Flux européens

On 2 March 2016 the European Commission adopted  a proposal for a Council decision authorising enhanced cooperation in the area of jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of decisions on the property regimes of international couples, covering both matters of matrimonial property regimes and the property consequences of registered partnerships (COM(2016) 108 final).

This stance comes close after the failure, in December 2015, to reach a political agreement among all Member States on the proposals relating to matrimonial property regimes and registered partnerships adopted in 2011.

Over the last few weeks, seventeen Member States – namely Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden – addressed a request to the Commission to propose a decision authorising the establishment of enhanced cooperation between themselves in this field.

As a response, the Commission adopted the aforementioned proposal for a Council decision authorising enhanced cooperation, as well as a proposal for a Council Regulation on jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of decisions in matters of matrimonial property regimes (COM(2016) 106 final) and a proposal for a Council Regulation on jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of decisions in matters of the property consequences of registered partnerships (COM(2016) 107 final).

The adoption of the decision authorising enhanced cooperation requires a qualified majority of Member States within the Council and the consent of the European Parliament. The adoption of the two regulations implementing the enhanced cooperation requires unanimity by the participating Member States and the consultation of the European Parliament.

The non-participating Member States will continue to apply their national private international law rules to cross-border situations dealing with matrimonial property regimes and the property consequences of registered partnerships, and will remain free to join the enhanced cooperation at any time.

Espagne / Commission
Agriculture
La Cour confirme que le marquage des agrumes indiquant les agents conservateurs et autres substances chimiques utilisés en traitement post-récolte est obligatoire

Daimler
Rapprochement des législations
Les anciens réparateurs agréés de Daimler ne sont pas responsables des annonces qui, malgré leurs efforts pour en obtenir la suppression, continuent d’associer leur nom avec la marque « Mercedes-Benz » sur Internet

On 17 March 2016 the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce will host a conference titled The Luxembourg banker and private international law, organised by the Luxembourg Association of Banking Law Lawyers.

Speakers include Marie-Elodie Ancel (Univ. Paris-Est Créteil), Gilles Cuniberti (Univ. Luxembourg), Michèle Grégoire (Univ. Brussels), Patrick Kinsch (Univ. Luxembourg) and Grégory Minne (Univ. Luxembourg).

The program of the conference is available here.

As I have reported before, English practice is to continue using anti-suit injunctions outside of the Brussels I Regulation, in particular to support arbitration. Recent application was made in Crescendo Maritime, restraining litigation in China. Teare J confirmed among others (per Toepfer v Cargill) that forum non conveniens (Chine was the natural forum for litigation in ordinary) has little relevance in the context of arbitration clauses.

Kennedys have background to the case (essentially, backdating of a shipbuilding contract to avoid newly introduced international rules on tank coatings). The considered use of anti-suit once again underlines the importance of tools of civil procedure to support global arbitration practices.

Geert.

Tu, Guangjian, Private international law in China, Springer, 2016, pp. XI+192, ISBN: 9789812879929, Euro 83,19.

[Dal sito dell’editore] – This book provides a systematic elaboration of Chinese Private International Law, reveals the general techniques concerning conflict of laws in China, explains the detailed Chinese conflict rules for different areas of law, and demonstrates how international civil litigation is pursued in China. Clearly structured and written by a native Chinese scholar specializing in the field, the book’s easy-to-read style makes it accessible to a broad readership, while its content makes it a useful reference guide, especially for jurists and researchers.

Ulteriori informazioni sono reperibili qui.

