Droit international général

On Monday, May 8, 2023, the Hamburg Max Planck Institute will host its 33th monthly virtual workshop Current Research in Private International Law at 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. (CEST). Deviating from the usual format there will be an online panel on

Fundamental Rights and PIL after the decision of the German Constitutional Court on the Act to Combat Child Marriages*

The panelist are Henning Radtke (Judge at the Constitutional Court),  Dagmar Coester-Waltjen (Professor emeritus for PIL at University of Göttingen), Susanne Gössl (Professor for PIL at University of Bonn) and Lars Viellechner (Professor for Constitutional Law at University of Bremen). The discussion  discussion will be in German.

After opening statements from the panelists, the discussion will be opened to the audience. 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.

* Information on the decision here.

Less than half a year after the CJEU’s decision in Case C-646/20 Senatsverwaltung für Inneres (discussed here by Krzysztof Pacula), the Court had to engage again with the question of what constitutes a “judgment” in the sense of an EU instrument in Case C-291/21 Starkinvest.

This time, the question arose in the context of Regulation 655/2014 establishing a European Account Preservation Order procedure to facilitate cross-border debt recovery in civil and commercial matters. The regulation envisages two kinds of situation:

1. The creditor has already obtained a “judgment” (Art. 7(1)): In this case, the creditor only needs to show that there is an urgent need for a protective measure to ensure that the judgment can be effectively enforced against the debtor.
2. The creditor has not yet obtained a “judgment” (Art. 7(2)): In this case, the creditor also needs to show “that he is likely to succeed on the substance of his claim against the debtor”.

In Starkinvest, the claimant had obtained a decision from the Tribunal de commerce de Liège, Belgium, that ordered the debtor to cease seeling certain goods, subject to a penalty payment of EUR 2 500 per breach. On the basis of that decision, they later sought payment of EUR 85 000 in penalties, which they requested the referring court to secure through a European Account Preservation Order. Confronted with the question of how to characterise the initial decision in the context of the above dichotomie, the court referred the case to the CJEU.

The CJEU followed the advice of Advocate General Szpunar, holding that

Article 7(2) of [the Regulation] must be interpreted as meaning that a judgment that orders a debtor to make a penalty payment in the event of a future breach of a prohibitory order and that therefore does not definitively set the amount of that penalty payment does not constitute a judgment requiring the debtor to pay the creditor’s claim, within the meaning of that provision, such that the creditor who requests a European Account Preservation Order is not exempt from the obligation to provide sufficient evidence to satisfy the court before which an application for that order is brought that he or she is likely to succeed on the substance of his or her claim against the debtor.

In reaching that decision, the court emphasised the fact that in a case like this, the precise amount of the debt had not yet been established by a court (see paras. 51–52, 55); accordingly, there was no sufficient justification for exempting the claimant from the requirement to satisfy the court that they are likely to succeed on the merits.

This post is also available via the EAPIL blog.

 

On 25 April 2023 the German Federal Ministry of Justice (Bundesministerium der Justiz – BMJ) has published a bill relating to the establishment of (international) commercial courts in Germany. It sets out to strengthen the German civil justice system for (international) commercial disputes and aims to offer parties an attractive package for the conduct of civil proceedings in Germany. At the same time, it is the aim of the bill to improve Germany’s position vis-à-vis recognized litigation and arbitration venues – notably London, Amsterdam, Paris and Singapore. Does this mean that foreign courts and international commercial arbitration tribunals will soon face serious competition from German courts?

English-language proceedings in all instances

Proposals to improve the settlement of international commercial disputes before German courts have been discussed for many years. In 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2021, the upper house of the German Federal Parliament (Bundesrat) introduced bills to strengthen German courts in (international) commercial disputes. However, while these bills met with little interest and were not even discussed in the lower house of Parliament (Bundestag) things look much brighter this time: The coalition agreement of the current Federal Government, in office since 2021, promises to introduce English-speaking special chambers for international commercial disputes. The now published bill of the Federal Ministry of Justice can, therefore, be seen as a first step towards realizing this promise. It heavily builds on the various draft laws of the Bundesrat including a slightly expanded version that was submitted to the Bundestag in 2022.

The bill allows the federal states (Bundesländer) to establish special commercial chambers at selected regional courts (Landgerichte) which shall, if the parties so wish, conduct the proceedings comprehensively in English. Appeals and complaints against decisions of these chambers shall be heard in English before English-language senates at the higher regional courts (Oberlandesgerichte). If the value in dispute exceeds a threshold value of 1 million Euros and if the parties so wish, these special senates may also hear cases in first instance. Finally, the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) shall be allowed to conduct proceedings in English. Should the bill be adopted – which seems more likely than not in light of the coalition agreement – it will, thus, be possible to conduct English-language proceedings in at least two, maybe even three instances. Compared to the status quo, which limits the use of English to the oral hearing (cf. Section 185(2) of the Court Constitution Act) and the presentation of English-language documents (cf. Section 142(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure) this will be a huge step forward. Nonetheless, it seems unlikely that adoption of the bill will make Germany a much more popular forum for the settlement of international commercial disputes.

Remaining disadvantages vis-à-vis international commercial arbitration

To begin with, the bill – like previous draft laws – is still heavily focused on English as the language of the court. Admittedly, the bill – following the draft law of the Bundesrat of March 2022 – also proposes changes that go beyond the language of the proceedings. For example, the parties are to be given the opportunity to request a verbatim record of the oral proceedings. In addition, business secrets are to be better protected. However, these proposals cannot outweigh the numerous disadvantages of German courts vis-à-vis arbitration. For example, unlike in arbitration, the parties have no influence on the personal composition of the court. As a consequence, they have to live with the fact that their – international – legal dispute is decided exclusively by German (national) judges, who rarely have the degree of specialization that parties find before international arbitration courts. In addition, the digital communication and technical equipment of German courts is far behind what has been standard in arbitration for many years. And finally, one must not forget that there is no uniform legal framework for state judgments that would ensure their uncomplicated worldwide recognition and enforcement.

