On July 8th, 2021, the International Union of Judicial Officers hosted an online roundtable on the future of enforcement of claims and cross-border judicial cooperation in the area of e-justice. The event brought together EU-wide enforcement agents, representatives of enforcement authorities, policy makers and experts, who discussed various aspects of cross border judicial enforcement in the EU; and presented the scientific results of the ‘EU Enforcement Atlas’ project.
The roundtable was opened by Marc Schmitz, Enforcement Agent and President of the International Union of Judicial Officers and Dr. Maria Mousmouti, Executive Director of the Centre for European Constitutional Law, who, in turn, welcomed the speakers and all attendees. The project manager, Annie Camarioti, International Projects Department coordinator for the Centre for European Constitutional Law, presented the concept, main goals and scientific outcomes of the EU Enforcement Atlas. Dr. Maria Mousmouti discussed the various Enforcement systems in the context of national and EU judicial systems and what this means for the future of cross-border enforcement. Identified bottlenecks and good practices were further discussed by Jos Uitdehaag, Enforcement Agent and Secretary of the International Union of Judicial Officers. Haris Meidanis, Attorney at Law from Greece, discussed the current status of civil enforcement in the EU and elaborated on the final conclusions reached through the research undertaken in the framework of the ‘Enforcement Atlas’ project.
After a short break, the second session of the roundtable commenced, moderated by Jos Uitdehaag, where the future of judicial cooperation in cross border enforcement in the area of e-justice was discussed. S. van Erp, professor of civil law and European private law at Maastricht University, and President of the International Association of Legal Science, discussed the issue of attachment of digital assets in cross-border enforcement. E-Codex, as a tool for cross border enforcement, was presented by Patrick Gielen, enforcement agent and advisor to the president of the UIHJ; whereas Iva Peni, project manager at the European Bailiffs’ Foundation (EUBF), presented the EU-funded ‘Find a Bailiff’ project, as a tool to facilitate cross border enforcement. The role of the European Judicial Network in Civil and Commercial Matters, and the e-justice Portal as a crucial tool to facilitate cross border enforcement, were elaborated by Marie Vautravers, Secretary of the European Judicial Network in Civil and Commercial Matters. Finally, Ning Zhao, senior legal officer Hague Conference on Private International Law, discussed the role of the Hague Judgment Convention 2019 in cross border enforcement. Participants were able to post questions and share ideas, and one of the main issues that seemed to emerge pertained to the future of enforcement in light of the rapid developments in the field of IT and automations (e.g. block chain, smart contracts and attachment on digital assets).
Jos Uitdehaag concluded the roundtable thanking the speakers and the numerous attendees who joined the online event and prompting everyone to provide their feedback on the project’s scientific outputs through the online questionnaire, available on the project website.
The Roundtable was recorded, you may watch here.