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Par un arrêt du 3 février 2017, le Tribunal de l’Union rappelle l’obligation de motivation qui incombe à la Commission européenne lors d’un refus d’enregistrement d’une proposition d’initiative citoyenne européenne (ICE).

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Après avoir relevé le caractère international de l’arbitrage, la cour d’appel, qui n’avait pas à se référer à une loi étatique, en a exactement déduit, par une décision motivée, que la nature solidaire de l’obligation des parties au paiement des frais et honoraires des arbitres résultait du contrat d’arbitre.

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La remise temporaire de l’intéressé, par les autorités judiciaires belges, aux autorités judiciaires françaises, n’avait pas mis fin aux effets du mandat d’arrêt délivré par le juge d’instruction et complété par un mandat d’arrêt européen du procureur compétent, le mandat initial ayant pour objet la remise définitive aux autorités françaises. 

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Professor Gilles Cuniberti (University of Luxembourg) has authored a casebook entitled “Conflict of Laws – A Comparative Approach” which will be released this month by Edward Elgar Publishing.

The official abstract kindly provided by the publisher reads as follows:

“The Conflict of Laws, also known as private international law, is a field of the greatest importance in an increasingly globalized world. The analysis of any legal issue, in a case involving more than one country, must start with an assessment of which court could potentially hear the case and which law it would apply.

Contrary to other manuals or casebooks, which focus on the law of one jurisdiction, this innovative casebook offers a comparative treatment of the field. On each issue, materials from several jurisdictions are discussed and compared. The approach centers on comprehending the common principles of the field, but also highlights the fundamental differences. The goal is to train lawyers who not only will know the law of their own jurisdiction, but also will have an understanding of the key differences existing between the main models, and will thus be able to interact usefully with clients from other jurisdictions.

This casebook systematically presents and compares the laws of four jurisdictions: the United States, the European Union, France and England (where left untouched by EU harmonization). It offers additional insight into rules applicable in China and Japan and also discusses remarkable solutions adopted in a wide range of jurisdictions such as Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and Tunisia. All materials from non-English speaking jurisdictions have been translated into English.

Key features of the casebook:
• written by a leading authority in the field
• carefully selected extracts from primary and secondary sources build a clear picture of the field
• expert analytical commentary and questions set the extracts in context
• US, EU, French and English perspectives integrated throughout the text to ensure maximum relevance and encourage students to make comparative assessments
• numerous references to Chinese and Japanese solutions
• leads students through the field from beginning to end
• perfectly pitched for international students and courses with a global outlook.”

Further information, including a table of contents, is available on the publisher’s website.

The Court of Justice rendered on 16 February 2017 its judgment in Agro Foreign Trade & Agency Ltd v Petersime NV (Case C‑507/15), a case involving a commercial agency contract concluded between a Belgian principal and a Turkish agent. The contract had been submitted by the parties to Belgian law and featured a choice-of-forum clause conferring jurisdiction to the courts of Ghent, in Belgium.

The issue submitted to the Court concerned the interpretation of Directive 86/653 on the coordination of the laws of the Member States relating to self-employed commercial agents and of the 1963 Agreement establishing an association between the EU and Turkey, together with the Additional Protocol thereto.

Specifically, the Court was asked to determine whether the above texts preclude national legislation transposing the directive into the law of a Member State (Belgium, in the case at issue), which excludes from its scope of application a commercial agency contract in the context of which the agent is established in Turkey, where it carries out activities under that contract, and the principal is established in that Member State. The exclusion was such that, in the circumstances, the agent could not rely on rights which the directive guarantees to commercial agents after the termination of the contract.

The Court held that the Directive and the Association Agreement do not preclude such national legislation.

In its reasoning, the Court began by focusing on the scope of application of the Directive. Having noted that the situation of a contract between a EU principal and a non-EU agent is not expressly referred to in the Directive, the Court observed, relying on the second and third recitals of the Directive, that the harmonising measures provided thereunder seek to protect commercial agents in their relations with their principals, to eliminate restrictions on the carrying-on of the activities of commercial agents, to make the conditions of competition within the Community uniform, to promote the security of commercial transactions, and to facilitate trade in goods between Member States by harmonising their legal systems within the area of commercial representation.

It added that the purpose of the regime established in Articles 17 to 19 of the Directive is to protect freedom of establishment and the operation of undistorted competition in the internal market.

Accordingly, where the commercial agent carries out its activities outside the EU, the fact that the principal is established in a Member State does not present a sufficiently close link with the EU for the purposes of the application of the Directive.

The Court then moved on to determine whether the application of the Directive to commercial agents established in Turkey can follow from the Association Agreement.

The Court acknowledged that, pursuant to the Agreement, the provisions of the Treaties on the free movement of workers and the freedom to provide services must be extended, so far as possible, to Turkish nationals to eliminate restrictions on the freedom to provide services between the contracting parties.

