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Conseil de Prud'hommes de Troyes, 13 janvier 2016

Pourvoi c/ Cour d'appel de Besançon, chambre sociale, 3 juin 2014

Pourvoi c/ Cour d'assises de Mayotte, 1er décembre 2015

Commission / Chypre
Libre circulation des personnes
La législation chypriote sur les droits à la retraite, qui désavantage les travailleurs migrants par rapport à ceux qui ne se déplacent pas de Chypre, est contraire au droit de l’Union

On 15 April 2016 the Law Faculty of the University of Santiago del Compostela hosts an international conference on Security Rights and the European Insolvency Regulation: from Conflicts of Laws towards Harmonization. The event is part of the Security Rights and the European Insolvency Regulation Project.

Speakers include Paul Beaumont (Univ. of Aberdeen), Francisco Garcimartín Alferez (Univ. Autonoma of Madrid), Juana Pulgar Esquerra (Univ. Complutense of Madrid) and Anna Veneziano (Unidroit).

With a view to promote scientific debate on the topic, a call for papers has been issued. The organizers will consider papers addressing, in particular: (a) Security Rights, Set-Off, Transactional Avoidance and Conflict-of-Laws Issues; (2) Security Rights and Insolvency Law in National Legislation, in particular taking into account the New Approach to Business Failure and Insolvency as proposed by the 2014 European Commission Recommendation; (3) Harmonization Trends at an international level.

Submissions should be sent by 11 March 2016 either to Marta Carballo Fidalgo (marta.carballo@usc.es) or to Laura Carballo Piñeiro (laura.carballo@usc.es).

Further information about the project is available here. The call for papers can be downloaded here.

Dans ses conclusions rendues le 23 décembre 2015, l’avocat général de la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne (CJUE), Juliane Kokott, juge licite la nouvelle législation européenne visant à rapprocher les dispositions législatives, réglementaires et administratives des États membres concernant les produits du tabac.

En carrousel matière:  Oui Matières OASIS:  Santé publique

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DHL Express (Italy) et DHL Global Forwarding (Italy)
Concurrence
En matière de concurrence, les programmes de clémence de l’Union et des États membres coexistent de façon autonome

Il 15 gennaio 2016 la Serbia ha depositato il proprio strumento di adesione alla Convenzione dell’Aja del 19 ottobre 1996 sulla competenza, la legge applicabile, l’efficacia delle decisioni e la cooperazione in materia di responsabilità genitoriale e di misure di protezione dei minori.

La Convenzione, che è in vigore per altri 42 Stati, fra cui l’Italia (dal 1° gennaio 2016: si veda questo post), entrerà in vigore per la Serbia il 1° novembre 2016, conformemente a quanto previsto all’art. 61, par. 2, lett. b), della Convenzione stessa.

Questo lungo lasso di tempo si spiega alla luce dell’art. 58, par. 3, della Convenzione, il quale stabilisce che per gli Stati a cui è data la possibilità di aderire alla Convenzione (tutti gli Stati che non erano membri della Conferenza dell’Aja all’epoca dell’adozione del testo), l’adesione è efficace solo nei riguardi di quegli Stati contraenti che non abbiano obiettato all’adesione nei sei mesi successivi alla notifica della stessa.

Toshiba / Commission
Concurrence
Le Tribunal confirme les amendes de 131 millions d’euros infligées à Toshiba et Mitsubishi Electric pour leur participation à l’entente sur le marché des appareillages de commutation à isolation gazeuse

Clotilde Camus, La distinction du droit public et du droit privé et le conflit de lois, L.G.D.J., 2015, ISBN: 9782275047676, pp. 396, Euro 45.

