17.01 General

From 1 January 1987, if proceedings were brought before the courts of certain (and an increasing number) European States in civil or commercial matters, judgments given in those proceedings were able to take effect in England under legislation designed to produce the free circulation of such judgments across Europe. To begin with this was done by Conventions1 given effect in English law by Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982; in time, these were superseded by Regulations2 and a Convention,3 this time taking effect in England according to European law under the umbrella of the European Communities Act 1972. At their most expansive these interlocking schemes covered 30 national jurisdictions: the 26 Member States of the European Union plus the United Kingdom, as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. The fundamental assumption upon which they were built was that if the states in question had common rules for original adjudication, and could be trusted to apply them properly, the most significant impediment to the uncomplicated recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments would dissolve. The defendant’s legitimate objections to the jurisdiction of the adjudicating court could be dealt with by that court before it adjudicated, rather than being allowed to be raised after the adjudicating court had finished its work and before the courts of another country. The substance of the judgment would be immune to review or reinvestigation, and the mechanism for the transposition of the judgment from the legal order of one state to another would be made as simple as possible.