Choice of Court Section

The Convention of 30 June 2005 on Choice of Court Agreements (HCCH 2005 Choice of Court Convention) is aimed at ensuring the effectiveness of choice of court agreements (also known as "forum selection clauses") between parties to international commercial transactions. By doing so, the Convention provides greater certainty to businesses engaging in cross-border activities and therefore creates a legal environment more amenable to international trade and investment. This specialised section contains a range of information on the Convention, including its full text, current status and explanatory documents.

Recommended Form:

• Recommended Form (recommended by the 20th Session)

Explanatory documents:

• Outline of the Convention
• Explanatory Report
• Proceedings of the Twentieth Session (2005), Tome III, Choice of Court

Implementation tools:

• Implementation checklist
• Note on the implementation dialogue

Case Law:

Review of operation of the Convention:

• 2019 Questionnaire:
  • Compilation of Responses
  • Summary of the Responses

  News & Events:

  • HCCH a|Bridged 2021: Innovation in Transnational Litigation
  • Denmark declares that the 2005 Convention on Choice of Court Agreements shall not apply to the Faroe Islands and Greenland (19 October 2018)
  • Seminar at the 20th Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law, Fukuoka, Japan (24 July 2018)
  • First case under the Choice of Court Convention
  • Conference "International Symposium hosted by the Doshisha University Research Center for International Transactions and Law", Kyoto (19 December 2015)
  • "EU’s Ratification of the Choice of Court Convention", London (13 November 2015)
  • APEC Workshop on effective enforcement of business contracts and efficient resolution of business disputes through the Hague Choice of Court Agreements Convention (1 September 2015)
  • Choice of Court Convention to enter into force on 1 October 2015 following the approval by the European Union (11 June 2015)
  • Other news & events

  Preparatory work:
  (For an overview of the preparatory work of the Convention, see the Explanatory Report.)

  A complete collection of documents and minutes of discussions relating to the Convention is available in the Proceedings of the Twentieth Session (2005), Tome III, Choice of Court.

  Selection of key documents:

  • 20th Session (June 2005):
    • Final Act
    • The future Convention on exclusive choice of court agreements and arbitration
    • The American instruments on private international law - a paper on their relation to a future Hague Convention on exclusive choice of court agreements
    • Comments on the preliminary draft Convention on exclusive choice of court agreements (+ addendum)
    • Report on the meeting of the Drafting Committee of 18-20 April 2005 in preparation of the Twentieth Session of June 2005
    • Draft on exclusive choice of court agreements (“2004 Draft Convention”)
    • Report on the preliminary draft Convention on exclusive choice of court agreements, drawn up by Trevor C. Hartley and Masato Dogauchi (“Second Report”)
    • Draft on exclusive choice of court agreements (“2003 Draft Convention”)
    • Report on the Preliminary Draft Convention on Choice of Court Agreements, drawn up by Trevor C. Hartley and Masato Dogauchi (“First Report”)
    • Preliminary Result of the Work of the Informal Working Group on the Judgments Project (“Informal Working Group Draft”)
    • Report of the third meeting
    • Report of the second meeting
    • Report of the first meeting
    • Reflection Paper
    • Choice of court agreements in international litigation: their use and legal problems to which they give rise in the context of the interim text
    • Some reflections on the present state of negotiations on the judgments project in the context of the future work programme of the Conference
    • Specialised Section
    • Full text
    • Status table
    • Authorities
    • Preliminary Documents
    • Model Forms
    • HCCH Publications
    • Translations
    • News & events
    • Bibliography