Judgment of the Court; 22 November 1977; Industrial Diamond Supplies v Luigi Riva; in Case 43-77:

1. The expression 'ordinary appeal' within the meaning of Articles 30 and 38 of the Convention of 27 September 1968 on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters must be defined solely within the framework of the system of the Convention itself and not according to the law either of the State in which the judgment was given or of the State in which recognition of enforcement of that judgment is sought.

2. Within the meaning of Articles 30 and 38 of the Convention, any appeal which is such that it may result in the annulment or the amendment of the judgment which is the subject-matter of the procedure for recognition or enforcement under the Convention and the lodging of which is bound, in the State in which the judgment was given, to a period which is laid down by the law and starts to run by virtue of that same judgment constitutes an 'ordinary appeal' which has been lodged or may be lodged against a foreign judgment.