CHOICE-OF-COURT AGREEMENTS IN COMMERCIAL, FAMILY AND SUCCESSION MATTERS

Choice-of-court agreements reduce a legal uncertainty regarding which State may hear a dispute and whether the judgement of the court will be upheld in other countries since this planning tool enables the parties to predict the venue for the dispute. The PhD project aims at examining rules on choice-of-court agreements in the EU in civil and commercial matters (under the Brussels Ibis Regulation, Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements, the 2007 Lugano Convention), in family matters (under the Brussels IIa Regulation, Maintenance Regulation, Matrimonial Property Regime Regulation, Regulation on the Property Consequences of Registered Partnerships), and in succession matters (under the Succession Regulation). Moreover, this project makes an effort in identifying the barriers, weaknesses, and gaps of the rules on choice-of-court agreements, lis pendens, and parallel proceedings, it proposes solutions de lege ferenda and it examines the interplay of the legal instruments through their simultaneous application. This thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter introduces party autonomy on a general level, which includes the outline of different categorizations of party autonomy, a brief historical development of the choice-of-court agreements and the analysis of the nature and effect of the choice-of-court agreement. This chapter focuses on the importance of the rules on choice-of-court agreements in the EU, their functions, and practical use, as well as divergent limitations with respect to choice-of-court agreements. The second chapter represents a core of the PhD thesis tackling the civil and commercial matters: it analyzes choice-of-court agreements (scope, conditions for applications, formal and substantive validity, exclusivity, severability) and issues related to it (rules on lis pendens and on parallel proceedings) under the Brussels and Lugano Regimes, under the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreement and it examines the interplay between all these three legal instruments in the practical examples. The third and last part deals with the choice-of-court agreements in family and succession matters, which is further broken down by the single EU Regulations. In particular, this last chapter pays attention to: Article 12 of the Brussels IIa Regulation, which determines the rule on prorogation of jurisdiction in parental responsibility matters; lacking rule on choice-of-court in divorce under the Brussels IIa Regulation; Article 4 of the Maintenance Regulation, which determines the rule on choice-of-court agreements in maintenance matters; Articles 5 and 7 of the Regulation on Matrimonial Property Regimes and the Regulation on Property Consequences of Registered Partnerships, which determine the rules on choice-of-court agreements in property regimes of the spouses and registered partners; Articles 5, 6, 7, and 9 of the Succession Regulation allowing party autonomy to a limited extent.