Flux des sites DIP

The Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice delivered on Tuesday (18 May 2021) an important decision on the Rule of Law in Romania (joint cases C‑83/19, C‑127/19, C‑195/19, C‑291/19, C‑355/19 et C‑397/19). The judgment is currently available only in a selection of EU official languages, and it is not available in English either. Here is the French version (to check whether an English translation has finally been made available, just click on the link below and change the language version):

« 1) La décision 2006/928/CE de la Commission, du 13 décembre 2006, établissant un mécanisme de coopération et de vérification des progrès réalisés par la Roumanie en vue d’atteindre certains objectifs de référence spécifiques en matière de réforme du système judiciaire et de lutte contre la corruption, ainsi que les rapports établis par la Commission européenne sur la base de cette décision constituent des actes pris par une institution de l’Union, susceptibles d’être interprétés par la Cour au titre de l’article 267 TFUE.

2) Les articles 2, 37 et 38 de l’acte relatif aux conditions d’adhésion à l’Union européenne de la République de Bulgarie et de la Roumanie et aux adaptations des traités sur lesquels est fondée l’Union européenne, lus en combinaison avec les articles 2 et 49 TUE, doivent être interprétés en ce sens que la décision 2006/928 relève, en ce qui concerne sa nature juridique, son contenu et ses effets dans le temps, du champ d’application du traité entre les États membres de l’Union européenne et la République de Bulgarie et la Roumanie, relatif à l’adhésion de la République de Bulgarie et de la Roumanie à l’Union européenne. Cette décision est, aussi longtemps qu’elle n’a pas été abrogée, obligatoire dans tous ses éléments pour la Roumanie. Les objectifs de référence qui figurent à son annexe visent à assurer le respect, par cet État membre, de la valeur de l’État de droit énoncée à l’article 2 TUE et revêtent un caractère contraignant pour ledit État membre, en ce sens que ce dernier est tenu de prendre les mesures appropriées aux fins de la réalisation de ces objectifs, en tenant dûment compte, au titre du principe de coopération loyale énoncé à l’article 4, paragraphe 3, TUE, des rapports établis par la Commission sur la base de ladite décision, en particulier des recommandations formulées dans lesdits rapports.

3) Les réglementations régissant l’organisation de la justice en Roumanie, telles que celles relatives à la nomination ad interim aux postes de direction de l’Inspection judiciaire et à l’institution d’une section du ministère public chargée des enquêtes sur les infractions commises au sein du système judiciaire, relèvent du champ d’application de la décision 2006/928, de sorte qu’elles doivent respecter les exigences découlant du droit de l’Union et, en particulier, de la valeur de l’État de droit énoncée à l’article 2 TUE.

4) L’article 2 et l’article 19, paragraphe 1, second alinéa, TUE ainsi que la décision 2006/928 doivent être interprétés en ce sens qu’ils s’opposent à une réglementation nationale adoptée par le gouvernement d’un État membre, qui permet à ce dernier de procéder à des nominations intérimaires aux postes de direction de l’organe judiciaire chargé de mener des enquêtes disciplinaires et d’exercer l’action disciplinaire à l’encontre des juges et des procureurs, sans que soit respectée la procédure de nomination ordinaire prévue par le droit national, lorsque cette réglementation est de nature à faire naître des doutes légitimes quant à l’utilisation des prérogatives et des fonctions de cet organe comme instrument de pression sur l’activité de ces juges et procureurs ou de contrôle politique de cette activité.

5) L’article 2 et l’article 19, paragraphe 1, second alinéa, TUE ainsi que la décision 2006/928 doivent être interprétés en ce sens qu’ils s’opposent à une réglementation nationale prévoyant la création d’une section spécialisée du ministère public disposant d’une compétence exclusive pour mener des enquêtes sur les infractions commises par les juges et les procureurs, sans que la création d’une telle section

–        soit justifiée par des impératifs objectifs et vérifiables tirés de la bonne administration de la justice et

–        soit assortie de garanties spécifiques permettant, d’une part, d’écarter tout risque que cette section soit utilisée comme un instrument de contrôle politique de l’activité de ces juges et procureurs susceptible de porter atteinte à leur indépendance et, d’autre part, d’assurer que cette compétence puisse être exercée à l’égard de ces derniers dans le plein respect des exigences découlant des articles 47 et 48 de la charte des droits fondamentaux de l’Union européenne.

