Hague Choice of Court Convention Enters Into Force

The Hague Choice of Court Convention entered into force in 28 States (Mexico and all Members of the European Union, except Denmark) on October 1, 2015. This results from Mexico's accession to the Convention in 2007 and the recent approval of the Convention by the European Union as a regional organization able to bind its member states.

The United States and Singapore have signed the Choice of Court Convention but have not yet ratified it. The entry into force for the Convention should encourage other States that are considering joining it.

The Convention has been designed to provide more legal certainty and predictability in relation to choice of court agreements between parties to international commercial contracts.

The Convention essentially allows three things.

• First, it allows parties to a contract to pick a court that is not necessarily the site of a buyer or a seller in a contract.
• Second, it gives exclusive jurisdiction to the court chosen; other courts must decline jurisdiction.
• And third, the judgment rendered by the chosen court must be recognized and enforced in other Contracting States.

As judges, practitioners, and other key players within the international legal community recognize, the application of the Choice of Court Convention will deliver adequate responses to the increasingly pressing need in international transactions for enforceable choice of court agreements and their resulting judgments.

And now that the Convention has entered into force, the United States should ratify the Hague Choice of Convention.

Click here for more information about the Hague Choice of Court Convention.

Click here for the text of the Hague Choice of Court Convention.

(mew)(adapted in part from a press release from the Hague Conference on Private International Law)