Weak reputation of German substantive law

However, the bill will also fail to be a resounding success because it ignores the fact that the attractiveness of German courts largely depends on the attractiveness of German law. To be sure, German courts may also apply foreign law. However, their real expertise – and thus their real competitive advantage especially vis-à-vis foreign courts – lies in the application of German law, which, however, enjoys only a moderate reputation in (international) practice. Among the disadvantages repeatedly cited by practitioners are, on the one hand, the numerous general clauses (e.g. §§ 138, 242 of the German Civil Code), which give the courts a great deal of room for interpretation, and, on the other hand, the strict control of general terms and conditions in B2B transactions. In addition – and irrespective of the quality of its content – German law is also not particularly accessible to foreigners. Laws, decisions and literature are only occasionally available in English (or in official English translation).

Disappointing numbers in Amsterdam, Paris and Singapore

Finally, it is also a look at other countries that have set up international commercial courts in recent years that shows that the adoption of the bill will not make German courts a blockbuster. Although some of these courts are procedurally much closer to international commercial arbitration or to the internationally leading London Commercial Court, their track record is – at least so far – rather disappointing.

This applies first and foremost to the Netherlands Commercial Court (NCC), which began its work in Amsterdam in 2019 and offers much more than German courts will after the adoption and implementation of the bill: full English proceedings both in first and second instance, special rules of procedure inspired by English law on the one hand and international commercial arbitration law on the other, a court building equipped with all technical amenities, and its own internet-based communication platform. The advertising drum has also been sufficiently beaten. And yet, the NCC has not been too popular so far: in fact, only 14 judgments have been rendered in the first four years of its existence (which is significantly less than the 50 to 100 annual cases expected when the court was set up).

The situation in Paris is similar. Here, a new chamber for international commercial matters (chambre commerciale internationale) was established at the Cour d’appel in 2018, which hears cases (at least in parts) in English and which applies procedural rules that are inspired by English law and international arbitration. To be sure, the latter cannot complain about a lack of incoming cases. In fact, more than 180 cases have been brought before the new chamber since 2018. However, the majority of these proceedings are due to the objective competence of the Chamber for international arbitration, which is independent of the intention of the parties. In contrast, it is not known in how many cases the Chamber was independently chosen by the parties. Insiders, however, assume that the numbers are “negligible” and do not exceed the single-digit range.

Finally, the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC), which was set up in 2015 with similarly great effort and ambitions as the Netherlands Commercial Court, is equally little in demand. Since its establishment, it has been called upon only ten times by the parties themselves. In all other cases in which it has been involved, this has been at the instigation of the Singapore High Court, which can refer international cases to the SICC under certain conditions.

No leading role for German courts in the future

In the light of all this, there is little to suggest that the bill, which is rather cautious in its substance and focuses on the introduction of English as the language of proceedings, will lead to an explosion – or even only to a substantial increase – in international proceedings before German courts. While it will improve – even though only slightly – the framework conditions for the settlement of international disputes, expectations regarding the effect of the bill should not be too high.

 

Note: Together with Yip Man from Singapore Management University Giesela Rühl is the author of a comparative study on new specialized commercial courts and their role in cross-border litigation. Conducted under the auspices of the International Academy of Comparative Law (IACL) the study will be published with Intersentia in the course of 2023.

This post was written by Giesela Rühl, LL.M. (Berkeley), Humboldt-University of Berlin, and is also available via conflictoflaws.net.

On 25 April 2023 the German Federal Ministry of Justice (Bundesministerium der Justiz – BMJ) has published a bill relating to the establishment of (international) commercial courts in Germany. It sets out to strengthen the German civil justice system for (international) commercial disputes and aims to offer parties an attractive package for the conduct of civil proceedings in Germany. At the same time, it is the aim of the bill to improve Germany’s position vis-à-vis recognized litigation and arbitration venues – notably London, Amsterdam, Paris and Singapore. Does this mean that foreign courts and international commercial arbitration tribunals will soon face serious competition from German courts?

English-language Proceedings in All Instances

Proposals to improve the settlement of international commercial disputes before German courts have been discussed for many years. In 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2021, the upper house of the German Federal Parliament (Bundesrat) introduced bills to strengthen German courts in (international) commercial disputes. However, while these bills met with little interest and were not even discussed in the lower house of Parliament (Bundestag) things look much brighter this time: The coalition agreement of the current Federal Government, in office since 2021, promises to introduce English-speaking special chambers for international commercial disputes. The now published bill of the Federal Ministry of Justice can, therefore, be seen as a first step towards realizing this promise. It heavily builds on the various draft laws of the Bundesrat including a slightly expanded version that was submitted to the Bundestag in 2022.

The bill allows the federal states (Bundesländer) to establish special commercial chambers at selected regional courts (Landgerichte) which shall, if the parties so wish, conduct the proceedings comprehensively in English. Appeals and complaints against decisions of these chambers shall be heard in English before English-language senates at the higher regional courts (Oberlandesgerichte). If the value in dispute exceeds a threshold value of 1 million Euros and if the parties so wish, these special senates may also hear cases in first instance. Finally, the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) shall be allowed to conduct proceedings in English. Should the bill be adopted – which seems more likely than not in light of the coalition agreement – it will, thus, be possible to conduct English-language proceedings in at least two, maybe even three instances. Compared to the status quo, which limits the use of English to the oral hearing (cf. Section 185(2) of the Court Constitution Act) and the presentation of English-language documents (cf. Section 142(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure) this will be a huge step forward. Nonetheless, it seems unlikely that adoption of the bill will make Germany a much more popular forum for the settlement of international commercial disputes.

