European lawBy Paul Niekirk, barristerCivil and commercial judgmentsThe Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (1968), which has been incorporated into English law by the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1972, is to be superseded by Regulation (EC) 44/2001 (OJ L 12, 16 January 2001, pp 1-23).The regulation will be directly applicable, and will come into operation on 1 March 2002.

The revisions effected to the Brussels Convention and the parallel Lugano Convention (relating to the same subject matter but effective as between EC member states and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) states) have been carried over into the text of the regulation, the provisions of which should accordingly be familiar to practitioners.

The regulation will be applicable in the UK and Ireland, but not in Denmark (the Brussels Convention will continue to apply as between Denmark and the other EC member states, and in relation to certain territories mentioned in article 299 EC).

The regulation will not apply in relation to matters concerning legal status or capacity of individuals, property rights arising out of matrimony, wills and succession, bankruptcy, corporate insolvency, judicial arrangements, compositions, etc, social security and arbitration (article 1).

Jurisdiction is covered in chapter II (articles 2 to 31), the recognition and enforcement of judgments is covered in chapter III (articles 32 to 56), execution in chapter IV (articles 57 and 58), and general provisions on domicile are covered in articles 59 to 61.

The regulation will only apply to proceedings instituted after its entry into force, but judgments delivered after that date in respect of such proceedings will be recognised and enforced under chapter III of the regulation.Competition lawGuidelines have been published on the applicability of the EC competition rules (article 81 EC) to horizontal co-operation agreements (OJ C 3, 6 January 2001, pages 2 to 39).Co-operation agreements are said to be of a horizontal nature if they are entered into by companies operating at the same level(s) in the market, that is to say, agreements between competitors.

The purpose of the guidelines is stated to be the provision of an analytical framework for the most common types of such agreements.

They complement the provisions of the current block exemptions regulations on research and development and on specialisation, and supersede earlier notices issued by the commission.The guidelines apply to the provision of both goods and services, but they do not apply in the fields of agriculture, insurance and transport (where sector-specific rules apply), nor to operations falling within the scope of the Merger Regulation.

Separate consideration is given to agreements covering research and development, production agreements (including specialisation agreements), purchasing agreements, commercialisation agreements (such as agreements providing for co-operation between competitors in selling, distribution or promotion), agreements on standards, and agreements relating to the environment (for example, pollution abatement).Drink and driving offencesThe commission has published a draft recommendation that member states should apply a uniform blood alcohol limit of 50mg alcohol per 100ml blood (it is only this country, Ireland, Italy and Luxembourg that currently have a higher threshold); learner drivers, drivers who have held licences for less than two years, and drivers of heavy goods vehicles and buses should be subject to a lower limit (20mg alcohol per 100ml blood); and that random testing of drivers should be introduced.

(The Week in Europe, 25 January 2001)