6) L’article 2 et l’article 19, paragraphe 1, second alinéa, TUE doivent être interprétés en ce sens qu’ils ne s’opposent pas à une réglementation nationale régissant la responsabilité patrimoniale de l’État et la responsabilité personnelle des juges au titre des dommages causés par une erreur judiciaire, qui définit la notion d’« erreur judiciaire » en des termes généraux et abstraits. En revanche, ces mêmes dispositions doivent être interprétées en ce sens qu’elles s’opposent à une telle réglementation lorsqu’elle prévoit que le constat de l’existence d’une erreur judiciaire, effectué dans le cadre de la procédure visant à la mise en cause de la responsabilité patrimoniale de l’État et sans que le juge concerné ait été entendu, s’impose dans le cadre de la procédure subséquente liée à une action récursoire visant à la mise en cause de la responsabilité personnelle de celui-ci et lorsqu’elle ne comporte pas, d’une manière générale, les garanties nécessaires pour éviter qu’une telle action récursoire soit utilisée comme instrument de pression sur l’activité juridictionnelle et pour assurer le respect des droits de la défense du juge concerné afin que se trouve écarté tout doute légitime, dans l’esprit des justiciables, quant à l’imperméabilité des juges à l’égard d’éléments extérieurs susceptibles d’orienter leurs décisions et exclue une absence d’apparence d’indépendance ou d’impartialité de ces juges de nature à porter atteinte à la confiance que la justice doit inspirer à ces mêmes justiciables dans une société démocratique et un État de droit.

7) Le principe de primauté du droit de l’Union doit être interprété en ce sens qu’il s’oppose à une réglementation de rang constitutionnel d’un État membre, telle qu’interprétée par la juridiction constitutionnelle de celui-ci, selon laquelle une juridiction de rang inférieur n’est pas autorisée à laisser inappliquée, de sa propre autorité, une disposition nationale relevant du champ d’application de la décision 2006/928, qu’elle considère, à la lumière d’un arrêt de la Cour, comme étant contraire à cette décision ou à l’article 19, paragraphe 1, second alinéa, TUE ».

Source : https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=241381&pageIndex=0&doclang=FR&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=5098836

The Nigerian Group on Private International Law (“NGPIL”) will hold its inaugural lecture on June 21, 2021 at 6pm CEST and 5pm BST. Registration and attendance online is free. For more information on the programme and registration  see the  NGPIL flyer and the NGPIL inaugural programme.

 

The Organization of American States (OAS) is organizing a virtual forum as noted in the poster above. It will take place on Monday 24 May 2021 at 11 am (Washington USA time). For more information, click here.

This event will be held in Spanish only and is free of charge. The event will also be streamed live via social media networks.

This event follows an important and recent milestone of the OAS in which the Inter-American Juridical Committee completed its 98th Regular Session approving the Principles on Privacy and Protection of Personal Data and Supporting the Hague Principles on the Choice of Law Applicable to International Commercial Contracts. Click here for the specific resolution (9 April 2021) and here for general information.

In February 2019, the Inter-American Juridical Committee adopted the “Guide on the Law Applicable to International Commercial Contracts in the Americas.”

From 9 to 11 September 2021, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law will host a conference titled The Private Side of Transforming our World – UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the Role of Private International Law. Depending on the course of the pandemic, the organizers plan that the conference will take place either at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg virtually or in a hybrid form. An official invitation was issued and registration is now open.

The conference is designed to present findings of the research project bearing the same title led by Ralf Michaels (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law), Verónica Ruiz Abou-Nigm (University of Edinburgh) and Hans van Loon (former Secretary General of the Hague Conference on Private International Law). The project, as explained by its leaders, “aims to raise an awareness of how PIL – with its methods and institutions – is also capable of making a significant contribution in the quest for sustainable development” defined in UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030. The edited volume presenting findings of the project will be published by Intersentia and is scheduled to be released in September 2021, to be ready for the conference. The volume will be freely accessible online, in open access.

The following 19 contributors involved in the project will present and discuss their findings on respective SDGs (the exact conference program will be ready in the coming weeks):

SDG 1 No Poverty

Benyam Dawit Mezmur (University of the Western Cape, South Africa)

SDG 2 Zero Hunger

Jeannette Tramhel (Organization of American States, United States of America)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Anabela Susana de Sousa Gonçalves (Universidade do Minho, Portugal)

SDG 4 Quality Education

Klaus Beiter (North-West University, South Africa)

SDG 5 Gender Equality

Gülüm Özçelik (Bilkent Üniversitesi, Turkey)

SDG 6 Clean Water and Sanitation

Richard Frimpong Oppong (Kamloops, Canada)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Nikitas E. Hatzimihail (University of Cyprus, Cyprus)

SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

Ulla Liukkunen (University of Helsinki, Finland)

SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Vivienne Bath (University of Sydney, Australia)

SDG 10 Reduced Inequality

Thalia Kruger (Universiteit Antwerp, Belgium)

SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

Klaas Hendrik Eller (Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands)

SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production

Geneviève Saumier (McGill University, Canada)

SDG 13 Climate Action

Eduardo Álvarez-Armas (Brunel University London, United Kingdom and Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium)

SDG 14 Life Below Water

Tajudeen Sanni (Kampala International University, Uganda)

SDG 15 Life on Land

Drossos Stamboulakis (Monash University, Australia)
Jay Sanderson (University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia)

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Sabine Corneloup (Université Panthéon-Assas, Paris II, France)
Jinske Verhellen (Universiteit Gent, Belgium)

SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals

Fabricio Polido (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil)

The preliminary programme for the TMC Asser Institute Masterclass on investing in English speaking Africa through private international law is now out.