Remaining Disadvantages vis-à-vis International Commercial Arbitration

To begin with, the bill – like previous draft laws – is still heavily focused on English as the language of the court. Admittedly, the bill – following the draft law of the Bundesrat of March 2022 – also proposes changes that go beyond the language of the proceedings. For example, the parties are to be given the opportunity to request a verbatim record of the oral proceedings. In addition, business secrets are to be better protected. However, these proposals cannot outweigh the numerous disadvantages of German courts vis-à-vis arbitration. For example, unlike in arbitration, the parties have no influence on the personal composition of the court. As a consequence, they have to live with the fact that their – international – legal dispute is decided exclusively by German (national) judges, who rarely have the degree of specialization that parties find before international arbitration courts. In addition, the digital communication and technical equipment of German courts is far behind what has been standard in arbitration for many years. And finally, one must not forget that there is no uniform legal framework for state judgments that would ensure their uncomplicated worldwide recognition and enforcement.

Weak Reputation of German Substantive Law

However, the bill will also fail to be a resounding success because it ignores the fact that the attractiveness of German courts largely depends on the attractiveness of German law. To be sure, German courts may also apply foreign law. However, their real expertise – and thus their real competitive advantage especially vis-à-vis foreign courts – lies in the application of German law, which, however, enjoys only a moderate reputation in (international) practice. Among the disadvantages repeatedly cited by practitioners are, on the one hand, the numerous general clauses (e.g. §§ 138, 242 of the German Civil Code), which give the courts a great deal of room for interpretation, and, on the other hand, the strict control of general terms and conditions in B2B transactions. In addition – and irrespective of the quality of its content – German law is also not particularly accessible to foreigners. Laws, decisions and literature are only occasionally available in English (or in official English translation).

Disappointing Numbers in Amsterdam, Paris and Singapore

Finally, it is also a look at other countries that have set up international commercial courts in recent years that shows that the adoption of the bill will not make German courts a blockbuster. Although some of these courts are procedurally much closer to international commercial arbitration or to the internationally leading London Commercial Court, their track record is – at least so far – rather disappointing.

This applies first and foremost to the Netherlands Commercial Court (NCC), which began its work in Amsterdam in 2019 and offers much more than German courts will after the adoption and implementation of the bill: full English proceedings both in first and second instance, special rules of procedure inspired by English law on the one hand and international commercial arbitration law on the other, a court building equipped with all technical amenities, and its own internet-based communication platform. The advertising drum has also been sufficiently beaten. And yet, the NCC has not been too popular so far: in fact, only 14 judgments have been rendered in the first four years of its existence (which is significantly less than the 50 to 100 annual cases expected when the court was set up).

The situation in Paris is similar. Here, a new chamber for international commercial matters (chambre commerciale internationale) was established at the Cour d’appel in 2018, which hears cases (at least in parts) in English and which applies procedural rules that are inspired by English law and international arbitration. To be sure, the latter cannot complain about a lack of incoming cases. In fact, more than 180 cases have been brought before the new chamber since 2018. However, the majority of these proceedings are due to the objective competence of the Chamber for international arbitration, which is independent of the intention of the parties. In contrast, it is not known in how many cases the Chamber was independently chosen by the parties. Insiders, however, assume that the numbers are “negligible” and do not exceed the single-digit range.

Finally, the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC), which was set up in 2015 with similarly great effort and ambitions as the Netherlands Commercial Court, is equally little in demand. Since its establishment, it has been called upon only ten times by the parties themselves. In all other cases in which it has been involved, this has been at the instigation of the Singapore High Court, which can refer international cases to the SICC under certain conditions.

No Leading Role for German Courts in the Future

In the light of all this, there is little to suggest that the bill, which is rather cautious in its substance and focuses on the introduction of English as the language of proceedings, will lead to an explosion – or even only to a substantial increase – in international proceedings before German courts. While it will improve – even though only slightly – the framework conditions for the settlement of international disputes, expectations regarding the effect of the bill should not be too high.

— Note: Together with Yip Man from Singapore Management University Giesela Rühl is the author of a comparative study on new specialized commercial courts and their role in cross-border litigation. Conducted under the auspices of the International Academy of Comparative Law (IACL) the study will be published with Intersentia in the course of 2023.

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the untimely passing of Oliver Remien, Professor at the University of Würzburg, Germany, on Monday, 24 April 2023.

Oliver Remien, born in 1957, wrote his doctoral and habilitation theses at the Hamburg Max Planck Institute, where he worked as an assistant to Ulrich Drobnig. He joined the University of Würzburg in 2001. An area of perpetual interest for him was the comparison of European private law(s), with a particular focus on the “Four Freedoms” of primary EU law, the growing impact of secondary EU law, and the practilities of the increasingly frequent application of foreign law in the domestic courts of the Member States.

Our thoughts are with his family.

Good news for the University of Bonn|HCCH Conference on “The HCCH 2019 Judgments Convention: Cornerstones – Prospects – Outlook“, taking place in Bonn on 9 and 10 June 2023:

As of 1 April 2023, the German Federal Government as well as the local authorities have lifted all Covid-related restrictions. Therefore, registration is now possible without submitting any documents of vaccination. As it appears, there has never been a better time to register…

We are looking forward to welcoming a truly international audience at the beautiful premises of the University Club, located just a stone’s throw away from the river Rhine.

