MEP who is keyed into defusing disputes

INTERVIEW: Solicitor aims to resolve 'jurisdiction nightmare' of e-commerce

It may seem an unlikely claim, but solicitor MEP Diana Wallis has a long and now influential association with the Brussels Convention which is pushing her into the spotlight.

Despite a punishing parliamentary timetable split between Brussels and Strasbourg, Ms Wallis retains her keen desire to bring the Convention - which deals with jurisdiction and enforcement of cross-border civil judgments - up to date and make it more user-friendly.

Since her election last year, Ms Wallis has steered a complex and highly sensitive report - dealing with jurisdictional disputes in e-commerce transactions - through the European Parliament (see [2000] Gazette, 7 September, 6).

Although the proposed legislation from the Parliament will see e-traders bound by consumers' jurisdictions in the last resort of litigation, more emphasis will be put on encouraging both consumers and traders to abide by alternative dispute resolution in the first instance.

Ms Wallis says many well-known companies lobbied her on the e-commerce report.

'I was lobbied by big players who could see the potential problems for their businesses,' she says.

With little time to draw breath, Ms Wallis has moved on to her next task.

She is now preparing a report on developing a clearing house for cross-border disputes and introducing on-line and off-line alternative dispute resolution for small claims.

'The whole area of cross-border jurisdiction is a nightmare.

It is hard to see how it's going to work when people are so used to dealing with the box of their own jurisdictions and e-commerce cuts right across that,' she says.

Although the move from assistant solicitor with Hull-based Rollit Farrell & Bladon to Liberal Democrat MEP may seem a big leap, Ms Wallis has spent many years treading her path towards her current appointment.

She gained her first taste of European law when she was awarded a stage (work placement) at the European Commission by the UK and Belgium governments at the end of her Law Society Finals in 1982.

After that she developed her expertise in cross-border litigation at London firm Born-Reid & Co.

She says she can remember when the Brussels Convention first came into English law.

'I thought this is good, at last I will be able to litigate cross-border.

I soon found there was a lack of knowledge about it amongst colleagues and judges...

It is still a complex and specialised area which is not much help to the average European citizen.'

Ms Wallis says that despite the busy workload, she would like to stand again when her initial tenure ends in 2004.

She adds: 'If anyone thinks the European Union is not important, they should see the amount of correspondence I get.'