| Popis: |
Before the coming into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, the cooperation in civil and judicial matters was realized under the institutional framework of the third pillar and particularly via the classical type of international conventions/ treaties concluded between the Member States. Article 65 of the Treaty of Amsterdam transferred part of the cooperation in civil and judicial matters from the third to the first pillar, which consequently led to the adoption of first pillar legal instruments in this field. In the current article, we aim at drawing the present picture of external competences of the European Community and the Member States regarding the cooperation in civil and judicial matters among themselves, but most importantly with third non-Member States. The case law of the European Court of Justice has established certain criteria regarding the exclusive character of the external competences of the Community. For the moment, however, the solutions adopted by the Community organs in the area of cooperation in civil and judicial matters from the point of view of external competences seem to be frequently inconsistent. The perspective of an international convention, a multinational instrument dealing with matters of civil and judicial cooperation just like secondary EC law highlights the perplexity of the questions concerning the sharing of competences between the Member States and the Community. In this new — apparently vague — legal environment, the definition of the role and significance of classical private international law rules needs to be systematically elaborated. |