For all of you who have already registered and received a confirmation from our office, please be assured that there is nothing more to be done at the moment.

On 15 May 2023, the comparative findings of the ELI Webinar Series on the EU Succession Regulation (previously reported here) will be presented in a concluding webinar. The organizers kindly invite anyone interested into the actual practice regarding cross border succession cases to register for this final event within the series:

“Join us for the concluding webinar on the ‘Application of the EU Succession Regulation in the Member States’! 

The webinar organized within the Special Interest Group on Family and Succession Law of the European Law Institute will take place on Monday, May 15th, 3-5 pm CET and shall present important results gathered during the five webinars on the application of the EU Succession Regulation in the Member States organized in 2022.

Attendance is free of charge. A ZOOM link will be sent to those who register by sending an e-mail to zivilrecht@uni-graz.at”

The first issue for the Journal of Private International Law for 2023 was just published today. It contains the following articles:

 

D McClean, “The transfer of proceedings in international family cases”

There is general agreement that jurisdiction over issues concerning children or vulnerable adults should lie with the court of their habitual residence. There are particular circumstances in which that is not wholly satisfactory and four international instruments have provided, using rather different language, the possibility of jurisdiction being transferred to a court better placed to decide the case. They include Brussels IIb applying in EU Member States since August 2022 and the Hague Child Protection Convention of growing importance in the UK. This paper examines that transfer possibility with a detailed comparison of the relevant instruments.

 

M Lehmann, “Incremental international law-making: The Hague Jurisdiction Project in context”

The Hague Conference on Private International Law is currently working towards a new instrument on jurisdiction and parallel proceedings. But critics ask if we need another instrument, in addition to the Hague Choice of Court Convention of 2005 and the Hague Judgments Convention of 2019. This article gives reasoned arguments for a “yes” and explores possibilities for the substantive content of the new instrument. It does so by looking back and contextualising the new instrument with regard to the two preceding Conventions, and by looking forward to what is still to come, ie the interpretation and application of all three instruments. On this basis, it argues that a holistic approach is required to avoid the risk of a piecemeal result. Only such a holistic approach will avoid contradictions between the three instruments and allow for their coherent interpretation. If this advice is heeded, incremental law-making may well become a success and perhaps even a model for future negotiations.

 

B Köhler, “Blaming the middleman? Refusal of relief for mediator misconduct under the Singapore Convention”

The discussion surrounding the Singapore Convention on Mediation 2018 has gathered steam. In particular, the refusal of enforcement based on mediator misconduct as prescribed in Article 5(1)(e) and (f) has been the focus of debate and is widely perceived to be the Convention’s Achilles heel. These two provisions, already highly controversial in the drafting process, have been criticised as ill-suited to a voluntary process and likely to provoke ancillary dispute. This article defends these grounds for refusal, arguing that they play an indispensable role in guaranteeing the legitimacy of mediated settlements enforced under the Convention. It addresses some of the interpretative challenges within Article 5(1)(e) and (f) before discussing the tension between the provisions on mediator misconduct and the confidentiality of the mediation. The article then offers some guidance on how parties may limit the effects of the provisions, concluding with a brief outlook for the future.

 

A Yekini, “The effectiveness of foreign jurisdiction clauses in Nigeria: an empirical inquiry”

Business entities do not often include terms in commercial agreements unless those terms are relevant and are designed to maximise the gains of the parties to the agreement. To realise their reasonable and legitimate expectations, they expect that contractual terms and promises would be respected by the parties and courts. There is a growing body of literature suggesting that Nigerian courts are not giving maximum effects to foreign jurisdiction clauses (FJC). What is largely missing from the scholarly contributions is that no one has worked out a principled solution to overcome this conundrum. This article significantly contributes to the existing literature through an empirical analysis of Nigerian appellate court decisions on FJCs with a view to gaining deeper insights into the attitude of Nigerian courts to FJCs. Compared to the US where the national average of enforcement is 74%, a 40% rate for Nigeria does not project Nigeria as a pro-business forum. This outlook can potentially disincentivise cross-border trade and commerce between Nigeria and the rest of the world. To address this problem, the paper proceeds by presenting a normative framework, built principally on economic and contract theories, for enforcing FJCs. As most of the cases are B2B transactions, the paper invites the courts to treat FJCs and arbitration clauses equally and to replace forum non conveniens considerations with a more principled approach which limits non-enforcement to overriding policy, and a strong cause that is defined by reasonableness and foreseeability.

 

MM Kabry & A Ansari, “The enforcement of jurisdiction agreements in Iran”

Parties to a contract may designate the court or courts of a particular country to decide their disputes which have arisen or may arise from a particular legal relationship. Many countries give party autonomy its binding effect in selecting the competent court and enforcing jurisdiction agreements. There is complete silence in Iranian law regarding the enforcement of jurisdiction agreements. The current study examines the enforcement of jurisdiction agreements under Iranian law. This study investigates whether parties in international disputes can agree to confer jurisdiction to Iranian non-competent courts and whether they can agree to exclude the jurisdiction of competent Iranian courts in favour of foreign courts. The study contends that parties can agree to grant jurisdiction to Iran’s non-competent courts unless the excluded foreign court has exclusive jurisdiction to hear the dispute. On the other hand, parties may agree to exclude the jurisdiction of the competent Iranian courts in favour of foreign courts unless the Iranian courts assert exclusive jurisdiction over the dispute.

