This Master‘s paper is about problems, which arise out of jurisdiction regulation of cases with international element in national and international level. In the first part of this paper author gives a definition of international jurisdiction and discusses its significance to the recognition and enforcement of judgments. Later after having analyzed national laws of different states (Germany, France, U.K., Lithuania, etc.) and EU documents - Brussels convention (1968) and Regulation No. 44/2001, as well as some cases of Lithuanian Supreme Court, European Justice Court and USA courts and having done a sociological research of Lithuanian judges‘ opinion, detailed analysis of such problems as parallel litigation, exorbitant jurisdiction and forum shopping is given. Then author discusses how these problems can be solved and gives a way to solve each problem – respectively, lis alibi pendens, unification and forum non conveniens doctrine. Each way is seen through analysis of its advantages and disadvantages and how it can be applicable to Lithuanian civil procedure law. Research showed that national efforts to solve jurisdiction problems in the international civil procedure are not sufficient and (or) not effective. Thus first of all states must cooperate with each other and coordinate their positions.

<p>The Member States of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) have set as their objectives, amongst others, the facilitation of cross-border movement of goods between the territories of the Member States and the promotion of the integration of Member States into the global economy through enhanced trade and investment. Different approaches to the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments by Member States and the risk of non-enforcement may lead to legal uncertainty and increased transaction cost for prospective traders, which ultimately act as non-tariff barriers to trade in the region. Trade is critical to Southern Africa, and the ideal is that barriers to trade, of which uncertainty concerning the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments among Member States is one, should be removed. Certainty, predictability, security of transactions, effective remedies and cost are important considerations in investment decision-making / and clear rules for allocating international jurisdiction and providing definite and expedited means of enforcing foreign judgments will facilitate intraregional as well as interregional trade. In addition to trade facilitation, a harmonised recognition and enforcement regime will consolidate economic and political integration in the SACU. An effective scheme for the mutual recognition and enforcement of civil judgments has been regarded as a feature of any economic integration initiative likely to achieve significant integration. While the harmonisation of the rules on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments has been given priority in other regional economic communities, in particularly the European Union, any similar effort to harmonise the rules on recognition and enforcement of Member States have been conspicuously absent in the SACU &ndash / a situation which needs to receive immediate attention. The thesis considers the approaches followed by the European Union with the Brussels Regime, the federal system of the United States of America under the &lsquo / full faith and credit clause&rsquo / the inter-state recognition scheme under the Australia and New Zealand Trans-Tasman judicial system / as well as the convention-approach of the Latin American States. It finds that the most suitable approach for the SACU is the negotiation and adoption by all SACU Member States of a multilateral convention on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, comparable to the 1971 Convention of the Hague Conference on Private International Law / the EU Brussels I Regulation and the Latin-American Montevideo Convention, as complemented by the La Paz Convention. It is imperative that a proposed convention should not merely duplicate previous efforts, but should be drafted in the light of the legal, political and socio-economic characteristics of the SACU Member States. The current legislative provisions in force in SACU Member States are compared and analysed, and the comparison and analysis form the basis of a proposal for a future instrument on recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments for the region. A recommended draft text for a proposed Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments for the SACU is included. This draft text could form the basis for future negotiations by SACU Member States.</p>

