Agrégateur de flux

Les graves événements climatiques et militaires qui ont marqué les mois de juillet et août 2022 n’ont pas trop perturbé la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme qui s’est accordée comme d’ordinaire une trêve de quatre semaines à peine troublée par la nécessité d’indiquer des mesures provisoires dans des affaires d’une brûlante actualité. En juillet et fin août, elle a néanmoins rendu d’importants arrêts sur de graves questions récurrentes telles que les violences policières, les violences domestiques ou le traitement des migrants et sur des aspects parfois inattendus du droit au respect de la vie privée, de la liberté d’expression, du droit à un procès équitable ou du droit au respect des biens. Elle aura surtout eu l’occasion de mettre en lumière des figures procédurales encore peu connues comme la demande d’avis consultatif au titre du Protocole n° 16 et le recours en manquement exercé par le comité des ministres en cas de refus par un État de se conformer à un de ses arrêts définitifs qui a donné lieu au seul arrêt de grande chambre de la période étudiée et qui mérite d’être placé en exergue.

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Par un arrêt du 7 juillet 2022, la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne impose aux législations nationales la modalité de décompte des délais de recours contre certains actes signifiés ou notifiés en application du règlement du 13 novembre 2007.

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The DynamInt Research Group at Humboldt University (located in the heart of Berlin, close to the Brandenburg Gate) invites international post-docs in the field of European law (broadly understood) to apply for a research stay lasting between 3 and 6 months.

Applications are excepted on a rolling basis (no deadline). Successful candidates will receive a financial allowance and will be provided with a fully equipped working place. It is possible to teach classes while staying at Humboldt University. However, teaching is not mandatory.

Further information is available here.

The Centre for Studies and Research in International Law and International Relations Series at Brill has just issued its 23rd volume, edited by Hannah Buxbaum.

The Centre for Studies and Research in International Law and International Relations of the Hague Academy of International Law is designed to bring together highly qualified young international lawyers from all over the world, to undertake original research on a common general theme which is determined annually by the Curatorium of the Academy. The Centre is sub-divided in an English-speaking and French-speaking section. The research undertaken at the Centre is published in a collective volume containing the reports of the Directors and the best contributions from the participants. In 2019, the Director was Hannah Buxbaum, and her fascinating cross-over topic was „extraterritoriality“.

The blurb reads as follows: „Extraterritoriality is a challenging concept as a matter of international law and policy, raising fundamental questions about the allocation of power among States. It is also a dynamic concept, reflecting and responding to shifts in the global economy, patterns of human behavior, and understandings of state sovereignty.“

Following the Reports of the Directors of Studies, no less than 20 chapters explore the notion and implications of extraterritoriality, either in French or in English language, such as e.g. the first Chapter by Buxbaum herself  on “The Practice(s) of Extraterritoriality” (for an SSRN preprint see here), “(Il)licéités et (dé)mesures de l’extraterritorialité”, several Chapters on historical aspects, “Objects and Subjects of Extraterritorialité”, “Extraterritorialité within the Framework of the EU” and other regional organisations, as well as aspects of extraterritoriality in certain areas of law such as in criminal law, cybersecurity, human rights, environmental law, outer space, data protection etc. “Throughout, the volume recognizes extraterritoriality as an expansive concept used to assess both the actions and the obligations of states within the international arena”, the blurb further explains.

Thus, the volume connects private and public international law perfectly and also includes interdisciplinary input. It thereby represents the spirit of the Hague Academy’s Centre for Studies and Research at its best. Highly recommended!

A similarly promising project is currently ongoing at the Centre: “Climate Change and the Testing of International Law” from 22 August – 9 September 2022.

 

The third issue of the Journal du droit international for 2022 was released in July. It contains two articles and several case notes relating to private international law issues.

In the first article, Caroline Kleiner (University of Paris Cité) discusses the private international law dimension of the sanctions against Russia (L‘application des « sanctions économiques » adoptées par l’Union européenne contre la Russie à la suite de l’invasion de l’Ukraine : éléments de droit international privé).

The English abstract reads:

The adoption of sanctions by the European Union is the main tool available to EU member states to react politically, legally and economically to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. On an unprecedented scale, the sanctions initiated in 2014 in EU regulations following the annexation of Crimea and reinforced from 23 February 2022 are very diverse. On the one hand, restrictions of different intensity have been imposed on trade and financial matters. On the other hand, measures to freeze funds and economic resources are aimed at “target” persons and entities. These provisions, which are mandatory throughout the European Union and in respect of any economic activity carried out in whole or in part therein and in respect of any person who is a national of a Member State or who is incorporated under the law of a Member State, are being applied, however, according to a distinct mechanism. Sanctions-rule interfere with contracts as mandatory rules (lois de police), while the application of sanctions-decision is based on the method of recognition.

In the second article, Hélène Gaudemet-Tallon offers some thoughts on the recent draft code of private international law (Quelques réflexions sur le projet de Code français de droit international privé du 31 mars 2022).

The English abstract reads:

On 31 March 2022, a draft French Code of Private International Law was submitted to the Minister of Justice. This text was prepared by a group working under the chairmanship of Jean-Pierre Ancel (honorary president of the first civil chamber of the Court of Cassation). The project goes beyond what was requested in 2018 by Ms. Belloubet, Minister of Justice. Far from being a simple consolidation of the existing law, throughout its 207 articles, it proposes some new solutions and precise several acquired solutions. This article, after recalling the genesis of the project, shows the scope of the field covered, the plan adopted to deal with all issues of private international law, general theory of both conflicts of laws and conflicts of jurisdictions (jurisdiction and recognition and enforcement), special applications, proceedings, provisional measures, etc. However, the draft does not deal with international arbitration or jurisdictional immunities. Particularly interesting because the difficulty was high is the solution adopted to ensure the articulation between the French code and European law or international conventions : the primacy of European and conventional law is generally affirmed; then various articles contain numerous references to a particular European regulation or international convention. Sometimes the project extends the application of a European regulation to issues excluded by a regulation.

