Locus standi
Disputes & Litigation

In the context of litigation, in order to commence legal proceedings and thus sue a defendant, a party to litigation must have a right of appearance in a court. Locus standi is often translated to “standing to sue”. In essence, it is the right to bring an action or to be heard in a given forum.

The principle was developed by courts to prevent bystanders to a dispute taking part in court based dispute resolution, on the basis that they had no interest in the outcome of the litigation. Limited exceptions apply to the rule at common law. In recent years, Parliament has passed Acts relaxing the strictness of the application of the rule, by defining classes of persons who may commence proceedings. For instance, the Trade Marks Act 1994 allows “any person” to bring proceedings to recover loss suffered by them as a result of an unjustified threat of trade mark infringement. In the face of such legislative provisions, courts maintain an inherent jurisdiction to control their audiences. In such cases, the claimant will be require to show that they have been aggrieved by the threat of infringement in the case that they were not the direct receiver of the threat.

The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 also defines classes of persons that may bring actions under a contract and thus have been granted locus standi where it otherwise would not exist due to the doctrine of privity of contract.

[Latin: a place of standing]