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Andreas Veeret published an article in Juridica

28.09.2009

On 21 September 2009, Andreas Veeret published an article in Juridica regarding “Jurisdiction of Courts of Member States of the European Union to Assess the Validity of International Agreements Conferring Jurisdiction. The Context of Article 23 of the Brussels I Regulation”.

The article deals with cross-border jurisdiction agreements concluded within the European Union. Namely, the competence of the courts of Member States to assess the validity of such jurisdiction agreements in the context of article 23 of Council Regulation No 44/2001 (the Brussels I Regulation) is being analysed. The article takes a closer look at formal and material validity of cross-border jurisdiction agreements.

Based on current court practice and theoretical literature, it is clear that article 23 of the Brussels I Regulation enacts exhaustively the formal requirements for jurisdiction agreements. This means that parties who conclude cross-border jurisdiction agreements as well as courts of Member States must assess the formal validity of such agreements only in the context of article 23. Additional application of internal law of Member States is not allowed.

With regard to material validity of cross-border jurisdiction agreements, there are no prevailing views whether the application of internal law is permitted. The author is of opinion that here the court of a Member State may apply internal law. The aforementioned means that, for example, if one of the parties to jurisdiction agreement claims that the agreement is invalid due to mistake or fraud, the court resolving the dispute must determine the applicable internal law of a Member State. Based on civil law provisions of that internal law, the court assesses whether there is mistake or fraud involved and how that affects the validity of the jurisdiction agreement.

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