This book examines the diversity of enforcement titles in cross-border debt collection, focusing on the types, structure, contents and effects of enforcement titles. It offers a comprehensive overview of judgments, court settlements and authentic instruments from a variety of EU Member States. It primarily employs the comparative legal method to draw conclusions on commonalities and differences, as well as prospects for future approximation of laws. The premise of the research is rooted in the finding that national authorities of EU Member States continue to treat enforcement titles from other Member States with reservations and mistrust despite being committed to the principle of mutual trust. The book identifies the issues of mistrust stemming from the diversity of enforcement titles. The research is based on a rich database of national reports compiled during the course of several large-scale EU Justice Projects. Divided into five parts, the book offers first some general considerations and presents attempts at a systemisation of enforcement titles. The following parts are then devoted to more specialised approaches toward the different types of enforcement titles. However, the connecting line between all parts of the book are the considerations of cross-border enforcement in the EU (and in a limited manner with third States). Herein, research also addresses critical factors regarding the free movement of judgments in the EU, including those of lis pendens and related actions. This book provides a valuable contribution to the Theory of European Civil Procedure. Since it is based on a comparative approach and employs both empirical and doctrinal viewpoints, it should also greatly benefit practitioners involved in cross-border dispute resolution. Overall, the findings should be of interest to a broad audience, including policymakers, judges, practitioners and scholars.

In the legal areas of contractual claims and tax claims, various requirements exist in EU law and in applicable conventions for the recognition and enforceability of foreign titles of execution, judgments and decisions. Besides the requirements that a foreign title of execution should fall under its particular scope of application, territorial scope, scope of claims, and scope in time, there are often additional requirements and limitations that give rise to possibilities and restrictions, and play an important role in determining the enforceability or non-enforceability of claims. Consequently, an early analysis related to these provisions is a crucial step in assessing the possibility of success or risk of failure. Also, this book focuses on preventive security arrangements and precautionary measures that offer the creditors the widest possible assurance of obtaining an enforceable cross-border title of execution and recovering claims in the event of non-payment by the debtor - all while adhering closely to such guiding principles as efficiency, legal certainty, predictability, and the establishment of a proper balance between the interests of the claimant and the defendant. The author pays close attention to relevant factors as the following: the debtor's privacy interest, the creditor's efficiency interest, legal principles of non-discrimination, proportionality, territoriality, universality, and mutuality; the legal historical background aimed at facilitating an understanding of the developments resulting in the present legal solutions; the role of regulated enforcement and recovery agents; a foreign State's immunity against civil execution measures; recognition and enforceability of titles of execution; grounds of non-recognition or refusal and other obstacles to enforcement or recovery and interim measures; periods of limitation and the enforcement of a contested claim; appeals, costs, repayment and referral provisions to national laws; access to information for enforcement purposes in the international context; the possible alternative to cross-border enforcement of claims, international insolvency. The analysis considers the provisions of applicable EU law and Conventions in the areas of the enforcement of contractual claims, maintenance claims in family matters, the recovery of tax and social security claims and claims related to criminal matters and on insolvency. Case law of the ECHR and the ECJ is drawn on liberally.

How to choose the most beneficial enforcement regime for cross-border claims of a client? A question considerably complicated by (1) the existence of various European Union enforcement tools and (2) particularities in the national legal systems that impact on the operation and suitability of the various enforcement tools. This book compares and analyses the practical utility and potential pitfalls of the 2nd generation regulations (European Enforcement Order, European Order for Payment, European Small Claims Procedure and European Account Preservation Order) and their relation to Brussels Ibis. The work is based on an extensive evaluation of case law (published and unpublished), empirical data and literature from eight Member States (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain) and the Court of Justice of the European Union.

