Ministry of Justice, Finland

Service of Documents
Taking of Evidence
Enforcement of Civil Judgments
Child Abduction
Other Legal Assistance

International legal assistance in civil matters is inter alia related to the service of documents, taking of evidence, enforcement of judgements, information on foreign law, cost-free legal proceedings, requirement for authorised documents, and child abduction.

The need for international legal assistance usually stems from the fact that a trial party or witness resides or a document or object to be used as evidence is located in some other country than the one where the trial is pending.

Assistance does not always require a valid treaty with the foreign state. Legal assistance may be provided to a judicial authority of another country on the basis of national legislation or mere international courtesy.

States have, however, wanted to guarantee legal assistance by entering into treaties. This has enabled the creation of uniform procedures for the submission and drafting of requests, which makes international legal assistance more accessible. Through the treaties and thus by guaranteeing access to legal assistance, the legal safeguards of the parties have been increased.

Important conventions on civil legal assistance have been concluded within the Hague Conference on Private International Law and the Council of Europe. The European Union, too, has passed statutes on legal assistance in civil matters.

These agreements have created an all-encompassing system within which a request no longer is submitted through the diplomatic channel or consular authorities. Several conventions use a system with central authorities. In most cases the Finnish Central Authority is the Ministry of Justice.

European Judicial Network
The website of the European Judicial Network contains a large quantity of information about the Member States, Community law, European law and various aspects of civil and commercial law

Atlas
European Judicial Atlas in Civil Matters provides you with a user-friendly access to information relevant for judicial cooperation in civil matters. With the Atlas you can easily identify the competent courts or authorities with which you can apply for certain purposes. Furthermore, you can fill in the forms that exist for some of these purposes on-line and change the language of the form once you have filled it.

Updated on 7 January 2010