Perpetuatio fori
The perpetuatio fori (Latin for continuation of the place of jurisdiction ) stipulates that a court with local or material jurisdiction remains competent, even if the facts on which the jurisdiction is based later change so that another court would now have jurisdiction. The relevant point in time is lis pendens . The principle of perpetuatio fori does not apply before lis pendens . The principle of perpetuatio fori can be deviated from at the request of a party if an originally competent local court does not have jurisdiction (Section 506 (1) ZPO). A decision must then be issued which refers the legal dispute to the competent court.
The sense of the principle is to streamline the process. It should be avoided that another court has to familiarize itself with the case again and the process is delayed.
The perpetuatio fori does not apply if the subject of the dispute changes.
According to German procedural law, this affects all branches of jurisdiction. For the ordinary courts , this is regulated in Section 17 (1) sentence 1 GVG , Section 261 (3) no. 2 ZPO . Exceptions are regulated in §§ 256 Paragraph 2, 264 No. 3 ZPO.
This means that the legal route taken up to now remains responsible if the factual jurisdiction changes (e.g. the subject of the dispute is to be found in public law instead of civil law). Even a legal change then has no effect on the jurisdiction of the court.
However, it is disputed whether the principle of perpetuatio fori can be applied to proceedings with an international dimension. The applicability is largely affirmed (also e.g. according to the EuGVVO ). For procedures of voluntary jurisdiction , the validity of the principle is now determined by law (Section 2 (2) FamFG).
In the event of a change in the circumstances giving rise to local jurisdiction, the previously competent authority can continue an administrative procedure if this serves to carry out the procedure simply and appropriately and the now competent authority agrees. Otherwise, they must follow the procedure to the competent authority now give ( § 3 para. 3 VwVfG).
