The Gazette 1991

GAZETTE

NOVEMBER 1991

ECJ Revises Rules of Procedure

The Court of Justice of the European Communities, in the interests of clarity and simplicity, and with the intention of establishing a coherent authentic text of its Rules of Pro- cedure, has now revised its rules. The new Rules of Procedure have been set out in the Official Journal of the European Communities (No. L 176/9 of July 4, 1991). Readers may be interested in some of the rules. Before taking up his duties as Judge, a Judge of the Court of Justice takes the following oath: " I swear that I will perform my duties impartially and conscientiously; I swear that I will preserve the secrecy of the deliberations of the court." It is also of interest that im- mediately after taking the oath, a Judge must sign a declaration by which he solemnly undertakes that, both during and after his term of office, he will respect the obligations arising therefrom, and in particular the duty to behave with integrity and discretion as regards the acceptance, after he had ceased to hold office, of certain appointments and benefits. Article 6 of the Rules provides that Judges and Advocates-General shall rank equally in precedence according to their seniority in offica Readers will be interested that the language before the Court of Justice of a case may be in Irish. The language of a case is chosen by the applicant - subject to certain conditions. Articles 32 and 36 of the Rules deal with the rights and obligations of agents, advisers and lawyers appearing before the Court. Agents, advisers and lawyers enjoy certain privileges and facilities. Papers and documents relating to the proceedings are exempt from both search and seizure. In the (Cont'd on p. 318) 315

European Register of Wills? There have been discussions in the media recently about the establishment of a private system for registering wills. This issue has been considered in the European Parliament. Mr. Gerardo Fernandez Albor (PPE) on 15 October, 1990 in a written question to the European Commission, asked whe t her it would be appropriate to set up a single Community information office on wills drawn up by Community citizens owning property in Com- munity countries other than their own, with a view to co-ordinating measures from respective bodies dealing with last wills and testa- ments, and thus to contribute to greater security in real estate transactions and in other trans- actions of a general nature, by improving information access. The Hon. Member stated that the mobility of Community citizens, their resettling in other Community countries and their participation in real estate transactions in their adopted countries meant that they owned property wh i ch was logically among the dispositions in their respective wills. Gerardo Fernandez stated that since, in most cases, these wills were made in the relevant country of origin, although they covered the

property purchased in their adopted country, those involved in the testator's business transactions in their adopted coun t ry were naturally confused as to whether the deceased made a will in his/her country of origin, in the presence of which notary; which body was responsible for co-ordinating this information in the deceased's country of origin; and what guarantees of notarial information they might receive etc. Replying, Mr. Bangemann, on behalf of the Commission, ( Of f i c i a l Journal of the European Com- munities No. C 63/59, 11.3 1991), stated that the matter referred to by the Hon. Member fell within the jurisdiction of the Member States. Mr. Bangemann stated, however, that there was already an instru- ment of international law in this field, namely the Basle Convention of 16 May, 1972 on the establish- ment of a scheme of registration of wills. This was a Council of Europe Convention, which has so far been ratified by France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Luxembourg and Spain among the Community Countries, and by a number of other European countries. Ireland is not yet a party to this Convention.