Service by email across borders: when does the Hague Service Convention apply? Jennifer Brockington-Belli & Lucy Taylor report
- Explores when proceedings can validly be served by email in cross-border family cases, examining the interaction between the Hague Service Convention, the Family Procedure Rules and Swiss procedural law.
- Highlights the strategic and enforcement risks of relying on email service overseas, stressing the importance of complying with local legal requirements to ensure judgments can be recognised and enforced internationally.
International families increasingly live, work and hold assets across multiple jurisdictions. As a result, family lawyers are now regularly dealing with proceedings in which parties, children and evidence are spread across borders. One issue that continues to create procedural difficulty is how documents should be properly served abroad.
The growth of digital communication has inevitably prompted litigants and practitioners to ask whether formal legal service can be effected by email. The question appears straightforward. In practice, however, it raises a complex interaction between domestic procedural rules, international conventions and foreign national law.
This issue becomes particularly acute where the recipient
