1 INTRODUCTION

It has already been explained in the previous chapter that under English procedural law there are two broad types of jurisdiction bases by which the jurisdiction of the court can be invoked on the merits. The one depends merely on service of the proceedings on the defendant, without requiring substantive connecting factors between the claim and the jurisdiction, subject to certain exceptions (see Chapters 3, 4 and 5). The other is known as the ‘convention jurisdiction’ bases, which depends on jurisdiction rules as provided by International Conventions. Examples of International Conventions relating to maritime claims providing jurisdiction are briefly given in this Chapter, while the main emphasis is placed upon the Council Regulation (EC) 44/20011 (‘The Brussels Regulation’) which replaced the Brussels Convention 1968 on Civil Jurisdiction, Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters. It will be shown below how the jurisdiction of the English court may be restricted to determine the merits of a case and how conflict of jurisdictions is resolved by other Convention rules which are applicable to maritime disputes.