Council Regulation (EC) No. 1206/2001 of 28 May 2001 on cooperation between the courts of the Member States in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters is a

European Union regulation A regulation is a legal act of the European Union which becomes immediately enforceable as law in all member states simultaneously. Regulations can be distinguished from directives which, at least in principle, need to be transposed into nation ...

in the field of judicial cooperation. It allows

taking of evidence Council Regulation (EC) No. 1206/2001 of 28 May 2001 on cooperation between the courts of the Member States in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters is a European Union regulation in the field of judicial cooperation. It allows t ...

from one member state to another without recourse to

consular A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

and diplomatic channels. The regulation applies to all the

member states of the European Union The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are party to the EU's founding treaties, and thereby subject to the privileges and obligations of membership. They have agreed by the treaties to share their o ...

with the exception of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. The

2015 Danish European Union opt-out referendum A referendum on one of the country's opt-outs from the European Union was held in Denmark on 3 December 2015. Specifically, the referendum was on whether to convert Denmark's current full opt-out on home and justice matters into an opt-out with ...

, which would have opted-in, was rejected by the people of Denmark. Taking of evidence in civil cases prior to the regulation was done by either under the

Hague Evidence Convention The Convention on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters—more commonly referred to as the Hague Evidence Convention—is a multilateral treaty which was drafted under the auspices of the Hague Conference on Private Inter ...

or by means of a ''

letter rogatory Letters rogatory or letters of request are a formal request from a court to a foreign court for some type of judicial assistance. The most common remedies sought by letters rogatory are service of process and taking of evidence. Taking of evidenc ...

'' (also called a letter of request), a formal request from a

court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

in one country to take evidence to another in which the

witness In law, a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, either oral or written, of what they know or claim to know. A witness might be compelled to provide testimony in court, before a grand jur ...

is domiciled. This formal document usually required transmission from the originating court to the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

(MFA) in the state of origin, who then forwarded it, possibly through various

embassies A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes a ...

, to the MFA in the destination state. The foreign MFA would then pass the documents to the judicial authorities in that state, who would then go about obtaining the required evidence. The evidence would then be returned via the same long winded channels. This regulation enables a somewhat simplified route by allowing direct contact between the

s in the member states. A standardised request form included in the annex to the regulation must be used. This aids the process by being widely recognised by the relevant authorities. The regulation also contains various articles to promote the use of communication technologies such as

telephone conferencing A conference call (sometimes called an audio teleconference or ATC) is a telephone call in which several people share a telephone line at the same time. The conference call may be designed to allow the called party to participate during the call ...

and

videoconferencing Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio signal, audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Vide ...

External links

Text of the Regulation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evidence Regulation 2001 in law

Evidence Evidence for a proposition is what supports the proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the proposition is truth, true. The exact definition and role of evidence vary across different fields. In epistemology, evidence is what J ...

2001 in the European Union Judicial cooperation in civil matters in the European Union Evidence law