Jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments at Maltese law (civil and commercial matters)

Abstract

Clearly, as in most other areas of Maltese civil and commercial law, and perhaps more so, the private international law aspects of jurisdiction and recognition and enforcement of judgments will be greatly affected by Malta's EU membership as from May, 2004. For one this implies the direct effect of Regulation 44/2001 vis-a-vis other EU States as also the application of the Lugano Convention, 1988 with regards to the remaining EFTA countries. Provision for the latter has already been made by way of the Legal Procedures (Ratification of Conventions) Act, 2002 which is, however, at the time of writing, still not in force. This new regime also involves a number of specific norms governing jurisdiction is causes regarding contract, maintenance, tort, trusts, salvage and intellectual property amongst, others all of which will be discussed in detail under Chapter Two. The major effect of such rules will be, apart from overhauling the currently applicable rules including those regulating admiralty jurisdiction as discussed in Chapter One, to more modem standards, the displacement of art. 742 of the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure which is thus rendered applicable only to the extent that the new rules do not themselves apply. It is on this premise that art. 742 is discussed under Chapter Three. The same can be said of the articles governing the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments under the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure as discussed in Chapter Six, in so far as both the Lugano Convention and Regulation 44/2001 will henceforth govern the said matters falling within their respective scope exhaustively, whilst in the field of family law Regulation 134 7 /2000 will also be directly effective with regards to the jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and in matters of parental responsibility for joint children. Finally, reference is also made to the introduction of a new definition of 'domicile' under the Legal Procedures (Ratification of Conventions) Act, 2002 for the purposes of the Lugano Convention. Note is also taken in the conclusive part of the thesis of the current development that the subject is undertaking on the international plane, particularly through the Hague Conference on Private International Law representing cutting-edge law on the matters discussed.