Study on Foreign Law and its Perspectives for the Future at the European level

La Dirección General de Justicia de la Unión Europea ha publicado un interesante documento elaborado por el Institut suisse de droit comparé. Se trata del estudio titulado The Application of Foreign Law in Civil Matters in the EU Member States and its Perspectives for the Future.

El documento consta de tres partes. La primera, titulada "Legal Analysis", analiza el tratamiento que el tema recibe en cada uno de los Estados miembros, distinguiendo las siguientes cuestiones:

• The Binding Force of the Conflict of Law Rules
• Foreign Law Ascertainment
• Failure of Determination of Foreign Law
• The Control of Correct Application of Foreign Law
• Application of Foreign Law by Non-Judicial Authorities

En la segunda parte ("Empirical Analysis") se aborda el tema en cada Estado miembro en atención a los siguientes puntos:

• Frequency of Resort to Foreign Law
• Treatment of Foreign Law in Practice
• Access to Information on Foreign Law

Finalmente, en la tercera parte ("Recommendations") se contienen las conclusiones generales del estudio, presentadas en torno a las siguientes cuestiones:

• The scope of any European Union initiative
• The introduction of foreign law into legal proceedings, referring essentially to the manner in which the applicability of foreign law is determined
• The establishment of the substance of the applicable foreign law
• The consequences of impossibility of establishment of that substance
• Review by superior instances of the correct application of foreign law and
• The most appropriate approach to these issues when choice of law rules, as well as the foreign laws which they designate as being applicable, fall to be applied by a non-judicial authority.

Agradezco la información al Profesor Andrés Rodríguez Benot (Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla).