Issues concerning the circumstances in which a court having jurisdiction will nevertheless decline to exercise it are of great and growing importance. This book contains eighteen National Reports and a General Report on the subject. The original National Reports were written for the XIVth Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law held in Athens in 1994. The very full General Report is based upon the National Reports and provides an informed and illuminating overview of this area of private international law. It will be of interest to all practitioners and scholars working in the field.