During a two-day masterclass Chukwuma Okoli from the TMC Asser Institute will be joined by experts in the field of private international law such a Dr Pontian Okoli, lecturer in Private International Law and Commercial Law at the University of Stirling, Scotland, Professor Elsabe Schoeman, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, Richard Frimpong Oppong, Associate Professor a the University of Bradford School of Law, and Anthony Kennedy, Associate Member of Serle Court Chambers in London.

 

These professionals will offer you theoretical and practical insights into commercial law, private international law and transnational litigation. Among other topics, they will discuss the questions of jurisdiction, choice of court agreements, foreign currency obligations, and recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. Knowledge of these topics in English-speaking Africa is essential for effective investment, as the number of international commercial transactions on the continent grows.

 

For more information please visit the event page.

 

Relevance for investment

Africa’s population is approximately one billion people, and its growing population is expected to reach nearly 2.2 trillion dollars in consumer spending by 2030. The recent African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) Agreement seeks to create free movement of persons, goods and services within the African Union. This has accentuated the role of private international law in resolving potential cross-border disputes involving international commercial actors. Lawyers, judges, arbitrators and other stakeholders will have to gain advanced knowledge of the specific operation of private international law in the African context.

 

PO points

Dutch lawyers can obtain 10 PO points for their attendance.

 

About the masterclass series

Lifelong learning is essential for those engaged in today’s legal and business world. The Asser Academy Masterclass series are short courses tailored to professionals who wish to deepen their knowledge, stay up-to-date and remain competitive by mastering skills the global market needs. The Asser Academy Masterclass series will combine the cutting-edge knowledge of academia with the hands-on experience of practitioners.

 

Date: 24 – 25 June 2021

Fee: €995,- €745,-(IJI and Asser clients),- €495,-(Students and NGO-workers)

Venue: Online

Organiser: T.M.C. Asser Instituut

The European Group of Private International Law, also known as GEDIP (Groupe européen de droit international privé), has just launched a new website.

Created in 1991, GEDIP aims to study the interactions of private international law and European law in the broad sense. It is a place for the exchange of information and ideas for scientific and academic purposes, bringing together a small number of colleagues, mainly from Universities in various Member States of the European Union. The Group, chaired by Catherine Kessedjian, holds an annual three-day meeting at the invitation of a member.

The new website, which is bilingual (English and French), provides for easier and more comprehensive access to information regarding the Group’s activities, namely the documents adopted by the Group over the years and the papers drafted by individual members in preparation of the meetings.

Searches within the Group’s rich collection can be made by meeting and by topic.

The new website, like the previous one, also includes a list of acts and conventions (or projects) related to the European Union which include provisions of private international law.

The latest issue of RabelsZ has just been published. It features the following articles:

Horst Eidenmüller: Recht und Ökonomik des Extremsport-Sponsorings in vergleichender Perspektive, Volume 85 (2021) / Issue 2, pp. 273-325 (53), DOI: 10.1628/rabelsz-2021-0002

The Law and Economics of Extreme Sports Sponsoring in Comparative Perspective. – This article investigates the law and economics of extreme sports sponsoring in a comparative perspective. It is based on 40 structured interviews with sponsored athletes from various common law and civil law jurisdictions. The article demonstrates that the current contracting practice is unbalanced and inefficient. It entices athletes to take unreasonably high risks. There are ways to significantly increase the cooperative surplus compared to the status quo. The article further demonstrates that sponsor firms face increased and mandatory duties of care towards young and/or inexperienced athletes. In particular, such athletes should not be influenced by bonus systems in their risk-taking behaviour. The duties of care of a sponsor under contract and/or tort law are also determined by the degree of control exercised by a sponsor and the economic dependence of the athlete on the sponsor. This allows creating a finely tuned regulatory system that, unlike the dichotomy of an independent contractor and dependent worker, is better able to do justice to individual cases.

Arnald J. Kanning: Unification of Commercial Contract Law: The Role of the Dominant Economy, Volume 85 (2021) / Issue 2, pp. 326-356 (31), DOI: 10.1628/rabelsz-2021-0003

This paper is about the unification of commercial contract law. Showing that the legal rules preferred by the “dominant economy” frequently end up in uniform commercial contract laws does not show that those legal rules are inherently superior to any other legal rules. It will be argued that approval of a uniform commercial contract law by the “dominant economy” is the environmental factor that is crucial to its ultimate success, independent of the innate quality of the legal rules preferred by the “dominant economy”. Within the conceptual framework of historical and comparative institutional analysis (HCIA), a study is offered of several well-known attempts to unify (and codify) divergent bodies of commercial contract law in the past two centuries. The argument is not so much that the American UCC Article 2 on Sales greatly influenced the CISG as that United States adoption of the CISG was crucial to its ultimate success, independent of the innate quality of the legal rules preferred by the United States.

