CIVIL PROCEDURE AND COUNCIL OF EUROPE CONVENTIONS

HL Deb 27 March 1969 vol 300 cc1489-90WA

LORD CHORLEY

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Why The Hague Convention on Civil Procedure of 1954–55 and the Convention on the Establishment of the Council of Europe of 1955–56 have not been ratified by the United Kingdom; and whether these Conventions will be ratified in due course.

LORD CHALFONT

My Lords, the 1954 Hague Civil Procedure Convention has not been ratified by the United Kingdom because it contains a number of provisions, particularly those relating to security for costs and to free legal aid which are incompatible with the existing law of the various parts of the United Kingdom. The provisions of the Convention governing Letters of Request were not satisfactory from the United Kingdom point of view because they would not always enable the evidence obtained in a foreign country for the United Kingdom Court to be subjected to necessary processes of scrutiny, like cross-examination. Moreover, the United Kingdom already has bilateral conventions on the service of process and the taking of evidence with the great majority of the Member States of The Hague Conference. It is therefore not proposed to ratify the above-mentioned Convention in the near future.

Nevertheless, two important matters should be mentioned: first, Articles 1–7 of the 1954 Convention are now superseded by the 1964 Hague Convention on Service Abroad of Judicial and Extra-judicial Documents which was ratified by the United Kingdom in November 1967. Secondly, Articles 8–16 of the 1954 Convention (which govern inter alia Letters of Request) have been overtaken by the Convention on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters adopted at the Eleventh Session of The Hague Conference in October 1968 and which is not open for signature until November 1969. This latter Convention is, on the whole, very much more satisfactory than the 1954 provisions it replaces and the Government is at present studying it before deciding whether the United Kingdom should sign and ratify it.

Her Majesty's Government is at present considering the question of ratifying the Council of Europe Convention on Establishment of Persons at an early date.

House adjourned, for the Easter Recess, at sixteen minutes past nine o'clock.