 

A A Kostin & DD Kuraksa, “International treaties on assistance in civil matters and their applicability to recognition of foreign judgments on the opening of insolvency proceedings (reflections regarding the Russian national and international experience)”

The article examines the question of admissibility of recognition of foreign judgments on commencement of bankruptcy proceedings on the basis of international treaties on legal assistance. It examines the background of these international treaties, as well as the practice of their application in respect of this category of foreign judgments. The authors conclude that foreign court decisions on opening of insolvency (bankruptcy) proceedings should be regarded as “judgments in civil matters” for the purpose of the international treaties on legal assistance. This category of foreign judgments should be recognised on the basis of international treaties in the Russian Federation, despite the existing approach of Russian courts (including the Judgment of the Arbitrazh (Commercial) Court of the Ural District of 09.10.2019 in case No. A60-29115/2019).

The Swiss Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne will host its 34th Private International Law day on 1 June 2023, under the title Personal Identity and Status Continuity – A focus on Names and Gender in the Conflict of Laws.

The event continues a series inaugurated last year with two webinars on filiation and same-sex marriage, respectively.  The programme and materials of those webinars can be found here and here (under media & fichiers).

The three panels are co-organised with ELI special interest group on family and succession law.

The day before the conference, a special side event organized by the Institute with the collaboration of Walter Stoffel, University of Fribourg, and Lucie Bader, film and media scholar, Bern, will introduce the topic of Law and Gender.

More details here.

The EU has decided on 24 April 2023 to establish treaty relations with Ukraine under the Hague Judgments Convention. Ukraine acceded to the Convention on 29 August 2022 by submitting its ratification to the depositary, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From that moment, the other Signatories have 12 months to object against the establishment of treaty relations with the new member (Article 29 of the Convention).

The EU Council decided not to do so. According to the Press Release, the Council considers that

there are no fundamental obstacles, such as related to the independence and efficiency of the judiciary, the fight against corruption or the respect of fundamental rights, which could prevent the EU from entering into treaty relations with Ukraine.

The Swedish Minister for Justice, Gunnar Strömmer, said on the occasion that “[w]ith this decision to recognise and enforce each other’s judgments the ties between the EU and Ukraine will only become stronger.”

The Judgments Convention will enter into force for all Signatories on 1 September 2023. Although the EU theoretically still has time until the 29 August 2022 to notify the depositary of its objections to establish relations with Ukraine under the Convention, this is unlikely after the decision by the Council. Courts in the EU will therefore soon be obliged under the Convention to recognise and enforce Ukrainian judgments in civil or commercial matters, and vice versa.

The Mexican Academy of Private International and Comparative Law (AMEDIP) is holding a webinar on Thursday 27 April 2023 at 14:30 (Mexico City time – CST), 22:30 (CEST time). The topic of the webinar is the Construction of Private International Law and will be presented by Prof. Jorge Alberto Silva (in Spanish).

The details of the webinar are:

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85789687012?pwd=aXlKWFpzb2Qyb2VoNklwMWxyQ082UT09

Meeting ID: 857 8968 7012

Password: AMEDIP

Participation is free of charge.

This event will also be streamed live: https://www.facebook.com/AmedipMX

[This post has been prepared by Ms. Francesca Albi, J.D. Candidate | Università degli Studi di Verona]

The Summer School on Transnational Litigation has been organized since 2019 within the Ravenna Program on Cross-Border Disputes by the University of Bologna, Department of Juridical Sciences – Ravenna Campus (Italy), under the direction of Prof. Michele Angelo Lupoi.

The organization of its 2023 edition confirms the success this projects continues to enjoy among participants from all over the world, who, over the years, are contributing to build a promising network of Private International Law enthusiasts. Indeed, this project has proven to be a building-bridges catalyst to connect people with the same interests in Private International Law issues: in this sense, this multi-year Summer School actively contributes to the sharing and spread of knowledges and views, which go beyond borders in every possible sense.

 

In 2023, the Summer School will take place from Monday 17 to Saturday 22 July, both in person at the Faculty of Law (Via Oberdan 1/2) in Ravenna – Italy, and online.

 

The title, which summarises the hot topics of the courses of this year’s edition, is “Cross-border litigation and international arbitration”. As a matter of fact, the themes dealt with will concern, on one hand, transnational litigation from a wide perspective (i.e., involving climate litigation, cross-border maritime litigation, family and succession Private International Law, civil and commercial litigation), and, on the other hand, the increasingly interesting matter of international arbitration. The full schedule of classes is available and may be downloaded at https://site.unibo.it/transnational-litigation/en/program.

 

Participants will have the outstanding opportunity to acquire specialised knowledges on these relevant topics of growing importance directly from experts in such matters. In fact, the faculty consists of renowned scholars and legal practitioners, who will offer their experience involving diverse professional backgrounds developed in different States over the world. In detail, the lecturers in this edition are (in alphabetical order) Apostolos Anthimos, Giovanni Chiapponi, Elena D’Alessandro, David Estrin, Marco Farina, Francesca Ferrari, Chris Helmer, Albert Henke, Emma Roberts, Marco Torsello, Stefano Alberto Villata and Anna Wysocka-Bar. Their biographies and professional experience may be consulted at https://site.unibo.it/transnational-litigation/en/faculty.

 

Registration to the School are now open!

In order to participate, some requirements should be met: applicants must be students or graduate students of a Bachelor (three-years) or Master (five-years) Degree (or equivalent under previous systems) in Law (LMG/01), Legal Services Science (L-14), Political and International Relationships Science (L-36), International Relationships (LM52), or Political Sciences (LM62). Other candidates may also be accepted upon the presentation of the CV which should be show a connection to the topics of the Summer School. Alongside students and post-grad students, also practitioners in legal matters are invited to participate. In this regard, it must be noticed that the Ravenna Bar Association will grant 20 formative credits to Italian lawyers who attend the Summer School.