It noted, however, that the interpretation given to the provisions of EU law concerning the internal market cannot be automatically applied by analogy to the interpretation of an agreement concluded by the EU with a non-Member State, and that the Association Agreement, which is intended essentially to promote the economic development of Turkey, does not establish any general principle of freedom of movement of persons between Turkey and the European Union. Its purpose is rather to guarantee the enjoyment of certain rights only within the territory of the host Member State.

By contrast, the Court stressed that, in the context of EU law, the protection of the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services, by means of the regime provided for by Directive 86/653 with respect to commercial agents, reflects the objective of establishing an internal market, conceived as an area without internal borders, by removing all obstacles to the establishment of such a market.

The Court concluded that the differences between the Treaties and the Association Agreement preclude the system of protection laid down by the Directive from being held to extend to commercial agents established in Turkey, in the context of that agreement.

Jean-Sylvestre Bergé (University of Lyon) has published an interesting analysis of the judgment in his blog Droit & Pluriel.   

Par un arrêt du 8 février 2017, la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne (CJUE) a précisé qu’une publicité comparative est susceptible d’être trompeuse lorsque le consommateur n’est pas clairement informé dans la publicité de la différence de formats et de tailles des magasins comparés. 

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 CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR A SPECIAL ISSUE OF ACTA JURIDICA

The Acta Juridica invites proposals for its special issue: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) & The Rule of Law. Contributors will be invited to attend a Colloquium to be held in Cape Town on 27 & 28 July 2017 where the research and findings will be presented with the objectives of determining the common and overlapping themes in linking FDI and the Rule of Law in specific areas of law. It is proposed that the outcomes of the colloquium be published in the 2018 Acta Juridica, to be edited by Debbie Collier, Tracy Gutuza and Silindile Buthelezi of the University of Cape Town.

Following the colloquium the contributors will submit the final papers (maximum of 5000 words) to the editors by 02 October 2017. We are accepting proposals in the form of 500-750 word abstracts. The editors will prepare an introductory chapter and if necessary, commission articles to address specific issues. All the papers will be subjected to a double blind peer review process, overseen by the editors. It is expected that the finalised text would be submitted by November 2017.

Submission and Review Timeline 

• Proposals including tentative contributor list due 03 March 2017.
• Contributors will be contacted with final determination about submissions by 03 April 2017.
• First draft manuscripts submissions are due 30 June 2017.
• Colloquium to be held 27 & 28 July 2017 at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
• Final draft manuscript submissions are due 02 October 2017.

The Acta Juridica is an annual thematic journal published by Juta Law in conjunction with the Faculty of Law of the University of Cape Town. It is a peer reviewed and edited journal.

In the context of the need to grow the South African economy, the role of, and the need for, FDI as a source of capital and a contributor to economic growth is both acknowledged and contested. A recent collaborative study on the link between FDI and the Rule of Law by, among others, the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law indicated that the Rule of Law is an important factor in the decision by corporate investors to undertake investment in a foreign jurisdiction. While the above study considered the role of the Rule of Law across a number of jurisdictions, we propose a consideration in the context of FDI in Africa, with a particular emphasis on South Africa and South African Law, in particular the impact of the Constitution, the legal framework for FDI, and related areas of law including, but not limited to, labour law, tax law, intellectual property law, technology law, international trade law, company law/corporate governance, and competition law. These themes will include the strategic and policy considerations of the particular areas in relation to FDI, the impact of the chosen policy and legislative framework on FDI, the administrative aspects (procedure) of implementing the policy and legislative framework and the impact of FDI.

It is envisaged that the colloquium will consist of three themes: 1. FDI & Economic Growth: Theoretical Perspectives; 2. FDI: International law & Investment Treaties; 3. FDI and the Regulatory Framework in South Africa. Within these themes, we envisage the following topics (but other proposals are also welcome):

1.What is FDI and when is it desirable?

2.FDI in Africa

3.The link between FDI, the Rule of Law and Economic Development in Economic Theory

4.Bilateral Investment Treaties and FDI relationship through econometric studies: why doinvestors decide to invest

5.International Law protection of foreign investments

6.FDI and Tax Law

7.FDI and Employment Law/Labour standards

8.FDI and Intellectual Property

9.FDI and the Transfer of Technology

10.FDI and Corporate Governance

11.FDI and Regional Development

12.FDI and Transfer Pricing

13.FDI and Competition Law

14.The link between FDI, the Bilateral Investment Treaties and the financial services industry

Proposals should be submitted to the special issue editors: Debbie Collier (debbie.collier@uct.ac.za ), Tracy Gutuza (tracy.gutuza@uct.ac.za ) or Silindile Buthelezi (silindile.buthelezi@uct.ac.za ).

