The Financial List. Rule 63A.2 now provides that Financial List claims must be started in the BPD at the Rolls Building, where previously they could be started in the Commercial Court or the Chancery Division in London.
• Intellectual property and probate. Part 63 refers to a General IP List of the BPD in place of the general Chancery Division, and probate and trust claims under Parts 57 and 64 are routed to a Property, Trusts and Probate List.

The Order in Council also amends other legislation. One example with cross-border reach: in the Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006, which give effect to the UNCITRAL Model Law in Great Britain, the reference to the Chancery Division as the competent court becomes a reference to the Business and Property Division. Foreign representatives seeking recognition in England, an exercise mirrored by the recognition regime Malaysia adopted this year, now apply to the BPD. The court guides are being rewritten as well. By Lawyers reports that a Business and Property Guide will replace the Chancery Guide, and Sir Colin said the guides "will be ready soon" and that he could see a case for "a radical streamlining" of them. Until the new guides are published, practitioners should check headings and any references to the Chancery Guide or Chancery forms before filing.

The regional Business and Property Courts

The new division is national, not just a London institution. Practice Direction 57AA lists BPD district registries in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, where claims may be started in the Appeals List, Business List, Circuit Commercial Court, Competition List, Insolvency and Companies List, Intellectual Property List, Property, Trusts and Probate List, Revenue List and TCC. Specialist judges may also be made available to manage and hear cases in Caernarfon, Mold, Preston, Wrexham and other locations the court directs.

The "significant links" rule continues to govern where a claim belongs. With the exception of claims under Parts 58, 60, 61 and 62 (Commercial Court, TCC, Admiralty and arbitration claims), a BPD claim with significant links to a circuit outside London must be issued in the district registry for that circuit. Links are established by factors such as a party's address or registered office, the location of witnesses, where the dispute occurred, where the land or assets are, and where the parties' lawyers are based. When deciding transfers, the court must consider, among other things, the international nature of the case, recognising that international cases may be more suitable for trial in centres with international transport links.

Sir Colin said that outside London the new arrangements should help streamline the "ticketing" of judges authorised to sit in the BPD, and he singled out the Manchester courts for their work on cases involving digital assets. He also expected the term "Business and Property Courts" to continue in natural use, particularly outside London. For businesses in England and Wales with regional disputes, the practical position is that the same local specialist courts remain available under the new divisional name.

Why the Business and Property Division matters for international litigants choosing London

The reform is aimed squarely at London's international market. The judiciary says the specialist courts deal with high-value, complex and often international disputes, with "a substantial proportion of cases involving international parties". The government's statement said the "historic modernisation will ensure the UK remains a global hub for corporate litigation", and described the aim of strengthening the international profile and accessibility of the courts. Sir Colin noted that the Rolls Building, opened in October 2011, was and he believed still is the largest commercial and business court centre in the world.

For contract drafters and general counsel, three points stand out. These are our assessment of the rules described above rather than official guidance:

• Jurisdiction clauses. A clause conferring jurisdiction on "the courts of England and Wales" or on the English High Court is unaffected, because the High Court itself is unchanged. A clause that names a particular court, such as the Commercial Court, should also continue to work, because the Commercial Court keeps its name and jurisdiction and section 6 of the Senior Courts Act 1981 still provides for it. Clauses naming the Chancery Division may merit tidying in new contracts, although the transitional rule and the statutory renaming point to the same court.
• Enforcement abroad. The divisional label does not alter the treaties under which English judgments travel. The Hague Conference's status table records that the 2019 Hague Judgments Convention entered into force for the United Kingdom on 1 July 2025, and the UK remains a party to the 2005 Hague Choice of Court Convention, to which it acceded in its own right in September 2020. A judgment of the BPD is a judgment of the High Court of England and Wales like any other.
• Arbitration. Arbitration claims under Part 62 remain a Commercial Court matter, so the supervisory role of the English courts over London-seated arbitrations, explained in our guide to the seat and venue of an arbitration, is unchanged. That includes sporting disputes under the Premier League's rules, which, as our coverage of the Manchester City case explains, make England and Wales the seat of arbitration, and the court's role in enforcing arbitration awards.

