Studi e pubblicazioni della Rivista di diritto internazionale privato e processuale

This paper deals with one of the general problems raised by the European private international law with regard to relations with the outer world, i.e. concurrent proceedings in third States. It focuses on three issues. The first and most important issue is whether the courts of member States are allowed to stay proceedings or to decline jurisdiction in favour of the courts of non-member States before which similar cases are pending. Indeed, in many cases linked to third countries jurisdiction upon courts of member States is conferred by EC law, which however does not deal with the issue of lis pendens in third States. The seised court has then to apply its own rules, but the question arises as to whether they are consistent with the EC jurisdiction regime. It is submitted that, with some exceptions, national rules at stakes are compatible with the European regime, as regards both civil and commercial matters and family and succession matters. The second addressed issue concerns the “intra-Community effects” of lis pendens in third countries: were courts of another member State to be seised, would they apply EC provisions on lis pendens, thus staying their proceedings in favour of the EU court already seised, or would instead they apply their national mechanisms on parallel proceedings vis-à-vis the non-EU courts? Finally, in the light of the far from simple current state of law, the author pleads for enacting EC rules directly dealing with the issues at stake