Is private international law due to meet
its Waterloo? asks Richard Frimston
From 14 November 2007 Eurostar trains from Brussels Midi will no longer arrive at Waterloo, but terminate instead at St Pancras International. With similar ineluctability, the EU white paper—Succession and Wills (Brussels IV) will arrive in 2008 and probably be in force by 2011. Parliament and the Civil Service in England are still attempting to argue that it should never have set off in the first place.
The European Commission has always encouraged the free movement of goods, services and people, and thus mobility of European citizens. In 1999, European ministers agreed that mutual recognition of judicial decisions was one of their three priorities for action and it is now the cornerstone of judicial co-operation in both civil and criminal matters.
Franco Frattini, vice president of the Commission and responsible for justice, freedom and security, said in a press release in February 2005:
“In a Europe without internal frontiers where individuals are free to travel and settle where they wish, buy goods in different countries, contract marriages or similar partnerships, and
