ABSTRACT
The Foreign Limitation Periods Act 198428 gives effect to the prior recommendations of the Law Commission and brings English law broadly into line with European thinking on matters of limitation of actions. The legislation, which applies to both actions and arbitrations, adopts the fundamental principle that the limitation rules of the lex causae are to be applied in actions in England.29 Indeed, to put the matter another way, the law governing the substantive issue will be the law that governs questions of limitation. This general principle is subject to a public policy exception.30 English rules on limitation are not to apply unless English law is the lex causae or one of the two leges causae.31 However, there are some restrictions on the application of foreign limitation rules. It is for English law to determine when a foreign limitation period stops running and proceedings have been commenced;32 foreign rules as to whether the running of the period is to be suspended by reason of the absence of a party are to be ignored.33 However, if the foreign law provides for a discretion on the running of the limitation period, then the English court is to exercise it in manner in which it is exercised in comparable cases by the court of that other country.34