Alo
Espace de liberté, sécurité et justice
La Cour de justice se prononce sur les relations entre la liberté de circulation des bénéficiaires d’une protection internationale et les mesures visant à faciliter leur intégration

National Iranian Oil Company / Conseil
Relations extérieures
La Cour confirme le gel des fonds de la National Iranian Oil Company pour la période allant du 16 octobre 2012 jusqu’à la levée de son inscription le 16 janvier 2016

EGL e.a. / Commission
Concurrence
Le Tribunal maintient les amendes infligées par la Commission à plusieurs sociétés pour leur participation à l’entente dans le secteur des services de transit international aérien

Determining whether a legal relationship is one in tort, for the purposes of (now) Article 7(2) of the Brussels I Recast Regulation, is in principle subject to autonomous interpretation. National law ought not to feature (emphasised ia in Melzer). In the Brussels I Regulation, Article 5(3) features alongside Article 5(1)’s jurisdictional rule for contract. (In the Recast Regulation, Artt 7(1 and (2)). Sometimes, as in Brogsitter, both are present between two contractual parties and one needs to be separated from the other. In Kalfelis, the CJEU defined ‘tort’ as ‘all actions which seek to establish the liability of a defendant and which are not related to a “contract” within the meaning of Article 5(1).‘

Tobias Lutzi’s review is very useful in reminding us of the need to distinguish the two tracts of the Kalfelis definition. Just focusing on Brogsitter might lead one into thinking that Article 5(1) and 5(3) [7(1) /7(2)] ‘dovetail’: i.e. if it is not the one, it is the other (with tort being the subordinate category). That is however clearly not the case: that it may have looked like this in Brogsitter is due to liability being present in any case: the issue was there where contractual liability stops and liability in tort takes over.

Article 5(3) therefore requires an ‘action which seeks to establish the liability of a defendant’ which leads the Advocate General here into lengthy review of the Austrian implementation of EU law on copyright levies. With respect, I do not think that is what is either called for or justified. Article 5(3) requires an autonomous, EU interpretation. Too much interference of national law spoils that broth – a point also made in Melzer. Moreover the application of the jurisdictional categories is just that: it determines jurisdiction only. Once that settled, the national courts regain their authority to requalify and indeed may still decide that there is no liability in tort (or contract, as the case may be) at all, but rather one in contract (or tort, as the case may be) or indeed none at all.

I feel Sharpston AG’s centre of gravity etc. modus operandi, suggested by her re distinguishing between Rome I and II in Ergo but (probably) not accepted by the Court, would have come in handy at the jurisdictional level in Austro Mechana, too.

The CJEU’s judgment here is one to look out for.

Geert.

 

 

 

After nearly three years of negotiations, the time apparently has come for the adoption of a regulation aimed at simplifying the requirements for presenting certain public documents in the European Union (the initial proposal may be found here).

The regulation aims at promoting the free movement of EU citizens (a) by facilitating the circulation within the European Union of certain public documents (those regarding, inter alia, birth, death, marriage, legal separation and divorce, registered partnership, adoption, parenthood), as well as their certified copies, and (b) by simplifying other formalities, such as the requirement of certified copies and translations of public documents.

Here’s a summary of the key developments occurred over the last two years.

In February 2014, the European Parliament adopted its position at first reading on the proposed regulation. In June 2015, the Council approved, as a general approach, a compromise text (contained in document 6812/15 and its annex I, in combination with document n. 3992/15, and annexes I, II and III here) and further agreed that it should constitute the basis for future negotiations with the European Parliament.

In October 2015, an agreement was reached between the Council and the European Parliament on a compromise package; the agreement was then confirmed  by COREPER and the compromise package was endorsed by the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs.

The Chair of the latter Committee addressed a letter to the Chair of COREPER II to inform him that, should the Council formally transmit its position to the European Parliament in the form presented in the Annex to that letter, he would recommend to the plenary that the Council’s position be accepted without amendment, subject to legal-linguistic verification, at the European Parliament’s second reading.

In December 2015, the Council adopted a political agreement on the compromise package and instructed the Council’s legal-linguistic experts to proceed with the revision of the text.

The text resulting from the revision carried out by the legal-linguistic experts can be found here (Council document No 14956/15 of 25 February 2016).

The Council is expected to discuss the adoption of its position at first reading on 10 and 11 March 2016.

On 12 and 13 of May 2016 the Academy of European Law will host in Trier a seminar on Cross border insolvency proceedings.

