Agrégateur de flux

Hongrie / Parlement
Droit institutionnel
Selon l’avocat général Bobek, la Cour devrait rejeter le recours de la Hongrie contre la résolution du Parlement déclenchant la procédure de constatation de l’existence d’un risque clair de violation grave, par cet État membre, des valeurs sur lesquelles l’Union est fondée

Star Taxi App
Rapprochement des législations
Un service qui met en relation directe, au moyen d’une application électronique, des clients avec des chauffeurs de taxi constitue un service de la société de l’information dès lors qu’il ne constitue pas une partie intégrante d’un service global dont l’élément principal serait une prestation de transport

Région de Bruxelles-Capitale / Commission
Agriculture
La Région Bruxelles-Capitale n’est pas recevable à demander l’annulation du règlement d’exécution de la Commission renouvelant l’approbation de la substance active glyphosate

A book titled International Commercial Arbitration in the European Union, by Chukwudi Ojiegbe, has recently been published by Edward Elgar.

The blurb reads as follows:

This illuminating book contributes to knowledge on the impact of Brexit on international commercial arbitration in the EU. Entering the fray at a critical watershed in the EU’s history, Chukwudi Ojiegbe turns to the interaction of court litigation and international commercial arbitration, offering crucial insights into the future of EU law in these fields. Ojiegbe reviews a plethora of key aspects of the law that will encounter the aftermath Brexit, focusing on the implications of the mutual trust principle and the consequences for the EU exclusive competence in aspects of international commercial arbitration. He explores the principles of anti-suit injunction and other mechanisms that may be deployed by national courts and arbitral tribunals to prevent parallel court and arbitration proceedings. Advancing academic debate on the EU arbitration/litigation interface, this book suggests innovative solutions to alleviate this longstanding and seemingly intractable issue. Arriving at a time of legal uncertainty, this book offers crucial guidance for policymakers and lawyers dealing with the interaction of court litigation and international commercial arbitration in the EU, as well as academics and researchers studying contemporary EU and commercial law.

More information available here.

By Dr Sarah McKibbin

In the recent decision of RCD Holdings Ltd v LT Game International (Australia) Ltd,[1] Davis J of the Supreme Court of Queensland dismissed proceedings brought in breach of an exclusive jurisdiction clause that had been expressed in ‘an arm’s length agreement reached between commercial entities’.[2] In deciding whether to exercise his discretion not to stay or dismiss proceedings, Davis J examined whether procedural disadvantages and ‘inconvenience’ in the jurisdiction nominated in the clause were relevant considerations.

In 2013, the parties entered a contract setting up a scheme to promote a computer betting game at casinos in Melbourne, Nevada and Melbourne.[3] The contract, which was signed and to be partially performed in Australia, included a clause entitled ‘Governing Law’ by which the parties agreed that:[4]

any dispute or issue arising hereunder, including an alleged breach by any party, shall be heard, determined and resolved by an action commenced in Macau. The English language will be used in all documents.

A dispute arose and, notwithstanding the clause, the plaintiffs commenced proceedings in Queensland alleging breaches of the contract in connection with the scheme’s implementation at Crown Casino in Melbourne. The defendant, LT, entered a conditional appearance seeking to strike out the claim or, alternatively, have it stayed based on the exclusive jurisdiction clause. The plaintiffs’ submissions focused on the inconvenience of having to litigate in Macau and the perceived procedural advantages secured by LT in doing so.[5] The plaintiffs further submitted that the COVID-19 pandemic prevented them from commencing proceedings in Macau.[6]

The decision reinforces that ‘strong reasons’[7] are required to enliven the court’s discretion not to grant a stay of proceedings brought in breach of an exclusive jurisdiction clause. This reflects a fundamental policy consideration that ‘“parties who have made a contract should be kept to it”’.[8] Here, the parties differed on the circumstances relevant to the exercise of this discretion.[9] The plaintiffs relied upon the list of circumstances identified by Brandon J in The Eleftheria, which included ‘the relative convenience and expense of the trial’ and ‘[w]hether the plaintiffs would be prejudiced by having to sue in the foreign court’.[10]  As Davis J marked, subsequent English and Australian decisions have questioned the role of procedural disadvantages and inconvenience in the nominated jurisdiction, ‘at least when they are factors which should have been known at the time the exclusive jurisdiction clause was agreed.’[11]

