Interaction of the Brussels IIa and Maintenance Regulations with (Possible) Litigation in Non-EU States: Including Brexit Implications

Citation

Beaumont P (2020) Interaction of the Brussels IIa and Maintenance Regulations with (Possible) Litigation in Non-EU States: Including Brexit Implications. In: Viarengo I & Villata FC (eds.) Planning the Future of Cross Border Families: A Path Through Coordination. Studies in Private International Law, Volume 29. Oxford: Hart Publishing, pp. 331-344. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781509919895.ch-024

Abstract
First paragraph: The two core EU family law Regulations, Brussels IIa and Maintenance, are not well designed to regulate their interaction with possible litigation in non-EU states. Neither Regulation provides for a general system whereby an EU court can decline to exercise jurisdiction in favour of a non-EU court because it was seised first (lis pendens) or on the basis that a non-EU court is a clearly more appropriate forum to hear the dispute (forum non conveniens) or on some combination of both concepts. However, Brussels IIb does respect lis pendens, and permits transfers of cases even by a court first seised, in relation to Contracting States to the 1996 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children. This short chapter will set out the position under both the Brussels IIa Regulation and the Maintenance Regulation, how this would be improved when the Brussels IIb Regulation enters into force, and finally suggest some improvements that the EU legislature should make to those Regulations in order to make EU Private International Law of Family Law a fair and just fit within the global world of Private International Law of Family Law.

Keywords
Private International Law; European Law; Lugano Convention; Hague Maintenance Convention 2007; Brussels IIb Regulation; Hague Children's Convention 1996;