European Union Law and International Judicial Cooperation
What is tested
EU law sources and principles, the preliminary reference, and the instruments of judicial cooperation in civil matters - exactly what an exekutor needs when the title or the debtor crosses a border.
Core rules
- Sources: TEU/TFEU and the EU Charter, which applies only within the scope of EU law (Art. 51); regulations are directly applicable, directives require transposition, decisions bind their addressees. Principles: direct effect, primacy, euro-conforming interpretation and state liability for breach of EU law.
- Preliminary ruling: Art. 267 TFEU - any court may ask, a court of last instance must ask; the CJEU interprets, the national court decides the dispute.
- Jurisdiction and recognition in civil matters: Regulation No. 1215/2012 (Brussels I bis) - general jurisdiction at the defendant's domicile, special grounds in Art. 7 (contract: place of performance), lis pendens in Art. 29, and recognition without exequatur; refusal only on Art. 45 grounds.
- Enforcement instruments: European Enforcement Order (805/2004) for uncontested claims, European Order for Payment (1896/2006), European Small Claims Procedure (861/2007), European Account Preservation Order (655/2014), Insolvency Regulation (2015/848), Service Regulation (2020/1784), Taking of Evidence (2020/1783).
- Titles from third states: recognition and enforcement under Act No. 91/2012 Sb. and bilateral treaties; the Hague Apostille Convention replaces legalisation.
Worked example
A German court orders a Czech debtor to pay EUR 40,000. The creditor needs no Czech declaration of enforceability: he attaches the judgment and the certificate under Art. 53 Brussels I bis and files a návrh na nařízení exekuce with a Czech exekutor. The debtor may resist only on Art. 45 grounds such as public policy or defective service; an argument that the German court misread the contract is excluded, because the merits are closed.
Traps
Applying the EU Charter to a purely national dispute; assuming a directive creates obligations directly between private parties; treating recognition as a full review of the foreign judgment; confusing EEO, EOP and ESCP scope.