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Giesela Rühl, The Role of Economic Efficiency in European Private International Law, di prossima pubblicazione in S. Leible (a cura di), General Principles of European Private International Law, 2015, disponibile su SSRN a questo indirizzo.

[Abstact] – In recent years, a growing number of contributions have devoted attention to the “general part” of European private international law: in a number of articles academics have either examined how legal concepts traditionally categorized as “general” (e.g. characterization, choice of law, preliminary questions, ordre public, renvoi) are designed in the Regulations thus far enacted by the European legislature. Or they have asked whether and how these concepts could be codified in a Rome 0 Regulation or, more generally, in a Code of European Private International Law. The following article adds to this debate by looking at European private international law from an economic perspective. It analyses whether and to what extent economic efficiency has been considered by the European legislature when enacting the pertaining Regulations and whether and to what extent it should be considered when revising the Regulations currently in place or when adopting a Rome 0 Regulation. The article finds that the TEU and TFEU permit – and in fact demand – that economic efficiency be taken into account in formulating European choice-of-law rules. However, it also finds that European law-makers have not oriented their efforts on economic efficiency in the past. This, in turn, means that efficiency is unlikely to be given any methodological or systematic regard when the relevant provisions are interpreted and applied, for it is only those objectives which the European legislature actually had in mind which may be taken into account when interpreting the pertaining rules and regulations. In the face of the informative value of the economic efficiency criterion this is, of course, to be regretted. The article, therefore concludes, that European law-makers should pay greater attention to economic efficiency in the future than they have done in the past, particularly when enacting a Rome 0 Regulation.

L’absence d’union civile pour les couples de même sexe est contraire au droit au respect de la vie privée et familiale. 

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Cour d'appel de Saint-Denis de la Réunion, Chambre de l'instruction, 15 juillet 2015

Pourvoi c/ Cour d'appel de Caen, Chambre correctionnelle, 17 juin 2015

The Institute of European and Comparative Law at the University of Oxford is organising a conference on “General Principles of Law: European and Comparative Perspectives” that will be held at St Anne’s College Oxford and the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, on 25-26 September 2015.

The description of the conference on the Institute’s website reads as follows:

” ‘General principles of law’ are one of the most visible areas of intersection between EU law and comparative law: as long as they are understood as ‘the general principles common to the laws of the Member States’ (Art 340(2) TFEU) their fleshing out requires careful comparative preparatory work. True, more often than not, the general principles of EU law were not developed on the basis of thorough and textbook style analysis. This does not make it less interesting to look at the interaction of EU law and comparative law in this particular field. Those working together in elaborating general principles of EU law tend to be responsive to input from national laws, and the laws of the Member States have no choice but to be responsive to the general principles developed at EU level.

It is the purpose of this conference to look at this particular interaction from the perspectives of EU law and comparative law alike. Leading scholars and practitioners from both fields will come together to discuss the most recent developments in the field.

The conference will be held on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Oxford Institute. It will bring together current and former members, visitors and friends of the Institute, as well as those who might belong to one of these categories in the future. Celebration will be an essential part of the proceedings!”

Further information, including the full programme and registration details can be found here.

La loi sur le renseignement a été publiée au Journal officiel du dimanche 26 juillet 2015, après avoir été validée en majeure partie par le Conseil constitutionnel, qui a tout de même censuré trois dispositions du texte, notamment celle introduisant la procédure d’urgence dite « opérationnelle » qui permettait à l’autorité administrative de de se passer d’une autorisation préalable du premier ministre ou de l’un de ses délégataires, ainsi que de l’avis de la commission nationale de contrôle des techniques de renseignement pour mettre en place les mesures de surveillance prévues par le

En carrousel matière:  Non Matières OASIS:  Néant

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Le projet de loi relatif à l’adaptation de la procédure pénale au droit de l’Union européenne, adopté définitivement, vise à transposer diverses décisions-cadres européennes.

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Thank you Eiríkur Thorláksson (whose expert report fed substantially into the Court’s findings) for flagging and for additional insight: In Tchenguiz v Kaupthing, the High Court had to review the insolvency exception to the Lugano Convention, combined with Directive 2001/24 on the reorganisation and winding-up of credit institutions. Directive 2001/24 applies to UK /Iceland relations following the EFTA Agreement. See my earlier post on Sabena, for Lugano context. Mr Tchenguiz is a London-based property developer. He claims against Kaupthing; Johannes Johannsson, a member of Kaupthing’s winding-up committee; accountants Grant Thornton; and two of its partners.