Speakers include Stefania Bariatti (Univ. Milan), Anna Gardella (European Banking Authority, London), Francisco Garcimartín Alferez (Autonomous Univ. of Madrid).

The program of the seminar is available here. For further information, see here.

On 19 November 2015 the ECJ rendered its judgment in P v Q (Case C-455/15), a case concerning the public policy exception contemplated in regulation No 2201/2003 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility (Brussels IIa). Pursuant to Article 23(a) of the regulation, a judgment on parental responsibility rendered in a Member State may be denied recognition in another Member State if such recognition is “manifestly contrary to the public policy” of the latter State “taking into account the best interests of the child”.

The facts which gave rise to the referral concerned a divorced couple (P and Q), whose children lived in Sweden when the dispute arose.

In march 2014, Q, who had previously reported P for offences against herself and their two children (V and S), took her children to Lithuania.

In April 2014, P and Q brought proceedings against each other, in Sweden and Lithuania, requesting interim measures granting them custody of the children (actually, the custody of S, in the case of Q). Shortly after, the Lithuanian court granted Q the custody of S.

On October 2014 the Swedish court granted P sole custody of S, while in February 2015 the Lithuanian court ruled that S should live with Q, while P should pay maintenance for the children.

Before the Swedish court, P argued that the Lithuanian order of February 2015 was at variance with Swedish public policy and should, accordingly, be denied recognition. 

Asked by the Swedish court to clarify the interpretation of Article 23(a) of the regulation, the Court of Justice of the European Union observes in its judgment that the refusal to recognise a foreign judgement should be kept to the minimum required. It also noted that the public policy clause in Article 23(a) of the Brussels IIa regulation is not the same as the one in Article 34(1) of regulation No 44/2001 on jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (Brussels I), now Article 45(1)(a) of regulation No 1215/2012 (Brussels Ia) in that the former provision “requires that a decision to refuse recognition must take into account the best interests of the child”.

In the Court’s view, Article 23(a) of the Brussles IIa regulation should come into consideration  “only where, taking into account the best interests of the child, recognition of the judgment given in another Member State would be at variance to an unacceptable degree with the legal order of the State in which recognition is sought, in that it would infringe a fundamental principle”.

That said, the Court is of the opinion that, in the case at issue, “the documents before the Court do not show the existence of such a rule of law, regarded as essential in the legal order of the Kingdom of Sweden, or of such a right, recognised as fundamental within that legal order, which would be infringed” if the Lithuanian judgment were recognised.

The refusal to recognise the Lithuanian provision, according to the Court, can neither be based on the fact that the Lithuanian court had allegedly declared its jurisdiction in breach of Article 15 of the regulation, which allows the court to transfer the case to another court if it believes the latter to be better placed to hear the case. Such impossibility is due to Article 24, which “prohibits any review of the jurisdiction of the court of the Member State of origin, and even provides expressly that Article 23(a) of the regulation cannot be used to carry out such a review”.

Lastly, the Court focuses on the pursuable alternatives in order to contrast a wrongful removal or retention of the child in a Member State. In this respect, the Court points to Article 11 of the regulation, which lays specific provisions on the matter. In particular, Article 11(8)  provides for a special procedure “under which the possible problem of conflicting judgments in the matter may be resolved”.

Readers will have noticed that a substantial part of the blog relates to Conflict of Laws /private international law. Following the example of Steve Peers, I will from now on add tags to the conflicts postings to assist readers of the 2nd ed of my Handbook on European Private international law. These will relate to the closest level of headings relevant to the posting. (E.g. my upcoming post on Saugmandsgaard AG in re Amazon will be tagged ‘Chapter  2’ and ‘2.2.11.2’. One next week on yesterday’s Opinion of Kokott AG on Mareva injunctions will be tagged ‘Chapter 2’ and ‘2.2.16’).

I cannot promise I will shortly be able to update all past postings (there are a lot) in this way however all postings until December 2015 are in some way or another included in the 2016 ed.

