Enforcement and enforceability of court settlements in the European Union

english

2025

volume 17, issue 2

Brussels I Recast   court settlements   cross-border enforcement   European Union   private international law

Univerza v Mariboru, Pravna fakulteta
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

Court settlements, as instruments of amicable dispute resolution, represent a flexible procedural tool that also serves as an enforcement title document. As such, these instruments are known in all of the Member States of the European Union (EU) and are included under the rules of EU’s private international law regulations, which offer a legal basis for their cross-border enforcement. However, challenges persist due to varying regulation and understanding of court settlements at the national level, as well as due to the ambiguities in the EU’s cross-border enforcement rules, leading to potential misinterpretations in practice. Thus, this paper firstly aims to explore what exactly constitutes a ‘court settlement’, both at the national and at the EU level. Based on this definition, it then examines the EU regulatory framework, specifically within the selected EU regulations, to assess whether further improvements are necessary. The answers to the research questions are found through case law analysis, exploration of academic literature, and particularly on the basis of the relevant provisions of the EU regulations that were selected for this research.

29.12.2025