Registration to the Summer School is possible upon the payment of a fee, whose amount is €250,00 and which does not cover expenses for the accommodation and meals (please, note that registration is considered completed only when the payment of the fee is fulfilled). Applications are open until 6 July 2023 (h 23.59 CET); it is not possible to apply beyond this deadline. The application procedure is described at https://site.unibo.it/transnational-litigation/en/fees-and-forms.

 

In this regard, it is worth mentioning that, in order to give to one deserving law student or law graduate, who meets specific age requirements, the opportunity to attend the Summer School online free of charge, a call for papers has been launched. It consists in the submission of an originally and previously unpublished paper on a topic concerning transnational litigation and international arbitration. A selection committee, composed by staff and faculty members of the Summer School, will evaluate the papers and will reward the author of the best one through the possibility to attend the full Summer School online without paying the ordinary registration fee. Moreover, the best three papers will be published in the Linkedin Newsletter of the Summer School on Transnational Litigation “Transnational litigation pills”. Every submission is truly appreciated. Detailed information on this call for papers may be found on the website of the Summer School, especially in the section “Fees and forms”.

 

For any question regarding the application process or logistics, the contact person is Dr. Cinzia Cortesi, Manager of Fondazione Flaminia (master@fondazioneflaminia.it; +39 0544 34345). Otherwise, in order to acquire further information on the project, courses and call for papers, it is possible to contact Prof. Michele Angelo Lupoi, Director of the Summer School (micheleangelo.lupoi@unibo.it) or Francesca Albi, Tutor (francesca.albi@unibo.it).

 

Further information may be found in the official website of the Summer School at https://site.unibo.it/transnational-litigation/en.

 

The organization team of the Summer School warmly invites everyone who meets the requirements listed above to apply for the 2023 edition courses, in order to allow as many people as possible the exciting chance to become part of a group of colleagues and friends with the common interest in Private International Law, that is larger and larger every year.

Within the framework of the Jean Monnet Module “CoRiMaR” (2020-2023), the University of Udine, in cooperation with a consortium of European universities, now including University of Essex , De Montfort University, Universitatea de Vest din Timisoara, East Anglia University, University of Rijeka, University of Belgrade and University of Szeged, organizes the 16th edition of the Summer School on Consumer’s Rights and Market Regulation in the European Union, to be held 12-21 July 2023 in Udine.

The 2023 Summer School will consist of 40 hours of lectures, a workshop and a moot court. It aims to provide a comprehensive training on the legal discipline of consumer protection and market regulation in the European Union Law, with a particular reference to digital technologies, the following relevant aspects: consumer protection and empowerment; private international law; dispute resolution and redress; market regulation.

The call for application and the brochure are respectively available here and here.

The application deadline is 31 May 2023.

For further info, please write an email to ip.europeanlaw.uniud@gmail.com.

Wuhan University Institute of International Law, in partnership with global research leader SAGE, is delighted to announce the launce of a new journal “Chinese Journal of Transnational Law”.

The Chinese Journal of Transnational Law is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal that aims to address global challenges from the perspective of transnational law, which is broadly defined to cover international law (public and private), international economic law, comparative law, the interaction between domestic and international law, and any other legal field possessing a cross-border element. This journal embraces relevant submissions from different cultures and regions and attracts readers from the global, regional and Chinese markets. The journal shall be open to not only traditional doctrinal and theoretical legal research on transnational law, but also contextual and inter-disciplinary research. Although focused on contemporary matters in its aspiration to be a forum for the latest debates on transnational legal studies, it also considers submissions inspired by in-depth historical perspectives that cast new light on present developments. The CJTL covers broad topics including but not limited to:

• Innovative transnational dispute resolution, including both state-to-state and private dispute resolution mechanisms and the impact of culture, psychology, language and geopolitics on dispute resolution;
• Transnational trade, investment and economic governance;
• Transnational family law and the wellbeing of children, including surrogacy, child abduction and same sex marriage in the cross-border context;
• Transnational regulation of technology;
• Transnational corporate responsibility and governance;
• Transnational protection of private rights in tort and transactions;
• Transnational law and development;
• Transnational law and global health governance;
• Transnational environment protection and climate change;
• Transnational criminal law;
• Unilateral sanctions, extraterritorial regulations and blocking law.

The Chinese Journal of Transnational Law accepts submissions year round on any topic covered in the journal scope. In the meantime, the journal will publish calls for special issues occasionally. A call for the first special issue is going to be announced soon. You can find more information about this journal and submit your paper here.

In Poland v LC Corp BV, the Amsterdam first instance court mid-March refused Poland’s application for an anti-suit injunction, which would have prohibited LC Corp from seeking UNCITRAL arbitration under the now defunct Poland-Netherlands BIT, with London as curial seat.

The case echoes that of Kingdom of Spain v Blasket Renewable Investments LLC, in which the Amsterdam Court had earlier declined to hear an anti-suit injunction petition by Spain to prevent renewable investors from enforcing arbitral awards in the US: see Josep Galvez’s summary here. That case however in the meantime has encountered quite the opposite reaction from a US judge, who held end of March that Spain enjoys sovereign immunity in the case and that as a result of the CJEU’s Komstroy’s authority, neither Spain nor the defendant had power to sign up to arbitration, hence dismissing the petition to confirm an arbitral award rendered pursuant to the Energy Charter Treaty.  In turn, that decision is in contrast with earlier orders in 9REN v the Kingdom of Spain and NextEra v the Kingdom of Spain as Curtis summarise here. The Court of Appeal will now hear those issues.

