Dr. Tobias Lutzi (Universität zu Köln): Extending the Jurisdictional Rules of the Brussels Ia Regulation to Non-EU Defendants – A Project of the EAPIL Young Research Network

About the speaker:
Dr. Tobias Lutzi is one of the chairs of the EAPIL Young Research Project and one of the coordinators of its current research project. He works as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Private International and Comparative Law of the University of Cologne.

About the topic:
The Brussels Ia Regulation is widely recognised as one the most successful legal instruments of judicial cooperation in civil matters. Its jurisdictional rules apply if the defendant is domiciled in an EU Member State or if the court of an EU Member State has special or exclusive jurisdiction pursuant to Articles 18(1), 21(2), 24, or 25. In all other cases, the Regulation defers to the national laws of the Member States pursuant to Article 6(1). Yet, the drafters of the Brussels Ia Regulation clearly anticipated its possible extension. According to its Article 79, the Commission was expected to present a report on the application of the Regulation by 11 January 2022, which “shall include an evaluation of the possible need for a further extension of the rules on jurisdiction to defendants not domiciled in a Member State, taking into account the operation of this Regulation and possible developments at international level.”Against this background, and with the Commission Report unlikely to be published before the end of the year, the EAPIL Young Research Network has conducted a research project, which aimed to identify the similarities and differences between the Member States' national rules on international jurisdiction that would be replaced by the Regulation if it were extended. Shortly before the formal conclusion of the research project, Dr. Tobias Lutzi, one of the coordinators, will present some of its preliminary results.