The José María Cervelló Chair of IE Law School and the ONTIER law firm announce the “Eleventh José María Cervelló Busines Law Prize”.
The main purpose of the Prize is to promote legal study and research, and to facilitate access to the LLM courses of IE Law School for people who do not have the necessary financial resources.

The prize consists of the award of € 30,000 as follows:
€ 10,000 will be given to the author of the winning essay.
€ 20,000 will be assigned to the José María Cervelló Chair to be applied to its scholarship programme for the study of legal or tax courses at IE Law School.
Up to a maximum of two runner-up awards may be given to essays of sufficient quality to merit that distinction.

The subject of the essays opting for the “Eleventh José María Cervelló Business Law Prize” is: “Brexit: Legal consequences of the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU for businesses. Legal framework of the withdrawal and new Legal Framework, special reference to the problems of transitory law in respect of contracts, corporate operations and litigation”

All essays must be original, unpublished works written in Spanish or English. The length is a minimum of 25 and a maximum of 35 pages. The closing date for entries is Monday 8th May 2017 at 23:59 p.m. (Madrid, Spain time). The award ceremony will take place in June or July 2017, at IE Law School. All participants will be notified in due course.

All persons or Spanish or foreign nationality who are graduates in Law, holding either a pre-Bologna “licenciatura” qualification or a degree (grado) may take part.

For further details (members of the jury; essay format; presentation) click here: Cervello Prize on Brexit

Dr. Anabela Susana de Sousa Gonçalves, Assistant Professor at the University of Minho, has provided this piece of information to be shared with CoL readers. BILETA stands for British and Irish Law Education and Technology Association.

The Law School of the University of Minho (Braga, Portugal) will be hosting the BILETA Annual Conference, held from Thursday 20th to Friday 21st of April 2017.

The theme of the conference is: International perspectives on emerging challenges in Law, Technology and Education.

Keynote speakers will be:

• Professor Joe Cannataci: UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy
• Professor Jose-Luis Pinar: Professor of Administrative Law, CEU University of Madrid. Former Director of the Spanish Data Protection Agency (2002-2007). Former Vice-Chairman of the European Group of Data Protection Commissioners (Art. 29 Working Party Data Protection) (2003-2007)
• Professor Burkhard Schafer: Professor of Computational Legal Theory, The University of Edinburgh

In relation to this conference postgraduate students have the opportunity to enter two postgrad competitions. To do so they need to submit a full paper (6-10,000 words) by the deadline of the 31st of March. Three papers will be chosen to compete for the Google award, which will involve defending the work in a session at the conference and a public vote. The remaining papers will go forward for the BILETA award, to be selected by the BILETA Exec. Please indicate on submission of the abstract whether you aim to enter the competitions.

Abstracts of around 400-500 words are welcome on any area relating to the conference theme, with key areas including:

• Society, Business and Data Protection
• Intellectual Property Rights in the Information Society
• International challenges in IT regulation
• Private International Law solutions for the emerging challenges in Law and Technology
• E-commerce
• Public policies and governance in ICT Law
• Dispute resolution and management in virtual environments
• Technology and criminal investigation
• New technological platforms and education in law
• Smart environments in educational contexts
• Smart cities: ethical and legal challenges
• Multicultural Societies, Integration and ICT Law

The deadline for submission of abstracts has been extended to Friday the 17th of February 2017.  Abstracts should be emailed to: bileta2017@gmail.com 

Please contact Catherine Easton c.easton@lancaster.ac.uk if you have any general queries about the conference.  

In addition, BILETA 2017 will feature special panels such as a discussion on the impact of Brexit on the development of UK and EU Information Technology Law

For travelling, accommodation and further relevant details please click here.

 

Statistiques judiciaires 2016 : la durée des procédures poursuit sa tendance à la baisse au profit des citoyens

Professions médicales et paramédicales

On Friday, 24 February 2017, the research project “unalex – multilingual information for the uniform interpretation of the instruments of judicial cooperation in civil matters” is organizing a workshop on European International Family Law under the title

“European Open Issues in Private International Law:

Matrimonial and Maintenance Law”

at the University of Genoa.

The unalex project is aimed at the expansion of a multilingual international source of literature on legal instruments of EU law and of international uniform law. It is based on the already existing unalex portal (http://www.unalex.eu/), a legal information system on European and international uniform law, containing a well equipped collection of international case law, structured Compendia and a large number of additional materials.

During the workshop „unalex open issues“ shall be discussed as a new instrument, stimulating a scientific debate on controversial opinions from different legal systems. In addition the concept of an Encyclopedia of European family law will be presented, serving to document relevant legal texts of different Member States.

A primary goal of the unalex project is to interest and to win authors from different European legal systems to create Compendia and commentaries and to form a network of authors.

Registration for the conference is possible by sending an e-mail to francesca.maoli@edu.unige.it.

Cour d'appel de Paris, pôle 2, chambre 5, 7 février 2017