19.01 Introduction

We have seen that the provisions for dealing with lis pendens in another Lugano State, set out in Articles 27 to 30, tell the court seised when it must, or may, take account of proceedings in another Lugano State. It makes no provision for lis pendens in a non-Lugano State, for example, for the elementary reason that the parties to the Convention could not, any more than could the European Union in making Regulations, direct a court in a non-Lugano state to hear, or to not hear, or to stay, a case brought before it. The Convention could do what it did because the states to which it applied were legislating wholly within, and to direct the conduct of proceedings wholly within, their collective territory. The absence of reference to lis pendens in a non-Lugano State is not a failure, or a gap, or any such thing. It is an acknowledgment of the proper limits of legislative power.