INTRODUCTION

The enforcement of foreign judgments has always posed problems for transnational commerce, which depends on dispute resolution that is efficient, certain, and final. Countries' varying systems of jurisdiction, public policies, and diverse concepts of civil law often clash with and complicate the ultimate goal of having an effective and even-handed enforcement of judgments regime. In the hopes of facilitating future processes for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, a number of efforts have been made to negotiate multi- or bilateral treaties. Failed U.S. efforts in the late 1970s to achieve some sort of a bilateral treaty were refocused in the early 1990s into negotiating a convention under the auspices of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. Emerging from the Hague Conference was the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments [hereinafter Jurisdiction and Judgments Convention], which was eventually narrowed in scope to the Hague Convention on Exclusive Choice of Court Agreements [hereinafter Choice of Court Convention]. The Choice of Court Convention was finalized on June 30, 2005 at the Hague Conference on Private International Law. This third part of the handbook will track the tortuous development of the Choice of Court Convention, from early U.S. efforts to achieve a similar U.S.-U.K. treaty to the final convention. It will also discuss the difficulties that were encountered while drafting and negotiating the Choice of Court Convention.