The Withdrawal Agreement provides (in Article 127) that Union law applies to and on the United Kingdom during the transition period, unless otherwise provided for in the Withdrawal Agreement, and that any reference to EU Member States in Union law is understood as the inclusion of the United Kingdom. EU law includes the various EU treaties, the general principles of EU law, EU legislation such as regulations and directives and (essentially) international agreements to which the EU has acceded. There is a specific provision (in Article 129) that the United Kingdom is bound by the obligations arising from those international agreements during the transition period and that the Union notifies the other parties to those agreements that the United Kingdom is to be treated as a Member State of the Union for the purposes of those agreements during the transition period. In addition to the jurisdiction of the courts designated in an exclusive agreement conferring jurisdiction, the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction also regulates the recognition and enforcement of judgments of a court of a Contracting State designated in an exclusive agreement conferring jurisdiction on the other Contracting States. In accordance with Article 8(1) and (2) of the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction Agreements, such judgments must, in principle, be recognised and enforced without review of the merits of the judgment, unless there are obstacles to recognition and enforcement. January 31, 2020 has arrived. The « Agreement on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community » was promulgated in the United Kingdom by the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 and was promulgated on 29 October 2020. Ratified by the European Parliament in January 2020. The United Kingdom will leave the European Union.
The United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union (« EU ») on 31 January 2020. Since then, relations between the United Kingdom and the EU have been governed by the Agreement on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (2019/C 384 I/01) (« Withdrawal Agreement »). Article 66 of the Withdrawal Agreement governs judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters during the transitional period. In accordance with Article 67(2)(a) of the Withdrawal Agreement, Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (`Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012`) for the recognition and enforcement of judgments given in judicial proceedings initiated before the end of the transitional period. However, this transition period ended on December 31, 2020. Competence is governed by Article 67(1) of the draft Withdrawal Agreement. Generally speaking, this draft agreement « both in the United Kingdom and in the Member States in situations where the United Kingdom is involved » provides as follows: the MIB has made good progress and a number of mutual agreements have been signed. At the time of writing, the guarantee funds of France, Poland and Romania have not yet agreed on bilateral agreements to ensure the maintenance of compensation on a reciprocal basis for visitors who are victims of accidents involving uninsured or unaccompanied drivers. Finally, as far as the United Kingdom is concerned, the temporal scope is debatable and has not yet been clarified. In accordance with Article 16(1) of the Hague Convention on choice of jurisdiction, the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction applies to agreements on the exclusive choice of court concluded after the entry into force of the Convention for the agreed State of jurisdiction. In its declaration of accession of 28 September 2020, the United Kingdom stated that it expected to be a State Party without interruption since 1 October 2015. It remains to be seen how the German courts will assess this declaration by the United Kingdom in the context of enforcement proceedings in the light of the temporal scope of the Convention.
The Withdrawal Agreement is a treaty between the EU and the UK that was concluded on 17 October 2019 following the Brexit negotiations. The purpose of the Withdrawal Agreement is to set out the conditions for the UK`s withdrawal from the EU, including what happens to the competence and enforcement of decisions between the UK and the EU. However, unlike Regulation (EC) No 1215/2012 or the Lugano Convention, for example, the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction Conventions remains limited in its scope. In addition to the fact that the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction Agreements deals only with the recognition and enforcement of judgments of courts designated in an exclusive jurisdiction agreement, Article 2 of the Convention contains a comprehensive list of matters excluded from its application. In addition to consumer issues, this also includes claims arising from a tort or tort due to damage to physical property that does not arise from a contractual relationship, as well as real estate rentals. Disclaimer: This article should not be construed as legal advice. The circumstances of the individual case are different and legal advice specific to the individual case should always be sought. However, with this in mind, the MIB has already made considerable efforts to persuade EEA countries` offices and guarantee funds to sign bilateral agreements to protect visitors in order to facilitate the exchange of information if the UK is removed from the guidelines that provide that victims of accidents abroad can claim compensation in their own country and language.
The logical consequence of the Withdrawal Agreement is that the government has essentially bought itself an additional period until 31 December 2020, with which it will conclude the necessary mutual agreements with our former EU partners. Currently, the transition period must run until 31 December 2020, but Article 132 allows the transitional period to be extended by mutual agreement « up to 1 or 2 years » before 1 July 2020. Article 67(1) of the Withdrawal Agreement confirms that the existing position will remain unchanged until the end of the Withdrawal Agreement: while the UK and the EU concluded a Trade and Cooperation Agreement on 30 December 2020, this agreement leaves out the area of European civil procedure law, which, in this area, amounts to a « hard Brexit ». Also the accession of the United Kingdom to the Lugano Convention of 30. October 2007 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (« Lugano Convention ») seems to have failed. As the United Kingdom is ready to accede to the Lugano Convention on 8 April 2020, the necessary consent of all Contracting Parties has not been obtained, even after the expiry of the one-year period provided for in Article 72(3) of the Lugano Convention. The UK is currently party to The Hague due to its EU membership, but this will cease when the UK leaves the EU on 31 January 2020. However, as mentioned earlier, the UK and the EU have agreed that the UK will be treated as an EU Member State during the transition period for the purposes of international agreements, including The Hague. The UK would have joined The Hague in its own legislation in the event of a no-deal withdrawal immediately after the withdrawal date, but given the Withdrawal Agreement, the UK now intends to withdraw its instrument of accession and (presumably) accede to it from the end of the transition period. The UK will continue to comply with obligations under international agreements on jurisdiction and enforcement of decisions (among others) to which the EU is a party, such as the 2007 Lugano Convention (which applies between EU Member States and EFTA countries, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) and the 2005 Hague Convention on Jurisdiction Conventions (which applies between EU Member States and the EFTA countries Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) and the 2005 Hague Convention on Jurisdiction Conventions (which is concluded between the EU Member States and Mexico (Singapore and Montenegro). By the end of December 2020, the English court must therefore stay the proceedings or relinquish jurisdiction if these conventions so require – for example, according to The Hague, if a clause conferring exclusive Mexican jurisdiction has been agreed since 1 October 2015 (the date of entry into force of The Hague for Mexico), or under Lugano, if parallel proceedings have been initiated for the first time before a Swiss court.
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