Justus Meyer: Die praktische Bedeutung des UN-Kaufrechts in Deutschland, Volume 85 (2021) / Issue 2, pp. 357-401 (45), DOI: 10.1628/rabelsz-2021-0004

The Practical Significance of the CISG in Germany. – The UN Sales Law is in different respects a clear success: worldwide, reforms of contract law are oriented towards the CISG. In September 2020 Portugal became the 94th contracting state. The importance of international trade in goods is steadily increasing. However, there is still uncertainty about the acceptance of UN sales law by internationally operating companies and their legal advisors. The present study is based on a survey of 554 attorneys in Germany and compares the answers with results from 2004 as well as from Austria and Switzerland. According to this survey, the international sales contracts heard by courts and arbitrators are predominantly not subject to UN sales law and the proportion of those who regularly use a choice-of-law clause with CISG exclusion has even risen from 42.2 to 52.9 % since 2004. In Austria and Switzerland this proportion has also risen and is even higher than in Germany. Many lawyers are well aware of the advantages of a neutral legal regime. However, it seems to be easier for them to recommend choice-of-law clauses that exclusively invoke domestic law.

Krzysztof Riedl: Natural Obligations in Comparative Perspective, Volume 85 (2021) / Issue 2, pp. 402-433 (32), DOI: 10.1628/rabelsz-2021-0005

A natural obligation (obligatio naturalis) is a legal construction whose roots stretch back to Roman law. This common source means that we will find similar solutions in legal systems descended from Roman legal culture – with respect to both the understanding of natural obligations and specific instances where they arise. The aim of this paper is to answer the question of whether these different systems define natural obligations in the same manner or whether the natural obligations encountered in these systems are distinct legal institutions sharing only a common name. In this paper, the various approaches of contemporary legal systems to this issue are characterized. Then, a comparative-law analysis focuses on three fundamental aspects of natural obligations: their legal construction (definition), a catalogue of instances, and their legal effectiveness. Under the constructional perspective, two basic models of obligatio naturalis are distinguished and discussed – the obligative model and the causal model – and it is around these two models which the particular conceptions converge. The analysis presented in the paper demonstrates that the similarities between the various models outweigh the differences. This permits us to refer to obligatio naturalis as a universal legal construction.

Ludovic Pailler (University of Lyon 3)  has just published a monograph on respect for the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in the European judicial area in civil and commercial matters, based on his doctoral thesis: Le respect de la charte des droits fondamentaux de l’Union européenne dans l’espace judiciaire européen en matière civile et commerciale, Pedone, 2021.

The author has provided the following abstract in English:

When the Treaty of Lisbon gave the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union its legally binding force, it gave rise, in article 67, paragraph 1, of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, to a legal obligation to respect fundamental rights while building the Freedom, Security and Justice Area. As this legal obligation concerns all the rules of this space, it raises questions in the European Judicial Area in civil and commercial matter where rules coordinating national legal systems are partially resistant to the influence of fundamental rights. Polysemy of the notion of respect make it possible to consider different ways for the Charter and the European Judicial Area law to interact. If the hierarchical principle seems to be the most obvious way to ensure the respect of the Charter, it transpires to be inappropriate by itself and because of the specific context fort the application of the Charter commanded by the European Judicial Area. So, it would be more convenient to substitute the hierarchical principle with a more supple way of interaction, the combination, so as to conform the studied space to the article 67, paragraph 1, of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

More details are available here, including a foreword by Fabien Marchadier (University of Poitiers) and Eric Garaud (University of Limoges) and the table of contents (here).

 

On 12 May, 2021, Advocate General Hogan delivered his opinion in Case C‑124/20 Bank Melli Iran v. Telekom Deutschland GmbH on the interpretation of the EU blocking statute (Regulation 2271/96 of 22 November 1996 protecting against the effects of the extraterritorial application of legislation adopted by a third country).

The context of the case was the newly reinstated sanctions of the U.S. against Iran. The main issue raised in the case was that of the impact of Article 5 of the blocking statute on the right of EU businesses to terminate private contracts.

Article 5 reads:

No person referred to in Article 11 shall comply, whether directly or through a subsidiary or other intermediary person, actively or by deliberate omission, with any requirement or prohibition, including requests of foreign courts, based on or resulting, directly or indirectly, from the laws specified in the Annex or from actions based thereon or resulting therefrom.

Persons may be authorised, in accordance with the procedures provided in Articles 7 and 8, to comply fully or partially (…).

Background

The German branch of Bank Melli Iran had entered into a framework contract with Telekom Deutschland GmbH which allowed Bank Melli to group all its company connections at various sites in Germany under one contract. In the context of this contractual relationship, Bank Melli ordered different services which formed the exclusive basis of its internal and external communication structures in Germany and were therefore indispensable to its business activities.

