Research on International Convention on Jurisdiction and Recognition/Enforcement of Foreign Judgments

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Japanese law in international jurisdiction and Recognition/Enforcement of Foreign Judgment not clear. As rules on international jurisdiction have been formulated by court judgments, it is considered necessary to have an international convention having as accurate set of rules on international jurisdiction.The Hague Conference on Private International Law is now making such convention. It made "Preliminary Draft Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters" in October 1999. Based upon our basic research on rules in this field in several countries, we analyzed the articles of this Preliminary Draft Convention from the viewpoint of the Japanese law.Our conclusion is as follows : As a whole, this Preliminary Draft Convention has many important provisions which are to clarify critical points in dealing with international cases in Japanese courts. However, there are some problems for Japan in the present draft. For example, whereas, this convention covers nuclear liability cases, no special rules for it can be found. In the case of nuclear accident, the courts of the country where the operator situates has to have exclusive jurisdiction in order to secure harmonized protection of victims. Accordingly, such rules should be inserted in the convention. On the other hand, in order to have this convention be ratified by as many countries as possible, we will have to abandon our present practices in some aspects. For example, this draft convention admits jurisdiction on "regular commercial activity" of the dependent in the territory of the court. This provision is inserted by the proposal of the United States. We consider that Japan can accept such provision in consideration of Japanese court practices.