Judicial Cooperation between the United States and Europe in Civil and Commercial Matters : An Overview of Issues

Written in 2003-2004 as an early contribution to an EU-funded interuniversity project on the judicial cooperation in civil matters between the European Union's Member States and third countries, this article constitutes a concept paper providing a general overview of issues that are of interest, in particular, for the relationships between the United States and Europe. While the immediate practical interest of this is evident, it also leads to an interesting comparison of the E.U. instruments with U.S. law, as well as with the global instruments bringing together the two federations -- and an exploration of how the interests of U.S. actors are affected by -- and affect in their turn -- the evolution of civil litigation in Europe.Section I of the Essay lays out the institutional background and general themes, whereas Section II considers the interplay of globalization with judicial cooperation. Section III considers the diverse perspectives across the Atlantic on the thorny issue of antisuit injunctions (III). The rest of the article discusses specific areas of judicial cooperation where important new instruments (as of 2004) have seen the light of day: cross-border insolvency (IV), parallel proceedings and forum selection agreements (V), service of process (VI) and the taking of evidence (VII)