After the Trump administration decided that the U.S. would withdraw from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action aimed at controlling Iran’s nuclear programme and lifting economic sanctions against Iran, the U.S. reinstated sanctions against Iran in 2018.

In November 2018, ten days after the new U.S. sanctions entered into force, Telekom Deutschland GmbH terminated its contract with Bank Melli. It gave similar notice to four other German based entities with connections with Iran.

Bank Melli brought proceedings against Telekom Deutschland GmbH in a German court based on the infringement of the EU blocking statute and requesting performance of the contract.

Obligation to Give Reasons to Terminate Contracts

The most far reaching proposition of A.G. Hogan is to consider that the effet utile of Article 5 of the Blocking Statute requires a redistribution of the burden of proof. He opined that private parties terminating contracts in circumstances where they might be subject to foreign sanctions should have a duty to demonstrate that they did not do so because of the said sanctions.

Article 5 would therefore establish a duty to give the reasons for terminating the contract. Article 5 would also require that the reason be precise and objective, so that it could be verified that it was not to comply with the foreign sanction legislation.

AG Hogan explained:

89. (…) it (…) follows from the uncompromising terms of the first paragraph of Article 5 of the EU blocking statute that – in principle, at least – an undertaking seeking to terminate an otherwise valid contract with an Iranian entity subject to the US sanctions must demonstrate to the satisfaction of the referring court that it did not do so by reason of its desire to comply with those sanctions.

Should the CJEU follow A.G. Hogan, a first consequence would be that persons subject to the EU regulation could not rely on their freedom of terminate contracts without giving reasons under the law governing the contract. Article 5 of the blocking statute would establish an obligation to give a reason for terminating, or refusing to enter into, a contractual relationship with a person sanctioned by the relevant foreign legislation.

A second consequence would be that contractual clauses granting broad discretion to a contractual party to terminate the contract on vague regulatory grounds would be unenforceable. A.G. Hogan explained:

In particular, in my view, a person referred to in Article 11 of that statute should not be able to invoke a termination clause for force majeure to justify the termination of the contractual relationship without at least demonstrating that the event constituting force majeure is unrelated to the US sanctions legislation listed in the annex to that statute.

Sanctions: Punishing vs Redressing

Article 5 does not provide sanctions for the obligations that it establishes.

A.G. Hogan concluded that, in principle, it was for each Member State to lay down sanctions for infringements of the provision, and that their margin of discretion would be wide as far as punitive sanctions are concerned.

However, he opined that the margin of discretion of Member States would be very limited for civil sanctions, and that they would be bound to provide full effect to the provision by offering remedies which would put right-holders in the situation they would have been in in the absence of that unlawfulness.

108. Accordingly, I consider that, in the event of a breach of a provision prescribing a rule of conduct which must be complied with on a continuing basis (such as here), the national courts are required to order the infringer to put an end to the breach, on pain of a periodic penalty payment or other appropriate sanction, since only then can the continuing effects of the unlawfulness committed be brought to an end and compliance with EU law fully guaranteed.

Other Issues

The conclusions are long and address a number of other issues.

A.G. Hogan concluded by the following summary:

1) The first paragraph of Article 5 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2271/96 … is to be interpreted as not applying only where an administrative or judicial authority of a country whose laws and regulations are listed in the annex to that regulation has addressed, directly or indirectly, some instructions to a person referred to in Article 11 of that regulation. The prohibition contained in this provision accordingly applies even in the event that an operator complies with such legislation without first having been compelled by a foreign administrative or judicial agency to do so.

2) The first paragraph of Article 5 of Regulation No 2271/96 is to be interpreted as precluding an interpretation of national law under which a person referred to in Article 11 of that regulation may terminate a continuing contractual obligation with a contracting party named on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List held by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, without ever having to justify its decision to terminate those contracts.

3) The first paragraph of Article 5 of Regulation No 2271/96 is to be interpreted as meaning that, in the event of a failure to comply with the provisions of that article, the national court seised by a contracting party subject to primary sanctions is required to order a person referred to in Article 11 of that regulation to maintain that contractual relationship, even though, first, the second paragraph of Article 5 should be interpreted restrictively, secondly, such an injunction measure is liable to infringe Article 16 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and, thirdly, such a person is therefore liable to be severely penalised by the authorities responsible for applying one of the laws referred to in the annex to that regulation.

The Conference “the Office of the Judge and the Conflict-of-Law Rule” (L’office du juge et la règle de conflit de lois) will be held on Monday 17 May 2021 (in French) and will be streamed live via the Cour de cassation website and social media networks.

This Conference is part of the Lecture Series “Thinking about the office of the judge” (Penser l’office du juge) – 2020-2021 (directed by Sylvie Perdriolle, Honorary President of the Chamber, Sylvaine Poillot-Peruzzetto, Judge at the French Cour de cassation, and Lukas Rass-Masson, professor at the University of Toulouse 1 Capitole).

