Agrégateur de flux

Following a report issued by the Commission in March 2016, the Council of the European Union adopted on 8 December 2016 its Conclusions on the European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters.

The Council, among other things, calls on Member States to ‘promote the use of the expertise of other legal practitioners by involving relevant professional associations more closely in the Network’s activities’  and to ‘encourage interaction at national level to share knowledge and gather information on the practical application of the EU instruments in civil and commercial matters’, including, where appropriate, by establishing ‘national networks bringing together the national contact points, Network members and other legal practitioners’.

Facendo seguito a una relazione presentata dalla Commissione nel marzo del 2016, il Consiglio ha adottato, l’8 dicembre 2016, le sue Conclusioni sulla Rete giudiziaria europea in materia civile e commerciale.

Il Consiglio, tra le altre cose, sollecita gli Stati membri a “promuovere l’uso delle conoscenze specialistiche di altri operatori della giustizia coinvolgendo più strettamente i pertinenti ordini professionali nelle attività della rete” e a “incoraggiare l’interazione a livello nazionale per condividere conoscenze e raccogliere informazioni sull’applicazione pratica degli strumenti dell’UE in materia civile e commerciale”, considerando, tal fine, “l’eventualità di istituire, ove opportuno, reti nazionali che riuniscano i punti di contatto nazionali, i membri della rete e altri operatori della giustizia”.

A conference on Parental responsibility and children protection in cross border situations, in the light of the 1996 Hague Convention will take place in Florence on 12 December 2016. The programme is available here. 

Lunedì 12 dicembre 2016, si terrà a Firenze un incontro intitolato Responsabilità genitoriale e protezione dei minori in contesto transfrontaliero anche alla luce dell’entrata in vigore della convenzione dell’Aja 1996. Il programma integrale è consultabile a questo indirizzo.

Apologies for late posting. I had tweeted and linked and done all sorts of other things when the judgment came out but as readers tell me, that is not quite the same as a review on this blog.

Walker J decided Peralla v Codere [2016] EWHC 1182 (Comm) at the end of July. His views on Article 25 and exclusivity in the event of asymmetric jurisdiction clauses, are very much dicta. On their neutralising effect under Article 31, he suggested obiter. Let me explain. The jurisdiction clause which Perella alleged to have been breached by Codere comprises a single sentence of a clause of their letter of engagement. That sentence states:

“[Codere] agrees for the benefit of [Perella] that the courts of England wil have non-exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute which may arise in connection with this engagement.”

Codere sued in Spain alleging breach of contract. Perella countersues in England. The English proceedings are very much necessitated by one or two awkward consequences of the wording of Article 31 of the Brussels I Recast. This Article was specifically included to neutralise the torpedo which the Court of Justice had armed in its Gasser judgment, C-116/02: following Gasser, lis alibi pendens applies even if there is exclusive choice of court and a court other than the court assigned in that clause, has been seized. The Brussels I Recast neutralises the torpedo but only if there is exclusive court of choice, and if the court designated by that clause has been seized.

The first consideration in the case was whether the clause was exclusive. It was pertinently not. Perella suggested the language indicates that the benefit to be conferred upon Perella is an entitlement to insist that Codere must regard itself as bound by the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. Walker J (at 30) rejects this justifiably: it would have been simplicity itself verbatim to indicate exclusivity. As Ken Kaar notes, the inclusion of ‘for the benefit of’ is an old, now redundant boilerplate provision in choice of court: in the original Brussels and Lugano Conventions, ‘If the agreement conferring jurisdiction was concluded for the benefit of only one of the parties, that party shall retain the right to bring proceedings in any other court which has jurisdiction by virtue of this Convention.’ This proviso meant there was plenty of discussion in court whether only one party had procured such benefit, lest one state in so many words that it had. The current version of the Brussels I Recast (and the 2001 version before it) and Lugano 2007 have both dropped the provision, and it would be best dropped from the boilerplate clause, too.

Having held that the clause was not exclusive, the Court could have stopped there. Obiter however Walker J offered his view on whether Article 31(2)’s protection extends to asymmetric choice of court clauses – the notion of which I have reported on before. Walker J (at 18) suggests that it does. The party invoking Article 31(2) pointing to an exclusive forum which the counterparty who is suing elsewhere, had committed itself to, need not be itself subject to a symmetric duty only to sue in that court. The point has not been argued before the CJEU yet, but I agree that the High Court’s position is the correct one, with the important caveat of course that such clause needs to be valid in accordance with the lex fori prorogati. This also means that asymmetric clauses where such lex cannot be identified, would have trouble disarming the recalcitrant party’s torpedo.

Well, we are going to miss this type of judgment following Brexit. Better make conflict of laws part of the continuing relations with the UK.

Geert.

Grundfragen des Europäischen Kollisionsrechts, edited by / a cura di Stefan Arnold, Mohr Siebeck, 2016, pp. 167, ISBN 9783161539794, EUR 54.

Das Europäische Kollisionsrecht dient der europäischen Idee eines Raums der Freiheit, der Sicherheit und des Rechts ohne Binnengrenzen. Diese Aufgabe kann es nur erfüllen, wenn sich die Akteure des Rechts immer wieder von Neuem seinen Grundfragen stellen. Sie betreffen zunächst die politischen, ökonomischen und gesellschaftlichen Hintergründe, die für das Europäische Kollisionsrecht von herausragender Bedeutung sind. Dazu zählen der rechtspolitische Kontext seiner Entwicklung ebenso wie der gesellschaftliche Wandel des Familienbegriffs oder die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Kollisionsrecht und religiösem Recht. Zu den Grundfragen des Europäischen Kollisionsrechts gehören aber auch die Gründe und Grenzen zentraler Institute der kollisionsrechtlichen Dogmatik. Welche Ordnungsaufgabe kommt etwa der Parteiautonomie, dem ordre public oder dem Renvoi im Europäischen Kollisionsrecht zu? Die hier zusammengeführten Beiträge einer Tagung in der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften nähern sich diesen Grundfragen an.

With contributions by / Con scritti di: Christoph Althammer, Stefan Arnold, Gerald Mäsch, Mathias Rohe, Michael Stürner, Rolf Wagner, Marc-Philippe Weller.

Dans l’affaire Colonna, la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme (CEDH) déclare irrecevable la requête déposée par l’ancien berger corse, condamné à la réclusion criminelle à perpétuité par la cour d’assises de Paris pour l’assassinat du préfet Erignac.

en lire plus

Les autorités autrichiennes n’ont pas manqué à leurs obligations positives de protection du droit à la vie à la suite du suicide d’un patient échappé d’un hôpital psychiatrique.

en lire plus

Majeur protégé - Tutelle - Ouverture - Durée

Non lieu à renvoi

Mariage - Nullité

Majeur protégé - Tutelle - Ouverture - Durée