Actio Pauliana Outside Bankruptcy and the Brussels Convention

Abstract

It was Bert Voskuil, ten years ago when on a research semester at the Law Faculty of Uppsala University, who first introduced me to Dutch law, in Sweden a far too neglected area of comparative research. After a number of discussions or rather explanatory remarks from Bert Voskuil's side on the concept of levering (traditio), which was then my primary topic of interest, he also mentioned the important role in Dutch law of the actio Pauliana. I looked quite bewildered, since outside bankruptcy, this institution is, strangely enough, unknown in Scandinavian law. It caught my interest, and in a later work I made an effort to present it to the Swedish legal audience. Sweden is still outside the Community and barred from cooperation under the Brussels Convention. We are, however, on the point of ratifying the parallel Lugano Convention signed in 1988 by EEC and EFTA States. The choice of topic for mis Liber Amicorum, thus, came easily: some reflections on the actio Pauliana in European procedural law.