INTRODUCTION

There are probably few things more intertwined with Arthur von Mehren's life and work than his intellectual leadership relating to the Hague Conference on Private International Law's efforts to create a global convention covering the jurisdiction and enforcement of judgments. After years of hard labor, on June 30, 2005, such efforts finally culminated in the adoption of the Convention on Choice of Court Agreements. The Convention, which bears Arthur's actual signature, implemented, albeit not as broadly as originally intended, much of what Arthur believed to be essential goals, first and foremost, international cooperation and harmonization. The Convention has therefore been rightly characterized as Arthur's final legacy and his “baby.”

The adoption of the Hague Convention concluded a process that commenced more than a decade earlier and that was originally designed to create a comprehensive worldwide convention on the jurisdiction and recognition and the enforcement of foreign judgments. However, it soon became obvious that this goal would be difficult to achieve, largely due to the clash between common law and civil law concepts and ideas. Although the U.S. delegation to the Hague Conference, in particular, had always advocated a “mixed-convention” format, that is, a convention providing for required, prohibited, and permitted bases of jurisdiction to adjudicate, most European delegates preferred a double convention that provided only for required and prohibited bases for jurisdiction and that did not leave open any “gray” areas that a court in a member state could choose to rely on.