Without studying all the provisions of the project, this study draws the attention of the reader to particularly striking innovations : careful adoption of the method of recognition ; rejection of the distinction between available and unavailable rights and obligation for the judge to always apply the conflict rule ; full recognition of all foreign judgments without distinguishing according to their nature ; solutions proposed for divorce by private agreement ; new rules on filiation (rejection of the connection to the national law of the mother), medically assisted procreation with third-party donor, surrogacy, adoption. The important powers granted to the judge and the use of several flexible concepts should also be noticed (for example, procedural loyalty).

This study is intended to describe the project and to assess the importance of its future.

The table of contents of the issue can be accessed here.

The second issue of 2022 of the Rivista di diritto internazionale privato e processuale (RDIPP, published by CEDAM) was just released. It features:

Costanza Honorati, Professor at the University Milan-Bicocca, Giovanna Ricciardi, Doctoral candidate at the University Milan-Bicocca, Violenza domestica e protezione cross-border (Domestic Violence and Cross-Border Protection) [in Italian]

Domestic violence has drawn increasing attention both from the lawmaker and legal scholars. Legal means to prevent domestic violence and protect women have been promoted and implemented at the national and supranational levels. This article concentrates on seeking and enforcing civil protection measures in cross-border family conflicts. Protective measures are often sought and taken in the State where the prospective victim (and often also the tortfeasor) is habitually resident. PIL issues are however rarely addressed. Regulation (EU) No 606/2013 on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters provides a useful instrument when the need for recognition and enforcement in a different Member State arises at a later stage. Less dealt with is the issue of selecting an appropriate ground for jurisdiction, which is not governed by the mentioned Regulation. The latter issue becomes especially relevant in the very peculiar case of protection measures to be issued in the so-called State of refuge when a mother challenges a situation of domestic violence as a ground for leaving the State of a child’s habitual residence and searches for protection elsewhere. The interplay between domestic violence and abduction cases, a situation quite frequent in practice but rarely addressed in legal literature, is further explored and dealt with.

Ilaria Viarengo, Professor at the University Milan, The Coordination of Jurisdiction and Applicable Law in Proceedings Related to Economic Aspects of Family Law

This article addresses the complex features and problems arising from the combined application of all European and international instruments dealing with divorce and the economic aspects of family law. The need to avoid litigation proceedings in different jurisdictions, entailing the duplication of proceedings and costs and the need to have divorce and all the financial aspects governed by the same law are of central importance from a practical point of view. This article provides an analysis of whether and to what extent these two needs can be satisfied with the combined application of the EU family law regulations at issue. Firstly, it deals with some general issues whose solution could have an impact on the coordination among all these instruments. Consequently, it examines the interplay among rules on jurisdiction and applicable law, including the role of party autonomy in pursuing coordination.

The following comment is also featured:

Curzio Fossati, Doctoral candidate at the University of Insubria, La residenza abituale nei regolamenti europei di diritto internazionale privato della famiglia alla luce della giurisprudenza della Corte di giustizia (Habitual Residence in EU Private International Law Regulations in Family Matters in View of the Case-Law of the Court of Justice) [in Italian]

This article deals with the concept of habitual residence, which is in widespread use in the EU Regulations in the field of family law. Firstly, the article gives an overview of these Regulations, and then it analyses the case-law of the CJEU on the criterion of habitual residence referred to children, deceased persons, and spouses. The contribution examines two fundamental elements of the concept of habitual residence identified both by CJEU and scholars: the objective element, i.e. a sufficiently stable presence of a person in a Member State, and the subjective element, i.e. the intention of the person concerned to establish the permanent or habitual centre of his or her interests in that place. The article also tries to identify the most suitable method of interpretation of the concept of habitual residence and, in particular, it investigates which approach is more desirable between a uniform approach (which fosters a uniform definition of habitual residence in EU law) and a functional one (which implies an interpretation that takes into account the aim of the disposition in which the concept is used). Ultimately, the Author endorses the solution adopted by the CJEU in the IB case, which combines the aforementioned approaches.

Finally, this issue features the following book review by Cristina M. Mariottini, Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law: Henry Deeb GABRIEL, Contracts for the Sale of Goods – A Comparison of U.S. and International Law, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2022, pp. v-401.

The International Commission on Civil Status (ICCS) will host a conference, jointly organised with the Société de Législation Comparée, under the title Plurilingual Forms – Present and Future of International Cooperation in Civil Status Matters.

The conference will take place in Strasbourg on 21 September 2022.

Speakers (and chairs) include Hans Van Loon (former Secretary General of the Hague Conference on Private International Law), Paul Lagarde (Emeritus Professor at the University Paris I, former secretary general of the ICCS), Patrick Wautelet (University of Liège), Bojana Zadravec (President of the Slovenian Association of Administrative Staff, EVS -European Association of Registars), Olivier Guillod (University of Neuchâtel), Laura Martinez-Mora (Hague Conference on PIL), Nicolas Nord (Secretary General of the ICCS), Anatol Dutta (University of Munich), Camille Reitzer (Deputy Secretary General of the ICCS), Marie Vautravers (European Commission), Guillermo Palao Moreno (University of Valencia), Alexander Schuster (University of Graz), Andreas Bucher (Emeritus Professor at the University of Geneva).

The working languages will be French and English (presentations made in one language will be simultaneously translated into the other).

Further information can be found here.

The conference comes only a few weeks after the Strasbourg Convention of 14 March 2014 on the issue of multilingual extracts from civil status acts came into force internationally (on 1 July 2022), for Germany, Belgium and Switzerland.

Carlos Santaló Goris, Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Luxembourg, offers an analysis of the reform recently approved in Luxembourg concerning the functioning of the information mechanism of the Regulation No 655/2014, establishing a European Account Preservation Order (“EAPO Regulation”). The EAPO Regulation and other EU civil procedural instruments are the object of study in the ongoing EFFORTS project, with the financial support of the European Commission. 

