14 | THE LEGAL SYSTEM: UNCOVERING EU ADVANTAGES
trend towards specialised courts for specific, highly technical subjects (corporate governance, patents, information technology, competition) should be subject to more in-depth analysis, and endorsed where beneficial (Ginsburg and Wright, 2013). Including reforms of the court system in the Semester would also be consistent with a commitment, within the Agenda 2030, to mainstream SDGs into every aspect of EU policy: as a matter of fact, goal 16 aims inter alia at strengthening institutions for sustainable development, and courts are important institutions in this respect. Another promising avenue for the single market is the recent trend towards the introduction of English as an optional language in civil courts, which can facilitate non-nationals in settling controversies by using civil or even common law as appropriate (Kern, 2012). This transition is going to become even more urgent after Brexit, since many commercial and financial contracts rely on UK common law and would therefore become bereft of a forum for settling controversies in continental Europe. Apart from international arbitration cases, the availability of courts to settle international disputes in English in countries like France, Germany and the Netherlands is increasingly a reality, which will lead to further hybridisation between civil (procedural) law and common law, and even growing interpretation of the law by courts in common law cases.16 The inherent risk is that this trend towards English-speaking courts leads to increased use of common law: we argue that the EU should avoid facilitating this tendency and should proactively seek to promote civil law. For example, the Netherlands set up a new international Commercial Court, which opened its doors in Amsterdam on 1 January 2019. The major ‘selling point’ of the Court is that the entire proceedings can be conducted in English, including any written statements, communication with the Court and hearings. Furthermore, the procedural rules of the Netherlands Commercial Court also provide the flexibility for proceedings to be conducted in the civil law tradition or in a manner similar to proceedings in international arbitration or common law jurisdictions. By providing this flexibility, the Netherlands Commercial Court aims to make proceedings recognisable for international parties. The Netherlands Commercial Court will hear international civil or commercial