Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters — Scope — Civil and commercial matters — Concept of civil and commercial matters — Action brought by the State for the enforcement of a guarantee contract entered into in order to satisfy a condition imposed by a third party contractor — Included — Conditions — Concept of customs matters — Action brought by the State for the enforcement of a guarantee contract intended to guarantee the payment of a customs debt — Excluded — Criteria — (Brussels Convention of 27 September 1968, Art. 1, first para.)

Summary

The first paragraph of Article 1 of the Convention of 27 September 1968 on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters as amended by the Convention of 9 October 1978 on the Accession of the Kingdom of Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), by the Convention of 25 October 1982 on the Accession of the Hellenic Republic and by the Convention of 26 May 1989 on the Accession of the Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic must be interpreted as follows:

─ "civil and commercial matters" , within the meaning of the first sentence of that provision, covers a claim by which a Contracting State seeks to enforce against a person governed by private law a private-law guarantee contract which was concluded in order to enable a third person to supply a guarantee required and defined by that State, in so far as the legal relationship between the creditor and the guarantor, under the guarantee contract, does not entail the exercise by the State of powers going beyond those existing under the rules applicable to relations between private individuals;

─ "customs matters" , within the meaning of the second sentence of that provision, does not cover a claim by which a Contracting State seeks to enforce a guarantee contract intended to guarantee the payment of a customs debt, where the legal relationship between the State and the guarantor, under that contract, does not entail the exercise by the State of powers going beyond those existing under the rules applicable to relations between private individuals, even if the guarantor may raise pleas in defence which necessitate an investigation into the existence and content of the customs debt.

see paras 36, 44, operative part