Agrégateur de flux

by Lukas Schmidt

Roughly two years ago the Commission presented the proposal for a Directive on preventive restructuring frameworks, second chance and measures to increase the efficiency of restructuring, insolvency and discharge procedure (see Blogpost ). After a lively debate the Council has now confirmed an agreement reached with the Parliament on the directive in December last year (see press release of 19 December 2018).

According to the press release several provisions were added or amended compared to the Council’s positions including the introduction of provisions on the duties of company directors in insolvency proceedings, an article on worker’s rights  to recall that member states should ensure that the existing rights of workers under national and Union law are not affected by the preventive restructuring procedure and provisions on the appointment of a restructuring practitioner.

The text still has to be formally adopted by the Council and Parliament. Member states will then have 2 years for implementation, although they can ask the Commission for an additional year for implementation.

As reported on Twitter by Pacta sunt servanda, the UK has just (on 2 January 2019) signed and ratified the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements and the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and other Forms of Family Maintenance. Both Conventions currently apply to the UK by virtue of its membership of the European Union but may cease to do so once the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019. (The relevant notifications by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs can be found here and here.)

Importantly, both conventions have been ratified only for the event of a Brexit scenario in which no withdrawal agreement with the EU has been reached and contain the following qualification:

In accordance with Article 29 of the 2005 Hague Convention/Article 59 of the 2007 Hague Convention, the United Kingdom is bound by the Convention by virtue of its membership of the European Union, which approved the Convention on behalf of its Member States. The United Kingdom intends to continue to participate in the 2005/2007 Hague Convention after it withdraws from the European Union.

The Government of the United Kingdom and the European Council have reached political agreement on the text of a treaty (the “Withdrawal Agreement”) on the withdrawal of the
United Kingdom from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community. Subject to signature, ratification and approval by the parties, the Withdrawal Agreement
will enter into force on 30 March 2019.

The Withdrawal Agreement includes provisions for a transition period to start on 30 March 2019 and end on 31 December 2020 or such later date as is agreed by the United
Kingdom and the European Union (the “transition period”). In accordance with the Withdrawal Agreement, during the transition period, European Union law, including the
2005/2007 Hague Convention, would continue to be applicable to and in the United Kingdom. The European Union and the United Kingdom have agreed that the European Union will
notify other parties to international agreements that during the transition period the United Kingdom is treated as a Member State for the purposes of international agreements concluded by the European Union, including the 2005/2007 Hague Convention.

In the event that the Withdrawal Agreement is not ratified and approved by the United Kingdom and the European Union, however, the United Kingdom wishes to ensure continuity of application of the 2005/2007 Hague Convention from the point at which it ceases to be a Member State of the European Union. The United Kingdom has therefore submitted the Instrument of Accession in accordance with Article 27(4) of the 2005 Hague Convention/Article 58(2) of the 2007 Hague Conventio only in preparation for this situation. The Instrument of Accession declares that the United Kingdom accedes to the 2005 Hague Convention in its own right with effect from 1 April 2019.

In the event that the Withdrawal Agreement is signed, ratified and approved by the United Kingdom and the European Union and enters into force on 30 March 2019, the United Kingdom will withdraw the Instrument of Accession which it has today deposited. In that case, for the duration of the transition period as provided for in the Withdrawal Agreement as stated above, the United Kingdom will be treated as a Member State of the European Union and the 2005 Hague Convention will continue to ha ve effect accordingly.

In the past, it had been questioned if the UK would be able to ratify these conventions before having left the EU (see, eg, Dickinson, ZEuP 2017, 539, 560), which, if the “No Deal” scenario became a reality, would leave a period of at least three months in which the conventions would not apply. By ratifying the Conventions now, the UK seems to have reduced this potential gap to a single day as both conventions will enter into force for the UK on 1 April 2019.