The case, as Geraldo Vidigal reminded me, is also reminiscent of the interlocutory decision in ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2022:5772, also involving Poland yet in that case with an anonymised Dutch corporate defendant. In that judgment the arbitration procedure was suggested as the currently only available way for the corporation to have its day in ‘court’, seeing as in the view of the judge, the Polish rule of law crisis  questions the impartiality of the Polish courts, and the EU’s alternative Investment Court is not yet operational. Johannes Hendrik Fahner discusses that case here.

In current case, the court first of all holds that Brussels Ia’s arbitration exception is not engaged, for the case’s core, it suggests, is whether the pursuit of an arbitration proceeding despite CJEU Achmea, constitutes abuse of process. The case, it holds (4.3) does not have the questions  put to the arbitral tribunal as its object, hence the arbitration exception is not in play. 4.5 the Court re applicable law holds parties have made choice of law for Dutch law under Article 14 Rome II, obiter suggesting that finding locus damni under Rome II Article 4(1)’s general rule is not self-evident: would the damage of an abusive pursuit of arbitration proceedings, be located in The Netherlands? It is not entirely clear to me why the Court discusses applicable law (other than Dutch courts having to do so proprio motu. 4.12 the court refers to the tribunal’s Kompetenz Kompetenz. The curial seat being located outside the EU, in London, is a crucial element in the court’s reasoning, despite CJEU Achmea: it is not prima facie clear that the tribunal will refuse to hear the case. Given the overall fog re the consequences of the CJEU case-law on extra-EU arbitration, the issues are not clearly without foundation hence cannot constitute abuse.

 

With recent Australian developments (blogpost imminent), even more proverbial ECT s**** is hitting the fan. IMHO this conundrum is not going to be solved by ever more procedural forum shopping with conflicting outcomes.

Geert.

CJEU #Komstory, #ISDS claxon
First instance Amsterdam refuses anti-suit against Dutch corporation in Poland-NL based UNCITRAL #arbitration with London as curial seat
Holds BIA arbitration exception is not engaged
More on the blog soon

Poland v LC CORP BV https://t.co/WOshDCgy15

— Geert Van Calster (@GAVClaw) March 14, 2023

We can feel it in the air but also in the incoming announcements – the summer is approaching. One of the great ways to spend a part of it is at a summer school. The University of Uidne (Italy) is the host to the 16th edition of the summer school Consumer’s Rights and Market Regulation in the European Union, to be held on 12-21 July 2023.

The programme addresses aspects of legal protection of consumers and market regulation, including the private international law topics, and a moot court. The full schedule is available here. The course accepts undergraduate students, graduates (who graduated no more than five years ago), PhD students from faculties of law, economics, political science or international relations., and limited amount of posts are available on the academic qualifications bases. The early bird is until 30 April 12:00 pm GMT, and the enrollment closes on 31 May 12:00 pm GMT. For details, please consult the Call for applications Udine Summer School 2023.

The summer school is organised within the Jean Monnet Module “CoRiMaR” (Consumer’s Rights and Market Regulation in the European Union) by the Department of Legal Sciences of the University of Udine (Italy), together with a consortium of European universities including University of Essex (UK), De Montfort University (UK), Universitatea de Vest din Timisoara (Romania), East Anglia University (UK), University of Belgrade (Serbia), University of Rijeka (Croatia) and University of Szeged (Hungary).

As announced on this blog, the IX Congress of Private International Law of the University Carlos III of Madrid will take place on 4 and 5 May 2023.

It will be devoted to the Proposal for a Regulation on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic instruments in matters of parenthood and on the creation of a European Certificate of Parenthood, presented by the European Commission on 7 December 2022.

The speakers include: Esperanza Castellanos Ruiz, Juliana Rodríguez Rodrigo, Ilaria Pretelli, Estelle Gallant, Antonia Durán Ayago, María José Castellanos Ruiz, Aurora Hernández Rodríguez, Javier Carrascosa González, Asunción Cebrián Salvat, Isabel Lorente Martínez, Fabrizio Marongiu Buonaiuti, Emelina Santana Páez and Alfonso-Luis Calvo Caravaca.

The programme and further information are available here.

Written by Yan WANG, Huaqiao University 

It was with great sadness that we received word from her family that Professor GUO Yujun passed away at 1:50 am GMT+8 on 22 April 2023, at the age of 59.

Professor GUO was a distinguished professor of private international law, art law, and cultural heritage law at the Wuhan University International Law Institute in China. She is the Vice-President and Secretary-General of China Society of Private International Law. During her 30 years at Wuhan University, she taught and mentored hundreds of students, inspiring many of them to work under her supervision from the undergraduate to doctoral level.

She published more than 100 academic articles and works in Chinese, English and Japanese with a wide range of domestic and international influence. She had been to Hokkaido University Law Faculty as a Japanese Government (MEXT) Scholarship student from the October 1991 to April 1993. During her academic career, she went to Harvard University, Osnabrück University, and Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law as a visiting scholar.

Professor GUO earned the affection from her family, friends, colleagues, and students. A list of her representative private international law publications can be found here.

 

This week a conference took place to honor Professor Linda Silberman at New York University (NYU). She is currently the Clarence D. Ashley Professor of Law Emerita at NYU. The full program is available here.

Anyone who has had the privilege of taking Linda Silberman’s classes would agree with me that she is an outstanding scholar and professor. Someone who takes the art of teaching to another level, a very kind and brilliant person who truly enjoys building the legal minds of the lawyers and academics of the future. In my view, nothing in the academic world compares to taking the “international litigation” class with her. Thus, this is more than a well-deserved event.

