It's a matter of preference - I'm in the UK and I have my brakes the Euro way, front on the left. With most brakes swapping around is trivial.

The UK and Us drive on different sides of the roads and are taught to user different arms for signals as a result. If I'm going to turn I need to both slow down by using the brakes and signal to others. thus I want the rear brakes (even thought front can stop faster I don't want to risk losing traction on that wheel in traffic)