While Directive 2001/24 evidently is lex specialis vis-a-vis the Insolvency Regulation, much of the ECJ’s case-law under the Regulation is of relevance to the Directive, too. That is because, as Carr J notes, much of the substantial content of the Regulation has been carried over into the Directive. Carr J does emphasise (at 76) that the dovetailing between the Lugano Convention /the Judgments Regulation, and the Insolvency Regulation, carried over into the 2001 Directive does not extend to matters of choice of law. [A bit of explanation: insolvency was excluded from the Judgments Regulation (and from the Convention before it) because it was envisaged to be included in what eventually became the Insolvency Regulation. Consequently the Judgments Regulation and the Insolvency Regulation clearly dovetail when it comes to their respective scope of application]. That is because neither Lugano nor the Judgments Regulation consider choice of law: they are limited to jurisdiction.

On the substance of jurisdiction, the High Court found, applying relevant precedent (German Graphics, Gourdain, etc.), that the claims against both Kaupthing and Mr Johansson are within the Lugano Convention and not excluded by Article 1(2)(b) of that Convention. That meant that Icelandic law became applicable law by virtue of Directive 2001/24, and under Icelandic law proceedings against credit institutions being wound up come not be brought before the courts in ordinary (rather, a specific procedure before the winding-up committee of the bank applies). No jurisdiction in the UK therefore for the claim aganst the bank. The claim against Mr Johansson can go ahead.

[For the purpose of this blog, the jurisdictional issues are of most relevance. For Kaupthing it was even more important that the Bankruptcy Act in Iceland was found to have extra-territorial effect. The Act on Financial Undertakings implemented the winding-up directive and the Icelandic legislator intented it to have extra-territorial effect].

A complex set of arguments was raised and the judgment consequentially is not an easy or quick read. However the above should be the gist of it. I would suggest the findings are especially crucial with respect to the relation between Lugano /Brussels I, Directive 2001/24, and the Insolvency Regulation.

Geert.

Ont été jugées irrecevables deux requêtes qui plaidaient l’incompatibilité de l’interdiction du suicide assisté et de l’euthanasie volontaire avec le droit à la vie privée et familiale garanti par l’article 8 de la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme.

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Dans un avis du 22 juillet, la section du contentieux a fermé la porte aux milliers de demandes de remboursement de la contribution au service public de l’électricité (CSPE) qui avaient été présentées au tribunal administratif de Paris. Ces demandes faisaient suite à la décision de la haute juridiction qui avait estimé, après renvoi préjudiciel à la CJUE, que l’obligation d’achat de l’électricité éolienne constituait une aide d’État (CE 28 mai 2014, n° 324852, Association Vent de colère !

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The Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law has recently launched a questionnaire regarding the legal effects of agreements in the area of international family law involving children, e.g., agreements in disputes regarding child custody, child support, relocation with a child, rights to visit and to have contact with a child.

[From the introduction to the questionnaire] – Agreements between parents or other family members in family disputes involving children have gained more importance and have become more frequent. This development is, in part, attributable to the enhanced promotion of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms (such as mediation, conciliation, and negotiation) to achieve agreed solutions in these cases. In addition, party autonomy in the area of family law has gained more importance and States increasingly enable parents and other family members to conclude agreements that regulate child-related matters, in particular custody and contact issues. Due to today’s increasing “internationalisation” of the family, agreements are negotiated more and more in cross-border situations (e.g., one of the parents plans to relocate to his / her country of origin with the child and contact between the child and the other parent will be carried out abroad or would require the child to travel) which may require the recognition and enforcement of the agreement in a State (hereinafter referred to as “requested State”) other than the State in which it was concluded (hereinafter referred to as “State of origin”). 

The questionnaire has been sent to government officials and to the members of the International Hague Network of Judges, but Permanent Bureau is equally seeking the views of practitioners, such as lawyers and mediators, and other experts of international family law.

The questionnaire may be completed online here before 18 September 2015.

This post has been some time in the making, notwithstanding my promise to have it up soon. Let’s just say I got distracted. The wide interest in Lutz, Case C-557/13, illustrates the increasing relevance of the actio pauliana in protecting creditors from their debtor’s insolvency. The core underlying issue for Lutz is that, in the absence of considerable capital in companies (arguably a direct result indeed of the regulatory competition in Member States’ corporate law following the ECJ’s case-law on freedom of establishment), civil law mechanisms have become more relevant than classic recourse to companies’ liability. If one relies on more classic modes of securitisation, one may want to have more predictability in what law will apply to those securitised agreements. That is where the Insolvency Regulation comes in, in providing for a mechanism which allows parties to indeed give parties the freedom to choose applicable law for the relevant agreements. Article 4(2)m of the Insolvency Regulation (in the new Regulation this is Article 7(m) – unchanged) makes the lex concursus applicable in principle: lex concursus applies to ‘(m) the rules relating to the voidness, voidability or unenforceability of legal acts detrimental to all the creditors.’ However Article 13 (16 new – unchanged) insulates a set of agreements from the pauliana: ‘Article 4(2)(m) shall not apply where the person who benefited from an act detrimental to all the creditors provides proof that: – the said act is subject to the law of a Member State other than that of the State of the opening of proceedings, and – that law does not allow any means of challenging that act in the relevant case.’  The crucial consideration in Lutz was whether the absence of means of challenge in the lex causae, relates to substantive law only, or also to procedural law. Randi summarise the time-line and relevant distinction in German and Austrian law as follows:

