Recognition and Res Judicata of US Class Action Judgments in European Legal Systems

Andrea Pinna (Erasmus University Rotterdam) has posted “Recognition and Res Judicata of U.S. Class Action Judgments in European Legal Systems” on SSRN. The abstract reads:

Class actions are still a specificity of the U.S. law and allow individual plaintiffs to represent a group of others in a similar situation in a claim against a same defendant. Recently, transnational class actions, either against a foreign defendant or including foreign class members, have become popular. The author addresses the issue of the possibility of bringing such claims involving parties that are resident of a European country.

United States that are traditionally known for the extraterritorial application of their laws and by easily retaining jurisdiction of their courts try to coordinate the legal systems involved by being concerned with the possibility of recognition in a foreign country of class action judgments. Therefore, the original question of the recognition and the Res Judicata effect of these judgments in European countries that do not know similar collective judicial procedures needs to be addressed.

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