The deeper benefit, if the reform works as intended, is operational. Sir Colin said a larger pool of judges "allows for work to be done more efficiently", and Exchange Chambers' summary of his address reports that the structure should make it easier to deploy judges across specialisms. The likely effect is greatest for multi-faceted disputes, for example a contract claim with insolvency, IP or construction elements, where the right specialist judge can now be found within one division. Whether listing times improve will only become clear once the division has bedded down, which Sir Colin himself acknowledged may take a while.

What to do now: a practical checklist

For most users, compliance is a matter of updating templates and habits. A practical checklist for law firms, in-house teams and international clients:

• Update headings. Use "IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE / BUSINESS AND PROPERTY DIVISION / [court or list]" on all new documents from 1 October 2026.
• Do not retitle old filings. Documents filed before 1 October need not be amended.
• Plan CE-File filings. Allow for the outage from 6pm on 2 October to 6am on 5 October 2026.
• Check citations. Cite new BPD judgments with the (BP) suffix unless they come from the Admiralty, Commercial, IPEC, Patents or TCC courts.
• Refresh precedents. Replace references to the Chancery Division, the Chancellor and Chancery forms in template orders, consent orders and correspondence.
• Review new contracts. Consider whether model jurisdiction clauses that name the Chancery Division should be modernised.
• Watch for the guides. Monitor publication of the Business and Property Guide and updated Commercial, Circuit Commercial and TCC guides.
• Note the leadership change. The President of the BPD changes hands from 1 November 2026, with a temporary deputy President in the interim.

When to get professional help

The structural change is largely administrative, but the decisions it touches are not. Choosing the right list, deciding between the Rolls Building and a regional district registry, drafting an effective jurisdiction clause, and planning enforcement against assets abroad all call for specialist advice, particularly where the other side is overseas. Corporate INTL's directory lists dispute resolution and litigation advisers, insolvency and restructuring specialists and intellectual property lawyers, and you can browse advisers across the United Kingdom.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Chancery Division still exist?

Not under that name. From 1 October 2026 the Senior Courts (Transfer, Amendment and Consequential Provision) Order 2026 renamed the Chancery Division the Business and Property Division and transferred the Admiralty Court and Commercial Court into it. Earlier Chancery judgments remain available under the Chancery Division heading on Find Case Law.

Is the Business and Property Court part of the High Court?

Yes. The Business and Property Courts were always specialist courts within the High Court. Since 1 October 2026 they form the Business and Property Division, one of three High Court divisions alongside the King's Bench Division and the Family Division. Individual courts such as the Commercial Court keep their names and jurisdictions.

Is the King's Bench Division in the Business and Property Courts?

Not any more. The Commercial Court, Admiralty Court, Technology and Construction Court and Circuit Commercial Courts moved from the King's Bench Division into the Business and Property Division on 1 October 2026. The King's Bench Division keeps its other work, and some Business and Property Division judges will continue to sit in crime and the Administrative Court.

What are the three divisions of the High Court now?

From 1 October 2026 the High Court of England and Wales has three divisions: the King's Bench Division, the Business and Property Division and the Family Division. Section 5(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981, as amended by SI 2026/723, now names the Business and Property Division in place of the Chancery Division.

Who is the President of the Business and Property Division?

Sir Colin Birss, the former Chancellor of the High Court, became the first President on 1 October 2026. He becomes Master of the Rolls on 1 November 2026 and will keep strategic oversight of the division until a new President is appointed, with a temporary deputy President in the meantime.

Do existing Chancery or Commercial Court claims need to be reissued?