The EAPO Regulation introduced the first European civil interim measure that permits, as its name indicates, the provisional attachment of the debtors’ bank accounts in cross-border civil and commercial claims. Besides the temporary attachment of debtors’ funds, it also contains a special tool to search for the bank accounts containing those funds. This information mechanism is perhaps one of the main appeals of the EAPO. It has even inspired some national legislatures, for instance, the French one, to improve their domestic mechanisms to trace debtors’ assets in civil proceedings. Nonetheless, access to the EAPO’s information mechanism is more limited than access to the EAPO itself. Whereas creditors without a title can apply for an EAPO, they cannot submit a request to search for debtors’ bank accounts. This option is limited to creditors with a title, whether the title is enforceable or not.

Article 14 of the EAPO Regulation sets up the basic structure of the information mechanism. Provided creditors satisfy the necessary prerequisites to ask for the investigation of the debtors’ bank accounts, the court which examines the EAPO application sends a request for information to the Member State where the bank accounts are located. There, an information authority would be in charge of searching for debtors’ bank accounts and giving an answer to the requesting court.

The EAPO Regulation gives the Member States broad discretion in implementing the mechanism to investigate the debtors’ bank accounts. Article 14 only suggests three different methods that the Member States can choose to search the information about the debtors’ bank accounts. The first one consists of asking all the banks in the territory of the requested Member State to disclose whether they have the debtors’ bank accounts (Art. 14(5)(a) EAPO Regulation). According to the second method, the information about the debtors’ bank accounts is retrieved from the registries held by public administrations (Art. 14(5)(b) EAPO Regulation). Finally, according to the third method, courts may “oblige the debtor to disclose with which bank or banks in its territory he holds one or more accounts” (Art. 14(5)(c) EAPO Regulation).  The request to disclose the information is “accompanied by an in personam order by the court prohibiting the withdrawal or transfer” by the debtor “of funds held in his account or accounts up to the amount to be preserved by the Preservation Order” (Art. 14(5)(c) EAPO Regulation). This list of methods is not exhaustive, and the Member States are allowed to opt for any other method as long as it is “effective and efficient” and “not disproportionately costly or time-consuming” (Art. 14(5)(d) EAPO Regulation).

At the Luxembourgish domestic level, the EAPO information mechanism represented a major innovation. The Luxembourgish civil procedural system lacks an equivalent national tool to investigate debtors’ bank accounts. Therefore, the EAPO’s mechanism became (and still is) the only tool to trace debtors’ bank accounts during a civil procedure in Luxembourg. When a creditor requests a national provisional attachment order (saisie-arrêt), but ignores in which bank the debtors’ accounts are located, the attachment order must be sent to all the banks where those accounts may be held. The more banks the saisie-arrêt is sent to, the higher the chances of freezing the debtors’ funds. Such “fishing expeditions’ are costly. The saisie-arrêt is served to the banks through a bailiff (huissier). The more banks the saisie-arrêt is sent to, the higher the fee that the bailiff will charge.

Luxembourg appointed its national financial authority, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (“CSSF”), as its national information authority for the EAPO information mechanism. In contrast to the costly “fishing expeditions” of the saisie-arrêt, the CSSF does not charge any fees for obtaining information about the debtors’ bank accounts.

The CSSF searches for the bank accounts by requesting that all the banks or branches of foreign banks operating in Luxembourg disclose if they hold the debtors’ accounts (Art. 14(5)(a) EAPO Regulation). Until September 2022, this request was sent by regular mail to all those entities. Banks were given 20 days to reply to the CSSF. Those 20 days, plus the time it takes to send the request by mail to the banks and receive their answers, explain why it takes at least one month until the CSSF can reply to the court which submitted the original information request.

However, from 1 September 2022, the request for information is sent through an online platform, the Guichet numérique eDesk (Circulaire CSSF 22/819). Banks operating in Luxembourg are required to join this platform. Thanks to this reform, the CSSF will be able to obtain information about the debtors’ bank accounts faster. It also ensures better monitoring of the answers provided by the banks. Overall, this reform enhances the functioning of the EAPO’s information mechanism at the Luxembourgish level and is in line with the EAPO Regulation, which favours the swift transmission of documents (Recital 24 Regulation).

 

 

On Tuesday, September 20, 2022, the Hamburg Max Planck Institute will host its 25th monthly virtual workshop Current Research in Private International Law at 11:00 a.m. -12:30 p.m. (CEST). Prof. Hisashi Harata (University of Tokyo) will speak, in English, about the topic

“Foreign-Corporation Regulations and Private International Law: With a Case Study on Derivative Action”.

The globalization of enterprise organization as well as activities causes more serious labour issues, environmental issues, human rights issues and so on. The corporate law rules on duties and responsibilities of corporate directors are regarded as a tool for corporate governance and
compliance.
Based on the current position for the lex incorporationis as well as the internal-affairs doctrine, the breach of duties and responsibilities of directors and the shareholder’s standing for derivative action would be ruled by the lex incorporationis, except for the application of overriding mandatory rules of lex fori.
However, the existence of foreign-company regulations in different jurisdictions like California, New York, Hongkong, Netherland etc. might lead us to a theoretical reflection, as they could impose regulations severer than lex incorporationis on directors and there is no room for such regulations of third countries other than lex incorporationis and lex fori to be applied within the conventional framework of P.I.L.
This presentation will shed lights on this theoretical issue, introducing practical case-study analysis on derivative action, and suggest several problematic points to be tackled in further studies.

The presentation will be followed by open discussion. All are welcome. More information and sign-up here.

If you want to be invited to these events in the future, please write to veranstaltungen@mpipriv.de.

This post was written by Paul Lorenz Eichmüller, University of Vienna.