In that respect, Davis J followed the judgment of Bell P in the recent New South Wales Court of Appeal decision of Australian Health & Nutrition Association Ltd v Hive Marketing Group,[12] which endorsed the critical observations of Allsop J in Incitec Ltd v Alkimos Shipping Corp[13] and Waller J in British Aerospace plc v Dee Howard Co.[14] In Incitec, Allsop J perceived ‘financial and forensic inconvenience’ to the party bound by the clause to be the direct consequence of the bargain entered.[15] In a similar vein, Waller J in British Aerospace considered that these factors ‘would have been eminently foreseeable at the time that [the parties] entered into the contract’.[16]

Setting issues of ‘inconvenience’ to one side, however, Davis J attached greater significance to the fact that the parties upon contracting presumably ‘considered the commercial wisdom of agreeing’ to the inclusion of the clause.[17] The factors relied upon by the plaintiffs were in existence and could have been taken into account by the parties at the time of contracting.[18] Indeed, evidence demonstrated that the courts of Macau: (1) could deal with the claim; (2) could provide the remedy sought by the plaintiffs; and (3) would accept court documents in the English language.[19] Issues of inconvenience ‘can hardly be weighty in the exercise of discretion where one party seeks to deny the other the benefit of the covenant.’[20] Finally, Davis J observed that ‘there is little, if any, evidence at all as to the impact of the pandemic upon any litigation in Macau’.[21] Yet, ‘if the pandemic developed so as to effectively prevent, or unduly frustrate’ litigation in Macau, this discretionary consideration would be taken into account together with ‘any other relevant considerations’ in a subsequent application.[22]

[1] [2020] QSC 318.

[2] Ibid, [56].

[3] Davis J observes that ‘[t]he scheme is clearly to be targeted at casinos throughout the world’: at para [7].

[4] RCD Holdings (n 1) [8].

[5] Ibid, [54].

[6] Ibid, [33].

[7] Oceanic Sun Line Special Shipping Co Inc v Fay (1988) 165 CLR 197, 259 (Gaudron J). Akai Pty Ltd v People’s Insurance Co Ltd (1996) 188 CLR 418, 429 (Dawson and McHugh JJ), 445 (Toohey, Gaudron and Gummow JJ).

[8] Ibid, quoted in RCD Holdings (n 1) [57].

[9] Ibid, [58].

[10] Ibid.

[11] See, eg, British Aerospace plc v Dee Howard Co [1993] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 368; Incitec Ltd v Alkimos Shipping Corp (2004) 138 FCR 496, 506; Australian Health & Nutrition Association Ltd v Hive Marketing Group Pty Ltd (2019) 99 NSWLR 419.

[12] Australian Health & Nutrition (n 7).

[13] (2004) 138 FCR 496, 506 [49].

[14] [1993] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 368, 376.

[15] Incitec Ltd v Alkimos Shipping Corp (n 11) 506 [49].

[16] British Aerospace plc v Dee Howard Co (n 12) 376.

[17] RCD Holdings (n 1), [65].

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ibid, [32].

[20] Ibid, [65].

[21] Ibid, [70].

[22] Ibid.

Guest post by Ulla Liukkunen, Professor of Labour Law and Private International Law at the University of Helsinki and Director of the Finnish Center of Chinese Law and Chinese Legal Culture

The International Academy of Comparative Law launched a new open access publication in November 2020. Volume no 1 on the use of comparative law methodology in international arbitration contains articles by Emmanuel Gaillard, Sebastián Partida, Charles-Maurice Mazuy, S.I. Strong, Johannes Landbrecht, Morad El Kadmiri, Marco Torsello, Ulla Liukkunen, Alyssa King, Alexander Ferguson, Dorothée Goertz and Luis Bergolla as well as introductory remarks on the topic by the Secretary-General of the Academy, Diego P. Fernández Arroyo.

The volume no 1 is available on aidc-iacl.org/journal.

 

The article “Chinese context and complexities — comparative law and private international law facing new normativities in international commercial arbitration” was written by Ulla Liukkunen, Professor of Labour Law and Private International Law at the University of Helsinki and Director of the Finnish Center of Chinese Law and Chinese Legal Culture.

 

Professor Liukkunen examines international commercial arbitration from the perspective of Chinese developments, noting that, in global terms, the organization of cross-border dispute resolution is changing as a part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) development. With the BRI, Chinese interest in international commercial arbitration has gained a new dimension as BRI promotes the expansion of Chinese dispute resolution institutions and their international competitiveness.

