ABSTRACT
Under the terms of Art 220 of the Treaty of Rome 1957, the six original members1 of the European Economic Community entered into a Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial matters in 1968 (known as the Brussels Convention). The Convention entered into force in 1973 and was supplemented by a Protocol on Interpretation drawn up in 1971 and entering into force in 1975. The original object of the Convention was to provide for the free circulation of judgments within the Community and to this end it was considered necessary to harmonise the rules on jurisdiction. It was felt that there would be no acceptance of the free circulation of judgments unless the courts of one State had confidence in the claims to jurisdiction made by the courts of another Member State.
