INTRODUCTION

As discussed in Chapter 2, the Permanent Bureau deviated from its established practices by not preparing feasibility studies on each of the possible types of convention in order to create a convention on jurisdiction and judgments in the context of the Hague Judgments Project. A closer analysis of the preparatory work the Permanent Bureau undertook for successful past convention projects (the 1980 Hague Convention on International Child Abduction and the 1993 Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption) shows that for the Hague Judgments Project, the Permanent Bureau also departed from past usage in other ways. When looking into the preparatory work on the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention and the 1993 Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention, a specific pattern of preparation can be identified. The Permanent Bureau not only prepared feasibility studies before a new topic was added to the agenda of the Hague Conference. Additionally, it conducted research on the needs or problems of the Hague Conference Member States, and on the possible solutions which could be employed by a new private international law instrument. Furthermore, the Permanent Bureau used to partake in detailed planning for a new Hague Convention once potential solutions of private international law for addressing the relevant problems or needs had been identified. This preliminary work on new Hague instruments, intentionally or unintentionally, followed established patterns used in the discipline of project management. Project management is a method originating from business and management studies which is used to plan, manage and control the different life cycles of a project in order to achieve the project objectives within a certain pre-defined time limit.