Elisabetta Silvestri, 

Associate Professor of the Department of Italian Civil Procedure and 

Comparative Civil Procedure of the Faculty of Law of the University of Pavia (Italy) 

This article examines the convergence of institutions of the European Union in the area of civil procedure and its development over the years. The issue of harmonisation of procedural systems of Member States is complex and one of the most sensitive, as civil procedure is closely connected with the legal culture and traditions of the each nation. For a long time the activities of institutions of the European Union focused on how to ensure the free circulation of people, goods, services and capital within the Union space, i.e. between Member States. Essentially, this goal was achieved through the adoption of various normative acts (regulations and directives) in the field of substantive law. Procedural law remained in the background and was mainly attributed to discretionary powers of Member States’ legislation. At the moment the lack of public initiatives to create the draft of the unified civil procedure code of the Union is worth to consider the joint project of the European Law Institute (ELI) and UNIDROIT on the preparation of basic principles that will underlie the future set of European civil procedure rules and must be approved by relevant authorities of the European Union.

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Information about the author:

Elisabetta Silvestri (Pavia, Italy) – Associate Professor of the Department of Italian Civil Procedure and Comparative Civil Procedure of the Faculty of Law of the University of Pavia (Italy) (Strada Nuova 65, I-27100, Pavia; е-mail: [email protected]).