Austrian law provides for an international forum necessitatis in Austria if this is necessary to avoid a denial of justice, i.e. if legal action abroad is (objectively) impossible or (subjectively) unreasonable, see § 28(1)2 Jurisdiktionsnorm (Civil Jurisdiction Act). The Austrian Supreme Court has recently issued four decisions (2 Nc 11/22y, 2 Nc 17/22f, 9 Nc 8/22h and 10 Nc 6/22x) in which it stated that bringing a claim for flight compensation in the UK is indeed unreasonable for Austrian claimants. This – admittedly, quite harsh – verdict shows once again Brexit’s negative impact on matters of civil jurisdiction.

The Austrian forum necessitatis

Compared to other European countries, the institution of a forum necessitatis takes a rather prominent role in the Austrian provisions on international jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters. If there is no other forum reasonably available to claimants with Austrian (or EU-) nationality or habitual residence/domicile in Austria, they can file an application to the Austrian Supreme Court to establish the jurisdiction of the Austrian courts. This procedure is called the “ordination” of jurisdiction. The cases covered by this provision range from instances where there are in fact no other countries whose courts would hear the claim, to cases where the other available fora are regarded as unreasonable – as determined on a case-by-case basis.

Even though the Supreme Court constantly reiterates that the notion of unreasonableness needs to be interpreted restrictively in order to avoid a general forum actoris in Austria (see RIS-Justiz RS0046322), its interpretation in practice is surprisingly broad. Rather obvious instances of unreasonableness include the non-enforcement of the foreign judgment in Austria; urgent proceedings abroad taking too long; a factual standstill of judicature in the respective country; severe doubts regarding the independence of the courts; or one of the parties being subject to political persecution abroad.

However, also significant additional costs of the foreign proceedings compared to litigation in Austria can constitute a ground for (subjective) unreasonableness; this includes the lack of legal aid; the lack of reimbursement of legal costs by the winner of the proceedings; or unusually high deposits as security for costs. In contrast, a less favourable position in the substantive law that is applied abroad is normally insufficient to justify an ordination of an Austrian forum necessitatis (RIS-Justiz RS0117751).

In relation to member states of the Brussels Ibis Regulation or the 2007 Lugano Convention, the ordination of a forum necessitatis will generally be impossible, as bringing a claim in these countries is not considered impossible or unreasonable (RIS-Justiz RS0112108). Since the end of the transitional period, the UK is no longer part of either of these instruments and thus subject to the general reasonableness test of the Austrian Supreme Court.

Flight Compensation as a Contentious Point

Unlike the Brussels Ibis Regulation, the domestic Austrian rules on international jurisdiction do not include a general jurisdictional head at the place of performance. The corresponding provision in § 88 JN is limited only to cases in which the place of performance was explicitly agreed upon in the contract and can be proven by a document signed by the respondent. The practical relevance of this head of jurisdiction is therefore negligible.

When it comes to flights operated by an airline based in a third country, there is thus neither a place of general jurisdiction nor any court with specific jurisdiction in Austria. If – like in one of the Supreme Court decisions (2 Nc 17/22f) – the airline has assets in Austria, the claimant can at least base the (exorbitant) jurisdiction of Austrian courts on the location of the airline’s assets (§ 99 JN). In all other cases of flight cancellation or delays (without assets of the airline in Austria), travellers living in Austria – even if they departed from an airport in Austria – would thus have to bring a claim at the airline’s seat in a third country. However, the decision of the third country will not necessarily be enforced in Austria. This is where the ordination of an Austrian forum necessitatis comes into play: No enforcement means that the judgment would be worthless, so the proceedings abroad are considered unreasonable for the claimant.

In all four of the recent decisions, Austrian claimants sought flight compensation from an airline based in the UK. However, after the UK left the EU, the reasonableness of an action against the airline at its seat in England also depends on the chances of the English judgment being recognised in Austria. While there is in fact an Austro-British treaty on the mutual recognition and enforcement of judicial decisions in civil and commercial matters from 1961, this treaty only guarantees the recognition of the decisions by “superior courts” (Art II(1)). In England, that would only be decisions by the High Court, the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court (Art I(2)(a)). Due to the low amount of money usually in dispute in a flight compensation case, it will regularly be impossible to reach one of these courts. Thus, the recognition of a potential English judgment would fail, and this is the reason why an Austrian forum necessitatis was provided by the Supreme Court. Brexit has led to a step back into the 1980’s – when these issues were last discussed (RIS-Justiz RS0002320).

An Outlook

Due to an increasing number of ordination cases regarding flight compensation, the Austrian legislator has reacted and recently § 101a JN , providing for jurisdiction of the courts at the place of departure or arrival in all matters relating to the EU Flight Compensation Regulation. It is thus unlikely that situations like the ones decided will occur again.

Yet, these decisions continue to be of interest, for they show one thing very clearly: while Austria is in the fortunate situation to have a bilateral treaty with the UK that provides for the recognition of some (high-profile and high-value) decisions, it is far from covering everything. Particularly claims of lower value that will not reach the superior courts will not be enforced in Austria. With its forum necessitatis, Austria has found a way to minimise the negative jurisdictional side effects of Brexit for its citizens and residents, but Brexit still continues to pose us with problems we had considered solved a long time ago.

by JProf. Dr. Katharina Kaesling, LL.M. (College of Europe)

Proposals for conference presentations and short presentations at the fourth conference for young German-speaking scholars in private international law (“IPR-Nachwuchstagung”) in February 2023 can be submitted until 12th September 2022.

The organisers are welcoming all contributions by young scholars that deal with the theme of the conference “Deference to the foreign – empty phrase or guiding principle of private international law”. The call for papers and further information can be found on the conference website.

Although the conference will mainly be held in German, English proposals and presentations are also most welcome.

A quick update related to the insolvency regulation (Regulation 2015/848): on 30 August 2022 the Commission adopted Decision (EU) 2022/1437 confirming the participation of Ireland in Regulation (EU) 2021/2260 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) 2015/848 on insolvency proceedings to replace its Annexes A and B.