<p>The Member States of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) have set as their objectives, amongst others, the facilitation of cross-border movement of goods between the territories of the Member States and the promotion of the integration of Member States into the global economy through enhanced trade and investment. Different approaches to the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments by Member States and the risk of non-enforcement may lead to legal uncertainty and increased transaction cost for prospective traders, which ultimately act as non-tariff barriers to trade in the region. Trade is critical to Southern Africa, and the ideal is that barriers to trade, of which uncertainty concerning the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments among Member States is one, should be removed. Certainty, predictability, security of transactions, effective remedies and cost are important considerations in investment decision-making / and clear rules for allocating international jurisdiction and providing definite and expedited means of enforcing foreign judgments will facilitate intraregional as well as interregional trade. In addition to trade facilitation, a harmonised recognition and enforcement regime will consolidate economic and political integration in the SACU. An effective scheme for the mutual recognition and enforcement of civil judgments has been regarded as a feature of any economic integration initiative likely to achieve significant integration. While the harmonisation of the rules on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments has been given priority in other regional economic communities, in particularly the European Union, any similar effort to harmonise the rules on recognition and enforcement of Member States have been conspicuously absent in the SACU &ndash / a situation which needs to receive immediate attention. The thesis considers the approaches followed by the European Union with the Brussels Regime, the federal system of the United States of America under the &lsquo / full faith and credit clause&rsquo / the inter-state recognition scheme under the Australia and New Zealand Trans-Tasman judicial system / as well as the convention-approach of the Latin American States. It finds that the most suitable approach for the SACU is the negotiation and adoption by all SACU Member States of a multilateral convention on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, comparable to the 1971 Convention of the Hague Conference on Private International Law / the EU Brussels I Regulation and the Latin-American Montevideo Convention, as complemented by the La Paz Convention. It is imperative that a proposed convention should not merely duplicate previous efforts, but should be drafted in the light of the legal, political and socio-economic characteristics of the SACU Member States. The current legislative provisions in force in SACU Member States are compared and analysed, and the comparison and analysis form the basis of a proposal for a future instrument on recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments for the region. A recommended draft text for a proposed Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments for the SACU is included. This draft text could form the basis for future negotiations by SACU Member States.</p>

The issue of the enforcement of judgments in family cases is a topical issue in our society, since the various changes this legal area has recently experienced. The main change in the procedural field was the separation of so-called undisputed proceedings into a new Act on Special court proceedings, while the Civil Procedure Code remained a subsidiary act. This new Act also contains the sole regulation of the enforcement proceeding in cases relating to domestic violence and in cases of child custody, since these two areas are the most distinct from the enforcement of other pecuniary and non-pecuniary performance. In the first two chapters, the thesis focuses on the background of the enforcement proceedings as well as on its development, principles and functions. The second chapter ends with the outline of the enforcement in the Act on Special court proceedings. The third chapter deals with the enforcement of judgements in domestic violence cases, focusing particularly on the Police Eviction Instrument and the Special Preliminary ruling on the Protection against Domestic Violence. Their subsequent enforcement is then evaluated and analyzed. The fourth chapter focuses on the legal regulation of the child custody, with an emphasis on the comparison of the different modes of enforcing the decisions, as...

LL. M. (International Commercial Law) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

LL.M. (International Commercial Law) / Legal judgements against unsuccessful defendants are handed down around the world on a daily basis, but their enforcement can become a complicated matter when the enforcement of the judgement must occur outside the territorial boundaries of the state from which it emanates. The purpose of this paper is to determine the enforceability of judgements of the European courts whereby the jurisdiction of the court was determined in terms of Brussels I. This paper begins with an in-depth discussion of the principles of recognition and enforcement of foreign judgements and the purpose it serves within the context of private international law. The second chapter discusses recognition and enforcement of foreign judgements in South Africa. The requirements and the criteria necessary to fulfil such requirements will be discussed under this heading. The third chapter considers the various grounds of jurisdiction available to the plaintiff in approaching a court of a European Union State. Each ground will be followed by a discussion on the enforceability of a judgement, founded on such a ground of jurisdiction, in terms of the South African principles of recognition and enforcements of foreign judgements and whether the requirements discussed in the preceding chapter have been met. Chapter 4 provides concluding remarks relating to the matters discussed in the body of this paper.