[Dal sito dell’editore] – Cette étude a pour objet d’analyser les implications des mutations de la distinction du droit public et du droit privé pour le droit international privé, et plus particulièrement pour le conflit de lois. En effet, dans la mesure où l’on enseigne traditionnellement que la méthode du conflit de lois prend pour point de départ la summa divisio, ses transformations influencent nécessairement le conflit de lois.  Plus précisément, cette recherche est fondée sur le constat de la résistance de la distinction du droit public et du droit privé, en dépit des remises en cause récurrentes dont elle fait l’objet. Quand bien même son tracé et son rôle évoluent sans cesse, elle ne nous semble pas avoir perdu sa raison d’être, tant que subsiste la res publica. Il nous a dès lors paru pertinent de transposer à la summa divisio la formule de Maurice Hauriou relative à l’existence de la juridiction administrative : «c’est peine perdue de la discuter ; au contraire, il faut en accepter la donnée et en observer le jeu».  L’observation du jeu de la distinction du droit public et du droit privé nous a conduit à analyser ses mutations à partir de trois paradigmes – libéral, post-étatique et constitutionnel -, chacun éclairant sous un jour particulier l’opposition du droit public et du droit privé. Il a alors fallu étudier au sein de chacun de ces trois paradigmes l’influence de ces évolutions sur le conflit de lois.

L’indice completo è consultabile al seguente indirizzo. Maggiori informazioni sono disponibili sul sito dell’editore.

Prive sa décision de justification la cour d’appel qui, après avoir constaté que l’achat d’une mineure avait pour finalité de la contraindre à commettre des vols, relaxe le prévenu du chef du délit de traite des êtres humains.

En carrousel matière:  Oui Matières OASIS:  Traite des êtres humains

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In Ecobank Transnational v Tanoh, the Court of Appeal refused an anti-enforcement injunction because of the applicant’s delay in filing it. Nigel Brook reviews the judgment’s findings on the issue of the anti-enforcement injunction here. The issue in this appeal is whether the High Court was wrong to refuse to grant Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (“Ecobank”), an injunction restraining Mr Thierry Tanoh (“Mr Tanoh”) from enforcing two judgments which he had obtained in Togo and Côte d’Ivoire. In substance the case concerned the relationship between arbitration, proceedings in the court in ordinary, and submission: it is to the latter that I turn my attention in this posting.

The Brussels regime does not apply – at stake is the application of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982, which reads in relevant section

“33 For the purposes of determining whether a judgment given by a court of an overseas country should be recognised or enforced in England and Wales or Northern Ireland, the person against whom the judgment was given shall not be regarded as having submitted to the jurisdiction of the court by reason only of the fact that he appeared (conditionally or otherwise) in the proceedings for all or any one or more of the following purposes, namely

(a) to contest the jurisdiction of the court;

(b) to ask the court to dismiss or stay the proceedings on the ground that the dispute in question should be submitted to arbitration or to the determination of the courts of another country.”

Whilst the section states that a person shall not be regarded as having submitted by reason only of the facts there mentioned it is silent as to what additional facts are sufficient to establish submission. The Court of appeal confirms the feeling expressed in earlier case-law that Section 33 needs to be applied in parallel with Article 18 of the Brussels Convention, now Article 26 of the Brussels I Recast (and before that, Article 24 in the Brussels I Regulation). That is because Section 33 is largely derived from Article 18 of the Brussels Convention.

In the High Court judgment Burnton LJ said that it would be unfortunate if the principles applied by the courts of England and Wales on whether a litigant had submitted to the jurisdiction of a foreign court in non-EU cases were different from the principles applied by the Court of Justice, and therefore those courts, in cases under the Brussels and Lugano Conventions and now the Judgments Regulation.

In current appeal, Clarke LJ held (at 66) ‘I would go further. The decision of the court in Harada in relation to section 33 was heavily influenced by the decision of the European Court in relation to Article 18 of the Brussels Convention. But, now that section 33 has been interpreted in the way that it has, it cannot be right that it should bear a different meaning in cases outwith the European context.‘

Submission was not found to exist.

Do be aware of the limits to the relevant findings: Section 33 was largely borrowed, it appears, from the Brussels Convention. Many parts of English private international law, statutory or not, are no so borrowed. In those areas, the courts of England happily continue to follow their own course.

Geert.

