Feed aggregator

Starting with the infamous and fundamentally flawed Laws of Fear by Cass Sunstein, Europe’s precautionary principle has been under constant attack by industry both within and outside of the EU. My postings on the principle here and the section on it in my Handbook of EU environmental law with Leonie Reins attempt to show that despite industry propaganda against it, the principle has never been a blind ‘when in doubt, don’t do it’ approach to risk management.

In C-616/17 Blaise and others, the Court once again shows its measured approach. Defendants in national criminal proceedings, argued that they should be let off in a criminal damage prosecution. They are environmental activists and are charged with causing criminal damage to containers of herbicidal products (specifically ‘Roundup’) containing the chemical glyphosate. In their defence, they argue that the products present an unacceptable potential risk to human health and the environment and that the EU approval process is defective and therefore unlawful.

The Court found that the approval process on the basis of EU law is entirely in line with EU law, including the precautionary principle. Steptoe have excellent overview here and I am happy to refer entirely.

Geert.

EU environmental law (with Leonie Reins), Edward Elgar, 2018, p.28 ff.

La Cour de cassation se penche sur l’hypothèse d’une déclaration de nationalité reposant sur un acte de naissance établi à l’étranger et dont la force probante est contestée.

en lire plus

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Austrian Private International Law Act, the Interdisciplinary Association of Comparative and Private International Law (IACPIL/IGKK) will be hosting a lecture series in Vienna, starting from 11 December 2019. The lectures will address the future role of the national PIL codifications of EU member states and the application of the Austrian Act during the last decades. Given the comparative focus of the lectures, the organisers are kindly inviting colleagues from all jurisdictions to attend and participate in the discussions. The working languages will be German and English.

A flyer with more information can be found here, the address for registration is office@igkk.org.

GPA - Filiation

Written by Zeno Crespi Reghizzi, Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Milan

The recognition of punitive damages represents a controversial issue in Europe. For many years, due to their conflict with fundamental principles of the lex fori, punitive damages have been found to be in breach of public policy by some European national courts. This has prevented the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments awarding them, or (more rarely) the application of a foreign law providing for these damages.

More recently, the negative attitude of European courts vis-à-vis punitive damages has been replaced, at least in some States, by a more open approach. The latest example is offered by a revirement of the Italian Supreme Court case law as per its judgment no 16601 of 5 July 2017.

This book – edited by Stefania Bariatti, Luigi Fumagalli, and Zeno Crespi Reghizzi and published by Wolters Kluwer-CEDAM – intends to explore the relationship between punitive damages and European private international law from different angles. After introducing the topic from a comparative law perspective, the chapters of this book examine, in particular, the purpose and operation of public policy as applied to punitive damages, the solutions adopted by the case law of various European States, the treatment of punitive damages in international commercial arbitration, and the emerging trends in EU and ECHR law.

The contributions have been prepared by leading legal scholars from different jurisdictions and are based on papers presented at a conference that took place on 11 May 2018 at the Department of Italian and Supranational Public Law of the State University of Milan, with the support of the SIDI Interest Group on Private International Law and the “Rivista di diritto internazionale privato e processuale”.

 

A succinct post on the French Supreme Court judgment 18-19665 MP v ML of 19 September last. Thank you Hélène Péroz for alerting us to the judgment. A French couple, married in 1995, file for divorce in 2012 when the husband discovers his wife has been married before, in Las Vegas, 1981. He requests his marriage be declared invalid on the grounds of bigamy. To settle the ‘divorce’ the courts therefore need to first settle the incidental question or Vorfrage of prior marriage, much like in the archetypal Vorfrage judgment of  Schwebel v Unger.

Under French law consent to marriage is covered by the lex patriae which for both partners in this case is French. The Supreme Court confirms the lower courts’ discretion to find as a matter of fact whether or not there was such consent, which in casu they had found there was not on the basis of the wife having presented the Vegas trip to her friends as not being of real consequence; no banns of marriage having been published, no effort having been undertaken by the partners to have their Vegas ‘wedding’ registered in France, no reference to the marriage having been made at the time of registration of the birth of their child, and both partners having entered into relationships after the ‘marriage’.

Geert.

(Handbook of) EU private international law, 2nd ed. 2016, Chapter 1, Heading 1.4.

 

Le 20 septembre 2019, le Conseil constitutionnel a rendu une décision de conformité au sujet de l’article 453 du code de procédure pénale, relatif aux notes d’audience établies par le greffier lors des débats devant le tribunal correctionnel. 

en lire plus

L’intérêt majeur de cet arrêt est de souligner que les infractions, correctionnelles ou de police, au code de l’environnement, auquel ne font pas exception les règles particulières applicables aux installations nucléaires, peuvent être prouvées par tous moyens. 

en lire plus

Save the Date – 14 November 2019

Workshop: Application of the “Second Generation” Regulations in The Netherlands

The Erasmus School of Law (Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands) will host a second national workshop on Thursday, 14 November 2019 from 9.30-13.00 hrs, in the framework of the research project “Informed Choices in Cross-Border Enforcement” (IC2BE) (see our first workshop). This project (JUSTAG-2016-02) is funded by the Justice Programme (2014-2020) of the European Commission and aims to assess the functioning in practice of the “second generation” of EU regulations on procedural law for cross-border cases, i.e. the European Enforcement Order (“EEO”), European Order for Payment (“EPO”), European Small Claims (as amended by Regulation (EU) 2015/2421) (“ESCP”) and the European Account Preservation Order (“EAPO”) Regulations.