Etant membre de la communauté internationale, l'Etat ne peut pas être irresponsable pour ses actions. De même la spécificité principale de la responsabilité internationale est liée aux particularités du droit international et de ses sujets principaux- Etats souverains. La compréhension du mécanisme de la mise en œuvre de la responsabilité internationale des Etats et de son rapport avec la souveraineté montre la validité et l'efficacité du droit international. La réalisation de la responsabilité en tant que processus est examinée en thèse en tenant compte des différents critères : comme la réalisation des éléments de la responsabilité (application de mesures de contrainte), le processus de l’attribution de la responsabilité (le procès de l’attribution à l'Etat des faits des autres sujets du droit international) et la réalisation des phases de la responsabilité (les questions liées à la procédure judiciaire et à l’exécution des décisions internationales).La corrélation de ces deux notions est conçu en thèse sous deux aspects: à savoir, si l'Etat souverain peut en se couvrant sous la souveraineté tenter d'éviter la responsabilité et quels sont les mécanismes pour l’en empêcher et à contrario, comment la réalisation de la responsabilité peut toucher ou même violer la souveraineté des Etats. / Being a member of the international society, the State can not be irresponsible for its actions. At the same time the peculiarity of international responsibility is joined to the peculiarities of the international law and its subjects-sovereign states.The understanding of the mechanism of application of State’s international responsibility and its relation with sovereignty shows the validity and the efficiency of the international law.The realization of the responsibility is regarded in this research as a process taking into account different criterions: as the realization of elements of responsibility (application of coercive measures), as a process of attribution of responsibility (a process of attribution to a State the acts of other subjects of the international law) and as a realization of phases of the responsibility (questions related to the court procedures and to the execution of the international awards).This research considers the correlation of these two legal concepts in two aspects: on the one hand, if the Sovereign state by using the principle of sovereignty can escape the responsibility and what are the mechanisms to prevent it, and, on the other hand, how the realization of responsibility could touch or even violate the sovereignty of the states.

The issue of the enforcement of judgments in family cases is of a specific nature and differs from the enforcement of other civil law decisions by the specific legal regulation and the nature of the subject matter of the enforcement of decisions, where the subject matter are persons, especially minors, and not thed pecuniary and non-pecuniary performance as in other cases of enforcement. In connection with the recodification of private substantive law, a new Act No. 292/2013 Coll., on Special court proceedings, which contains special legal regulations on the enforcement of judgments in matters of protection against domestic violence and in matters of custody of minors, was adopted. At the same time, Act No. 99/1963 Coll., The Code of Civil Procedure, was novelized and remained a subsidiary act. This thesis deals with special procedures for the enforcement of judgements in family cases, which we find in the second part of the fifth section of the Special court proceedings Act. In the first chapter, the thesis deals with the issue of civil proceedings, the enforcement proceedings and execution of decisions, with emphasis on its development, principles, functions and legal regulations. The second chapter focuses on the enforcement of judgements in family cases and on their specifics. The third chapter...

