European Union – Conflict of laws. The Court of Justice of the European Union gave a preliminary ruling deciding that art 3(b) of Regulation (EC) 4/2009 should be interpreted as precluding national legislation which established a centralisation of judicial jurisdiction in matters relating to cross-border maintenance obligations in favour of a first instance court which had jurisdiction for the seat of the appeal court, except where that rule helped to achieve the objective of a proper administration of justice and protected the interests of maintenance creditors while promoting the effective recovery of such claims, which was, however, a matter for the referring courts to verify.