The Decision takes up the notification to the Commission of 31 May 2022 whereby Ireland notified its wish, in accordance with Article 4 of Protocol (No 21), to accept and be bound by Regulation (EU) 2021/2260 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The preamble explains that there are no specific conditions attached to the participation of Ireland in Regulation (EU) 2021/2260 and there is no need for transitional measures; the measure concerned by the current notification of Ireland merely updates the Annexes A and B to that Regulation containing the list of national insolvency proceedings and the list of national insolvency practitioners, respectively. The Decision has entered into force the day after its publication in the Official Journal, thus on 1 September 2022.

La Cour de justice de l’Union européenne analyse, à travers quatre affaires distinctes, les conditions d’application du droit de l’Union à la protection internationale des mineurs.

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Those in Luxembourg on 8 September 2022 may want to attend the hearing in case C-393/21, Lufthansa Technik AERO Alzey. The request for a preliminary ruling comes from the Lietuvos Aukščiausiasis Teismas (Lithuania), and was lodged on 28 June 2021. It focuses on Article 23 of Regulation (EC) No 805/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 creating a European Enforcement Order for uncontested claims. The provision addresses the stay or limitation of enforcement. The request will oblige the Court to decide on the scope, conditions of application and extent of the review carried out by a competent court or authority of the Member State of enforcement under Article 23(c), and on the possibility of simultaneously applying several measures referred to in this article. A final question raises the issue of the relationship between the stay of the enforcement procedure under the above mentioned Article 23, and that provided for by Article 44(2) of Regulation No 1215/2012.

The facts of the case are the following.

In enforcement proceedings, a bailiff operating in Lithuania is executing an order of the Amtsgericht Hünfeld (Local Court, Hünfeld, Germany) of 14 June 2019, on the basis of a European Enforcement Order certificate of 2 December 2019 regarding the recovery of a debt of EUR 2 292 993.32 from the debtor, Arik Air Limited.

Claiming that the certificate had been issued unlawfully because the procedural documents of the Local Court, Hünfeld, had not been duly served on it, thus causing it to miss the time limit for lodging objections, Arik Air Limited applied to the Landgericht Frankfurt am Main (Regional Court, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) for withdrawal of the European Enforcement Order certificate of 2 December 2019. In an order of 9 April 2020, that court stated that execution of the enforcement order of 24 October 2019 would be stayed if Arik Air Limited paid a security of EUR 2 000 000.

Arik Air Limited, requested the bailiff to stay the enforcement proceedings in the Republic of Lithuania until the debtor’s claims for withdrawal of the European Enforcement Order certificate had been examined in a final procedural decision of the court in Germany. The bailiff refused to stay the enforcement proceedings.

By order of 11 June 2020, the Kauno apylinkės teismas (District Court, Kaunas, Lithuania), before which an action regarding this refusal was brought, did not uphold the action. The court stated that the debtor’s request had already been examined by a court of the State of origin in the order of 9 April 2020 and, therefore, it had no grounds to examine it.

By order of 25 September 2020, the Kauno apygardos teismas (Regional Court, Kaunas) set aside the order of the court of first instance, upheld the action brought by Arik Air Limited, and ordered the stay of the enforcement proceedings pending a full examination of the applicant’s claims by a final judgment of the German court that had jurisdiction. The appellate court stated that, in view of the disproportionately great harm which might be caused in the enforcement proceedings, an application regarding a European Enforcement Order certificate to a court of the State where it was issued was a sufficient ground for staying the enforcement proceedings. Taking the view that there was nothing in the case file to confirm that the security specified in the order of the Regional Court, Frankfurt am Main, of 9 April 2020 had been paid, the appellate court concluded that there was no ground to believe that the question of the suspension of enforcement measures in the enforcement proceedings had been examined by the court of the State origin.

On 16 December 2020, the interested party, Lufthansa Technik AERO Alzey GmbH, brought an appeal on a point of law before the Lietuvos Aukščiausiasis Teismas (Supreme Court of Lithuania).

The questions referred read:

1. How, taking into account the objectives of Regulation  805/2004, inter alia the objective of accelerating and simplifying the enforcement of judgments of Member States and effective safeguarding of the right to a fair trial, must the term ‘exceptional circumstances’ in Article 23(c) of Regulation 805/2004 be interpreted? What is the discretion that the competent authorities of the Member State of enforcement have to interpret the term ‘exceptional circumstances’?
2. Are circumstances, such as those in the present case, related to judicial proceedings in the State of origin which decide a question regarding the setting aside of the judgment on the basis of which a European Enforcement Order was issued to be regarded as relevant when deciding on the application of Article 23(c) of Regulation  805/2004? According to what criteria must the appeal proceedings in the Member State of origin be assessed and how comprehensive must the assessment of the proceedings taking place in the Member State of origin that is carried out by the competent authorities of the Member State of enforcement be?
3. What is the subject matter of the assessment when deciding on the application of the term ‘exceptional circumstances’ in Article 23 of Regulation No 805/2004: must the impact of the respective circumstances of the dispute when the judgment of the State of origin is challenged in the State of origin be assessed, must the possible potential benefit or harm of the respective measure specified in Article 23 of the regulation be analysed, or must the debtor’s economic abilities to implement the judgment, or other circumstances, be analysed?
4. Under Article 23 of Regulation  805/2004, is the simultaneous application of several measures specified in that article possible? If the answer to this question is in the affirmative, what criteria must the competent authorities of the State of enforcement rely on when deciding on the merits and proportionality of the application of several of those measures?
5. Is the legal regime laid down in Article 36(1) of Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters to be applied to a judgment of the State of origin regarding the suspension (or cancellation) of enforceability, or is a legal regime similar to that specified in Article 44(2) of that regulation applicable?

Sitting judges are C. Lycourgous, S. Rodin, J.C. Bonichot, L.S. Rossi, and O. Spineanu-Matei (reporting). An opinion has been requested from P. Pikamäe.

