The Revised Lugano Convention from the Swiss Perspective

The Lugano Convention is a set of rules, enacted to facilitate the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments within the European Union and states outside of the EU, namely three members of the European Free Trade Association (Switzerland, Norway and Iceland). This article briefly describes the Swiss perspective, explaining the Swiss legislation relevant to the revised Lugano Convention, with a particular focus on the newly enacted Swiss Federal Civil Procedure Code on January 1, 2011. Other amendments in the codified law, are also relevant to the application of the revised Lugano Convention because matters related to the recognition and enforcement of judgments have to be applied in connection with the civil procedure law of the lex fori, that is the forum where the lawsuit is pending. These legislative changes are relevant for every party from a signatory state of the revised Lugano Convention which expects to face a lawsuit in Switzerland or wants to avoid a lawsuit there.