Conflictoflaws

The University of Missouri and Marquette University announce a student writing competition in associated with the University of Missouri’s upcoming symposium “Moving Negotiation Theory from the Tower of Babel: Toward a World of Mutual Understanding.” The competition offers a $500 first prize and $250 second prize.

Submissions must relate to one or more problems with negotiation theory, broadly defined, and should suggest a solution to the problem(s). Students are encouraged to consider sources in the symposium reading list, though they are not required to discuss or cite any of these sources.

The competition is open to all persons enrolled during calendar year 2016 in a program of higher education leading to any degree in law or a graduate degree (including but not limited to the J.D., LL.B., LL.M., S.J.D., M.A. or Ph.D.). Applicants may be of any nationality and may be affiliated with a degree-providing institutions located in any country.

Papers that have been published or accepted for publication are not eligible for the writing competition.

Submission Requirements

Submissions must be in English and between fifteen (15) and twenty-five (25) pages in length, including footnotes. The text of the paper must be typed and double spaced pages in 12 point Times New Roman font (or similarly readable typeface) with 1-inch margins on all sides. Footnotes should preferably appear in Bluebook form, although papers using other established systems of legal citation will be accepted.

The title of the paper must appear on every page of the submission. The author’s name must not appear anywhere on the submission itself.

A separate document should be provided including (1) the author’s full name, address, telephone number and email address; (2) the degree-granting institution where the author is or was enrolled in 2016, as well as the degree sought and the (anticipated) year of graduation; (3) the title of the submission; and (4) the date of the submission.

Failure to adhere to these requirements may lead to disqualification of the submission.

Papers must be electronically submitted to: Laura Coleman, University of Missouri School of Law, colemanl@missouri.edu

Submissions must be received no later than 11:59 p.m., Central time, on Monday, October 17, 2016.

Criteria

Submissions will be judged based on the following factors:

· Quality, thoroughness, and persuasiveness of analysis

· Value to scholars, faculty, students, and/or practitioners

· Contribution to the scholarship in the field.

Submissions may be considered for publication in the Journal of Dispute Resolution. The sponsors reserve the right not to name a winner if a suitable submission is not entered into the competition.

Questions should be directed to Professor John Lande at landej@missouri.edu. More information is available here.

The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) has recently announced the celebration of the 90th anniversary of its foundation. Established in 1926 as an auxiliary organ of the League of Nations, and re-established in 1940 on the basis of a multilateral agreement, UNIDROIT has made significant contributions to the modernisation and harmonisation of substantive private, notably commercial, law, but also to the conflict of laws and international civil procedure. In all these years, UNIDROIT has collaborated and maintained close ties of cooperation and friendship with numerous partner organisations and entities. To celebrate this momentous occasion, UNIDROIT will hold a series of celebratory events in Rome from 15 to 20 April 2016 which are devoted to the role and place of private law in supporting the implementation of the international community’s broader cooperation and development objectives. Please note that all events are accessible upon invitation only. Further information is available here.

As you may (or may not) already know, a team of researchers recently concluded a study for the European Parliament on arbitration across the European Union and Switzerland. As part of this study the researchers undertook a large-scale survey of arbitration practitioners across Europe, including 871 respondents from every country in the European Union and Switzerland. The results of this survey have allowed the research team to produce far more information on the practice of arbitration in Europe than has previously been available. (see, e.g. this discussion of arbitration in six southern European countries)

A new team of researchers (Tony Cole, Paolo Vargiu, Masood Ahmed at the University of Leicester; S.I. Strong at the University of Missouri, Manuel Gomez at Florida International University, Daniel Levy at Escola de Direito da Fundação Getúlio Vargas – São Paulo, and Pietro Ortolani at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg) is now working in collaboration with the ICC International Court of Arbitration and the the Organisation of American States to deliver a survey that will generate similar information on the practice of arbitration in the Americas. Letters of support have been received from both the ICC and the OAS. Results from the survey will be used to draft articles on arbitration in the Americas, written by the members of the research team.

The survey consists almost entirely of multiple-choice questions, and only takes approximately half an hour to complete. Moreover, it need not be completed in a single sitting, and if respondents return to the survey on the same computer and with the same browser, they can resume where they left off. The survey team will keep responses confidential and will not divulge any respondent’s identity at any time without his or her explicit consent.