• “17 Mar 2008-Austrian court issues an enforceable payment order in favour of Mr Lutz against the debtor company
• 18 April 2008-debtor files application for German insolvency proceedings
• 20 May 2008-attachment of three Austrian bank accounts of the company
• 4 August 2008-German insolvency proceedings opened (as main proceedings) in respect of the company
• 17 Mar 2009-Austrian bank pays monies to Mr Lutz

Under German law, any enforcement of security over the debtor’s assets during the month preceding the lodging of the application to open proceedings is legally invalid once proceedings are opened. Under Austrian law, an action to set aside a transaction must be brought within one year after the opening of proceedings, failing which it becomes time-barred. By contrast, the limitation period under German law is three years. Although the attachment order was granted before the application to open main proceedings was filed, the actual attachment itself took place after that filing and the subsequent payment of monies by the bank took place after main proceedings were opened in Germany. Mr Lutz argued that art 13 applied and that the payment could no longer be challenged by the German liquidator under Austrian law as the one-year limitation period had expired.” (Randi also have good review of the questions in Lutz relating to rights in rem and Article 5, triggered in the case at issue by the attachments of bank accounts). Essentially, the Court expresses sympathy for the cover of procedural limits to fighting detrimental acts to be determined by the lex causae. (It dismissed any relevance of Article 12(1)d of Rome I Regulation, which provides that prescription and limitation of actions are governed by ‘the law applicable to a contract’: for the Insolvency Regulation is most definitely lex specialis). However leaving the matter up to the lex causae would cause differentiated application of the Insolvency Regulation across the Member States. Consequently the ECJ opts for autonomous interpretation, ruling (at 49) that Article 13 of Regulation No 1346/2000 must be interpreted as meaning that the defence which it establishes also applies to limitation periods or other time-bars relating to actions to set aside transactions under the lex causae.’ The ECJ’s judgment essentially confirms the EFTA Court’s views on the similar proviso in Directive 2001/24 on the winding-up of credit institutions (Lbi hf v Merrill Lynch). A pity the ECJ did not refer to that finding. Geert.

It has already been announced on this blog that the Academy of European Law (ERA) will host an international, English-language conference on recent experience and current trends in international commercial litigation, with a special focus on European private international law (see our earlier post here). The event will take place in Trier (Germany), on 8-9 October 2015. A slightly revised programme has now been put online and is available here. Registration is still possible here – so don’t miss the early bird rebate (before 8 September 2015)!

Professor Dr. Stefan Arnold (University of Graz, Austria) is organising a workshop on general principles of European private international law in Munich on 18 September 2015. Renowned speakers will deal with pervasive problems such as the notion of a family in PIL, the applicability of religious law, general principles of attachment, party autonomy, renvoi and public policy. The programme may be downloaded here. The conference will be held in German at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Participation is free of charge, but prior registration is required here.

La mise en œuvre d’une expropriation entraînant la dépréciation de la valeur vénale d’un bien ne donne pas lieu au versement d’indemnités compensatoires et ne viole pas le droit de la protection de la propriété prévu à l’article 1 du protocole 1 additionnel à la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme.

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Cet arrêt rappelle d’abord que la responsabilité du commissionnaire de transport suppose que celui-ci ait commis une faute personnelle. Puis, faisant application de la Convention de Montréal du 28 mai 1999, il apporte plusieurs précisions sur le régime de responsabilité du transporteur aérien de marchandises.

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Doit être cassé l’arrêt qui, pour déclarer un appel tardif, retient qu’un jugement avait été valablement notifié par la remise de l’acte entre les mains de la fille du destinataire. De tels motifs sont inopérants au regard des dispositions du code de procédure civile propres aux notifications internationales

En carrousel matière:  Non Matières OASIS:  Charte des droits fondamentaux de l'Union européenne Convention européenne des droits de l'Homme

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Pourvoi c/ Cour d'appel de Nancy, Chambre de l'instruction, 27 janvier 2015

Pourvoi c/ Cour d'appel de Versailles, Chambre de l'instruction, 2 avril 2015