It is the only forum of its kind, bringing together commercial courts from across the world.
Its objectives are to:
Users – that is business and markets – will be better served if best practice is shared between courts and judiciaries work together to keep pace with rapid commercial change.
Together courts can make a stronger contribution to the rule of law than they can separately, and through that contribute to stability and prosperity worldwide.
As a means of supporting developing or emerging jurisdictions (long encouraged by agencies such as the World Bank) to enhance their attractiveness to investors by offering an effective means for resolving commercial disputes.
Every eighteen months, judges representing each member jurisdiction convene for a Full Meeting hosted by a different member jurisdiction. Since its inception, SIFoCC has held full meetings in London (2017), New York (2019), Singapore (2021), Sydney (2022), Doha (2024) and New Delhi (2025).
The period between a Full Meeting to the next is guided by the Steering Group, who identify four key themes. These themes form the basis of the Full Meeting, which takes the form of a unique two-day roundtable discussion. The Full Meeting is attended by delegations of each member jurisdiction.
In preparation for and between Full Meetings, these themes are further developed through online discussions, international working groups, and SIFoCC's participation in conferences convened by others. The forum provides an important platform for judiciaries to build strong and lasting professional relationships.
Where suitable, SIFoCC prepares publications to develop and provide clarity on international best practice. These have included:
SIFoCC also runs a Judicial Observation Programme. The judicial observation programme is an intensive one-week training programme in the commercial courts of another SIFoCC host jurisdiction.
SIFoCC convenes online roundtable discussions focused on specific judicial and commercial law topics of shared interest to its members. These online roundtables provide a forum for judges to exchange experience, share best practice and explore emerging issues in depth, supporting informed dialogue and international judicial cooperation.
SIFoCC also participates in and hosts regional meetings and discussions across different jurisdictions.
The sixth full meeting of SIFoCC was held in Delhi, India in November 2025. Membership had reached 67 jurisdictions and included new membership from Cambodia, Ethiopia, Montenegro, Ukraine, Vietnam and Western Sahara.
Over two days, judges participated in substantive and forward-looking discussions on themes central to modern commercial dispute resolution, including: common standards and approaches in commercial cases, corporate legal responsibility in the context of global developments including climate change, and the increasing role of artificial intelligence in legal systems.
By 2025, SIFoCC had hosted 5 iterations of the Observation Programme and a third edition of the Multilateral Memorandum on Enforcement was underway with publication in 2026.
The fifth full meeting of SIFoCC was held in Doha, Qatar in April 2024. Membership had reached 57 jurisdictions, including 70% of the G20 nations and made up of members spanning 6 continents with both common and civil law traditions.
The themes of this meeting focussed on: AI; Developing the Relationship between Commercial Courts; Arbitration and Mediation; Corporate Activity and the Rule of Law; Transnational Cooperation; Litigation Funding and International best practices in Case Management.
By 2024, SIFoCC had hosted 4 iterations of the Observation Programme with the 2023 cohort of judges producing a working product by extending the Case Management Principles published in 2020.
The fourth full meeting was held in Sydney, Australia in 2022. Membership had reached 45 jurisdictions. The themes concentrated on integrated dispute resolution systems, managing complexity and the 'complexification' of disputes, the future of corporate legal responsibility, purpose and governance, and jurisdictional conflicts internationally.
Over the period 2018 to 2023 SIFoCC held 4 iterations of its Observation Programme. Membership of SIFoCC continued to grow and exceeded 55 jurisdictions.
The third Full Meeting was held virtually in Singapore due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Membership had grown to 37 jurisdictions. The focus was on technology in a new world, commercial litigation funding, meeting the needs of court users and a reflection on the future role for the world's commercial courts and SIFoCC.
In April 2021 a second edition of SIFoCC's Multilateral Memorandum on Enforcement of Judgments was published with an added working group commentary.
The second Full Meeting was held in New York, USA. Conversations focussed on enforcement, perspectives from court users, case management, alternative dispute resolution and technology in the courts. The full meeting was attended by 35 jurisdictions.
This meeting generated a number of actions including completing a draft on the Multilateral Memorandum on enforcement of money judgments and establishing the first SIFoCC international working group to focus on best practice in case management from both common and civil law systems.
Case management principles were agreed and published in 2020. In 2020 and 2021 two memoranda were published on techniques for managing proceedings in the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2016, Lord Thomas, former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales (and himself a former judge of the Commercial Court in London) issued an invitation to counterparts around the world to come together to create the Forum.
The Forum held its inaugural meeting in London on 4–5 May 2017. Senior judges (many at Chief Justice level) from 25 jurisdictions convened to support collaboration between the world's commercial courts and agreed the Forum should continue as a standing institution. This judicial initiative aligns with global efforts to support the rule of law and prosperity, and to promote international legal services.
Since then, SIFoCC has continued to evolve and grow in membership. Meetings have been held in a different SIFoCC member jurisdiction but have always kept the same structural foundation: a two-day judicial roundtable discussion.