Tribunal correctionnel de Limoges, 31 août 2018

Pourvoi c/ Cour d'appel de Reims, chambre correctionnelle, 5 septembre 2018

Cour d'appel de Bourges, chambre de l'instruction, 11 décembre 2018

Tribunal de police d'Epinal, 17 décembre 2018

Cour d'appel de Versailles, président, 25 mai 2018

Pourvoi c/ Cour d'appel de Reims, chambre correctionnelle, 5 septembre 2018

Pourvoi c/ Cour d'appel de Colmar, chambre des appels correctionnels, 1er juin 2018

Symeon Symeonides‘ Annual Survey of American Choice-of-Law Cases for 2018, now in its 32nd year, has been posted on SSRN. A summary of the contents is reproduced below. If you are interested in the Survey, you can download it by clicking here.
If you are interested in the Private International Law Bibliography for 2018, you can download it from SSRN by clicking here.

Symeon sends his best wishes for the New Year, and I concur.

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. The Extraterritorial Reach of Federal Law

A. The Alien Tort Statute

B. The Fourth and Fifth Amendments and Cross-Border Shootings

C.-M. Other Federal Statutes

II. Choice of Law

A. Proof of Foreign Law

B. Anti-Foreign Law Amendments

C. Choice-of-Law Methodology

D. Contracts

1. Contracts with Choice-of-Law Clauses

a. Choice of Procedural or Conflicts Law

b. Choice-of-Law Clauses and Statutes of Limitation

c. Plain Choice-of-Law Clauses

d. Choice-of-Law and Forum-Selection Clauses

e. Choice-of-Law and Arbitration Clauses

2. Contracts without Choice-of-Law Clauses

E. Torts

1. Common Domicile Cases

2. Cross-Border Unfair Trade Practices

3. Other Torts

F. Products Liability

G. Statutes of Limitation

H. Insurance Conflicts

I. Nazi-Looted Art

J. Domestic Relations

1. Marriage and Divorce

2. Marital Property

3. Adoption and Succession

4. Child Custody and the Hague Convention

III. Recognition of Foreign Judgments and Awards

A. Foreign-Country Judgments

B. Sister-State Judgments

C. Foreign Arbitral Awards

The American Association of Law Schools will hold its annual conference in New Orleans this year, from January 2-6. In this conference, the meeting of the Conflict of Laws Interest Group will be on Friday January 4, 8:30-10:15. (Yes, early.) The topic is the new Hague Judgments Convention (the draft Convention is here.) Speakers will include Louise Ellen Teitz (Rhode Island University) with a view from the Hague, Trey Childress (Pepperdine/State Dept) with a view from the State Department, and John Coyle (UNC) with a view from academia. I will chair. The remarks will be published later in the Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law, but if you are at the AALS Conference, please do come and discuss there!

On 22 January 2019, the Arendt House (Luxembourg) will host a conference organised by The Luxembourg Association of Law Graudates of the University of Louvain (UCL) and the Law Review Le droit des affaires – Het ondernemingsrecht (DAOR) on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the law applicable to the third-party effects of assignments of claims.

The conference will be chaired by Prof. Marie-Elodie Angel (University Paris Est Créteil, UPEC). Speakers, who will discuss assignment of claims, security rights and securitisation, include Prof. Denis Philippe (Philippe & Partners; University of Louvai), Grégory Minne (Arendt & Medernach; University of Luxembourg) and Jean-Paul Spang (Kleyr Grasso; University of Luxembourg).

The conference will be in French without translation into English.

Details are available here.

Bail d'habitation - Responsabilité délictuelle

The Draft Guide to Good Practice on the Use of Video-Link under the Evidence Convention has been submitted for the approval of the HCCH governance body (i.e. the Council on General Affairs and Policy of the Hague Conference on Private International Law), which will meet in March 2019.

This Guide analyses developments in relation to the use of video-link in the taking of evidence under the Evidence Convention, including references to internal law and other international agreements. It also outlines good practices to be followed and reflects additional information provided by Contracting Parties in their respective Country Profiles.

In my personal opinion, the most striking conclusion was that responding States to the Country Profiles are almost evenly divided as to whether evidence may be taken directly by video-link by Letters of Request (under Chapter I of the Evidence Convention). In other words, there is no clear consensus on whether the requesting court can take evidence directly in the Requested State by video-link under Chapter I of the Evidence Convention (e.g. take testimony from a witness by videoconference). Some see legal obstacles whereas others do not. The Convention was after all negotiated in the late sixties. A question may arise as to whether an international treaty is needed to address particularly this issue and include the necessary safeguards for video-link taking of evidence.