All response data from the survey will be stored securely under password on SurveyMonkey. All research records will be retained for a period of 7 years following the completion of the study. Responses by an individual can, however, be deleted at any time upon request of that individual. Responding to the survey will be taken as consenting to the use of the information provided, for the purposes of drafting the articles deriving from this project.

The survey will remain open until July 11, 2016. The survey is available here.

The Erasmus Graduate School of Law (EGSL) of the Erasmus University Rotterdam has two junior fellowships available for PhD candidates from universities outside the Netherlands, including candidates working in the field of private international law and European/international civil procedure, to visit the Erasmus School of Law for a period of three months. During this stay, the Junior Fellows will be able to discuss their research with senior staff members and interact with other PhD candidates in the framework of EGSL activities. Information about the Junior Fellowship programme can be found on this webpage.

Erasmus School of Law is also currently recruiting PhD Candidates, and also welcomes high quality proposals in the area of private international law and European, international or comparative civil procedure, in particular those that would fit into the multidisciplinairy and empirical research program Behavioural Approaches to Contract and Tort.

The following announcement has been kindly provided by Professor Dr. Christoph Kumpan, University of Halle-Wittenberg:

Professor Dr. Christoph Kumpan, University of Halle-Wittenberg, is looking to hire a highly skilled and motivated individual to work as a part-time (50%) research assistant beginning June 2016 or sooner. Applications should be submitted no later than April 15, 2016.

The position will entail close collaboration on a number of new and ongoing projects, focusing primarily on research on financial regulation.
The duties include reviewing English articles, editing English texts and the support in research and teaching, as well as teaching your own classes in English (2 hours per week), preferably in the areas of private law business/financial law.

This position is expected to last two years. The work location is Halle, Germany, a city close to Berlin, Germany.

Education:

a university degree, preferably in law (JD)
preferably, knowledge of financial law / securities regulation

Competencies:

knowledge of English (native speaker or equivalent language skills)
experience with reviewing and editing legal texts
interest in business law
ability to work in a team as well as independently

Hours/week: 20
Pay Frequency: Monthly
Payment: around 1.700 Euro (approx. 1.200 Euro net) per month
Possibility to obtain a doctoral degree (if faculty’s requirements are met)

Required Job Seeker Documents: Resume, Cover Letter, complete transcripts.
The cover letter should include: A brief description of your career/study goals. A description of your experience with reviewing/editing legal texts. A brief description of any prior research assistance experience, or any other experience with legal research (e.g., thesis).

The University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity. Candidates with disabilities will be preferred in cases where they have the same qualifications as others.

If you are interested in this position, please send your application with the reference no. “Reg.-Nr. 3-1109/16-H” by April 15, 2016, preferably, via email to sekretariat.kumpan@jura.uni-halle.de

or to:
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Juristische und Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Juristischer Bereich, Lehrstuhl für Bürgerliches Recht, Wirtschaftsrecht, Internationales Privatrecht und Rechtsvergleichung, Universitätsplatz 3-5, 06099 Halle (Saale).

For more information (in German) see http://www.verwaltung.uni-halle.de/dezern3/Ausschr/16_308.pdf.
For further enquiries, please contact Professor Dr. Kumpan: sekretariat.kumpan@jura.uni-halle.de

As explained in a previous post from a few years back, if the Justices of the United States Supreme Court are considering whether to grant a petition for certiorari and review a decision from the Courts of Appeals, and they think the case raises issues on which the views of the federal government might be relevant—but the government is not a party—they will order a CVSG brief. “CVSG” means “Call for the Views of the Solicitor General.” In the past two months, the Court ordered CVSG briefs in two new cases concerning matters of private international law, sovereign immunity and international arbitration.

If the issues are interesting to the Justices of the Supreme Court, and are about to be addressed by the U.S. Executive branch, then they should, ipso facto, be interesting to the practicing bar as well. The fact that each of these cases involve claims being made against foreign sovereigns makes them even more interesting for international dispute resolution lawyers steeped in the crossroads of litigation, commercial and investment arbitration. Below is a brief review of these two cases and the interesting issues being raised.

