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English in the courtroom: the Zurich International Commercial Court

A project of two decades

The idea of an international commercial chamber in Zurich did not originate with the federal revision. In 2018 a working group of Zurich practitioners, chaired by Martin Bernet and including a representative of the board of the Zurich Bar Association, prepared a parliamentary motion asking the cantonal government to draft a legal framework for a “Zurich International Commercial Court”.1 The cantonal parliament took up the request in 2019.2 Because federal law did not yet permit English as a language of proceedings or give the cantons a basis for international jurisdiction by agreement, the project had to wait for the revision of the CPC. The inclusion of Article 6(4)(c) and the amendment of Article 129 in the 2023 revision owed a good deal to the pressure exerted from Zurich, Geneva and Bern.

The cantonal bill

On 2 July 2025 the Zurich government submitted to the cantonal parliament a bill amending the GOG in order to create the Zurich International Commercial Court as a chamber of the existing Commercial Court.3 The bill has three core elements. A new section 44(c) GOG extends the jurisdiction of the Commercial Court to international commercial disputes within the meaning of Article 6(4)(c) CPC. A new section 129a provides that the Commercial Court conducts such proceedings in English if all parties so request, and that it acts in these cases under the designation “Zurich International Commercial Court”. A supplement to section 39 requires that the language skills of the judges be taken into account when the bench is composed for English-language proceedings.4 The explanatory report stresses that the change allows the entire proceedings, including the written judgment, to be conducted in English, which saves the parties the cost of translation.

The government presented the project in a press release of 17 July 2025. It expected no additional staff and no additional costs in the initial phase, because the existing judges already had the necessary language skills and experience, and it anticipated a caseload in the single digits at first, with growth over the medium to long term. Any future costs were to be covered in full by court fees.5 The parliamentary committee for justice and public security recommended the bill by ten votes to five in June 2026. A minority from the Swiss People’s Party opposed it, citing costs and arguing that English-language proceedings before the Commercial Court were already possible without a change in the law.6 A law firm briefing published before the parliamentary debate expected the Zurich chamber to begin operating in 2027, while Bern was expected to open its international commercial chamber in May 2026 after the referendum period for its legislation had expired unused on 5 January 2026.7

What the new chamber offers and what it does not

The Zurich International Commercial Court is conceived as a label and a procedural mode for the existing Commercial Court, staffed by the same professional and commercial judges and bound by the same federal procedure. Its advantages for international parties are therefore those of the Commercial Court itself: expert judges, a strong settlement culture, a single cantonal instance with appeal only to the Federal Supreme Court on points of law, and relatively modest costs compared with institutional arbitration. The English-language option removes the most visible obstacle for parties from outside the German-speaking world. Documents in English have in practice long been accepted by the Zurich courts without translation where the court and the opponent understood them, which the government’s report took into account.8

Two limits should be kept in view. The first is the threshold of CHF 100,000 and the need for an agreement on jurisdiction. The international chamber is a forum of choice. It will be seised only where the parties have chosen it, normally in a jurisdiction clause concluded before the dispute arises. The second limit is structural. Appeals lie to the Federal Supreme Court, which may accept written submissions in English in arbitration-related appeals under Article 77(2bis) of the Federal Supreme Court Act but which, outside that field, continues to render its decisions in an official language. Parties that choose Zurich for English-language litigation must therefore accept that a second instance, if it comes, will not be conducted entirely in English. For many users the prospect of a Federal Supreme Court judgment in German is acceptable, since the court’s reasoning on points of Swiss commercial law is authoritative and quickly available.

Notes

  1. Bratschi, “The project ‘Zurich International Commercial Court’ (ZICC)”, https://www.bratschi.ch/en/news/das-projekt-zicc (status as of 4 October 2018; members of the working group: Martin Bernet (chair), Sandra De Vito Bieri, Dieter Hofmann, Adrian Kammerer, Georg Naegeli, Peter Reichart and Thomas Werlen). ↩
  2. SWI swissinfo.ch, “Zürich erhält ein Gericht für internationale Handelsstreitigkeiten”, 17 July 2025, https://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/z%C3%BCrich-erh%C3%A4lt-ein-gericht-f%C3%BCr-internationale-handelsstreitigkeiten/89694520. ↩
  3. Regierungsrat des Kantons Zürich, Antrag vom 2. Juli 2025, Vorlage 6034, “Gesetz über die Gerichts- und Behördenorganisation im Zivil- und Strafprozess (Änderung; Zurich International Commercial Court und weitere Anpassungen im Zivilprozess)”, https://www.zh.ch/bin/zhweb/publish/regierungsratsbeschluss-unterlagen./2025/721/6034_GOG_Aenderung.pdf. ↩
  4. Regierungsrat des Kantons Zürich, Vorlage 6034, loc. cit., proposed §§ 39 para. 3, 44 lit. c and 129a GOG. Proposed § 129a para. 1 reads: “Beantragen es sämtliche Parteien, führt das Handelsgericht internationale handelsrechtliche Verfahren gemäss Art. 6 Abs. 4 Bst. c ZPO in englischer Sprache durch.” ↩
  5. Kanton Zürich, press release, “Zürich soll ein internationales Handelsgericht erhalten”, 17 July 2025, https://www.zh.ch/de/news-uebersicht/medienmitteilungen/2025/07/zuerich-soll-ein-internationales-handelsgericht-erhalten.html. ↩
  6. Parlamentsdienste des Kantonsrates Zürich, media release of 25 June 2026 on Vorlage 6034, https://parlzhcdws.cmicloud.ch/parlzh5/cdws/Files/85267fd7a9054f02af01ab9b12006638-332/1/pdf. ↩
  7. Pestalozzi, “Proceedings in English before Swiss State Courts Soon a Reality in Bern and Zurich”, https://pestalozzilaw.com/en/insights/news/legal-insights/proceedings-in-english-before-swiss-state-courts-soon-a-reality-in-bern-and-zurich/. The same briefing notes that an initiative for a commercial court in Geneva was being promoted by practitioners there. ↩
  8. Regierungsrat des Kantons Zürich, Vorlage 6034, loc. cit. (practice of accepting English-language material and the resulting need to extend English to the proceedings as a whole). ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.

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