在不便利法庭原則與特別情事原則之間――以台塑越南鋼鐵案為契機

Between Forum Non Conveniens and the Special Circumstances Doctrine: Taking Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Case as a Starting Point

在涉外民事案件中，當受訴法院依該國管轄規則原則上具有國際裁判管轄時，得否斟酌個案情事，依裁量拒絕行使裁判管轄？就此問題，各國所採見解並不一致。歐陸法系國家一般不承認法院在個案中具有例外否定國際裁判管轄的裁量權。相對而言，英美法的「不便利法庭原則（forum non conveniens）」及日本法的「特別情事原則」，均允許法院基於個案情事拒絕行使裁判管轄。我國學說向來對此二個案法理均有相當豐富的研究，但兩者的具體差異究竟為何，仍有諸多不明之處。我國法院實務在廣受矚目的台塑越南鋼鐵案中，第二審台灣高等法院108年抗字第1466號民事裁定，以由我國法院行使國際裁判管轄，「實難期於當事人間得進行實質公平、妥適、迅速經濟之訴訟程序」為由否定我國的國際裁判管轄。惟在該案中，部分被告在我國有住所或主事務所，此時法院得否基於個案情事拒絕行使裁判管轄？實存有重大疑問。此外，該裁定將準據法（越南法）的適用困難作為否定國際裁判管轄的理由之一，惟在國際裁判管轄的判斷上得否將準據法的適用困難作為考量因素？亦有疑問。此二議題，恰巧涉及美國不便利法庭原則與日本特別情事原則的根本差異。有鑑於此，本文針對此二重要議題進行比較法研究。

In foreign civil cases, when a court has international jurisdiction under the jurisdictional rules of that country, is it possible to deny international jurisdiction at its discretion? There are different views on this issue. Civil law countries generally do not recognize the court’s discretion to deny international jurisdiction. In contrast,“forum non conveniens”doctrine of common law countries and“special circumstances doctrine”in Japanese law allow courts to deny international jurisdiction on the basis of the circumstances of a case. Both doctrines have been widely researched in Taiwan, but there is still much uncertainty as to the specific differences between the two. In the highly publicized Formosa Ha Tinh Steel case, the Taiwan High Court ruled in No. 1466, 2019, that the exercise of international jurisdiction by the Taiwanese court“makes it difficult to expect substantial, fair, proper, and expeditious proceedings between the parties”and denied international jurisdiction. However, in that case, some of the defendants had their domicile or principal office in Taiwan. Can the court deny jurisdiction over the domicile of the defendants based on the circumstances of each case? Moreover, the decision cited the difficulty of applying the governing law (Vietnamese law) as one of the reasons for denying international jurisdiction, but should the difficulty of applying the governing law be a factor in determining international jurisdiction? These two issues are related to the profound differences between the U.S. forum non conveniens doctrine and the Japanese special circumstances doctrine. In view of this, this project intends to conduct a comparative study of these two important issues.