Disputes

Commercial litigation in Mauritius takes place inside a mixed system. The substance remains largely civilian, inherited from the Civil Code, while procedure and the handling of evidence owe a great deal to the English tradition. Commercial disputes are brought before the Supreme Court, whose commercial division hears the heaviest matters, and the ultimate appeal remains available to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

The recurring matters are familiar: disputes between shareholders, a deadlocked board, enforcement of a shareholders agreement, a warranty claim after an acquisition, the termination of an established commercial relationship, enforcement of security, a challenge to a corporate decision. Alongside them sit applications for interim relief, whose usefulness is often decided in the first few days, before assets move and before evidence is tidied away.

Enforcement of foreign decisions deserves a separate word, because two distinct routes are regularly confused. A foreign arbitral award is recognised and enforced through the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards Act 2001, which gives effect to the New York Convention. A foreign judgment travels by another road, exequatur, on conditions that are not the same. Choosing the wrong road costs a year.

Before the first letter is written, a handful of checks often settle the outcome. Is there an arbitration clause nobody noticed, which will defeat the jurisdiction of the court. Has limitation run, or is it about to. Is the evidence preserved, or scattered across mailboxes nobody thought to place on hold. The correspondence exchanged in the first few weeks becomes the document the other side will produce first.

The practice prepares a matter as though it will be tried, while pursuing a negotiated outcome for as long as that outcome remains better than the risk and the cost of a trial. Litigation is an instrument, not a posture. It is conducted with the same discretion as everything else, which means resisting the temptation of publicity, including when the case is a good one.