will also try to look ahead and see what impact in particular the new European Convention, when accepted, may have on European civil procedure. a closer study of these new developments is necessary since, to date, European civil procedure has been developed in a way which is too incidental and without being based on a well-considered basic concept. It becoming increasingly clear that such a basic concept is needed in order to realise a genuine harmonised/uniform European procedural system. I will try to discover whether one can already speak of the emergence of such an independent European law of civil procedure, which distinguishes itself from national civil procedure as well as from international civil procedure. 2. European civil procedure before the Treaty of Amsterdam The increasing economic activities within the European Union have realised a growth in European cross-border transactions. Inherent in this growth is the growth of cross-border conflicts. The variety of laws of civil procedure in Europe has created an already long- existing problem by which effective access to the courts is seriously hampered. The idea to solve this problem by harmonising part of the law of civil procedure has, however, only recently emerged. As a rule, the law of civil procedure was and still is considered to be closely connected to the forum and the forum state with its own cultural and trad itional specific aspects, and therefore not fit for harmonisation. For this reason, even now the forum decides on the rules of civil procedure that will be applied, which is almost always strictly national law. A first successful step towards partial harmonisation of the law of civil procedure within the European Union was made in 1968 by the acceptance of the Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, a convention which was created within the european Community common rules for jurisdiction, recognition and execution of judicial decisions. 9 In spite of the positive effects of this Convention-which were for an important part caused by its uniform interpretation by the Court of Justice in Luxembourg-it was only after 1990 that the harmonisation of civil procedure gained momentum M. Freudenthaland F.J.A. van der Velden, Europees procesrecht van het Verdrag van Amsterdam,in E H. Hondiuset al (eds ) Van Nederlands naar Europees Procesrecht? Liber Amicorum Paul Meijknecht Kluwer 2000, pp. 81-98; see also footnote 40 there B Hess, Der Binnenmarktprozess, JZ1998, pp. 1021-1032 7 At this moment, seventeen different systems of civil procedure exist. The U.K. already hasthree different systems: one in England and Wales, one in Scotland and one in Northem Ireland; see T. Drappatz, Die Uberfuhrung des internationalen Zivilverfahrensrechts in eine Gemeinschaftskompetenz nach art. 65 EGI Max-Planck-Institut, 2002, P 3 K D. Kearmeus, Angleichung des zivilprozessrechts in Europa, Rabelsz, Bd 66, 2002, p 5; CH.van Rhee, Civil Procedure: A European lus Commune?, ERPL, 2000, pp. 589-61 The legal basis is Art. 293(ex Art. 220)of the Treaty establishing the European Community. The EU Convention on Insolvency Proceedings of 23 November 1995 was created using the same legal basis. Because due to the bse crisis, the United Kingdom failed to sign the Convention before the deadline, the Convention never entered into force2 will also try to look ahead and see what impact in particular the new European Convention, when accepted, may have on European civil procedure. A closer study of these new developments is necessary since, to date, European civil procedure has been developed in a way which is too incidental and without being based on a well-considered basic concept. It is becoming increasingly clear that such a basic concept is needed in order to realise a genuine harmonised/uniform European procedural system.5 I will try to discover whether one can already speak of the emergence of such an independent European law of civil procedure, which distinguishes itself from national civil procedure as well as from international civil procedure.6 2. European civil procedure before the Treaty of Amsterdam The increasing economic activities within the European Union have realised a growth in European cross-border transactions. Inherent in this growth is the growth of cross-border conflicts. The variety of laws of civil procedure in Europe has created an already long￾existing problem by which effective access to the courts is seriously hampered.7 The idea to solve this problem by harmonising part of the law of civil procedure has, however, only recently emerged. As a rule, the law of civil procedure was and still is considered to be closely connected to the forum and the forum state with its own cultural and traditional specific aspects, and therefore not fit for harmonisation. For this reason, even now the forum decides on the rules of civil procedure that will be applied,8 which is almost always strictly national law. A first successful step towards partial harmonisation of the law of civil procedure within the European Union was made in 1968 by the acceptance of the Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, a convention which was created within the European Community common rules for jurisdiction, recognition and execution of judicial decisions.9 In spite of the positive effects of this Convention - which were for an important part caused by its uniform interpretation by the Court of Justice in Luxembourg - it was only after 1990 that the harmonisation of civil procedure gained momentum. 5 M. Freudenthal and F.J.A. van der Velden, Europees procesrecht van het Verdrag van Amsterdam, in: E.H. Hondius et al. (eds.), Van Nederlands naar Europees Procesrecht? Liber Amicorum Paul Meijknecht, Kluwer 2000, pp. 81-98; see also footnote 40 there. 6 B. Hess, Der Binnenmarktprozess, JZ 1998, pp. 1021-1032. 7 At this moment, seventeen different systems of civil procedure exist. The U.K. already has three different systems: one in England and Wales, one in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland; see T. Drappatz, Die Überführung des internationalen Zivilverfahrensrechts in eine Gemeinschaftskompetenz nach art. 65 EGV, Max-Planck-Institut, 2002, p. 3. 8 K.D. Kearmeus, Angleichung des Zivilprozessrechts in Europa, RabelsZ, Bd 66, 2002, p. 5; C.H. van Rhee, Civil Procedure: A European Ius Commune?, ERPL, 2000, pp. 589-611. 9 The legal basis is Art. 293 (ex Art. 220) of the Treaty establishing the European Community. The EU Convention on Insolvency Proceedings of 23 November 1995 was created using the same legal basis. Because, due to the BSE crisis, the United Kingdom failed to sign the Convention before the deadline, the Convention never entered into force