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To be enforceable, a foreign judgement needs some kind of ‘passport’ so that
it can be given the same treatment as a judgement given at home. This is
particularly true of monetary obligations. In Europe, the tension between the
need for cross-border portability of such obligations and their enforcement,
on the one hand, and sovereign states’ judicial control over enforcement of
domestic and foreign judgements, on the other, has been addressed repeatedly
by the European Court of Justice and the Commission and Council of the
European Communities, most recently through the notion of ‘mutual trust.’
However, despite concerted efforts to establish some harmonization in this
area, substantial divergences persist between the Member States’ procedural
systems as regards the definition of an enforcement order, the procedures for
enforcing judgements and, above all, the status, powers and responsibilities
of enforcement officials. This major new exploration of the current status of
cross-border enforcement of debts in Europe offers in-depth analysis of the
most recent relevant regulation at the European Union level, as well as the
default domestic regulation in England and Wales, Germany, France, Italy and
Spain- five jurisdictions chosen due to the very thick web of relations they
have had with each other as part of the established European order. The author
provides detailed consideration of such elements of the legal landscape as the
following:
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minimum standards for uncontested claims procedures;
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requirements as to service and information to be provided;
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extended safeguards of the creditor’s position and the rights of the defence;
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procedure for certification and for enforcement in the Member States of origin
and of execution; and
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application, service and enforcement of a European Order for Payment.
In the context of the intense academic and practical debate around what is
being called ‘European civil procedure,’ this book contributes signally to the
Commission’s stated objective of ensuring ‘as globally as possible a swift,
efficient and inexpensive access to justice.’ The author details the
procedural measures prescribed by the relevant directives (and their case law
so far), and incidentally provides a convenient conduit to the appropriate
material on the websites of the European Judicial Network and the Judicial
Atlas in each jurisdiction. As lawyers continue, in the absence of ‘mutual
trust’, to apply their own historic and philosophical meaning to the
‘harmonized’ procedures – no matter how much this approach is discouraged in
the preambles to the regulations and directives – this book greatly
illuminates the way forward in a difficult but extremely important area of
European law.
Introduction. Part One. 1. Setting the Stage for a European Law
of Civil Procedure. 2. The European Enforcement Order for Uncontested
Claims. 3. The European Order for Payment. Part Two. 4. England
and Wales. 5. Germany. 6. France. 7. Italy. 8.
Spain. Appendices. Table of References. List of Cases Cited. Bibliography.
Index.