On Tuesday The Lord Chancellor Rt Hon David Lammy MP and Lady Chief Justice  Rt Hon Baroness Carr announced a significant modernisation to the structure of the High Court: the creation of a new Business and Property Division.

The current Business and Property Courts came into operation at the start of the 2017 legal year, and encompasses a group of High Court specialist courts and lists across: the Chancery Division; the Commercial Court and Technology and Construction Court in the Kings Bench Division; and the Financial List jointly operated by both divisions.  The move has been successful to date, with the Business and Property Courts creating intelligible and user-friendly name but retaining the individual brands of each list.

This new announcement is a continuation of that process. The new Business and Property Courts will stand as its own division alongside the KBD and the Family Divisions of the High Court, with the individual courts and lists that make up the new division staying as they are now. It will replace the Chancery Division.

The stated aim is to simplify and clarify the process for court users and court governance, improving clarity and access to justice.

The new division will be led by the President of the Business and Property Division, a role to be held by the Chancellor of the High Court, currently Sir Colin Birss. Subject to an Order in Council, the changes are expected to take effect early next legal year which begins in October 2026. Historians will mark the end of one of the oldest divisions of the High Court, with its roots in the Court of Chancery infamously portrayed through Jarndyce v Jarndyce in Dickens’ Bleak House. Practitioners await the next legal year to see how the new division’s rules help meet its stated aims of clarity and simplicity.