The conference flyer indicates the following:

“When Professor Linda Silberman came to NYU in 1971, she was the first woman hired for the NYU Law tenure-track faculty. In 1977, she became the first tenured female professor on the NYU Law faculty. Although she took emerita status in September 2022, she continues as the Co-Director of the NYU Center on Transnational Litigation, Arbitration, and Commercial Law. For over 30 years, Professor Silberman taught hundreds of first-year students Civil Procedure and she is the co-author of a leading Civil Procedure casebook that starts with her name. Throughout her career, Professor Silberman also taught Conflict of Laws and in the past twenty-five years branched out to teach Comparative Procedure, Transnational Litigation, and International Arbitration. Professor Silberman is a prolific scholar and her articles have been cited by numerous courts in the United States, including the Supreme Court, and also by foreign courts. Professor Silberman has been active in the American Law Institute as an Advisor on various ALI projects, including serving as a co-Reporter on a project on the recognition of foreign country judgments. She has also been a member of numerous U.S. State Department delegations to the Hague Conference on Private International Law. In 2021, Professor Silberman gave the general course on Private International Law at the Hague Academy of International Law.”

Below I include some of the publications of Professor Silberman (an exhaustive list is available here):

Books

• Civil Procedure: Theory and Practice (Wolters Kluwer 6th ed., 2022; 5th ed., 2017; 4th ed., 2013; 3d ed., 2009; 2d ed., 2006; 1st ed., 2001) (with Allan R. Stein, Tobias Barrington Wolff and Aaron D. Simowitz)
• Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) (ed. with Franco Ferrari)
• Civil Litigation in Comparative Context (West Academic Publishing 2d ed., 2017; 1st ed., 2007) (with Oscar G. Chase, Helen Hershkoff, John Sorabji, Rolf Stürner et al.)
• Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments: Analysis and Proposed Federal Statute (American Law Institute, 2006) (with Andreas F. Lowenfeld)
• The Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Judgments: Records of the Conference held at New York University School of Law on the Proposed Convention (Juris, 2001) (ed. with Andreas F. Lowenfeld)

Articles

• “Nonparty Jurisdiction,” 55 Vand. J. Transnat’l L. 433 (2022) (with Aaron D. Simowitz)
• “Introductory Note to Monasky v. Taglieri (U.S. Sup. Ct.),” 59 Int’l Legal Materials 873 (2020)
• “Misappropriation on a Global Scale: Extraterritoriality and Applicable Law in Transborder Trade Secrecy Cases,” 8 Cybaris Intell. Prop. L. Rev. 265 (2018) (with Rochelle C. Dreyfuss)
• “Lessons for the USA from the Hague Principles,” 22 Uniform L. Rev. 422 (2017)
• “The Transnational Case in Conflict of Laws: Two Suggestions for the New Restatement Third of Conflict of Laws—Judicial Jurisdiction over Foreign Defendants and Party Autonomy in International Contracts,” 27 Duke J. Compar. & Int’l L. 405 (2017) (with Nathan D. Yaffe)
• “The US Approach to Recognition and Enforcement of Awards After Set-Asides: The Impact of the Pemex Decision,” 40 Fordham Int’l L.J. 799 (2017) (with Nathan Yaffe)
• “Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments and Awards: What Hath Daimler Wrought?” 91 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 344 (2016)(with Aaron Simowitz)
• “The End of Another Era: Reflections on Daimler and Its Implications for Judicial Jurisdiction in the United States,” 19 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 675 (2015)
• “Limits to Party Autonomy at the Post-Award Stage,” in Limits to Party Autonomy in International Commercial Arbitration (Juris 2016)(with Maxi Scherer)
• “United States Supreme Court Hague Abduction Decisions: Developing a Global Jurisprudence,” 9 J. Comp. L. 49 (2014);
• “The Need for a Federal Statutory Approach to the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign County Judgments,” 26th Sokol Colloquium (2014)
• “Civil Procedure Meets International Arbitration: A Tribute to Hans Smit,” 23 Am Rev. Int. Arb. 439 (2012)
• “Goodyear and Nicastro: Observations from a Transnational and Comparative Perspective,” 63 S.Ct. L. Rev. 591 (2011)
• “Morrison v. National Australia Bank: Implications for Global Securities Class Actions,” 12 YB. Priv. Int. L. (2011 “The Role of Choice-of-Law in National Class Actions,” 156 U. Pa. L. Rev. 2001 (2008).

 

* photo credited to NYU

For quite a long time, what China had been doing for its interregional private laws was modelling their solutions on international conventions such as the Hague Service Convention, the Hague Evidence Convention and the Hague Judgments Convention etc. Normally they eventually got a slimmed-down Arrangement for the corresponding matter. This was quite different from what happed in the EU where the enhanced versions of the Hague Conventions could be seen and something extra could even be achieved. Also different from the EU where the ECJ could give answers when many questions at national law level were elevated and tested in the context of Regulations at the EU level, there has been no common court for interregional instruments within China so far. Apart from those bilateral Arrangements, all regions within China are basically treating one another as a ‘foreign country’ in terms of private laws.

The situation is, however, changing, at least from the Mainland side. Yesterday, I was invited to attend a conference which was under the support of the Supreme People’s Court of PRC and organized by the High Court of Guangdong Province that is geographically the closest one to Hong Kong and Macau. The purpose of the conference was to read the Draft Interpretation prepared by a research team of the Guangdong High Court and to be formally adopted and issued by the Supreme People’s Court later on. This Draft Interpretation is, again, an unilateral act of the Mainland China who wants to better its civil procedural rules regarding cases related to Hong Kong and Macau (possibly also Taiwan included). Indeed, different from the past experience for the past decades where inter-regional private cases were generally handled in analogy with foreign-related ones, the Mainland China is now trying to differentiate them. It wants to have more advanced and enhanced rules for interregional private cases. Keep an eye on the development of Chinese interregional private laws ……