Competing Legal Proceedings Across Jurisdictions

Problems with competing jurisdictions between courts of different states as well as arbitration courts regularly arise in modern civil commerce. Without proper regulation, these disputes create the risk of contradictory judicial acts being handed down, cases becoming more complicated, and a major increase in costs for the parties involved. Particular attention should be paid to managing legal risks in the event of multiple parallel legal proceedings, models for international interaction among courts that are considering interrelated cases, as well as approaches to delineating the purview of courts of different states in interrelated cases. What are some of the key problems associated with identifying parallel legal proceedings, forum shopping, torpedo lawsuits, protection against the abuse of procedural rights, and special aspects of administering a case and executing judicial acts in the event of parallel legal proceedings? What are the most effective approaches developed by the specialized working group on jurisdiction set up by the Hague Conference on Private International Law?