On the same day, the Court will render a three-judges decision (O. Spineanu-Matei reporting, sitting with S. Rodin and L.S. Rossi) in case C-399/21, IRnova. The request by the Svea hovrätt, Patent- och marknadsöverdomstolen (Sweden) was lodged on June 28, 2021. In the dispute on the merits, the company FLIR has applied for patents on certain inventions in inter alia the United States of America and China. IRnova brought an action seeking a declaration that IRnova has better entitlement to the inventions than FLIR. The action was dismissed at first instance on the ground that it is related so closely to the registration and invalidity of patents that the Swedish courts do not have jurisdiction to hear the case. IRnova has lodged an appeal against this dismissal decision before the referring court. This is thus a request for interpretation of Article 24(4) of Regulation (EU)  1215/2012 with just one question:

Is an action seeking a declaration of better entitlement to an invention, based on a claim of inventorship or co-inventorship according to national patent applications and patents registered in a non-Member State, covered by exclusive jurisdiction for the purposes of Article 24(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters?

Before getting into it, the Court will need to decide whether the Regulation applies at all, taking into account that the dispute arose between two companies having their registered office in the same Member State, and that it seeks to establish a right of ownership, probably also arising in Sweden. There is indeed a foreign element – the case concerns patent applications made and patents granted abroad: but this foreign element is not located on the territory of a Member State, but in China and the US.

The next PIL event will take place on September 15. The Court will then hand down its decision on C-18/21, Uniqa Versicherungen. The reference was sent by the Oberster Gerichtshof (Austria), and lodged January 12, 2021. It consists of just one question, on Regulation 1896/2006:

Are Articles 20 and 26 of Regulation 1896/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 creating a European order for payment procedure to be interpreted as meaning that those provisions preclude an interruption of the 30-day period for lodging a statement of opposition to a European order for payment, as provided for in Article 16(2) of that regulation, by Paragraph 1(1) of the Austrian Bundesgesetz betreffend Begleitmaßnahmen zu COVID-19 in der Justiz (Federal Law on accompanying measures for COVID-19 in the administration of justice), pursuant to which all procedural periods in proceedings in civil cases for which the event triggering the period occurs after 21 March 2020 or which have not yet expired by that date are to be interrupted until the end of 30 April 2020 and are to begin to run anew from 1 May 2020?

I reported here on the request. AG Collins’s opinion was delivered on March 31, 2022:

Articles 16, 20 and 26 of Regulation (EC) No 1896/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 creating a European order for payment procedure do not preclude the adoption, in the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, of a national measure that interrupted the 30-day time limit for lodging a statement of opposition to a European order for payment contained in Article 16(2) thereof.

The deciding chamber is one of five judges, namely K. Jürimäe (reporting), K. Lenaerts, N. Jääskinen, M. Safjan, and N. Piçarra.

On 1st September 2023, the Convention of 2 July 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters will enter in force between the European Union (save Denmark) and Ukraine, following their ratification on 29 August 2022.

Source: https://www.hcch.net/en/news-archive/details/?varevent=870

On 29 August 2022, Ukraine ratified the Hague Protocol of 23 November 2007 on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations, which will enter in force for this country on 1 December 2022.

Source: https://www.hcch.net/en/news-archive/details/?varevent=870

The latest issue of the „Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts (IPRax)“ features the following articles:

(These abstracts can also be found at the IPRax-website under the following link: https://www.iprax.de/en/contents/)

 

J. Richter: Cross-border service of writs of summons according to the revised EU Service Regulation

The service of judicial documents, particularly the service of writs of summons, is of central importance in civil proceedings. In cross-border proceedings, service of legal documents poses particular problems, which are addressed by the European Regulation on the Service of Documents. The revision of this regulation, which will enter into force on 1 July 2022, provides an opportunity to examine the current and future rules by taking the example of the international service of writs of summons.

 

G. van Calster: Lex ecologia. On applicable law for environmental pollution (Article 7 Rome II), a pinnacle of business and human rights as well as climate change litigation.

The European Union rules on the law that applies to liability for environmental damage, are an outlier in the private international law agenda. EU private international law rules are almost always value neutral. Predictability is the core ambition, not a particular outcome in litigation. The rules on applicable law for environmental damage, contained in the Rome II Regulation on the law that applies to non-contractual obligations, are a clear and considered exception. Courts are struggling with the right approach to the relevant rules. This contribution maps the meaning and nature of those articles, their application in case-law, and their impact among others on business and human rights as well as climate change litigation.

 

M. Castendiek: “Contractual” rights of third parties in private international law

Although contractual rights are usually limited to the parties, almost all jurisdictions in Europe recognize exceptions of this rule. Whereas those “contractual” rights of third parties are strictly limited in common law countries, German and Austrian Law even extend contractual duties of care on third persons related to the parties. Prior to the Rome Regulations, the conflict-of-law judgments on those “contracts with protective effect in favour of third parties” differed between German and Austrian courts.

The article points out that a consistent jurisdiction on this issue needs a clear distinction between contractual and non-contractual rights even between the parties of the contract. It points out that the Regulation Rome I covers only obligations that would not exist without the contract. Those obligations remain contractual even if they entitle a third party.

“Contractual” duties of care corresponding with negligence in tort, on the other hand, fall within the scope of the Regulation Rome II. For the contracting parties as well as for third parties, the conflict-of-laws in claims following the disregard of such duties is determined by the application of Article 4 Regulation Rome II. The article provides criteria to determine whether the close connection rule in Article 4(3) Regulation Rome II can lead to the application of the law governing the contract.

 

C. von Bary: News on Procedural Consumer Protection from Luxemburg: Consumer Status and Change of Domicile

In two recent decisions, the CJEU continues to refine the contours of procedural consumer protection in cross-border disputes. In the case of a person who spent on average nine hours a day playing – and winning at – online poker, the court clarified that factors like the amount involved, special knowledge or the regularity of the activity do not as such lead to this person not being classified as a consumer. It remains unclear, however, which criteria are relevant to determine whether a contract is concluded for a purpose outside a trade or profession. Further, the CJEU stated that the relevant time to determine the consumer’s domicile is when the action is brought before a court. This seems to be true even if the consumer changes domicile to a different member state after the conclusion of the contract and before the action is brought and the seller or supplier has not pursued commercial or professional activities or directed such activities at this member state. This devalues the relevance of this criterion to the detriment of the professional party.

