Brussels Regime

The Brussels Regime is a set of rules regulating which courts have jurisdiction in legal disputes of a civil or commercial nature between individuals resident in different member states of the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). It has detailed rules assigning jurisdiction for the dispute to be heard and governs the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. Five legal instruments together form the Brussels Regime. All five legal instruments are broadly similar in content and application, with differences in their territory of application. They establish a general rule that individuals are to be sued in their state of domicile and then proceed to provide a list of exceptions. The instruments further provide for the recognition of judgments made in other countries. Recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial cases was originally accomplished within the European Communities by the 1968 Brussels Convention, a treaty signed by the then six members of the Communities. This treaty was amended on several occasions and was almost completely superseded by a regulation adopted in 2001, the Brussels I Regulation. Today the convention only applies between the 15 pre-2004 members of the European Union and certain territories of EU member states that are outside the Union: Aruba, the French overseas territories and Mayotte. It is intended that the Brussels Convention will be replaced by the new Lugano Convention, the latter being open to ratification by EU member states acting on behalf of non-European territories which belong to that member state. In 1988, the then 12 member states of the European Communities signed a treaty, the Lugano Convention with the then six members of the European Free Trade Association: Austria, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. The Lugano Convention served to extend the recognition regime to EFTA member state who are not eligible to sign the Brussels Convention.