Judicial Discretion in European Law on Conflicts of Jurisdiction by Jacco Bomhoff

Do you believe in angels ? We were skeptical, quite frankly, until one appeared and placed a copy of "Judicial Discretion in European Law on Conflicts of Jurisdiction" by none other than Jacco Bomhoff. Yes, that Jacco Bomhoff of Comparative law blog.

And what a terrific monograph it is too. It goes right to the heart of one of the most interesting and difficult problems in modern European conflicts of jurisdiction : How to reconcile the principles of certainty and predictability with an efficient and just allocation of judicial resources in individual cases ?

The Brussels Convention and Regulation 44/2001 endeavor to create a fairly predictable and uniform set of rules for determining the competent jurisdiction in civil and commercial disputes in the EC. It does so by limiting the possible number of competent fora in any given case and having relatively strict rules on lis pendens. Mechanisms such as forum non conveniens (see Case C-281/02 Owusu) or anti-suit injunctions (see Case C-159/02 Turner v. Grovit have no place in that scheme of things. The result is a rigid system.

Jacco Bomhoff's beautifully researched monograph explains and evaluates the system created. It then examines how national jurisdictions have coped and in some cases worked around the rigid set of rules imposed on them. It's comparative law as it should be.

Although actually a little under 100 pages long, the book is packed full of insight and ideas. It is well written too.

The only problem is that the book is difficult to get hold of (unless a serendipitous angel comes your way). A search through the Dutch publisher's online catalogue yielded no result. Probably the best is to email the publisher at [email protected] and quote ISBN 9054094923. If you manage to find a copy, you'll be really pleased when you read it.

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