The programme is as follows:

5:00 p.m. – The Office of the Judge and the Nature of the Conflict-of-Law Rule
Nicolas Nord, Secretary General of the International Commission on Civil Status, Co-chairman of the China Section of the Société de législation comparée
Gian Paolo Romano, Professor at the University of Geneva, Co-director of the Yearbook of International Private Law

5:40 p.m. – The Office of the Judge and the European Conflict-of-Law Rule
Lukas Rass-Masson, Professor at the University of Toulouse I Capitole, Director of the European School of Law Toulouse

6:05 p.m. – The Office of the Judge and the Application of the Conflict-of-Law Rule
François Mélin, Judge at the Court of Appeal of Paris

18:30 p.m. – Discussion

Moderators:
François Ancel, President of the International Commercial Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal
Gustavo Cerqueira, Professor at the University of Nîmes, France

 

For several years, Greek scholars and practitioners had no access to a periodical in Greek specialized in Private International Law and International Civil Litigation.

Upon the initiative of Prof. Vrellis, a Private International Law Review [Κοινοδίκιον = Koinodikion] was published biannually between 1995-2003. Since then, conflict of laws issues were hosted in law reviews which were concerned generally with civil, commercial and civil procedure law.

Those days are now over! A new quarterly has just been launched by Sakkoulas Publications. ‘Lex & Forum’ is a brand new review, focusing on civil and commercial cross border matters from a European or international perspective.

Lex & Forum will host articles, notes, comments and book reviews in Greek and major European languages; it will publish rulings of international and national courts alike, not limited to the Greek legal order; finally, it will cover developments and report on news in the field of Private International Law.

The first issue contains an article by the Greek Judge at the CJEU, Michail Vilaras, and an extensive focus on judicial cooperation after Brexit, reflecting a webinar, organized earlier this year. The issue also comes with comments on recent rulings rendered by the CJEU (namely C-500/18, Reliantco, C-774/19, Personal Exchange, and C-272/18, VKI), as well as by Greek courts (among them, Supreme Court No 662/2020, and Court of Appeal of Piraeus No 120/2021, reported in this blog here, and here), UK courts [High Court of Justice, Gategroup Guarantee, EWHC 304(Ch)2021], and Swiss courts (Bezirksgericht Zürich, 24 February  2021).

The first issue contains an introductory note drafted by the scientific directors, Mr Arvanitakis, Ordinary Professor at the law faculty of the Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, and Mr Kranis, former Vice President of Areios Pagos, the Hellenic Supreme Court, and ex Vice Minister of Justice. The team of editors consists of academics, judges, staff members of the Ministry of Justice, lawyers, and Phd candidates in the field.

In response to the EU Commission’s formal refusal to allow the UK to accede to the Lugano Convention, a coalation between several NGOs and legal scholars, lead by the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) has issued an open letter, calling upon the EU to reverse this decision. In essence, they argue that a full return to the common-law rules on jurisdiction, including the forum non conveniens doctrine, will reduce access to the UK courts in cases of corporate human-rights abuses, which has only recently been rendered much more attractive by the UK Supreme Court’s decisions in Vedanta v Lungowe [2019] UKSC 20 and Okpabi v Shell [2021] UKSC 3.

The full letter can be found here. It is still open for signatures (via e-mail to christopher.patz[at]corporatejustice.org).

 

On 17 May 2021 (from 5 to 7 pm CET), the French Supreme Court in civil and criminal matters (Cour de cassation) will host an online seminar (in French) on the respective roles of the court and the parties in the application of conflict-of-laws rules (L’office du juge et la règle de conflit de lois).

The chairmen are François Ancel (President of the International Commercial Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal, ICCP-CA) and Gustavo Cerqueira (Professor at the University of Nîmes).

Speakers include Gian-Paolo Romano (Professor at the University of Geneva and co-director of the Yearbook of International Private Law), Nicolas Nord (Associate Professor at the University fo Strasbourg and Secretary General of the ICCS), Lukas Rass-Masson (Professor at the University of Toulouse 1, Director of the European school of law Toulouse) and François Mélin (Counsellor at the Paris Cour of Appeal).

The seminar will be streamed live on the website of the French Supreme Court (here).

It is part of a conference series dedicated to the office (role) of courts in different legal contexts and from a multidisciplinary approach.

The Department of Juridical Sciences of the University of Bologna (Italy), Ravenna Campus, is organising a Summer School on Transnational jurisdiction: current issues in civil and commercial matters. This will be held in Ravenna (and online) between 19-23 July 2021.

Given the growing relevance of cross-border litigation, the Summer School is looking to address a variety of issues from a comparative perspective combining theoretical and practical approaches. The topics address issues of jurisdiction, various aspects of private international law (e.g. cross-border service of documents, taking of evidence, arbitration agreements, Brexit, applicable law in non-contractual obligations, corporate social responsibility), available remedies, and the harmonisation of procedural rules.

The Director of the School, Prof. Michele Angelo Lupoi, has invited experts from different jurisdiction (see here) to lecture on several aspects of private international and procedural law. The programme of the Summer School is available here.

