《海牙判決公約》聲明法律問題與中國因應

The Legal Issues of the Declarations in Hague Judgments Convention and China's Response

主權國家或國際組織對國際條約提出保留或者聲明，是該國際法主體在條約法下享有締約能力與締約自由的結果。在法律性質上，條約保留屬一種國家單方法律行為，不具有排他性法律效果的條約聲明是國家契約行為。根據“附條件的主觀標準”區分條約保留與解釋性聲明，《海牙判決公約》第14條第3款“訴訟費用擔保”、第17條“限制承認與執行”、第19條“與國家相關判決”、第25條“非單一法律制度”以及第27條“不含成員作為締約方的區域經濟一體化組織”的聲明條款屬解釋性條約聲明，第18條“特定事項”屬具有保留性質的條約聲明。《海牙判決公約》的聲明條款背後是成員基於國家利益的多次博弈。基於我國在《海牙判決公約》談判中所持立場以及國內現行法，我國應利用好《海牙判決公約》的聲明機制：一方面，我國可以考慮根據《海牙判決公約》第18條的專屬管轄事項提出保留；另一方面，還可以根據第17條對不具有涉外因素的純國內案件以及第25條關於該公約在多法域國家適用的問題提出解釋性聲明。

The reservation or declaration made by a State or international organization to an international treaty is the result of the ability and freedom to conclude treaties entitled by the subject of international law under treaty law. In terms of legal nature, a treaty reservation is a unilateral legal act of a State, while a treaty declaration without exclusive legal effects is a contractual act of a State. Based on“conditional subjective standard”to distinguish between treaty reservations and interpretative declarations, Article 14.3 of the Hague Judgments Convention,“Security for costs of proceedings”, Article 17“Declarations limiting recognition and enforcement”, Article 19“Declarations with respect to judgments pertaining to a State”, Article 25“Declarations with respect to non-unified legal systems”and Article 27“Declarations of REIO as a Contracting Party without its Member States”belong to the nature of interpretative declaration, while Article 18“Declarations with respect to specific matters”is a treaty reservation in nature. Behind the declaration clauses of the Hague Judgments Convention are battles between member States based on national interests. Based on China’s position in the negotiation of the convention and existing domestic laws, China should make good use of the declaration mechanism of the Hague Judgments Convention. On the one hand, China may consider making reservations for its exclusive jurisdiction in accordance with Article 18 of the Convention; on the other hand, China could also make interpretative declarations for purely domestic cases without foreign-related elements according to Article 17 and the application of the Convention to the country which has multi jurisdictions in accordance with Article 25.