Summary

The establishment of the common market and the European Economic and Monetary Union envisages improved co-operation among judicial institutions both in civil and criminal matters. The main objective in promoting judicial co-operation in civil matters is to simply the life of subjects of law. Under the Treaty of Amsterdam, judicial co-operation in civil matters will be dealt with under the first pillar of the European Union after the end of the transition period. Therefore, work has commenced to replace the existing European Union and Council of Europe civil co-operation conventions by legislation of the European Union. The Tampere European Council has pointed out three priority areas in judicial co-operation: (1) mutual recognition of judgments; (2) harmonisation of procedure law, and (3) legal assistance. The author provides a brief overview of the developments and future plans of these areas in the European Union.
The author introduces a programme, adopted in the European Union in 2000, for the implementation of mutual recognition of judgments with the final purpose of ensuring the automatic recognition of judgments in civil and commercial matters. Also, the author outlines the most significant civil law instruments – the Brussels Regulations I and II and the Lugano and Rome Conventions. Examining the harmonisation of procedure law, the author focuses on the Council Directive on service in the member states of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil and commercial matters and the Regulation on judicial co-operation in the gathering of evidence in civil and commercial matters. The author also examines the draft Directive establishing minimum standards for legal assistance in all civil matters.