Agrégateur de flux

Despite the fact that thousands of legal persons and personal relations are subject to Liechtenstein Private International Law, Liechtenstein law has retained some unique features.  Whether the unique features should be maintained, or provide the reasoning for a reform agenda, will be discussed at the 2nd Liechtenstein Conference on 30 June 2016 organised by the Propter Homines Chair for Banking and Securities Law at the University of Liechtenstein.

The presentations will deal with Liechtenstein international company, foundation and trust law,  conflicts of law relating to banks, prospectus liability and collectus investment schemes, as well as matters of succession and the potential of Liechtenstein as an arbitration venue. All presentations will be held in German.

Please find further information here.

In case of interests please contact: nadja.dobler@uni.li

Does Article 21 TEU on EU citisenship, facilitate one’s acquiring names bearing the tokens of nobility, acquired in one Member State (here: the flexible ‘deed poll’ regime available to citisens of the United Kingdom), for subsequent use in another Member State less keen on such (token or real) titles? In Case C-438/14 Bogendorff the CJEU held that it does not.

Applicant at issue had acquired UK nationality over and above German nationality (which he held by birth). Subsequent adoption but especially vanity had led to a change in first name and surname by deed poll, a very flexible name change regime available to UK citisens. German authorities however refused to recognise the name change upon the occasion of registration of applicant’s daughter, citing public order considerations in particular Germany’s long-standing objection against aristocratic titles, real or vanity, so as to emphasise equality before the law.  The court’s approach on free movement and names in my view has taken a better turn since Vardyn, Case C-391/09, where it left its insistence that only copy /paste recognition of names by authorities in other Member States can safeguard citisens free movement rights.

In the case of aristocratic titles, however, the court has always recognised in particular Austria’s and Germany’s right to extend domestic policies to incoming citisens, on the basis of public policy considerations. Current case differs from Sayn-Wittgenstein, C‑208/09. The latter concerned Austrian law, which has a strict prohibition on the use and transmission of titles of nobility. Under German law by contrast all privileges and inequalities connected with birth or position have been abolished in Germany. Titles of nobility which were actually borne when the Weimar Constitution entered into force may continue as elements of a name and may be transmitted as a fact of personal status. The creation of new titles of nobility and the grant of such titles are prohibited.

Hence for Germany to refuse to recognise such titles where they have been accidentally obtained abroad (by birth, marriage or adoption) would run counter EU citisenhip. By contrast, it would run counter to the intention of the German legislature for German nationals, using the law of another Member State, to adopt afresh abolished titles of nobility. Systematic recognition of changes of name such as that at issue in the main proceedings could lead to that result.

Name dropping undoubtedly will continue. Name shopping has been halted.

Geert.

 

Le droit interne applicable au litige relatif à un produit mis en circulation après le 30 juillet 1988, date d’expiration du délai de transposition de la directive 85/374/CEE du Conseil du 25 juillet 1985 relative à la responsabilité du fait des produits défectueux, et avant la date d’entrée en vigueur de la loi n° 98-389 du 19 mai 1998 transposant en droit français cette directive, doit être interprété à la lumière de cette dernière.

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« Le justiciable, qui se voit opposer le caractère absolu de l’immunité d’exécution d’une organisation internationale, dispose, par la mise en œuvre de la responsabilité de l’État, d’une voie de droit propre à rendre effectif son droit d’accès à un tribunal ».

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Con un decreto depositato il 17 maggio 2016, il Tribunale per i minorenni di Bologna si è pronunciato sul riconoscimento di una sentenza di adozione emessa negli Stati Uniti con la quale era stata disposta l’adozione piena di una minore, cittadina americana, in favore della moglie della madre biologica.

Nel novembre del 2014, lo stesso Tribunale aveva sollevato una questione di legittimità costituzionale degli articoli 35 e 36 della legge 4 maggio 1983, n. 184, in materia di adozione, nella parte in cui non consentono al giudice di valutare, nel caso concreto, se risponda all’interesse del minore adottato all’estero il riconoscimento della sentenza straniera che abbia pronunciato la sua adozione da parte del coniuge del genitore, a prescindere dal fatto che il matrimonio abbia prodotto effetti in Italia (in proposito si veda questo post).

La Corte costituzionale, con sentenza n. 76 del 7 aprile 2016, aveva dichiarato inammissibile la questione. I giudici costituzionali hanno preso le mosse dalla ricostruzione dell’art. 41 della legge 31 maggio 1995 n. 218, di riforma del sistema italiano di diritto internazionale privato, che prevede due diversi procedimenti per il riconoscimento di provvedimenti stranieri in materia di adozione. Accanto al riconoscimento “automatico” contemplato attraverso il richiamo agli articoli 64, 65 e 66 della stessa legge, la norma stabilisce, al secondo comma, che “restano ferme le disposizioni delle leggi speciali in materia di adozione dei minori”, ossia gli articoli 35 e 36 della legge 184/1983.  Secondo la Corte “l’applicazione della legislazione speciale in materia di riconoscimento della sentenza di adozione internazionale di minori – che richiede un previo vaglio giudiziale, ad opera del Tribunale per i minorenni – non può che escludere il contemporaneo rinvio alle disposizioni ordinarie sul riconoscimento ‘automatico’ dei provvedimenti stranieri”.

