Refusal of Jurisdiction of Courts in Civil and Commercial Matters: European and American concepts

This paper focuses on the concepts of refusal of jurisdiction of courts in civil and commercial matters in European Communities and in the USA, namely in the light of the proposal of the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments. Firstly, the institute of lis pendens and its concept in the regulation Brussels I is described. Secondly, the concept of the doctrine forum non-conveniens in the judgments of federal courts in the USA is outlined. Then, the positives and negatives of both approaches are evaluated and the proposal of the compromise reached in the multilateral Hague Convention is introduced. In the summary it is suggested that none of the concepts is ideal. Therefore, the Hague compromise, which combines the positives of both doctrines, should not be forgotten although the negotiations of the Hague Convention were not successful.