Lis alibi pendens
Files
Description
Lis alibi pendens (meaning ‘dispute elsewhere pending’, and more commonly shortened to ‘lis pendens’) is a legal rule that allows a court to refuse to exercise jurisdiction when there is parallel litigation already pending in another forum. In some versions of the principle, notably in the EU (per the Brussels Convention (Brussels Convention of 27 September 1968 on jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, [1972] OJ L 299/32, consolidated version, [1998] OJ C 27/1), the Brussels I Regulation (Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, [2001] OJ L 12/1) and the Brussels I Regulation (recast) (Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (recast), [2012] OJ L 351/1) (→ Brussels I (Convention and Regulation))), lis pendens operates as a strict ‘first in time’ rule; in that version, once a forum is seized of an action, a court that is subsequently seized of a parallel case must stay its jurisdiction until the court first seized determines it has jurisdiction over the parties and cause of action, at which point the second court must dismiss the action. In cases not covered the Convention and Regulation, most civil law countries give the judge discretion to decline jurisdiction where the priority condition of lis pendens is met. The lis pendens rule can also encompass related cases rather than just the ‘same case’, and in such situations, courts are generally given discretion to stay or dismiss the action. Common law countries generally have not adopted a formal lis pendens rule but incorporate the fact of a prior pending action into their application of the related doctrine of → forum non conveniens.
Source Publication
Encyclopedia of Private International Law
Source Editors/Authors
Jürgen Basedow, Giesela Rühl, Franco Ferrari, Pedro de Miguel Asensio
Publication Date
2017
Volume Number
2: Entries I-Z
Recommended Citation
Silberman, Linda J., "Lis alibi pendens" (2017). Faculty Chapters. 1419.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1419
