Revista Institutului Naţional de Justiţie (Jul 2018)
Free movement of judgments on civil and commercial matters in the European Union
Abstract
Every citizen - consumer – who purchases merchandise or services personally, via electronic commerce or commercial company and who, due to the contemporaneous communication and transaction methods happens to enter in commercial relations with other merchants from Europe, will need at some point adequate knowledge in case a dispute arises between him and his partner. To be more specific - which will be the competent court to examine the matter, what rules will this court apply, but most importantly – if the judgment is in his favour and the defendant’s place of residence is in another member- state – how can this judgment be effectively enforced. Moreover – we see recurrent cases where during a dispute on a purely national basis between entities of the same memberstate, envisioning a possible unfavourable case outcome, one of the parties moves its assets to another member-state during the process. At the end of the court proceedings, the creditor faces a number of difficulties pertaining to the effective judgment enforcement. These circumstances gradually directed the European Union to the idea of establishing a common European legal space, in which every citizen of a member-state can calmly exercise his rights and freedoms with no concern as to possible complications, and that in his contacts with partners or merchants from other member-states he can rely upon effective, anticipated and speedy European administration of justice. In this aspect, the most important legal acts are: Regulation №44/2001 on jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of judgments and Regulation №805/2004 creating an European Enforcement Order for uncontested claims.