 

W. Voß: The Forum Delicti Commissi in Cases of Purely Pecuniary Loss – a Cum-Ex Aftermath

Localising the place of damage in the context of capital investment cases is a perennial problem both under national and European civil procedural law. With prospectus liability having dominated the case law in the past decades, a new scenario is now increasingly coming into the courts’ focus: liability claims resulting from cum-ex-transactions. In its recent decision, the Higher Regional Court of Munich confirms the significance of the place of the claimant’s bank account for the localisation of purely financial loss in the context of sec. 32 German Civil Procedure Code but fails to provide any additional, viable reasoning on this notoriously debated issue. The decision does manage, however, to define the notion of principal place of business as delimitation of the scope of application of the Brussels regime convincingly. Incidentally, the text of the judgment also proves an informative lesson for the recently flared-up debate about anonymization of judicial decisions.

 

L. Hornkohl: International jurisdiction for permission proceedings under the German Telemedia Act (TMG) in cases of suspected abusive customer complaints on online marketplaces

In its decision of 11 March 2021, the Cologne Higher Regional Court denied the international jurisdiction of the Cologne courts for permission proceedings under the German Telemedia Act (TMG) in cases of suspected abusive customer complaints in online marketplaces. The Cologne court decision combined several precedents of the German Federal Court and the European Court of Justice. Although the Cologne Higher Regional Court decided that permission proceedings constitute a civil and commercial matter within the meaning of the Brussels I Regulation, international jurisdiction could not be established in Germany. The place of performance according to Art. 7 No. 1 lit. b second indent Brussels Ibis Regulation must, in case of doubt, uniformly be determined at the place of establishment of the online marketplace operator in Luxembourg. Article 7 No. 2 of the Regulation also does not give jurisdiction to German courts. The refusal to provide information per se is not a tort in the sense of Article 7 No. 2. Furthermore, there is no own or attributable possibly defamatory conduct of the platform operator. Contradictory considerations of the German legislator alone cannot establish jurisdiction in Germany.

 

A. Spickhoff: Contract and Tort in European Jurisdiction – New Developments

The question of qualification as a matter of contract or/and of tort is among others especially relevant in respect to the jurisdiction at place of performance and of forum delicti. The decision of the court of Justice of the European Union in res Brogsitter has initiated a discussion of its relevance and range to this problem. Recent decisions have clarified some issues. The article tries to show which. The starting point is the fraudulent car purchase.

 

R.A. Schütze: Security for costs for UK plaintiffs in German civil proceedings after the Brexit?

The judgment of the Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt/Main deals with one of the open procedural questions of the Brexit: the obligation of plaintiffs having permanent residence in the United Kingdom to provide security of costs in German civil proceedings. The Court has rightly decided that from January 1st, 2021 plaintiff cannot rely on sect. 110 par. 1 German Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) anymore as the United Kingdom is no longer member of the EU. If the plaintiff has lodged the complaint before January 1st, 2021, the obligation to provide security of costs arises at that date and security can be claimed by respondent according to sect. 110 CCP. However, the Court has not seen two exceptions from the obligation to provide security for costs according to sect. 110 par. 2 no. 1 and 2 CCP which relieve plaintiff from the obligation to provide security of costs if an international convention so provides (no. 1) or if an international convention grants the recognition and execution of decisions for costs (no. 2). In the instant case the court had to apply art. 9 par. 1 of the European Convention on Establishment of 1955 and the Convention between Germany and the United Kingdom on Recognition and Execution of Foreign Judgments of 1960, both Conventions not having been touched by the Brexit. Facit therefore: claimants having permanent residence in the United Kingdom are not obliged to provide security for costs in German Civil proceedings.

 

H. Roth: Qualification Issues relating to § 167 Civil Procedure Code (Zivilprozessordnung, ZPO)

§ 167 of the Civil Procedure Code (ZPO) aims to relieve the parties of the risk accruing to them through late official notification of legal action over which they have no control. This norm is part of procedural law. It is valid irrespective of whether a German court applies foreign or German substantive law. The higher regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Frankfurt a.M. found differently. It holds that § 167 should only be considered when German substantive law and thus German statute of limitations law is applied.

 

A. Hemler: Undisclosed agency and construction contract with foreign building site: Which law is applicable?

Does the term “contract for the provision of services” in Art 4(1)(b) Rome I Regulation include a building contract with a foreign building site? Or should we apply the exception clause in Art 4(3) Rome I Regulation if the building site is abroad? Which law governs the legal consequences of undisclosed agency, i.e. how should we treat cases where a contracting party acts as an agent for an undisclosed principal? Furthermore, what are the legal grounds in German law for a refund of an advance payment surplus in such a building contract? In the case discussed, the Oberlandesgericht (Higher Regional Court) Köln only addressed the latter question in detail. Unfortunately, the court considered the interesting PIL issues only in disappointing brevity. Therefore, based on a doctrinal examination of the exception clause in Art 4(3) Rome I Regulation, the paper discusses whether the scope of the general conflict of laws rule for contracts for the provision of services should exclude building contracts with a foreign building site by virtue of a teleological limitation. It also sheds light on the dispute around the law governing cases of undisclosed agency. The paper argues that Art 1(2)(g) Rome I Regulation is not applicable in this regard, i.e. the issue is not excluded from the Rome I Regulation’s scope. Instead, it is covered by Art 10(1) Rome I Regulation; hence, the law governing the contract remains applicable.