 

In un decreto del 26 agosto 2015, il Giudice Tavolare del Tribunale di Trieste ha annoverato l’ingiunzione di pagamento europea di cui al regolamento n. 1896/2006, dichiarata esecutiva in conformità all’art. 18 del regolamento stesso, tra le possibili fonti del diritto all’ipoteca giudiziale ex art. 2820 del codice civile, ammettendo che sulla base di essa possa essere autorizzata l’iscrizione del relativo diritto nei registri del conservatore immobiliare.

Una tale conclusione verrebbe a discendere, nell’opinione del giudice disponente, dai principi posti alla base dello stesso regolamento n. 1896/2006, il quale – pur configurando, in termini espressi, il procedimento da esso istituito come un meccanismo supplementare e facoltativo rispetto a quelli previsti dalla legislazione nazionale per il recupero di crediti non contestati – mira, tuttavia, a garantire l’effettività della tutela del credito così realizzata.

Tale effettività, in particolare, andrebbe preservata, anche per via interpretativa, riconoscendo ai creditori che decidano di avvalersene la possibilità di rivendicare, sulla base dell’ingiunzione, i diritti e le facoltà che spetterebbero loro in base a un analogo titolo nazionale.

Una conclusione opposta, che negasse l’attitudine dell’ingiunzione europea a fungere da base per l’iscrizione di un’ipoteca giudiziale nei confronti del debitore ingiunto, si porrebbe del resto in contrasto, ad avviso del giudice triestino, con le indicazioni date dalla Corte di Giustizia nel caso Szyrocka, poiché finirebbe col dissuadere il creditore dall’avvalersi del procedimento europeo, diminuendone l’appetibilità rispetto al più favorevole procedimento nazionale esperibile in situazioni analoghe (segnatamente, il procedimento di ingiunzione di cui agli articoli 633 e seguenti del codice di procedura civile).

In definitiva, stando al provvedimento, è la necessità di assicurare l’effettivo esercizio dei diritti conferiti dal diritto dell’Unione che impone di riconoscere all’ingiunzione europea di pagamento non opposta – al pari del decreto ingiuntivo non opposto (cfr. l’art. 647 del codice di procedura civile e l’art. 2817 e seguenti del codice civile) – l’efficacia di titolo per l’iscrizione dell’ipoteca giudiziale.

Ana Fernández Pérez, Funciones de las cláusulas de excepción en el proceso de localización de la norma en conflicto, in Revista española de derecho internacional (REDI), 2015, pp. 83-109.

[Abstract] – An important aspect of flexibility is that, without abandoning the localization process, it counteracts the rigidity of the connections of the rule of conflict that may appoint, in certain circumstances, a legal system with weak links to the assumption and producing adverse situations. In national and international codification of private international law some texts have turned to so-called “exception clause” from which the judge has an institutionalized power to determine the applicable law, as long as the situation  provides unequivocally a very loose connection with another law designated by the rule of conflict laws. The exception clauses designed for specific situations have been proved to be useful and, therefore, have been welcomed as an important correction instrument and as the best mechanism for specialization due to the degree of heterogeneity. Its use helps to consolidate the necessary certainty and predictability of the rules of conflict and therefore the satisfaction of the proximity principle. Naturally, this loca-tion must be understood in a material sense character. The exception clause will deploy its usefulness if it acts as a technical localization inside the confrontational mechanism that seeks the right answer, given the physical objectives that seeks solution of the case.

Tribunal des affaires de sécurité sociale de Bobigny, 7 janvier 2016

Pourvoi c/ Cour d'appel d'Aix en Provence, 16e chambre B, 30 septembre 2015

Pourvoi c/ Cour d'appel de Lyon, chambre de l'instruction, 28 septembre 2015

Lazar v Allianz, Case C-350/14, was held on 10 December last. It addressed the issue of ‘ricochet’ damage in the Rome II Regulation on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations. Ricochet or ‘reflective’ or ‘indirect’ losses occur when someone suffers losses as a result of a tort directly causing damage to someone else.

The request has been made in a dispute between Mr Lazar, who resides in Romania, and the Italian insurance company Allianz SpA regarding compensation for material and non-material damage which Mr Lazar claims to have suffered in jure proprio by reason of the death of his daughter, a Romanian national who was resident in Italy, which occurred in Italy as a result of a road traffic accident caused by an unidentified vehicle. For Mr Lazar, it is more interesting for Italian law to be considered the lex causae.