The first case is Belize Social Development Ltd. v. Government of Belize. It involves the relatively uncommon juxtaposition of arbitration award enforcement and the doctrine of forum non conveniens. In that case, a private company had a contractual dispute with the government of Belize, and obtained an arbitration award of $38 million. It then sought to confirm the award in the United States. Belize defended on numerous grounds, including by arguing that the arbitration exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act did not apply because the contract was entered without proper legal authority in Belize, and by asserting that the New York Convention does not mandate recognition and enforcement where, as here, the dispute was not purely a “commercial” one, but rather promised favorable tax treatments. These defenses were dismissed by the D.C. Circuit; Ted Folkman has discussed that decision on Letters Blogatory.

The other unsuccessful defense raised by the debtor is now the subject of a petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court. The basic question is whether a party may dismiss a petition to recognize and enforce an arbitration award under the doctrine of forum non conveniens. The District Circuit held that a foreign forum is per se inadequate—and thus ineligible as a forum conveniens—because the focus of a recognition and enforcement action (viz. U.S.-based assets) cannot be reached by a foreign court. The D.C. Circuit affirmed this holding without any explication. This holding plainly splits from the Second Circuit, which has affirmed the forum non conveniens dismissal of recognition and enforcement actions when the alternative forum has some assets of the debtor, and thus offers the possibility of a remedy. This case is complicated by the fact that the Belize Supreme Court has issued an injunction against enforcement proceedings, and the Caribbean Court of Justice has held that the Award convenes public policy.

The decision below and the parties’ briefs before the Court can be found here.

The second case is Helmerich & Payne Int’l Drilling Co. et al v. Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. This case concerns the a lawsuit by a U.S. company regarding breaches of contract by PdVSA and the expropriation of its assets in Venezuela. The claims were brought under both the expropriation and commercial activity exceptions to the FSIA; the District Court permitted the claims to proceed under the latter but not the former. The D.C. Circuit flipped those conclusions, allowing the expropriation but not the contract claims to proceed, and remanded the case. Both sides have filed crossing petitions for a writ of certiorari, presenting the following questions.

(1) Whether, under the third clause of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, a breach-of-contract action is “based … upon” any act necessary to establish an element of the claim, including acts of contract formation or performance, or solely those acts that breached the contract;

(2) whether, under Republic of Argentina v. Weltover, a breaching party’s failure to make contractually required payments in the United States causes a “direct effect” in the United States triggering the commercial activity exception where the parties’ expectations and course of dealing have established the United States as the place of payment, or only where payment in the United States is unconditionally required by contract.

(3) Whether, for purposes of determining if a plaintiff has pleaded that a foreign state has taken property “in violation of international law,” the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act recognizes a discrimination exception to the domestic-takings rule, which holds that a foreign sovereign’s taking of the property of its own national is not a violation of international law;

(4) whether, for purposes of determining if a plaintiff has pleaded that “rights in property taken in violation of international law are in issue,” the FSIA allows a shareholder to claim property rights in the assets of a still-existing corporation; and

(5) whether the pleading standard for alleging that a case falls within the FSIA’s expropriation exception is more demanding than the standard for pleading jurisdiction under the federal-question statute, which allows a jurisdictional dismissal only if the federal claim is wholly insubstantial and frivolous.

The decision below and the parties briefs before the Court can be found here and here.

What the Solicitor General says about these issues and whether the Court takes the cases will not be known until the next Term, which begins in October.

The following announcement has been kindly provided by Professor Dr. Christoph Kumpan, University of Halle-Wittenberg:

Professor Dr. Christoph Kumpan, University of Halle-Wittenberg, is looking to hire a highly skilled and motivated individual to work as a part-time (50%) research assistant beginning May 2016. Applications should be submitted no later than April 15, 2016.

The position will entail close collaboration on a number of new and ongoing projects, focusing especially on research on private law, international private law and business law.
The duties include the support in research and teaching in private law and private international law, as well as teaching your own classes (2 hours per week, in English or German), in particular in the areas of private law and/or private international law.

This position is expected to last three years. The work location is Halle, Germany, a city close to Berlin, Germany.