The project is carried out by a European consortium involving the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg and the universities of Antwerp, Complutense of Madrid, Milan, Rotterdam, and Wroclaw, and is coordinated by Prof. Jan von Hein from the University of Freiburg.

The workshop will present the findings of the research in the Netherlands and discuss these with experts from legal practice and academics, with the aim of assessing and improving the application of these instruments.

The language of the workshop is mostly Dutch. Practitioners and academics interested in cross-border litigation are invited to participate in this event. Detailed information on the program and (free of charge) registration will follow soon. Contact address for further information: ontanu@law.eur.nl

Régimes matrimoniaux

Régimes matrimoniaux

Indivision

Dziubak
Rapprochement des législations
Dans les contrats de prêt indexé sur une devise étrangère conclus en Pologne, les clauses abusives relatives à l’écart de change ne peuvent pas être remplacées par des dispositions générales du droit civil polonais

Glawischnig-Piesczek
Liberté d'établissement
Le droit de l’Union ne s’oppose pas à ce qu’un hébergeur tel que Facebook soit enjoint de supprimer des commentaires identiques et, sous certaines conditions, équivalents à un commentaire précédemment déclaré illicite

Dans cette décision, le Conseil constitutionnel déclare conforme à la Constitution le second alinéa de l’article 698-2 du code de procédure pénale, relatif à la poursuite des infractions commises par des militaires en temps de paix.

en lire plus

On 25 and 26 October 2019 Benedetta Cappiello and Gherhardo Carullo from the Università degli Studi di Milano will host a conference dealing with blockchain from a legal perspective. The focus is on the positive effects that this technology can generate. Special attention is paid to projects that aim to promote sustainability through blockchain solutions. One of the panels is devoted to jurisdiction and the law applicable to smart contracts.

The conference aims at:

• offering a critical analysis of the potential benefits and legal risks of distributed ledger technologies;
• scrutinizing opportunities offered by blockchain technology and possible regulatory frameworks;
• discussing the legal implications of blockchain technologies;
• presenting real-world blockchain projects applied to society;
• bringing together different stakeholders to discuss the future role of governments and the contemporary challenges to public trust.

Conference programme:

DAY 1 – October 25th

9:00 – 9:30: Registration

9:30 – 10:15: Welcome from: E. Franzini, University Chancellor; V. Nardo, Presidente Ordine Avvocati; L. Violini, Head of Department Diritto pubblico italiano e sovranazionale

10:30 –11:00: The Italian perspective: “An Introduction”

• P. Ciocca, Commissario Consob

11:00 – 11:30: Coffee Break

11:30 –12:15: Plenary Session: Understanding Blockchain: “An introduction”

• C. Malcolm, Head, Blockchain Policy Center, OECD-OCDE, tbc

12:30 – 13:45: Lunch

13:45 –14:15: Workshop:“How to ‘mine’?”

• C. Biondi Santi, BitMiner Factory, Firenze

14:30 –16:15: PlenarySession:“Blockchain in law”

Chair: NerinaBoschiero,FacultyDean

• P. de Filippi, Permanent Researcher at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) and Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University
• O. Goodenough, Director of the Center for Legal Innovation, Vermont Law School – CodeX Affiliated
• T. Schrepel, Utrecht University School of Law

16:15 – 16:45: Coffee Break

16:45 –18:00: “Blockchain in action: Crypto currencies”

Chair: Gabriele Sabbatini

• G. Zucco, BlockchainLabit, founder
• P. Dal Checco, Turin University
• R. Ghio, WizKey

16:45 –18:15: “Smart legal contract: forum and applicable law issue”

Chair:Benedetta Cappiello, University of Milan

• G. Rühl, Professor Friedrich Schiller University, Jena
• P. Bertoli, Professor Università degli Studi dell’Insubria
• M. T. Giordano, LT42

DAY 2 – October 26th

9:30 –10:30: Plenary session:“Blockchain as a tool to achieve the SDGs”

Chair: Cesare Pitea, University of Milan

• R. della Croce, OCSE, Senior Economist, Blockchain and green finance
• G. Baroncini Turrichia, HELPERBIT founder, Blockchain Project applied
• G. Coppi, Fordham University, International Humanitarian Affairs

10:30 – 11:00: Coffee break

11:00 –12:30: “Who and how to decide?”

Chair: Alessandro Palumbo, Ph.D., CEOJUR

• P. Ortoloni, Radboud University, Nijmegen
• A. Santosuosso, Professor Università degli Studi di Pavia
• J. Lassègue, Professor and Chargé de recherche CNRS

11:00 – 12:30: “Transparency Issue”

Chair: Gherardo Carullo

• M. Nastri, Notaio
• M. Finck, Max Planck Institute for innovation and competition
• A. Zwitter, Dean, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

 

For further information contact Benedetta Cappiello (benedetta.cappiello@unimi.it)

QPC

QPC