Mr Justice Moor in the High Court ordered Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and vice president and prime minister of the UAE, to pay about £554m to his estranged wife Princess Haya, in HRH Haya Bint Al Hussein v His Highness Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum [2021] EWFC 94.

Henry Hood said: “The judgment has a relentless logic in that it meets (albeit in amounts never before seen in an English court judgment) the ongoing lifelong need that the judge found to exist in circumstances where the funds existed to do so.

“The actions found to have been perpetrated by the husband, including his readiness to use intelligence and eavesdropping equipment only available to sovereign states might have had their effect on the size of the award.”

Read the full article in New Law Journal here.