Education:

a university law degree (e.g., JD)

Competencies:

knowledge of English required, preferably also Spanish or French
knowledge of German of advantage
knowledge of private international law
ability to work in a team as well as independently

Hours/week: 20
Pay Frequency: Monthly
Payment: around 1.700 Euro (approx. 1.200 Euro net) per month
Possibility to obtain a doctoral degree (if faculty’s requirements are met)

Required job seeker documents: resume, cover letter, complete transcripts.
The cover letter should include: A brief description of your career/study goals. A brief description of any prior research assistance experience, or any other experience with legal research (e.g., thesis).

The University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity. Candidates with disabilities will be preferred in cases where they have the same qualifications as others.

If you are interested in this position, please send an application with the reference no. “Reg.-Nr. 3-1107/16-H” by April 15, 2016, preferably, via email to sekretariat.kumpan@jura.uni-halle.de

or to:
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Juristische und Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Juristischer Bereich, Lehrstuhl für Bürgerliches Recht, Wirtschaftsrecht, Internationales Privatrecht und Rechtsvergleichung, Universitätsplatz 3-5, 06099 Halle (Saale).

For more information (in German) see http://www.verwaltung.uni-halle.de/dezern3/Ausschr/16_310.pdf.
For further enquiries, please contact Professor Dr. Kumpan: sekretariat.kumpan@jura.uni-halle.de

Editors Andrea Bjorklund, John Gaffney, Fabien Gélinas and Herfried Wöss have prepared a new TDM special, which undertakes a broad-ranging study of CETA as an indicator of the evolution of EU trade and investment policy and of the kinds of tensions and innovations that can be expected to arise as a new generation of twenty-first century trade and investment agreements emerges. The special starts off with an introduction by Professor Pieter Jan Kuijper; The Honourable L. Yves Fortier and Judge Stephen Schwebel.

You can view the table of contents of the TDM CETA special here

As many will know, in September 2015 the University of Cambridge hosted the Journal of Private International Law Conference (see here).  Video of the four plenary sessions has now been uploaded to YouTube.  The videos can be accessed through these links: first plenary, second plenary, third plenary, fourth plenary.

The Max Planck Institute Luxembourg, heading an international consortium, is undertaking a European Commission-funded Study (JUST/2014/RCON/PR/CIVI/0082) on the laws of national civil procedure of the 28 Member States and the enforcement of European Union law.

The Study has two strands: the first deals with the impact of national civil procedure on mutual trust and the free circulation of judgments within the 28 Member States of the EU and the second deals with the impact of national civil procedure on the enforcement of consumer rights derived from EU law. Accordingly, the Consortium has prepared two online tools, aimed at gathering information, opinions and experiences (both available in six language versions):

• Questionnaire focusing on the impact of national procedures on mutual trust and the free circulation of judgments:
  English
  French
  German
  Italian
  Polish
  Spanish

• Questionnaire focusing on the impact of national procedures on the enforcement of EU consumer rights:
  English
  French
  German
  Italian
  Polish
  Spanish

We would encourage consumers, lawyers, judges, academics, consumer protection associations, businesses, business/trade associations, dispute resolution facilitators, and those working in other legal professions (including bailiffs, court clerks, registrars, notaries and so on) to respond to the questionnaire for one or both strands of the study.

If you agree, and wish to share more information with us on any of the topics covered by the Study, it will be possible to provide us with your contact details at the end of the survey.

Please feel free to share widely the links to this webpage and to the questionnaires within your own networks.

Hendric Labonté has authored a book entitled “Forderungsabtretung International. Art. 14 Rom I-Verordnung und seine Reform” (International Assignments. Art. 14 Rome I Regulation and its Reform). The volume has been published by Mohr Siebeck. It is written in German.

The official abstract reads as follows:

The commercial significance of assignments, especially in an international context, requires a straightforward conflict of laws provision. However, art. 14 Rome I does not provide enough certainty, particularly when it comes to third party effects. These should be entirely determined by the law of the underlying debt.

More information is available on the publisher’s website.

The following announcement has been kindly provided by Dr. Susanne Lilian Gössl, LL.M., University of Bonn:

Call for Papers

On 6th and 7th April 2017, for the first time a young scholars’ conference in the field of Private International Law (PIL) will be held at the University of Bonn.

The general topic will be

Politics and Private International Law (?)