In virtù di tali rilievi, il Tribunale per i minorenni di Bologna – escludendo l’applicabilità della procedura di riconoscimento di cui all’art. 36, comma 4, della legge n. 184/1983 (che estende il controllo giudiziale del minore ad una particolare ipotesi di adozione di minori stranieri in stato di abbandono da parte di cittadini italiani), poiché al momento dell’adozione tanto la ricorrente quanto la minore erano cittadine americane – ha considerato che il provvedimento straniero dovesse essere sottoposto a riconoscimento automatico mediante trascrizione a cura dell’ufficiale di stato civile. Il Tribunale, evidenziando tuttavia che la Consulta ha disatteso il rilievo in merito alla cittadinanza (anche) italiana della ricorrente al momento della domanda, ha escluso la propria potestas decidendi non sussistendo i presupposti di cui all’art. 41, comma 2, della legge n. 218/95 per derogare alla competenza della Corte d’appello con riguardo al riconoscimento di provvedimenti stranieri e, di conseguenza, ha dichiarato l’inammissibilità della domanda.

Affinché la ricorrente possa poi “conseguire il risultato sperato”, il Tribunale ha infine suggerito di trarre spunto da un caso analogo a quello di specie e giunto dinanzi alla Corte d’appello di Milano (la decisione è consultabile qui).

Si ringrazia l’avv. Claudio Pezzi per la segnalazione.

The new 2007 Lugano Convention, establishing parallelism with the Brussels I Regulation (Reg. 44/2001), had just entered into force in Switzerland in 2010 when it faced a new challenge in the form of the Recast Regulation (Reg. 1215/2012). Therefore, in 2014, CIVPRO (University of Bern), CCR (University of Luzern) and the Swiss Institute for Comparative Law (Lausanne) invited professors, researchers, civil officers and practitioners from all over Europe to discuss the future of European civil procedure with a special focus on Lugano and third states. Alexander Markus (Bern), Andreas Furrer (Luzern) and Ilaria Pretelli (Lausanne) have now published the (English/German) volume containing the keynote speeches and the subsequent contributions to this conference as well as the reports on the discussion in the various panels. This book presents and analyzes the past, the present and the alternative conceivable futures of the Lugano model of a “parallel” convention. For further information, click here.

Cour d'appel de Paris, pôle 4, chambre 7, 26 mai 2016

Institute of Cetacean Research v. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has recently come to my attention thanks to Juliett Hatchett over at Baker: her analysis is spot on and I am happy to refer to it. She summarises the case as the district court confirming that perpetrating and funding piracy and unsafe navigation are within the scope of ATS jurisdiction, but holding that there is no enforceable international norm against whaling or financing terrorism.

The case is not easy to find however Sea Shepherd tend to link to court documents in their updates on the litigation.

I flag the case mainly to bring it to readers’ attention that CSR litigation can be done proactively: one need not wait for alleged violations of relevant legal standards to seek to seize a court. Exactly a point I assessed in the context of vulture fund litigation, end of May. (And in forthcoming paper).

Geert.

 

Jean-Jacques Urvoas, garde des Sceaux depuis le 27 janvier 2016 n’avait pas encore fait connaître aux parquets ses orientations de politique pénale ; c’est désormais fait.

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Le 17 mai 2016, la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme (CEDH) se prononce en grande chambre, pour la première fois, sur la compatibilité de la liberté d’expression avec des mesures disciplinaires infligées à des parlementaires sur la manière dont ils se sont exprimés devant l’Assemblée. 

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Irrecevabilité

Irrecevabilité

Irrecevabilité

Moreda-Riviere Trefilerías / Commission
Concurrence
Le Tribunal rejette les recours des quatre sociétés espagnoles ayant participé à l’entente sur le marché européen de l’acier de précontrainte

Moreda-Riviere Trefilerías / Commission
Concurrence
Le Tribunal rejette les recours des quatre sociétés espagnoles ayant participé à l’entente sur le marché européen de l’acier de précontrainte

Bogendorff von Wolffersdorff
Principes du droit communautaire
Un nom contenant plusieurs éléments nobiliaires et librement choisi par un Allemand dans un autre État membre dont il possède également la nationalité ne doit pas nécessairement être reconnu en Allemagne

Bogendorff von Wolffersdorff
Principes du droit communautaire
Un nom contenant plusieurs éléments nobiliaires et librement choisi par un Allemand dans un autre État membre dont il possède également la nationalité ne doit pas nécessairement être reconnu en Allemagne

Vervloet e.a.
Liberté d'établissement
L’avocat général Kokott estime que la garantie accordée par la Belgique aux sociétés coopératives financières ARCO enfreint le droit de l’Union

Vervloet e.a.
Liberté d'établissement
L’avocat général Kokott estime que la garantie accordée par la Belgique aux sociétés coopératives financières ARCO enfreint le droit de l’Union