aperçu des réponses au questionnaire accompagnant la ... - HCCH

Question Réponse / Reply État / State
6.2. Develop. re “in
civil or commercial
matters”?
[F] Oui, la Convention a récemment fait l'objet de jurisprudence pour la première fois au Québec.
[E] Yes, the Convention has recently been the subject of judicial decisions for the first time in Quebec.
Since 1992 there has been a significant increase in requests for service of non-judicial documents, the
litigation character of which appears to be questionable. However, the Irish Central Authority has not yet declined to
serve on the basis of the doubts aforesaid.
No / Non
Portugal : No. Our Courts tend to follow the interpretation of the European Court of Justice on the concept of civil
and commercial matters under the Convention of 27 September 1968 on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of
Judgements in Civil and Commercial Matters (“Brussels Convention”).
[…] In the legal system of the MSAR, the difficulties that arise in other countries do not exist, as the only matters
that are excluded from the phrase “civil and commercial matters” are administrative matters.
Some States do not execute requests in cases, which they define as administrative and not included in “civil and
commercial matters”.
The phrase "in civil or commercial matters" may give rise to some difficulties in interpretation of its scope because
the interpretation of the phrase may differ between a requesting State and a requested State. A typical
example of this divergence can be seen in the question whether or not the documents of administrative cases
should be within its scope of the phrase. We understand that each State shall have authority to interpret it
autonomously. However it is necessary and beneficial to know the interpretation of the phrase and the practical
operation in each State. Where the interpretation of such phrase becomes a point of issue in the civil case in Japan,
a court seized interprets it autonomously.
L’expression “en matière civile et commerciale” utilisée par ce bureau indique la notification de tous les actes, à
l’exclusion des actes en matière pénale et administrative.
The Spanish Central Authority adopts a fairly broad approach to this concept, and is ready to accept requests for
service of documents under the Service Convention that relate to almost anything except criminal offences. In
this respect, service has been granted for judicial documents pertaining to the labour and administrative branch
of our jurisdiction.
We have encountered one particular problem with the scope in relation to one country´s authorities (France) who
tried to serve documents in administrative matters (orders for fines) on the basis of the Convention. Even in this
case, we do not think this was a problem with the interpretation of the scope, but rather finding a way to serve
documents in situations where there is no other international instrument. Slovak courts do not seem to have
difficulties with the scope “civil and commercial” matters and it has always been interpreted widely (including
family law, succession, labour law matters as well). The only area of “uneasiness” are cases of presumably
administrative law decided by foreign (administrative) courts (we had cases with Germany), where sometimes for
us as a requested country is difficult to assess whether the case does or does not fall under the scope. But even in
such margin cases we provide the requested assistance, though we advise the Slovak courts that they cannot
Suisse, Ukraine
Canada (Québec)
Irlande
Bélarus, Bulgarie
(depuis 2000), Canada,
Chine, Chine
(Hongkong),
Danemark, Etats-Unis,
France, Finlande,
Irlande, Luxembourg
(absence de jurispr.),
Norvège, Pays-Bas,
Portugal, Suisse,
Ukraine
Chine (Macao)
Suède
Japon
Italie
Espagne
Rép. Slovaque
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