The Summer School is aimed at law students as well as law graduates and law practitioners who want to obtain a specialised knowledge in the complex and fascinating area of international civil procedure.

The lectures are likely to be held in a hybrid form – in presence and online – in respect of the applicable rules and advice.

More information about the Summer School and the registration can he found here.

The European Parliament Research Service released today a briefing on Access to Justice in environmental matters.

Context: “During the May plenary session, Parliament is due to vote on a report adopted by its Environment Committee, on a proposal aimed at ensuring EU compliance with its obligations as a party to the 1998 Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters”.

Extract: “In the European Green Deal communication, the Commission committed to consider revising the Aarhus Regulation. In October 2020, it adopted a proposal broadening the scope of the review procedure to include non-legislative acts of general scope (excepting those provisions of such acts for which EU law explicitly requires implementing measures at EU or national level), aligning references to environmental law with the convention’s requirements, and extending the time-frame for the administrative review process.

European Parliament position

Taking into account the ACCC advice from early 2021 on the Commission proposal, the report adopted on 23 April 2021 by Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) would open up the review mechanism to members of the public other than NGOs demonstrating sufficient interest or impairment of a right in accordance with the regulation. The Commission would specify by delegated act the criteria they need to fulfil. During the consideration of a request for review, third parties directly affected by the request (e.g. companies or public authorities) would be able to submit comments to the EU institution or body concerned. The report requires the Commission to adopt guidelines to facilitate the assessment of the compatibility of state aid with relevant provisions of EU law relating to the environment. To limit court proceedings costs, it insiststhat EU institutions and bodies make reasonable cost reimbursement requests when successful in litigation. It awaits a vote at the May plenary session. The vote would set Parliament’s position for negotiations with Council, which adopted its position in December 2020”.

Source: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2021/690593/EPRS_ATA(2021)690593_EN.pdf

On Access to Justice, the EU and the Aarhus Convention, see, for example, E. Guinchard and M.-P. Granger, Sisyphus in Luxembourg, in E. Guinchard and M-P Granger, “The New EU Judiciary”, Kluwer, December 2017. 375, spec. p. 377 in fine ff. (available at https://europeanciviljustice.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/sisyphus-in-luxembourg.pdf

The Court of Justice delivered today its judgment in case C–709/19 (Vereniging van Effectenbezitters v BP plc), which is about Article 7.2 Brussels I bis. The judgment is currently available in all EU official languages (save Irish), albeit not in English. Here is the French version (to check whether an English translation has finally been made available, just click on the link below and change the language version):

« L’article 7, point 2, du règlement (UE) no 1215/2012 […] doit être interprété en ce sens que la survenance directe, sur un compte d’investissement, d’un préjudice purement financier résultant de décisions d’investissement prises à la suite d’informations aisément accessibles sur le plan mondial, mais inexactes, incomplètes ou trompeuses provenant d’une société internationale cotée en bourse ne permet pas de retenir, au titre de la matérialisation du dommage, la compétence internationale d’une juridiction de l’État membre dans lequel est établie la banque ou l’entreprise d’investissement sur le registre de laquelle le compte est inscrit, lorsque ladite société n’était pas soumise à des obligations légales de publicité dans cet État membre ».

Source : https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf;jsessionid=AD7594B516888CAD5AB5EBC0D74BD409?text=&docid=241171&pageIndex=0&doclang=fr&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=2130484

As I suggested when I reviewed the Advocate-General’s Opinion in C‑709/19 Vereniging van Effectenbezitters, the CJEU was likely to be much more succinct, which has proven true with the judgment this morning (no English version available as yet).

The CJEU ignored of course the AG’s calls fundamentally to reconsider the locus damni introduction in Bier. Yet it re-emphasised its willingness to reign in the repercussions of Bier, insisting places of jurisdiction under Article 7(2) Brussels Ia need to correspond to those with a certain link to the case. Its core reference throughout is its judgment in Lober, itself an odd case for the court did not assign territorial jurisdiction (an issue also sub judice in Volvo Trucks). Clearly Universal Music features heavily, too.

The Court’s instruction in Universal Music, that the mere presence of a bank account in which damages materialise, does not suffice to establish jurisdiction, is expanded in Vereniging van Effectenbezitters with the use of statutory reporting requirements: [35] For listed companies (clearly, an entry for distinguishing: how about those unlisted?), only the courts of the Member States in which they are under a statutory reporting duty with a view to its listing, are reasonably foreseeable to it, as places in which a market in its financial instruments may emerge.

The Court also adds [36] that the collective action nature of the suit is of no relevance. The referring court had asked whether in such suits the domicile of the aggrieved could be dropped as being relevant, however the CJEU insisted that domicile has no stand-alone relevance in purely financial damage at all, even in non-collective action.