The Opinion of Wahl AG neatly summarised the two opposing views: (at 40-41 of his Opinion):

According to the first view, (…) material and non-material damage suffered by the family members of a person who has died in another Member State does not necessarily constitute indirect consequences of the tort/delict for the purposes of Article 4(1) of the Rome II Regulation. It would follow in particular that, because it is based on an obligation that is distinct from the obligation as between the opposing party and the person who died in the accident, a claim for compensation in respect of material rights claimed by the close relatives of a person who has died as a result of a traffic accident which occurred in the State of the court seised must be assessed by reference to the law of the place in which the damage sustained by those relatives occurred, namely the place of their habitual residence, unless it can be demonstrated that, in accordance with Article 4(3) of the Rome II Regulation, it is clear from all the circumstances of the case that there are manifestly closer connections with another country.

According to the second view (…) the damage sustained, in their country of residence, by the close relatives of a person who has died in a road accident which occurred in the State of the court seised must be regarded as constituting indirect consequences of the damage suffered by the immediate victim of the accident. The term ‘country in which the damage occurs’ must be interpreted as referring to the place which caused the damage, which, in the main proceedings, is the place of the road accident.

He eventually opined in favour of the second view, taking inspiration ia from CJEU case-law on Article 7(2) of the Brussels I Recast (previously Article 5(3) Brussels I)- even though at 51 he cautioned against lifting interpretation from the jurisdictional Regulation for use in the applicable law Regulation. His main arguments were as follows:

(at 74) the interpretation whereby the general rule under which the expression ‘country in which the damage occurs’ in Article 4(1) of the Rome II Regulation extends to the place of the direct damage — in this case the place of the fatal collision — has the benefit of simplicity and objectivity where all the damage alleged actually originates from the same source.

(at 75) this is consistent with the foreseeability pursued by the drafting of the Rome II Regulation. In most cases, the person liable is able to anticipate the consequences in other countries of his conduct or of the conduct of persons for whom he is responsible. Similarly, the victim is generally informed of the legal context to which he was exposed or exposed his property. In other words, both the person liable and the victim were informed and took the necessary steps, in particular with regard to insurance, in connection with the applicable law in the country or countries in which damage might potentially occur.

(at 76) the general rule for determining the applicable law in the Rome II Regulation is characterised by neutrality. Taking the example of the material damage suffered by the survivors of a person who has died as a result of a traffic accident, it may be considered that the neutrality of the law would be jeopardised in so far as that damage is still located in the victim’s place of residence. (The AG notes that in other instances Rome II is not neutral: he refers in particular to Articles 6 (on acts of competition) and 7 (on environmental damage).

(at 77) such an interpretation is also consistent with the other idea underlying connecting factors in private international law, namely the idea of proximity, which is intended, as far as possible, to connect a situation to the law of the country with which it is most closely connected. Whilst the place of the accident is undeniably related to the other components of the liability, the domicile of the indirect victim is not necessarily so related. 

(at 79) the Rome II Regulation introduces corrective mechanisms which make it possible, in several respects, to avoid the apparent rigidity of the rule of the place in which the damage occurs.

Conclusion (at 83) ‘The term ‘place in which the damage occurs’ must, further to the case-law on the Brussels Convention and the Brussels I Regulation, be understood as meaning the place of the occurrence of the event, in this case the road accident, which directly produced its harmful effects upon the person who is the immediate victim of that event.’

The Court itself, much more succinctly, agrees.

A singular event, therefore, leads to one applicable law, even if its ricochet effect causes damage elsewhere. That such damage is actionable separately (for it may create multiple obligations in tort) or even iure proprio does not impact that analysis.

A word of caution, however: the judgment only holds for singular events. More complex events, especially of a continuing kind, are much more likely to create direct harmful effects in a multitude of persons, potentially therefore also leading to more loci damni. The ricochet effect therefore is highly likely to echo again at Kirchberg.

Geert.