No. Rule 2 of the Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2026 provides that claims, applications, petitions and appeals issued before the change proceed as if issued in the appropriate court or list of the Business and Property Division. Case numbers do not change, and documents filed before 1 October need not be retitled.

How should a claim form be titled in the Business and Property Division?

The 28 September 2026 Practice Note gives the general format as "IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE", then "BUSINESS AND PROPERTY DIVISION", then the relevant court, list or sub-list, with the venue where appropriate, for example "COMMERCIAL COURT" or "PROPERTY TRUSTS AND PROBATE LIST IN BIRMINGHAM".

What neutral citation do Business and Property Division judgments use?

Most will be cited as [20XX] EWHC XXXX (BP). The Admiralty Court keeps (Admlty), the Commercial Court including the Circuit Commercial Court keeps (Comm), and the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, Patents Court and Technology and Construction Court keep (IPEC), (Pat) and (TCC).

Does the change affect jurisdiction clauses or enforcement of English judgments abroad?

The courts keep their jurisdictions and names, and the High Court itself is unchanged, so clauses choosing the English courts or the Commercial Court should continue to operate. The UK's participation in the 2005 and 2019 Hague Conventions is not affected by the internal reorganisation. Parties should still take advice on specific clauses.

Where are the Business and Property Courts located outside London?

Practice Direction 57AA lists Business and Property Division district registries in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle. Specialist judges may also hear cases in Caernarfon, Mold, Preston, Wrexham and other locations the court directs.

Sources

1. Judiciary of England and Wales: Modernisation of High Court structure comes into effect today (1 October 2026)
2. Judiciary of England and Wales: The Lady Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor modernise the High Court through establishment of the Business and Property Division (2 June 2026)
3. UK Parliament: Written statement HCWS79, Business and Property Division of the High Court (2 June 2026)
4. legislation.gov.uk: The Senior Courts (Transfer, Amendment and Consequential Provision) Order 2026 (SI 2026/723)
5. legislation.gov.uk: The Civil Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2026 (SI 2026/817)
6. Ministry of Justice: Practice Direction 57AA, Business and Property Division
7. Judiciary of England and Wales: Practice Note for Business and Property Division: CE-File, title of proceedings and neutral citation of judgments (28 September 2026)
8. Judiciary of England and Wales: Speech by the Chancellor of the High Court, The new Business and Property Division (8 September 2026)
9. Judiciary of England and Wales: Sir Colin Birss appointed Master of the Rolls (9 July 2026)
10. Law Society Gazette: Lady chief justice announces new High Court business and property division to replace Chancery division (2 June 2026)
11. Legal Futures: Birss outlines benefits of new Business and Property Division (18 September 2026)
12. LexisNexis: 196th Practice Direction update, Business and Property Division and other procedural amendments (16 July 2026)
13. The National Archives, Find Case Law: High Court (Business and Property Division)
14. HM Courts and Tribunals Service: Business and Property Division forms (1 October 2026)
15. By Lawyers: High Court Business and Property Division replaces the Chancery Division (30 September 2026)
16. Exchange Chambers: New Business and Property Division of the High Court launches on 1 October 2026 (28 September 2026)
17. HCCH: Status table, 2019 Judgments Convention
18. HCCH: Status table, 2005 Choice of Court Convention

About this article

This analysis was researched and written by The Corporate INTL Newsroom, which covers cross-border legal, regulatory and business developments for lawyers, professional advisers and financiers in over 150 jurisdictions. It has been checked against the Order in Council, the amending Civil Procedure Rules, Practice Direction 57AA, the judiciary's announcements and Practice Note, the Chancellor's September 2026 speech and primary reporting. The revised court guides, the updated neutral citation practice direction and the appointment of a permanent President of the Business and Property Division had not been published at the time of writing. This article is general information, not legal advice; for advice on a specific matter, consult a qualified adviser. Last reviewed 1 October 2026. For more analysis like this, visit the Corporate INTL newsroom or subscribe to Corporate INTL.