A promising mistake and a tribute

Abstract

This paper examines the construction process of the common European area of Justice designed by the Amsterdam Treaty and launched following the conclusions of the Tampere European Council of 1999; it touches the achievements of the European judicial cooperation in the first decade of this century, particularly materialized in the suppression of the mechanisms for the review and confirmation of judicial decisions and the direct communication between courts; it describes the turning point and genesis of this process – the presentation of Brussels II bis Regulation abolishing the exequatur in the field of rights of access to children and child abduction; it points out the importance of the intervention of the honoree, Cunha Rodrigues, in the development and consolidation of the case law of said process; additionally, it examines the recent paradigm shift.