Facts
This judgment deals with the question of whether the Commercial Court, pursuant to Art. 6 paras. 1 and 2 of the Swiss Civil Procedure Code (CPC), has a mandatory and exclusive jurisdiction for commercial disputes or whether a canton can declare another court as also or additionally competent.
The parties in this case are X. AG as the appellant and Y. AG as the respondent. The Federal Supreme Court had to decide whether the Commercial Court or another court has jurisdiction over the present dispute.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court follows the prevailing doctrine, according to which the Commercial Court is mandatorily or exclusively competent under the conditions of Art. 6 para. 2 CPC. It justifies this by stating that the federal legislator has conclusively regulated the subject-matter jurisdiction for commercial disputes with Art. 6 CPC. Therefore, there is no room for further jurisdiction regulation by the canton.
The Federal Supreme Court emphasizes that the Confederation has comprehensive legislative competence in the field of civil procedure law. The cantons can only legislate themselves to the extent that the…