Settlement of International conflicts of jurisdiction in private and criminal law. Self-contained areas or is there room for transference in the EU framework?

Alejandro Hernández López / Irene Merino Calle

Keywords

International Private Law; Criminal Procedure Law; European Union Law; conflict of jurisdiction; lis pendens; judicial cooperation.

Abstract

The establishment of grounds of jurisdiction in International Private Law to confer jurisdiction in international private situations to the courts of one State or another is based on the closeness of the legal position to the State whose courts shall decide the dispute.  By contrast, in criminal law, the allocation of jurisdiction, which remains an exclusive competence of the States, is still a time-consuming procedure full of burdens. In this sense, determining which court shall investigate and prosecute a cross-border case highly depends on the rules laid down on up-to 27 national criminal laws. This article aims to highlight the vast differences that between the private and criminal law regimes on conflicts of jurisdiction, to determine whether a convergence point can be observed, in the sense that whether the grounds and competence system used in International Private Law could inspire de lege ferenda proposals on the allocation of jurisdiction and settlement of conflicts in cross-border criminal cases within the European Union.