 

S.L. Gössl: Uniqueness and subjective components – Some notes on habitual residence in European conflict of laws and procedural law

The article deals with the case law of the ECJ on the habitual residence of adults, as addressed in a recent decision. The ECJ clarified that there can only ever be one habitual residence. Furthermore, it confirms that each habitual residence has to be determined differently for each legal acts. Finally, in the case of the habitual residence of adults, subjective elements become more paramount than in the case of minors. In autonomous German Private International Law, discrepancies with EU law may arise precisely with regard to the relevance of the subjective and objective elements. German courts should attempt to avoid such a discrepancy.

 

D. Wiedemann: Holidays in Europe or relocation to Bordeaux: the habitual residence of a child under the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction

A man of French nationality and a woman of Chilean nationality got married and had a daughter in Buenos Aires. A few months after the birth of their daughter, the family travelled to Europe, where they first visited relatives and friends and finally stayed with the man’s family in Bordeaux. One month and a few days after they arrived in Bordeaux, mother and daughter travelled to Buenos Aires and, despite an agreement between the spouses, never returned to Bordeaux. The father in France asked Argentinean authorities for a return order under the HCA. According to the prevailing view, the HCA only applies, if, before the removal or retention, the child was habitually resident in any contracting state except for the requested state. The court of first instance (Juzgado Civil) assumed a change of the child’s habitual residence from Argentina to France, but, considering that the lack of the mother’s consent to move to France results in a violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, it granted an exception under Art. 20 HCA. The higher court (Cámara Nacional de Apelaciones en lo Civil) and the Argentinian Supreme Court (Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación) required the manifestation of both parents’ intent for a change of the child’s habitual residence. The higher court saw a sufficient manifestation of the mother’s intent to move to France in the termination of her employment in Buenos Aires and ordered the return. In contrast, the CSJN refused to give weight to the termination of employment as it happened in connection with the birth of the daughter.

 

H.J. Snijders: Enforcement of foreign award (in online arbitration) ex officio refused because of violation of the defendant’s right to be heard

With reference to (inter alia) a judgement of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal, some questions regarding the consideration of requests for recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in the Netherlands are discussed. Should the State Court ex officio deal with a violation of public order by the arbitral tribunal, in particular the defendant’s right to be heard, also in default proceedings like the Amsterdam one? In addition, which public order is relevant in this respect, the international public order or the domestic one? Furthermore, does it matter for the State Court’s decision that the arbitral awards dealt with were issued in an online arbitration procedure (regarding a loan in bitcoin)? Which lessons can be derived from the decision of the Amsterdam Court for drafters of Online Arbitration Rules and for arbitral tribunals dealing with online arbitration like the arbitral e-court in the Amsterdam case? The author also points out the relevance of transitional law in the field of arbitration by reference to a recent decision of the Dutch Supreme Court rejecting the view of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal in this matter; transitional law still is dangerous law.

 

 

Notifications:

E. Jayme/E. Krist: The War of Aggression on Ukraine: Impact on International Law and Private International Law –Conference, March 31st , 2022 (via Zoom)

C. Budzikiewicz/B. Heiderhoff: „Dialogue International Family Law“- Conference, April 1st-2nd, 2022 in Marburg

On 19 September 2022, within the framework of the EU-FamPro Project, a conference titled Couples’ Property with Cross-Border Implications: Uniting Academic Discussions and Practical Concerns will be held in Almeria, followed by a seminar on Practical Challenges in the Application of the Twin Regulations. Remote participation is also available.

The conference and the seminar are the two main parts of an event of the EU-FamPro (E-training on EU Family Property Regimes) Project, co-funded by the European Union and conducted by the University of Camerino (coord.), the Law Institute of Lithuania, the University of Almeria, the University of Ljubliana, and the Rijeka University.

The Conference will provide an international forum where the Partners of the Project illustrate the contribution of the E-learning experience to the dissemination and understanding of the recent EU regulations on matrimonial property and property of registered partnerships (Twin Regulations), while academics, policymakers, and practitioners exchange their views on the different roles of legal professionals applying EU family property law.

The Seminar will focus on specific and cross-cutting issues related to the application of the Twin Regulations. The presentations are planned to cover the application of the Twin Regulations in the different national experiences, especially with regard to jurisdictional rules, determination of applicable law and party autonomy. Specific attention will also be given to the interaction of property regulations and Regulation on Succession.

Further info on the event is available on the Project website and the event programme is available here.

The edited volume Frontiers in Civil Justice: Privatisation, Monetisation and Digitisation (eds. Xandra Kramer, Jos Hoevenaars, Betül Kas and Erlis Themeli) has been published by Elgar.

The book is the third edited volume resulting from the project Building EU Civil Justice, funded by an ERC consolidator grant, at Erasmus School of Law at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Twenty authors from a wide range of countries and with different backgrounds have contributed.

The book studies three interrelated frontiers in civil justice from a European and from national perspectives, combining theory with policy and insights from practice: the interplay between private and public justice, the digitization of justice, and litigation funding. These current topics are viewed against the backdrop of the requirements of effective access to justice and the overall goal of establishing a sustainable civil justice system in Europe.

The combined works take on a pan-European perspective and zoom in on several jurisdictions, thereby providing a holistic exploration of current civil justice debates and frontiers. The book includes chapters dedicated to the interaction between public and private justice (ADR), the digitisation of both private dispute resolution and court litigation, including the rapid development and use of advanced forms of Artificial Intelligence, and the funding of justice, especially collective actions and settlements by means of third party litigation funding and common funds.

More information is available at the publisher’s website here. The first Introductory chapter is open access available on the website.

 

The DynamInt Research Group at Humboldt University (located in the heart of Berlin, close to the Brandenburg Gate) invites international post-docs working in the field of European law (broadly understood) to apply for a research stay lasting between 3 and 6 months.

Applications are excepted on a rolling basis (no deadline). Successful candidates will receive a financial allowance and will be provided with a fully equipped working place. It is possible to teach classes while staying at Humboldt University. However, teaching is not mandatory.

Further information is available here: https://www.rewi.hu-berlin.de/de/lf/oe/rhp/stellenausschreibungen/postdoc