The coming into force of the new Romanian Civil Procedure Code, on February 15th 2013, has resulted in new rules on the civil trial with a foreign element, repealing the last remaining articles of Law no. 105/1992. This paper is the first of four parts which aim to provide a general analisys of the new legal provisions, correlating them with the former regulation and relevant jurisprudence, as well as the European legislation with which it mig...