We hereby invite interested junior researchers to send us their proposals for conference papers. We envisage presentations of half an hour each in German language with subsequent discussion on the respective subject. The presented papers will be published in a conference transcript by Mohr Siebeck.

Procedure

If we have stimulated your interest we are looking forward to your application to

nachwuchs-ipr(at)institut-familienrecht.de

until 30 June 2016, 12 a.m. CET (deadline!).

The application shall include an exposé of maximum 1,000 words in German language and shall be composed anonymously that is without any reference to the authorship. The author including his/her position or other affiliation shall be identifiable from a separate file.

Selection decisions will be communicated in October 2016.

For organisational reasons, a preliminary version of the paper (to measure 35,000 to 50,000 characters including footnotes) and the core statements must be received by not later than 31 March 2017.

Topic:

For our purposes, we explicitly understand PIL in a broader sense: international jurisdiction and procedure, the law of the international settlement of disputes (including ADR) as well as uniform law and comparative law and the comparison of legal cultures are included insofar as they allude to cross-border questions.

Ever since Savigny, conflict of laws rules have traditionally been perceived as “unbiased” or “value-neutral” in Central Europe as they are solely supposed to coordinate the applicable substantive law. However, during the second half of the past century the opinion that conflict of law rules may also strengthen or prevent certain results of substantive law has become prevalent. In the U.S., such discussion led to a partial abolition of the “classical” PIL in favour of balancing the individual governmental interests as to the application of their respective substantive law provisions (so called governmental interest analysis). But other legal systems have also explicitly or indirectly restricted classical PIL in some areas in favour of governmental interests. Our conference is dedicated to the various possibilities and aspects of this interaction between PIL and politics as well as to the advantages and disadvantages of this interplay.

Possible topics or topic areas are:

General questions:

• “Politicisation” of PIL on the national, European and international level, or the political target of “value-free” PIL rules (?)
• “Politicisation” of comparative law (?)
• Convergence of PIL and Public International Law, especially the protection of fundamental rights and human rights by means of PIL
• Uniform applicable law or harmonisation of PIL
• PIL in day-to-day application of law – theory and reality (?)
• General instruments of PIL to enforce political targets: overriding mandatory rules, public policy, forum non conveniens, extensive/narrow jurisdiction …
• Allocative functions of PIL and International Civil Procedure Law
• Users, stakeholders and their interests in cross-border questions: parties, attorneys, judges, notaries, experts etc.
• Protection by formal requirements or third parties’ obligations to cooperate (e.g. notarial recording of the choice of law agreement)
• Parties’ or courts’ expenses due to the application of foreign law
• Regulatory competition, e.g. in order to establish a national venue of arbitration
• Forum shopping and locational advantages through low standards of protection (e.g. regarding data protection law, copyright law, family law or consumer protection law)
• Issues of competences as regards European PIL rules
• Extraterritorial application of national (private) law (Kiobel, Bodo Community)

Business Law:

• Financial crisis, e.g. resolution of globally operating banks
• Gender Quotas of in Corporate Law, e.g. application of German law on foreign companies or comparison between international regulatory models
• Protection of competition in case of worldwide groups operating, e.g. Google antitrust proceedings by FTC and EU Commission
• Law on co-determination within the European context, e.g. questions referred for a preliminary ruling by KG (Court of Appeal in Berlin) and LG Frankfurt
• Worker protection

Family and Inheritance Law:

• Protection of minors, i.e. regarding repatriation of children or international adoptions: successful legal unification (?)
• Cross-border protection of adults
• Application of religious law and judgements of religious courts

Consumer protection:

• Consumer protection and market freedom (i.a. in the Internet)
• Special jurisdiction, party autonomy and the enforcement of minimum standards in substantive law

Internet and new media:

• Territoriality of rights to ubiquitous goods (e.g. copyright law and data protection rules) and cross-border trade
• Copyright Law and “Fair Use”
• Data protection/privacy and freedom of information

Other recent focal points:

• Migration and refugee crisis, e.g. the determination of the law of the person between integration or preservation of cultural identity
• Environmental protection, e.g. enforcement of titles from class actions or international litigation regarding mass damages
• Protection of cultural property – issues regarding ownership and repatriation

For more information, please visit https://www.jura.uni-bonn.de/en/institut-fuer-deutsches-europaeisches-und-internationales-familienrecht/pil-conference/.

