This paper investigates the procedural autonomy of the EU Member States and shows that it is significantly circumscribed, mainly by the principles of effectiveness and equivalence. It further examines European Court of Justice case law from a civil procedural perspective and concludes that although the harmonisation of civil procedure is erratic and piecemeal, its existence can hardly be doubted. Furthermore, the paper argues that European influence may force us to rethink the concept of civil procedure as an internally coherent and externally distinct field of law.