 

According to Liukkunen, these developments challenge the current narrative of international arbitration. She explores private international law as a framework for unfolding noteworthy characteristics of the Chinese legal system and legal culture that are present in international commercial arbitration and can be linked to an assessment of the role of the BRI in shaping the arbitration regime. A rethink of comparative methodology is proposed in order to promote an understanding of Chinese law in the arbitration process.

 

Moreover, Liukkunen argues that considerations of the Chinese private international law and arbitration regime speak for a broader comparative research perspective towards international commercial arbitration. In the international commercial arbitration frame under scrutiny, we can see the conception of party autonomy placed in a Chinese context where the state is shaping the still relatively young private international law frame for exercise of that freedom and certain institutional structures are advocated where party autonomy is placed. Chinese development underlines the connection between the legal regime of arbitration and endeavours by the state, thereby requiring assessment of party autonomy from the perspective of the regulatory framework of private international law that expresses the complex dichotomy between private and public interests.

 

 

 

 

Statut collectif de travail

Cour d'assises

Mandat d'arrêt européen

After the successful first four online seminars on Brussels IIter last week (see previous post on Brussels IIter seminars), we have decided to add a seventh seminar to our series: Child Participation: past research results and the new rules of Brussels IIter, 17 December 2020, 14.00 – 15.15 (after the seminar on provisional measures, transfer and lis pendens, which will end at 13.45). Chair person: Laura Carpaneto, University of Genoa Francesca Maoli, University of Genoa, in collaboration with Tine Van Hof, University of Antwerp Robert Fucik, Austrian Central Authority. Please enrol if you are interested and then we will send the link for the zoom meeting. Persons who have already enrolled for any of the other six sessions can join without having to enrol again.

The facts of the 2021 Pax Moot is available (see https://paxmoot.com/the-case/)! Teams can start registering.

The 2021 Round is named after Arthur von Mehren, a giant of international procedure across the Atlantic.  2021 will mark the 15th year after his passing away. After the adoption of the 2019 Hague Convention (which might prove relevant for the case ;-)) the organisers thought it appropriate to celebrate him in this way.

The pleadings will take pace in April 2021 (the timeline and further information are available on the Pax webpage).

Following a lecture delivered in September 2020 at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and Private International Law in Hamburg, Giesela Rühl (Humboldt University of Berlin) published a paper on SSRN – Towards a German Supply Chain Act? Comments from a Choice of Law and Comparative Perspective – analysing the project for a legislative proposal expected to shape Germany’s legislation in the field of corporate responsibility.

The project for a Supply Chain Act (Lieferkettengesetz) comes as a response to a second national survey published in July which analysed the implementation of the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (NAP). According to the results presented by the Federal Labour Minister Hubertus Heil and Federal International Development Minister Gerd Müller only a few companies are voluntarily taking responsibility to ensure that human rights are respected in their supply chain. Consequently, the coalition considered that the idea of a national supply chain law needs to be pursued. A hearing by the Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid of the German Bundestag that took place on 28 October 2020 under the leadership of Gyde Jensen (FDP) showed that many experts in Germany are in favour of a Supply Chain Law. Experts from business, politics and society predominantly supported the federal government’s plan for such a law, which is intended to improve compliance with human rights and environmental standards in the global environment.

As the subject remains a hot topic for the German legislator and it will have consequences beyond the German territory, Prof. Rühl’s addresses some of these relevant aspects from a private international law and comparative perspective. The abstract of the paper reads as follow:

The protection of human rights in global supply chains has become one of the most hotly debated issues in public and private (international) law. In a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands, these debates have led to the introduction of domestic human rights legislation. In other countries reform plans are under way. In Germany, for example, the federal government recently announced plans to adopt a German Supply Chain Act, which, if passed as suggested, will introduce both mandatory human rights due diligence obligations and mandatory corporate liability pro-visions. The following article takes this announcement as an opportunity to look at the idea of a German Supply Chain Act from both a choice of law and from a comparative perspective. It argues that that any such Act will necessarily be limited in both its spatial and in its substantive reach and, therefore, recommends that Germany refrains from passing national legislation – and supports the adoption of a European instrument instead.

La Cour de justice de l’Union européenne se penche, en application du règlement Bruxelles I bis, sur les difficultés procédurales liées à la mise en œuvre d’une action engagée par un copropriétaire d’un bien situé dans un État membre contre un autre copropriétaire localisé dans un État membre différent.

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L’ancien président de la République Nicolas Sarkozy, son avocat Thierry Herzog et l’ex-avocat général près la Cour de cassation Gilbert Azibert comparaissent depuis le 23 novembre devant le tribunal correctionnel de Paris pour corruption, trafic d’influence et violation du secret professionnel.