If you have any further questions, please contact Dr. Susanne Gössl, LL.M. (sgoessl(at)uni-bonn.de).

We are looking forward to thought-provoking and stimulating discussions!

Yours faithfully,

Susanne Gössl
Rafael Harnos
Leonhard Hübner
Malte Kramme
Tobias Lutzi
Michael Müller
Caroline Rupp
Johannes Ungerer

Julia Alma Schünemann has authored a book entitled “Die Firma im internationalen Rechtsverkehr. Zum Kollisionsrecht der Firma unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Rechts der Europäischen Union” (Company Names in Cross-Border Transactions. The Applicable Law to the Name of a Company in the European Union). The Volume has been published in German by Mohr Siebeck.

The official abstract reads as follows:

Does an English Limited need to adapt its company name in order to operate in Germany? Julia Alma Schünemann designs an overall concept for dealing with this rarely discussed interface between private and public international and EU law.

More information is available on the publisher’s website.

The Private International Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law invites submissions for this year’s ASIL Private International Law prize. The prize is given for the best text on private international law written by a young scholar. Essays, articles, and books are welcome, and can address any topic of private international law, can be of any length, and may be published or unpublished, but not published prior to 2015. Submitted essays should be in the English language. Competitors may be citizens of any nation but must be 35 years old or younger on December 31, 2014. They need not be members of ASIL. This year, the prize will consist of a $400 stipend to participate in the 2016 ASIL Annual Conference, and one year’s membership to ASIL. The prize will be awarded by the Private International Law Interest Group based upon the recommendation of a Prize Committee. Decisions of the Prize Committee on the winning essay and on any conditions relating to this prize are final. Submissions to the Prize Committee must be received by June 1, 2016. Entries should be submitted by email in Word or pdf format. They should contain two different documents: a) the essay itself, without any identifying information other than the title; and b) a second document containing the title of the entry and the author’s name, affiliation, and contact details. Submissions and any queries should be addressed by email to Private International Law Interest Group Co-Chair Cristian Gimenez Corte (cristiangimenezcorte@gmail.com). All submissions will be acknowledged by e-mail.

The following announcement has been kindly provided by Béligh Elbalti, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University.

Since 2008, the Research Unit on International Private Relations, Commerce, Arbitration and Migrations of the Faculty of Legal, Political and Social Sciences of Tunis (Carthage University) has been organizing the “journées Mohamed Charfi de droit international privé” colloquium which address various Private International Law issues. These colloquiums are organized on the memory of the late Dr. Mohamed Charfi, an eminent and leading Tunisian scholar specialized in the field of family law, human rights and private international law.

On April 2016, the Research Unit will organize its fourth journées Mohamed Charfi de droit international privé under the theme of international contracts and private international law. The colloquium will be held at the Faculty of Legal, Political and Social Sciences of Tunis on the 13 and 14 April 2016. Eminent and distinguished professors, as well as leading Tunisian law professors and private international law specialists will take part in this event.

The program will be as follow:

First Day : 13 avril 2016 (Wednesday) :
Les tendances générales dans le droit du contrat international

Morning Sesseion

8h30 – 9h15: Welcome Speech

9h15 – 9h30: Ali MEZGHANI (Professeur, Faculté de Droit des sciences juridiques, politiques et sociales de Tunis)
Présentation générale du colloque : « À propos du contrat international »

9h30 – 10h : Pierre MAYER (Professeur émérite, École de Droit de la Sorbonne)
Rapport introductif : « L’internationalité du contrat »

10h -10h30 : Jean-Michel JACQUET (Professeur, Institut des Hautes études internationales et du développement de Genève)
« Sanctions économiques internationales et contrats internationaux »

10h30-11h : Coffee Break

11h – 11h30 : Souhayma BEN ACHOUR (Professeur, Faculté de Droit et des sciences politiques de Tunis)
« L’essor de l’autonomie de la volonté en Droit international privé tunisien »

11h30 – 12h : Salma TRIKI (Maitre-assistante, Institut supérieur des études juridiques et politiques de Kairouan)
« La hiérarchie des normes dans le droit du commerce international »

