Cross-Border Judicial Cooperation in Civil Matters: Recent Developments from the CJEU

The purpose of the course is two-fold:

• to familiarise participants with emerging issues in the area of EU judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters, especially in the light of the recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union;
• to shed light on the policy and legal considerations underlying this area of the law, including at the multilateral level.

Judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters experienced a significant growth within the EU over the past two decades, especially as a result of the increase in cross-border business transactions and mobility. Against this background, court staff and other legal professionals often lack a sufficient degree of familiarity with the recent developments that characterise the application of the instruments that regulate this area of the law – notably the Brussels I-bis Regulation (Regulation (EU) 1215/2012). To date, the Brussels I-bis Regulation is the cornerstone of judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters and plays a special role among the numerous instruments of EU private international and procedural law. Its development has been continuously flanked and steered by the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Focusing on recent CJEU case law in the area of judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters, this course is devised to tackle emerging issues that have arisen in the context of the application of the Brussels I-bis Regulation.

Against this background, this course will also provide interesting insights into this area of the law at the multilateral level. It will address the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements and the 2019 Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters, respectively (on the grounds that the European Union acceded to both Conventions).

This course will help the participants to become acquainted with judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters, with a special focus on emerging issues. It will also shed light on the respective policy and legal considerations lying behind the European Union legislation emerging in the field of judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters.
Taking a realistic approach and using practical examples, the course will provide participants with knowledge about:

• the cross-border element in the Brussels I-bis Regulation;
• Article 7 No 2 of the Brussels I-bis Regulation;
• provisional measures under the Brussels I-bis Regulation;
• public policy under the Brussels I-bis Regulation;
• the 2005 and 2019 Hague Conventions.

The course sessions will be delivered by experts with presentations on key topics, taking into account the recent developments arising from the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.