Double actionability is a doctrine of private international law which holds that an action for an alleged tort committed in a foreign jurisdiction can be successful in a domestic court only if it would be actionable under both the laws of the home jurisdiction and the foreign jurisdiction.
The rule originated in the controversial case of Phillips v Eyre (1870) LR 6 QB 1.
The rule has largely been abandoned in English law by virtue of section 10 of the Private International Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1995,[3] although defamation claims are specifically excluded (cf.
However, even prior to it being abandoned the courts had increasingly distanced themselves from the rule by applying a "flexible exception".
The exception was first applied in Boys v Chaplin [1969] 2 All ER 1085 and expanded upon in Red Sea Insurance v Bouygues SA [1995] 1 AC 190.