Die Gerichtsstandvereinbarung zwischen ZPO, EuGVVO und HGÜ

For most companies, choice of court agreements are one of the most important legal instruments, with the result that legal certainty and transparency are essential for the functioning of (international) choice of court agreements. This study deals in detail with the legal bases relevant to choice of court agreements and the problems of demarcation that arise with regard to the different constellations of choice of court agreements in international legal relations. The analysis the study conducts shows that with regard to the priority of applying the EU Directive 44/2001 over the German civil procedure code (ZPO), hardly any conceivable area of application for the German ZPO remains. Accordingly, against the background of the results found, the study makes a reform proposal which largely aligns the ZPO with the aforementioned European Directive in order to avoid legal uncertainty and to harmonise the law on choice of court agreements within the European Union.