Hard cases make bad law. You might think this is so axiomatic that no one would use an exceptional and complex issue to urge wholesale legal change. Yet this week Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, called for reform of commercial litigation in the wake of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International action. This lengthy and expensive legal battle certainly raises questions. It is not evident that a radical shift in the system is the answer.

The BCCI case was a record-breaker, lasting 13 years and involving legal costs of more than £100m. It began after BCCI's collapse in 1991 when Deloitte, the liquidator, sued the bank for misfeasance. It ended this April with victory for Threadneedle Street and the biggest bill in English commercial legal history for the BCCI creditors. In doing so, it overshadowed even last year's ending of the action brought by Equitable Life against former directors and Ernst & Young, its former auditors, at a total cost of more than £100m.