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Preuve - Enregistrement

Probably precisely because it would have been obvious, Bobek AG did not refer in the opening lines of his Opinion in C-307/19 Obala v NLB to Groundhog Day, which, following Pula Parking, this case certainly is. He did at 2 summarise why the issue, essentially on the notion of ‘civil and commercial’ under Brussels Ia and the Service Regulation 1393/2007 keeps on coming before the CJEU (this time in no less than 9 long questions):

The crux of the problem appears to be a certain double privatisation carried out by the Croatian legislature at both management and enforcement level. A matter commonly perceived in other Member States to be administrative in nature is entrusted to private entities. The subsequent enforcement of such a claim is also not designed to be a matter for the courts, but rather, at least at first instance, for notaries.

The EC had objected to quite a few questions on the basis that they engaged too much the substance of the case, which the AG disagrees with: at 31 he suggest that inevitably in conflict of laws jurisdictional advice, ‘telescopic analysis of the substance’ is needed.

On the issue of ‘civil and commercial’, Germany and Slovenia submit the origin of the power under which the contract was concluded and which is enforced in this respect that is determinant.  The applicant, the Croatian Government and the Commission take the opposite view: to them, it is not the origin of the power but rather the modalities of its exercise which represent the determinative element for identifying ‘civil and commercial matters’. It is quite extraordinary that we should still not have consensus on this after to many cases, however as I noted in my review of Buak, the divergent emphasis by different chambers of  the Court has not helped.

At 42 ff Bobek summarily revisits the case-law under BIa (he concedes at 53-54 that case-law on other instruments does not add much), concluding at 52 that the CJEU has used both the ‘subject matter’ approach and the ‘legal relationship’ approach, without expressing a preference for either.

At 59 the Advocate-General opts for the ‘legal relationship’ approach, arguing that path ‘most reliably performs the function of the figurative railroad switch point guiding the dispute from one procedural track to another in search of the ‘right’ institutional path in a Member State at the preliminary stage of jurisdiction’. That path is also the one which as I point out in my review of Buak, was followed by the Second (which includes President Lenaerts, the chair of conflict of laws at Leuven prior to my immediate predecessor, Hans van Houtte) and not the First Chamber:

The Second chamber (K. Lenaerts, A. Prechal, Toader, Rosas and Ilešič in Buak, focus on Sapir which was issued by the third Chamber, comprising at the time Toader (Rapporteur), Ilešič, Jarašiūnas, Ó Caoimh,  Fernlund. Toader and Ilešič are the common denominator with judment in BUAK. Sapir has focus also firstly on the legal relationship between the parties to the dispute, but secondly the basis and the detailed rules governing the bringing of the action (not: the to my knowledge never applied Eurocontrol criterion of ‘subject matter’ of the action).

At 66 the AG offers ‘pointers’ within the ‘nature of the legal relationship’ approach which he believes may be of assistance to any public power assessment:

‘(i) start with the legal relationship which characterises the dispute; (ii) assess it against the framework generally applicable to private parties; and (iii) establish whether the dispute arises from a unilateral exercise of public powers outside that normal private ‘reference framework’.’

which applied to the case at issue, he concludes at 87, leads to a finding of there not appearing to be an exercise of public powers.

I conclude my overview of ‘civil and commercial’ at para 2.65 of the third ed of the Handbook (forthcoming February 2021) with

the acte clair doctrine (meaning that national courts need not refer to the CJEU when the interpretation of EU law is sufficiently clear either by virtue of that law itself or following CJEU interpretation in case-law) implies that national courts by now ought to have been given plenty of markers when applying this condition of application of the Brussels I and Recast Regulation. Except of course the acte might not be that clair at all, as the above overview shows.

Bobek AG seems to have a similar end in mind: at 65: there is no unicorn, a truly autonomous interpretation of ‘civil and commercial’.

The Opinion continues with the classic themes of whether notaries are courts, and a firm opinion that leaving your car in a public parking space provokes contractual relations.

Geert.

European Private International Law, 3rd ed. 2021, paras 2.28 ff concluding at 2.65.

Groundhog day? Bobek AG this morning seems to think so: on the notion of 'civil and commercial' (and 'contract') in Brussels Ia, jurisdictional matters relating to a parking ticket enforced by notaries in Croatia. Again.
Obala v NLB https://t.co/N5aDJgTWfs pic.twitter.com/tEHROvHr4V

— Geert Van Calster (@GAVClaw) November 26, 2020