148 / 462
g a z e t t e
a p r i l 1991
THE EEC CONVENTION ON THE
JURISDICTION AND THE EN-
FORCEMENT OF JUDGMENTS
Peter Byrne, [Round Hall Press,
1990, IRE45.00]
While the preface to this book does
not specifically set out in detail the
purpose and aims of same it does
express the aspiration that:
"This book should be of benefit
to anyone concerned with the
law in this area. This includes
not only Lawyers, Law students
or Administrators but also those
people within and outside the
Community affected by the
extensive scope of the Con-
vention, whether in business or
as private individuals".
'Convention Law'
per se
is not
explained, neither is the reference
to 'Conventions'.
Convention Law in fact com-
prises the 1968 Convention as
amended
to date
by:
The 1971 Protocol on the inter-
pretation of the 1968 Con-
vention by the European Court
signed at Luxembourg on the 3rd
of June, 1971;
The Accession Convention of
the United Kingdom, Denmark
and
Ireland
signed
at
Luxembourg on the 9th of
October 1978;
The Greek Accession Con-
vention.
The Conventions are taken in
chronological order (together with
the 1971 Protocol). The relevant
article is quoted and underneath
there is an exposition of the article
concerned, largely comprising the
views of the drafting Committee
and extracts from the relevant
Judgements of the European
Court. Decisions of the Courts of
Member States are not dealt wi t lf
except in so far as they have a
bearing on references by these
National Courts to the European
Court of Justice for an interpretive
ruling. This is perfectly acceptable
given that it is the European Court
of Justice alone which interprets
the Convention. The book does not
in any way purport to be a 'potted'
account or a schematic overview.
Therefore given the magnitude of
the task undertaken, the size of the
book is somewhat surprising - a
mere 246 pages taking in not only
the Conventions, Protocol etc., as
set out above but also five
appendices and an index. The
author therefore has chosen to
take on a fairly substantial
undertaking in a book of modest
proportions. When one subtracts
the space devoted to the text of the
Conventions Protocol appendices
etc., the amount of space left over
for exposition, commentary and
analysis is necessarily small.
As far as the Convention itself is
concerned, (and by this is meant
the 1968 Convention as amended)
many of its key concepts are left
undefined and therefore a con-
siderable body of interpretive
jurisprudence has been developed
by the European Court. In the
leading Case of
Tessi/i -v- Dunlop
(1976) wh i ch was the first
interpretive reference to the
European Court of Justice under
the 1971 Protocol, the Court laid
down the basic principle of
interpretation, that the Convention
was to be interpreted having regard
both to its principles and objectives
and to its relationship with the
E.E.C. Treaty.
The Book itself contains no
footnotes as to further reading,
articles etc. The bibliography is thin.
It does not refer to that excellent
book, Kaye:
Civil Jurisdiction and
the Enforcement
of
Foreign
Judgements
(1987), the series of
articles on the Convention by Gill or
indeed to the two excellent publi-
cations produced by the Irish
Centre for European Law, one of
which deals entirely with the
Convention.
However, the principal and
recurrent problem with this book is
the sparsity, or indeed complete
absence in many cases, of an
explanatory introduction, following
not only the relevant article but
preceding cases arising on foot of
the particular articles. There are
generous references to the views of
the drafting Committee (of which
judicial notice must be taken of
course). There are also references
to the various submissions made to
the European Court in relation to
the cases concerned followed by
an extract from the Judgement -
but no more. At a point where one
would expect an analysis followed
by a conclusion in relation to the
particular case, or indeed the end
of the exposition of the case law
etc., dealing with the particular
article there is a very sparse
commentary and quite often none
at all.
The result in this reviewer's
opinion is a considerable lack of
clarity and a practitioner or law
student coming to Convention Law
for the first time would have
considerable difficulty in grasping
the essentials o t ^ g d m i t i m k m ^s /
It is this lack of placing case law in
an overall explanatory perspective
together with the lack of com-
mentary which causes the greatest
difficulty with the book.
The author's handling of Article
5(5) is rather characteristic of the
approach throughout. The text of
Article 5(5) is quoted. Immediately
under this, without any intro-
duction, comes references to the
first case dealth with -
de B/oos
-v- Bouyer
(1976). Part of the
opinion expressed by the Advocate
General in relation to this case is
referred to. Then comes an extract
from the judgement and nothing
further - the author immediately
proceeding to the next case
Somafer -v- Saar Ferngas
(1978).
The facts are stated. There is an
extract of some five lines from the
opinion of the Advocate General.
This is followed by an extract from
the judgement and ruling at the end
of which is a terse comment to the
effect that it is in each case for the
Court before which the matter
comes to find the facts whereon it
may be established t hat an
effective place of business exists
and to determine the legal position
by reference to the concept of
'operations'. The next case
immediately follows -
B/anckaert
& Wi/iems -v- Trost
(1981) - with
no introduction. The facts are set
out. A four line reference to the
opinion of the Advocate General is
given together with an extract from
the Judgement. There is no
commen t ary and the author
immediately proceeds to the next
case
Schotte
-v- Par furns
Rothschild
(1987). Again there is no
introduction. The facts are set out.
There is a four line reference to the
opinion of the Advocate General
followed by an extract from the
judgement. This is the end of
Article 5(5) - as far as the author
is concerned. The actual com-
mentary consists of the few lines
referred to above and described
justifiably, it is t hough t, as
'terse'.
From a practical point of view
Article 5(5) has immense im-
portance to the practitioner,
particularly if any of his clients are
contemplating penetrating markets
of other contracting States (that is
130