Procedures
Two judicial districts, three justices of the peace and a French-modelled code
Civil procedure follows the Nouveau Code de procédure civile, closely modelled on French law. The three justices of the peace hear smaller claims, tenancy and wage disputes, while the tribunaux d'arrondissement of Luxembourg and Diekirch are the ordinary courts of first instance.
Key rules
- Justices de paix hear civil and commercial claims up to EUR 15,000, plus tenancy and wage disputes.
- The tribunal d'arrondissement hears claims above EUR 15,000 and has exclusive jurisdiction in company and insolvency matters.
- Representation by an avocat à la Cour is compulsory before the tribunal d'arrondissement but not before the justice de paix.
- Appeal to the Cour d'appel must be lodged within forty days of service for tribunal judgments.
- The ordinary limitation period for contractual claims is thirty years, with a ten-year period for commercial obligations under the Code de commerce.
Governing law
- Nouveau Code de procédure civile
- Code civil luxembourgeois (art. 2262)Thirty-year ordinary limitation period
- Code de commerce (art. 189)Ten-year limitation for commercial obligations
In practice
Multilingualism is the practical hurdle. Legislation is published in French, pleadings are normally in French, but evidence and correspondence routinely arrive in German or Luxembourgish and the court will accept documents in all three without translation — which means a foreign party's own bundle may be partly unreadable to them. Because the jurisdiction is small and heavily financial, a very high proportion of substantial commercial disputes are arbitrated or litigated abroad under a chosen forum clause.