12h – 12h30 : Debate

Afternoon Session

15h – 15h30 : Imed BÉJAOUI (Maitre-assistant, École supérieure de commerce de Sfax)
« La pérennité du contrat international entre pacta sunt servanda et rebus sic stantibus : réflexions au regard du pouvoir interprétatif de l’arbitre»

15h30 – 16h : Donia ALLANI (Assistante, Faculté des sciences juridiques, politiques et sociales de Tunis)
« La loi applicable au contrat d’après l’article 62 du Code tunisien de droit international privé »

16h-16h30 : Coffee Break

16h30h-17h: Thouraya AHMADI (Assistante, Faculté des sciences juridiques, politiques et sociales de Tunis)
« Les lois de police étrangères et le contrat international »

17h-17h30 : Debate

Second Day : 14 avril 2016 (Thursday) :
De quelques solutions particulières dans le droit du contrat international

Morning Session

9h – 9h30 : Lotfi CHEDLY (Professeur, Doyen de la Faculté de Droit des sciences juridiques, politiques et sociales de Tunis)
« La protection du consommateur en Droit international privé tunisien »

9h30 – 10h : Fatma BOURAOUI (Maitre assistante, Faculté de Droit des sciences juridiques, politiques et sociales de Tunis)
« Les contrats de transmission des créances en droit international privé »

10h – 10h30 : Rym BEN KHELIFA (Maitre-assistante, Faculté de Droit et des sciences politiques de Tunis)
« L’impact des traités relatifs à la protection des investissements sur les contrats conclus entre États-hôtes et investisseurs étrangers »

10h30 – 11h : Coffee Break

11h – 11h30: Jallel BACCAR (Maitre-assistant, École supérieure de commerce de Sfax)
« Le crédit documentaire international »

11h30 – 12h : Inès YOUSSEF (Maitre-assistante, Faculté des sciences juridiques, économiques et de gestion de Jendouba)
« Le payement d’un contrat international par crédit documentaire »

12h – 12h30: Debate

12h30 : End of the Colloquium

All presentations are in French. Participation to this event is free of charge and no prior reservation is required.

Financial technology (Fintech) describes the way in which technological innovations transform financial services. Examples are bitcoin, PayPal or crowdfunding. These new phenomena not only raise important regulatory concerns, but also difficult conflict-of-laws questions. They will be addressed at a conference hosted by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) and organized by Eva Lein. It will take place today, 16 March 2016, from 5 to 7 PM, at Charles Clore House, Russell Square (London). The line-up of speakers includes Daniel Awrey (Oxford University), Tetsuo Morishita (Sophia University, Tokyo), and Matthias Lehmann (University of Bonn). Registration information and further details are available here.

Matthias Klöpfer has authored a book entitled “Missbrauch im Europäischen Zivilverfahrensrecht” (Abuse of Procedure in European Civil Procedural Law). The book has been published in German by the German publishing house Mohr Siebeck.

The official abstract reads as follows:

There are times when European civil procedural law seems to actually encourage abuse of law and circumvention strategies. Matthias Klöpfer examines if and how Europe’s so-called prohibition of abuse of law principle can serve as a union-wide approach to regulate abuse of procedure.

More information is available on the publisher’s website.

The University of Maribor (Slovenia) is organizing the Central European Law Conference for Students (CELCOS). It will take place in Maribor from 31 March to 2 April 2016. CELCOS will be the first large international student event in Central and Southeastern Europe to reflect current issues of EU law.
The main concept of this Jean Monnet project is to gather over 50 law doctoral students from universities across Europe for a three-day conference at the University of Maribor (Slovenia), where the doctoral students will be the main actors and about 30 experts, i.e. professors of EU law, judges, prosecutors and policy-makers at the national and EU level will give impulses to the discussion about selected areas of EU law by commenting on the students’ contributions.
The aim of this conference is to analyze current topics of EU law, especially in light of the importance that EU law has for establishing the rule of law in Central and Southeastern Europe. Moreover, it aims at promoting fresh ideas and proposals for the future development of the EU legal system in general.

The conference will be divided into nine sessions dealing with the following topics:

Session 1: Triangle of cooperation between courts – ECtHR, CJEU and national courts.

Session 2: Managing migration in Europe – between economic feasibility and protection of human rights.

