7 THE ITALIAN LAW JOURNAL NO. 1 (2021) State Immunity and European Civil Procedural Law – Remarks on the Judgment of the CJEU of 7 May 2020, C-641/18, LG v Rina SpA and Ente Registro Italiano Navale by Bartosz Wołodkiewicz In European procedural law, the existence of jurisdiction implies that a case must be heard by a court, which may be in collision with the obligation to decline jurisdiction when the defendant relies on state immunity. In its recent judgment of 7 May 2020, C-641/18, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on the relationship between state immunity and the exercise of jurisdiction resulting from the Brussels I Regulation. The ruling is noteworthy for a number of reasons. Its significance for the development of international law in the sphere of state immunity has already been noted in the literature. This paper analyses the consequences of the judgment for European civil procedural law by way of addressing two specific issues. The first one is a question about the relationship between state immunity and the concept of ‘civil and commercial matters’ which sets out the scope of the Brussels I Regulation. The second one is a question about the influence of state immunity on the exercise of jurisdiction granted by the Brussels I Regulation. Answering these questions will make it possible to determine the relationship between state immunity and the European civil procedural law. DOI 10.23815/2421-2156.ITALJ ISSN 2421-2156