The Southern African Development Community Tribunal (the Tribunal) is the only judicial organ of the Southern African Development Community (the SADC). Its mandate includes ensuring “adherence to and the proper interpretation of the provisions of the Southern African Development Community Treaty” (the Treaty). The decisions of the Tribunal are final and binding in the territories of member states party to a dispute before it. The responsibility to ensure that the decisions of the Tribunal are enforced lies with the Southern African Development Community Summit (the Summit). The Summit is the supreme policy-making body of the SADC. It comprises the Heads of State or Government of all SADC member states. The decisions of the Summit are binding on all member states and, upon referral from the Tribunal, it has the power to take appropriate action against a member state who refuses to honour a decision of the Tribunal. The Tribunal was established primarily to deal with disputes emanating from the SADC’s economic and political units and not with human rights. A dispute concerning allegations of human rights violations in Zimbabwe was brought before the Tribunal by farmers affected by the country’s land-reform policy. The Tribunal, through reliance on the doctrine of implied powers, and the principles and objectives of the SADC as contained in the Treaty, extended its jurisdiction. In particular, the Tribunal found that it had jurisdiction to hear cases involving human rights violations and that there had indeed been human rights violations in the case before it. It consequently ruled against Zimbabwe. This decision has been welcomed by many within the SADC region as showing the Tribunal’s commitment to interpreting the Treaty in a way that does not run counter the rights of SADC citizens. However, the Tribunal’s decision has met with resistance from Zimbabwe and has not been implemented on the ground, inter alia, that the Tribunal acted beyond its mandate. The Tribunal has on several occasions referred cases of non-compliance to the Summit for appropriate action against Zimbabwe. The Summit, however, has done nothing concrete to ensure that the Tribunal’s decisions are enforced in Zimbabwe. Instead, in an unexpected move that sent shockwaves through the SADC region and beyond, the Summit suspended the Tribunal and resolved that it should neither receive nor adjudicate any cases. During the SADC summit in August 2014, a Protocol on the Tribunal in the Southern African Development Community was adopted and signed (the 2014 Protocol). In terms of this Protocol the iii jurisdiction of the (new) Tribunal will be limited to inter-state disputes. Unfortunately, it also does not provide any transitional measures to address issues such as the manner to deal with pending cases and the enforcement of judgments. When it comes to the execution and enforcement of judgments, it can be argued that the 2014 Protocol is largely a replica of the original 2000 Tribunal Protocol. The reason for this is that the envisaged mechanisms to enforce the decisions of the new Tribunal is to a large extent similar to the previous one. Unsatisfied over the non-compliance with the decision by Zimbabwe, the litigants approached the South African courts to enforce the Tribunal’s decision in South Africa.1 The South African courts found that South Africa is obliged under the SADC Treaty to take all the necessary measures to ensure that the decisions of the Tribunal are enforced, and ruled against Zimbabwe. However, the decision is yet to be enforced. The non-compliance with the judgments and a lack of mechanisms to enforce the decisions of the Tribunal, are crucial issues as they undermine the authority of the Tribunal. This thesis explores whether the Tribunal acted within its mandate in receiving and hearing a human rights case. It further considers whether, in the absence of a human rights mandate, the Tribunal enjoys implied powers under international law to invoke the powers necessary for the fulfilment of the objectives set out in the Treaty. It also reviews the concept of state sovereignty and the extent to which it has been affected by human rights norms post-World War II; regionalism; and globalisation. An important aspect examined, is the relationship between SADC Community law and the national law of member states. The relationship between national courts and the Tribunal also receives attention. Ultimately, the discourse addresses compliance and enforcement of the Tribunal’s decisions in the context of international law. To the extent relevant, I draw on other regional (the European Court of Justice) and sub-regional (the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, and the East African Court of Justice) courts to establish how they have dealt with human rights jurisdiction and the enforcement of their judgments. / Jurisprudence / LL. D.

LL.M. (International Commercial Law) / This essay seeks to look at the role of express submission to jurisdictjon under the Brussels I Regulation,lthe Brussels I (recast) Regulation2 and the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements.3 The express submission to jurisdiction under the three instruments mentioned in the previous sentence refers to the situation in which parties to an international commercial contract include in their contract a court of their choice to govern any disputes that may arise between them. This designated court may or may not be situated in a country that is a member of the three instruments mentioned above. The purpose of this thesis is to determine what will occur when the court chosen is from a country that is not a member of either of the three instruments mentioned. We will first look at express submission and the role it plays in determining which court has jurisdiction. This section on express submission will provide the definition of express submission in the context of a contract which incorporates a choice-of-forum agreement between the parties who are engaged in an international commercial transaction. The thesis will view the role of submission in a common-law and civil-law country in light of express submission by contract. Finally, a distinction will be made between an exclusive and non-exclusive jurisdiction clause. A brief discussion ofthe Brussels Convention4 (The Convention) will be provided in order to present the fact that the Convention only applies when a choice-of-forum agreement in a contract has assoned thejurisdiction to a court of a country which is a member of the Convention. The Convention would not apply when a choice-of-forum agreement in a contract has assigned jurisdiction to the court of a country which is not a member to the Convention. ln order to determine whether the position has changed since the enactment of the Brussels I Regulation (Regulation) with regard to choice-of-forum agreements that designate jurisdiction to the court of a country in a nonmember state of the Regulation, provisions relating to express submission clauses will be discussed. A further discussion will be provided to ascertain whether the enactment of the Council Regulation (EC) No 4412001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement ofjudgments in civil and commercial matters.