Yesterday in The Hague, German Federal Minister of Justice Brigitte Zypries deposited the instrument of accession of the European Community to the Hague Conference on Private International Law.
“International commercial relations are continually increasing. Europe’s citizens are becoming increasingly mobile as well; more and more people are living and working not only in other Member States but outside the EU as well. Given these developments, we need clear rules on how claims may be asserted beyond the borders of the European Union. Despite differing legal systems, our aim is to attain the greatest possible degree of legal certainty and transparency, for both private individuals and companies. With today’s accession to the Hague Conference, the European Community will be able to bring these interests of EU citizens directly into the negotiations on future Hague Conventions,” stated Ms. Zypries.
The Hague Conference on Private International Law encompasses 65 Member States. For over 100 years, this organisation has dedicated itself to the establishment of global, uniform rules that apply to cross-border legal issues in the areas of civil and commercial law. The Conference originally dealt only with aspects of private international law – in the case of conflicts of laws, private international law regulates which of the various legal systems will apply. In the meantime, the Conference has established 36 Conventions that also address international procedural law in addition to private international law. These Conventions have been ratified by a large number of States.
Examples: The HagueConvention on the Service of Documents simplifies the service of documents in proceedings where the legal systems of different countries must be taken into account. The Hague Child Abduction Convention allows a parent’s custody rights, which have already been established by a national court, to be asserted more easily in a cross-border dispute.
Previously, only individual states could accede to the Hague Conference; however, a change in the Conference’s Statute has now made it possible for the European Community to join as well. In the future, the EC will thus be able to assert the interests of EU Member States more forcefully in Hague Conference negotiations. Furthermore, matters involving judicial cooperation within the EU, which are also of significance to non-EU countries, may to some extent be introduced into Hague Conference negotiations only by the European Community. Coordination of judicial cooperation is a task that the EC Treaty has assigned to the European Community and that cannot be performed entirely by individual Member States. In the area of judicial cooperation in the EU, numerous initiatives are currently underway that aim to simplify the norms of international private law (e.g., the Rome II Regulation on the Law Applicable to Non-contractual Obligations; the Maintenance Regulation). The Hague Conference is also active in precisely these fields. As such, as a member of the Hague Conference, the European Community will be able to represent its interests not only within the EU but also in relations with non-EU countries, and will be able to incorporate these into negotiations on future Conventions.
