ABSTRACT
The specific reference to insurance and certain consumer contracts was made in the original version of the Brussels Convention, with the result that they are dealt with under separate provisions. This chapter examines the extent to which protective jurisdiction has been harmonised by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), and addresses prevailing jurisprudence on this area. The ECJ, however, elected to depart from such a standard for individual contracts of employment, applying a fundamentally different criterion. The protective measures set out in the Convention jurisdiction grounds were adopted in order to protect the weaker parties from the socio-economic viewpoint. Whilst the article 5(1) individual contracts of employment provision has the effect of protecting the employee by ascribing jurisdiction generally to the courts for the place of habitual work, the provisions of Sections 3 and 4 tend to encourage actions to be brought on consumers and insured home grounds.
