La litispendenza in materia di controversie matrimoniali nello spazio giudiziario europeo

The article analyses the critical aspects of the rules on lis alibi pendes contained in the Brussels II-bis Regulation (No. 2201/2003) for proceedings concerning divorce, legal separation and marriage annulment. The purpose of these rules is to prevent parallel proceedings and to avoid conflicting decisions within the European Area of Justice. However, their application in a system providing for a range of alternative fora among which the plaintiff might choose to introduce his or her action, might induce spouses to rush into seising one of the courts having jurisdiction in order to secure advantages of the substantive divorce law applicable under the private international law rules used by the court seised. After having discussed some interesting clarifications provided by the recent case-law of the European Court of Justice, the Brussels II-ter Regulation (No. 2019/1111) has been considered in order to assess whether the reform might be deemed suitable to mitigate the above mentioned distorting effects deriving from the rules on lis alibi pendens for proceedings concerning matrimonial matters.