To the degree that the existence of such statutory obligations is not exhaustively harmonised across the EU (on that subject, I am no expert), this opens op possibilities of course for Member States to assist its consumers with forum shopping, by expanding reporting requirements. (Albeit such extra requirements may themselves by vulnerable under free movement of establishment and /or services; but now my mind is racing ahead).

The Court’s limiting approach here is in stark contrast with the much wider consequences of its findings on jurisdiction viz material consumer products in  Volkswagen.

Geert.

EU Private International Law, 3rd ed. 2021, para 2.459

The Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) is seeking a Legal Officer (Maternity Leave Replacement). The successful candidate will work primarily in the field of family law, focusing on the 1980 Child Abduction and 1996 Child Protection Conventions as well as on the Family Agreements project.

Applications should be submitted by Monday 31 May 2021 (00:00 CEST). For more information, please visit the Recruitment section of the HCCH website.

This post is published by the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference of Private International Law (HCCH).

In December 2020, we reported about the Opinion presented by Advocate Generale Campos Sánchez-Bordona in the case Vereniging van Effectenbezitters, C-709/19. Today, the Court delivered its judgment in this case.

In brief, the request for a preliminary ruling arose out of the proceedings pertaining to a collective action for a declaratory judgment brought by an association against an oil and gas company on behalf of investors who bought, held or sold the ordinary shares through an investment account in the Netherlands. The association argued that this internationally listed company acted unlawfully towards its shareholders inasmuch as it made incorrect, incomplete and misleading statements about the circumstances pertaining to, inter alia, an explosion resulting in an oil spill. It is in this context that the referring court requested the Court of Justice to interpret Article 7(2) of the Brussels I bis Regulation.

At the request of the Court, in his Opinion of last December, AG Campos Sánchez-Bordona addressed two first preliminary questions. Thus, the third and fourth preliminary questions on international and internal territorial jurisdiction to hear subsequent individual claims of the investors were not addressed in the Opinion.

Ultimately, the third and fourth questions do not receive a definitive answer in the judgment either. The Court held that these questions are inadmissible as they are of hypothetical nature – in the proceedings pending before the referring court, no subsequent individual claim is concerned (paragraphs 38 and 39).

As to the first and second preliminary questions, these are worded as follows:

(1) (a)      Should Article 7(2) of [the Brussels I bis Regulation] be interpreted as meaning that the direct occurrence of purely financial damage to an investment account in the Netherlands or to an investment account of a bank and/or investment firm established in the Netherlands, damage which is the result of investment decisions influenced by globally distributed but incorrect, incomplete and misleading information from an international listed company, constitutes a sufficient connecting factor for the international jurisdiction of the Netherlands courts by virtue of the location of the occurrence of the damage (“Erfolgsort”)?

(b)      If not, are additional circumstances required to justify the jurisdiction of the Netherlands courts and what are those circumstances? Are the additional circumstances [namely, the fact that the international listed company focuses on global investment public, including the investors in the Netherlands, and the association represents a considerable number of investors in this Member State, the fact that the settlement reached by the international listed company with a number of shareholders in the United States of America was not proposed to the investors represented by the association and, lastly, the fact that the shareholders for whom this association is acting include consumers to whom the Brussels I bis Regulation affords special legal protection] sufficient to found the jurisdiction of the Netherlands courts?

(2)      Would the answer to Question 1 be different in the case of a claim brought under Article 3:305a of the BW by an association the purpose of which is to defend, in its own right, the collective interests of investors who have suffered damage as referred to in Question 1, which means, among other things, that neither the places of domicile of the aforementioned investors, nor the special circumstances of individual purchase transactions or of individual decisions not to sell shares which were already held, have been established?

 

In its judgment, the Court answered together this questions (paragraph 22) and held that Article 7(2) of the Brussels I bis Regulation must be interpreted to the effect that the direct occurrence, in an investment account, of purely financial damage resulting from investment decisions made on the basis of information which was readily available worldwide, but which was incorrect, incomplete and misleading and emanated from an international listed company, does not allow the international jurisdiction of the court of the Member State in which the bank or investment firm that holds that account is established to be founded on a connection with the place where the damage occurred, where that company was not subject to statutory reporting obligations in that Member State (paragraph 37).

The judgment can be consulted here (the English version is not yet available).

Electronic commerce: past, present and future

The UNCITRAL National Coordination Committee for Australia (UNCCA) invites you to attend its Seventh Annual May Seminar, to be held online as a webinar. This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce 1996, and the 20th Anniversary of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures 2001.

Both of these Model Laws and the subsequent United Nations Convention on Electronic Communications in International Contracts 2005 have had a profound effect on the regulation of electronic commerce globally. In Australia, all of these developments have been incorporated in the Electronic Transactions Acts passed by the Commonwealth and all States and Territories. During 2020 the relevance of these enactments came to the fore as a result of the COVID pandemic.

In this live, interactive webinar, expert commentators from UNCITRAL and Australia will review the history of these developments in ecommerce, the current state of the law, as well as issues that are being considered for future work nationally and globally.

For more information, see here.