Session 3: Market integration through law: reforming legal foundations for a stable EU market.

Session 4: Effective enforcement of data protection law in Europe.

Session 5: EU Consumer protection – the current challenges.

Session 6: From transnational principles to European rules of civil procedure.

Session 7: Common EU standards on rights of suspects, the accused and victims in criminal proceedings.

Session 8: Integration of environmental protection into EU policies.

Session 9: Democracy and rule of law in Central and Southeastern Europe.

CELCOS is co-financed by the EU Commission – Erasmus programme – Jean Monnet Project. Further information is available at the Conference homepage. A detailed description of the sessions may be found here.

Our co-editor Tanja Domej from University of Zurich has authored a monograph entitled “Internationale Zwangsvollstreckung und Haftungsverwirklichung am Beispiel der Forderungspfändung” (International Execution and the Implementation of Liability). The volume has been published by Mohr Siebeck. It is written in German.

The official abstract reads as follows:

Tanja Domej retraces the debates over the relevancy and meaning of the principle of territoriality for the cross-border attachment of debts from a comparative perspective. On the basis of an interest analysis, she presents perspectives for an appropriate approach to dealing with issues of cross-border attachment of incorporeal assets.

More information is available on the publisher’s website.

Written by Eloïse Glucksmann

The Center for Private International Law and International Trade Law (CRDI) of the University Panthéon-Assas is pleased to invite you to a conference on the “UNCITRAL Contribution to International Trade Law” that will take place in the faculty premises at 92, rue d’Assas 75005 Paris, conference room no 315, on April 12, 2016. Speeches will be in French.

Please register by contacting laurence.tacquard@u-paris2.fr. This conference is also accountable for the lawyers’ continuing training (formation continue des avocats) of the French National Council of the Bars (Conseil national des barreaux).

This event is organized with the collaboration of the Department for Private International Relations Studies (SERPI-IRJS) of the Sorbonne Law School and the Foundation for Continental Law

Program:

Morning

8:45 – Registration

9:00 – Opening remarks

Marie Goré, Professor at the University Panthéon-Assas Paris II, Director of the Center for Private International Law and International Trade Law (CRDI)

Géraud Sajust de Bergues d’Escalup, Deputy Director for Legal Affairs of Foreign Affairs

Renaud Sorieul, Director of the International Trade Law Division of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs

Chairman: Sylvain Bollée, Professor at the Sorbonne Law School (University Paris 1), Co-director of the Department for Private International Relations Studies (SERPI-IRJS)

9:20 – The UNCITRAL methods
Vincent Heuzé, Professor at the Sorbonne Law School (University Paris 1)

The UNCITRAL model, its influence on OHADA law
Dorothé Cossi Sossa, permanent secretary

10:30 – International Sale of Goods: how to maintain or reinforce the UNCITRAL promotion of practices’ unification?
Claude Witz, Professor at the University of Saarland (Germany), Co-director of the Legal Center Franco-German

11:00 – Break

11:15 – International Commercial Arbitration
Daniel Cohen, Professor at the University Panthéon-Assas Paris II

11:45 – UNCITRAL and the aspiration to diffuse Security Interests model standards
Jean-François Riffard, Lawyer, Associate-Professor at the University of Auvergne (Clermont 1)

12:30 – Lunch break

Afternoon

Chairman: Pascal de Vareilles-Sommières, Professor at the Sorbonne Law School (University Paris 1)

2:00 – Insolvency of corporate groups
Reinhard Dammann, partner at Clifford Chance Europe LLP

2:30 – The sole ownership
Antoine Gaudemet, Professor at the University Panthéon-Assas Paris II

3:00 – The Rotterdam Rules: how to convince?
Philippe Delebecque, Professor at the Sorbonne Law School (University Paris 1)

3:30 – Break

3:45 – The UNCITRAL contribution to the development of public-private partnerships’ safeguarding
Stéphane Braconnier, Professor at the University Panthéon-Assas Paris II

4:15 – The UNCITRAL contribution to electronic trade development
Thibault Douville, Associate-Professor at the Caen Normandie

4:45 – Summary
Rafael Illescas Ortiz, Professor of Commercial Law, Universidad Carlos III of Madrid, former president of the UNCITRAL

The event will be followed by a cocktail.