Title: Exclusive jurisdiction vs. forum shopping in European Nuclear Liability Law

Authors: Jakub Handrlica

Addresses: Department of Administrative Law and Administrative Science, Law Faculty, Charles University in Prague, Nam. Curieovych 7, CZ – 116 40 Prague 1, Czech Republic

Abstract: Obviously, two rather contradictory principles regarding the jurisdiction are currently in force in the European Union. On one hand, the international nuclear liability conventions clearly follow the provisions of liability channelling and concentrate all proceedings to one court. On the other hand, the Brussels I. Regulation obviously prefers to make the plaintiff possible to choose between submitting his claims to the court in the country where incident occurred and to the court in his home country. This paper aims to identify interfaces between these two contradictory principles with special attention to the possibility to enforce the judgements issued by courts of non-convention states (i.e., Austria, Ireland, and Luxembourg) in those member countries, which are contracting parties either to the Paris or to the Vienna Convention.

Keywords: nuclear liability; Paris Convention 1960; Joint Protocol 1988; Brussels Regulation; exclusive jurisdiction; forum shopping; judgement enforcement; Vienna Convention 1963; European Union; EU; non-convention states.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNUCL.2010.037552

International Journal of Nuclear Law, 2010 Vol.3 No.2, pp.96 - 111

Published online: 16 Dec 2010 *

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