Thank you, Steve, for the idea.

Geert.

In 2015, the Council on General Affairs and Policy of the Hague Conference decided that an Experts’ Group should be convened to explore the feasibility of advancing work on the private international law issues surrounding the status of children, including issues arising from international surrogacy arrangements (for further information on the Parentage / Surrogacy project, see here).

The Experts’ Group on Parentage / Surrogacy met from 15 to 18 February 2016 (the full report is available here). The discussion, based on a background note drawn up by the Permanent Bureau, revealed significant diversity in national approaches to parentage and surrogacy.

The Group noted that “the absence of uniform private international law rules or approaches with respect to the establishment and contestation of parentage can lead to conflicting legal statuses across borders and can create significant problems for children and families”, including limping parental statuses, uncertain identity of the child, immigration problems, uncertain nationality or statelessness of the child, abandonment including the lack of maintenance. “Common solutions”, the Group observed, “are needed to address these problems”.

In particular, as regards the status quo, the Group noted the following.

(a) Most States do not have specific private international law rules regarding assisted reproductive technologies and surrogacy agreements.

(b) Regarding jurisdiction, issues mostly arise in the context of legal parentage being established by or arising from birth registration, voluntary acknowledgment of legal parentage or judicial proceedings. The experts reported, however, that jurisdiction issues tend to arise not as a stand-alone topic, but rather in connection with recognition.

(c) Regarding applicable law, there is a split between those States whose private international law rules point to the application of the lex fori and those whose private international law rules may also lead to the application of foreign law.

(d) Regarding recognition, the Group acknowledged the diversity of approaches of States with respect to the recognition of foreign public documents such as birth certificates or voluntary acknowledgements of parentage, and noted that there is more congruity of practice with respect to the recognition of foreign judicial decisions.

Based on the foregoing, the Group determined that “definitive conclusions could not be reached at the meeting as to the feasibility of a possible work product in this area and its type or scope” and expressed the view that “work should continue” and that, at this stage, “consideration of the feasibility should focus primarily on recognition”. The Group therefore recommended to Council, whose next meeting is scheduled to take place on 15 to 17 March 2016 (see here the draft agenda), that the Group’s mandate be continued.

Sabrine Maya Bouyahia, La proximité en droit international privé de la famille, Harmattan, 2015, ISBN 9782343054643, pp. 618, Euro 51,30.

[Dal sito dell’editore] – Parmi les méthodes proposées pour trancher les litiges présentant un élément d’extranéité, figure celle reposant sur le principe de proximité. L’étude porte sur deux systèmes de droit international privé de la famille différents (droit français et droit tunisien) pour mettre en exergue d’une part l’adaptation de cette méthode aux spécificités de chaque ordre étatique et d’autre part son adéquation avec tous les différents systèmes de droit.

Ulteriori informazioni sono disponibili a questo indirizzo.

L’Associazione Italiana per l’Arbitrato ha indetto la settima edizione del premio “Eugenio Minoli”, per le migliori tre tesi di laurea in materia di arbitrato commerciale internazionale discusse nel periodo compreso tra il 1° giugno 2014 e il 30 marzo 2016.

Il termine per la presentazione delle domande scade il 31 maggio 2016.

Maggiori informazioni sono disponibili a questo indirizzo.

Stroumpoulis e.a.
SOPO
Les marins grecs résidant en Grèce et engagés par une société ayant son siège statutaire dans un État tiers et son siège effectif en Grèce bénéficient de la protection du droit de l’Union en cas d’insolvabilité de la société

Garcia-Nieto e.a.
Sécurité sociale des travailleurs migrants
La Cour de justice confirme que certaines prestations sociales peuvent être refusées aux ressortissants d’autres États membres pendant les trois premiers mois de leur séjour

Shoe Branding Europe / adidas
Propriété intellectuelle et industrielle
adidas peut s’opposer à l’enregistrement, comme marque communautaire, de bandes parallèles apposées sur la face latérale des chaussures de sport