Brussels I regulation: Recognition and enforcement of foreign court decisions in civil and commercial matters

Abstract

The process of integration of European countries began with the formation of the Coal and Steel Community and as a historical category in a certain domain continues. This decades-long integration has been carried out in phases and in certain segments, and this very way of integration has resulted in these areas not consistently following the basic principles on which the EU is based. The self-proclaimed goal of European integration, its maintenance and development as areas of freedom, security and justice, necessarily required, among other things, instruments and measures related to judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters, which would ensure the smooth functioning of the EU internal market. The rules of Brussels and regulations establish a single system of recognition and enforcement of foreign court decisions, overcoming the differences that exist in the national systems of member states, and unified rules on simplification of procedures for faster and simpler recognition and enforcement of such decisions. The authors below present the achieved level of unification of these rules from the aspect of functionality, primarily the time needed to execute a foreign decision, reduction of formalities, certainty of outcome and impossibility of conducting a parallel procedure, as the primary goal of Brussels I regulation.