To be enforceable, a foreign judgement needs some kind of ‘passport’ so that it can be given the same treatment as a judgement given at home. This is particularly true of monetary obligations. In Europe, the tension between the need for cross-border portability of such obligations and their enforcement, on the one hand, and sovereign states’ judicial control over enforcement of domestic and foreign judgements, on the other, has been addressed repeatedly by the European Court of Justice and the Commission and Council of the European Communities, most recently through the notion of ‘mutual trust.’ However, despite concerted efforts to establish some harmonization in this area, substantial divergences persist between the Member States’ procedural systems as regards the definition of an enforcement order, the procedures for enforcing judgements and, above all, the status, powers and responsibilities of enforcement officials. This major new exploration of the current status of cross-border enforcement of debts in Europe offers in-depth analysis of the most recent relevant regulation at the European Union level, as well as the default domestic regulation in England and Wales, Germany, France, Italy and Spain- five jurisdictions chosen due to the very thick web of relations they have had with each other as part of the established European order. The author provides detailed consideration of such elements of the legal landscape as the following: minimum standards for uncontested claims procedures; requirements as to service and information to be provided; extended safeguards of the creditor’s position and the rights of the defence; procedure for certification and for enforcement in the Member States of origin and of execution; and application, service and enforcement of a European Order for Payment. In the context of the intense academic and practical debate around what is being called ‘European civil procedure,’ this book contributes signally to the Commission’s stated objective of ensuring ‘as globally as possible a swift, efficient and inexpensive access to justice.’ The author details the procedural measures prescribed by the relevant directives (and their case law so far), and incidentally provides a convenient conduit to the appropriate material on the websites of the European Judicial Network and the Judicial Atlas in each jurisdiction. As lawyers continue, in the absence of ‘mutual trust’, to apply their own historic and philosophical meaning to the ‘harmonized’ procedures – no matter how much this approach is discouraged in the preambles to the regulations and directives – this book greatly illuminates the way forward in a difficult but extremely important area of European law.

It is clear that the current crisis of the EU is not confined to the Eurozone and the EMU, evidenced in its inability to ensure the compliance of Member States to follow the principles and values underlying the integration project in Europe (including the protection of democracy, the Rule of Law, and human rights). This defiance has affected the Union profoundly, and in a multi-faceted assessment of this phenomenon, The Enforcement of EU Law and Values: Ensuring Member States' Compliance, dissects the essence of this crisis, examining its history and offering coping methods for the years to come. Defiance is not a new concept and this volume explores the richness of EU-level and national-level examples of historical defiance – the French Empty Chair policy–, the Luxembourg compromise, and the FPÖ crisis in Austria - and draws on the experience of the US legal system and that of the integration projects on other continents. Building on this legal-political context, the book focuses on the assessment of the adequacy of the enforcement mechanisms whilst learning from EU integration history. Structured in four parts, the volume studies (1) theoretical issues on defiance in the context of multi-layered legal orders, (2) EU mechanisms of acquis and values' enforcement, (3) comparative perspective on law-enforcement in multi-layered legal systems, and (4) case-studies of defiance in the EU.

The volume addresses the enforcement of judgments and other authentic instruments in a European cross-border context, as well as enforcement in a selection of national European jurisdictions.

This comprehensive Research Handbook investigates the success of EU law enforcement processes. Going beyond traditional analyses of administrations and courts in isolation, it focuses on the increased cooperation seen between national and EU authorities, and on the widening variety of means used to enhance compliance with EU norms. Bringing together leading experts from law, political science, economics and socio-legal studies, this Research Handbook provides a state-of-the-art analysis of EU enforcement laws, policies, and scholarship. It presents conceptual, institutional, and sectoral perspectives on EU law enforcement, advancing existing knowledge on why, when, and how laws are being followed or disobeyed. Contributors explore enforcement in specific EU policy areas, including foreign relations, economic policy, the internal market, competitiveness, and citizen rights. It argues that an overarching EU enforcement strategy would be more successful than the current model of diverse methods of enforcement in different policy areas. Employing multi-dimensional and comparative approaches, the Research Handbook on the Enforcement of EU Law will be a valuable resource for scholars of European law and politics, public administration, governance, and compliance. It will also be a useful guide for public officials seeking to (re)design and assess effective and enforceable policies.