Faculty Position at the University of Windsor (Canada)

image_pdfimage_print

The Faculty of Law at the University of Windsor is seeking an outstanding individual or individuals for appointment to the Paul Martin Professorship in International Affairs and Law.

The appointment is intended for established scholars, eminent jurists and distinguished public servants and statespersons who are pursuing research in any area of international or transnational law (which we define widely to encompass public and private international law, comparative law, and law and globalization). Appropriate academic or professional qualifications and experience will be required.

The commencement date, duration, and other terms of the appointment will be negotiated according to the availability of the successful candidate(s). The appointment may extend over one or more academic terms.

JOB DESCRIPTION: The Paul Martin Professor will have the opportunity to engage in scholarly work and will be expected to teach a course (possibly on an intensive basis). The successful candidate will contribute to the intellectual life of the Faculty, will regularly engage with students and faculty at Windsor Law and the wider University, and will participate in the activities of the Faculty’s Transnational Law and Justice Network (TLJN). We would welcome, as well, outreach projects which engage stakeholders and the public in the candidate’s chosen field. Remuneration is negotiable and will be commensurate with the experience and expertise of the candidate. Research support will be available.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE: Those interested in applying for the Paul Martin Professorship should send a curriculum vitae and a cover letter indicating scholarly/teaching interests and a proposed project to be undertaken during the course of the appointment to Dean Camille Cameron, Chair, Appointments Committee, Windsor Law School, c/o adawson@uwindsor.ca, by June 9th, 2014.

“The University of Windsor is committed to equity in its academic policies, practices, and programs; supports diversity in its teaching, learning, and work environments; and ensures that applications from members of traditionally marginalized groups are seriously considered under its employment equity policy. Those who would contribute to the further diversification of the University’s professional staff include, but are not limited to, women, Aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities, members of visible minorities, and members of sexual minority groups. The University of Windsor invites you to apply to its welcoming community and to self-identify as a member of one of these groups. International candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.”

Bismuth on International Public Policy for Sovereign Debt Contracts

image_pdfimage_print

Regis Bismuth (university of Poitiers) has posted The Path Towards an International Public Policy for Sovereign Debt Contracts on SSRN.

Recent times have been rich in events highlighting the shortcomings of mechanisms for dealing with sovereign debt crises, especially when they involve private creditors. Both the Greek financial debacle and the spate of litigation arising from Argentina’s 2001 default have exposed the obstacles to both the successful implementation of restructuring plans and the attempts to block the legal actions brought by private creditors not willing to participate in the restructuring of sovereign debt. Given this seeming disarray and the impediments to the establishment of sovereign insolvency proceedings, the loan contract emerged as one of the most suitable instrument to ensure an orderly resolution of sovereign insolvency issues. In this context, it seems reasonable to examine the possible emergence of an “international public policy” for sovereign debt, the cornerstone of which would be the loan contract concluded between the State and its creditors.

Call for Papers for the Third Annual ASIL-ESIL-MPIL Workshop on Transnational Legal Theory

image_pdfimage_print

See here for a call for papers for the Third Annual ASIL-ESIL-MPIL Workshop on International Legal Theory being held September 8, 2014 at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Abstract submissions should be sent to asil.esil.mpil@gmail.com by June 22, 2014. Short papers (5000 words max.) must be delivered by August 25, 2014.

Questions regarding the workshop may be directed to:

Evan Criddle ejcriddle@wm.edu
Jörg Kammerhofer joerg.kammerhofer@jura.uni-freiburg.de
Alexandra Kemmerer kemmerer@mpil.de

UK Supreme Court Rules on Law Governing Damages

image_pdfimage_print

On 2 April 2014, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom delivered its judgment in C0x v Ergo Versicherung AG.

In this pre-Rome II case, the issue before the court was whether issues of damages were substantive or procedural in character for choice of law purposes.

The court issued the following press summary.

BACKGROUND TO THE APPEALS

These proceedings arise out of a fatal accident in Germany. On 21 May 2004 Major Cox, an officer serving with H.M. Forces in Germany, was riding his bicycle on the verge of a road near his base when a car left the road and hit him, causing injuries from which he died. The driver was Mr Kretschmer, a German national resident and domiciled in Germany. He was insured by the respondent, a German insurance company, under a contract governed by German law. The appellant, Major Cox’s widow, was living with him in Germany at the time of the accident. After the accident, she returned to England where she has at all relevant times been domiciled. She has since entered into a new relationship and has had two children with her new partner.

Liability is not in dispute, but there are a number of issues relating to damages. Their resolution depends on whether they are governed by German or English law, and, if by English law, whether by the provisions of the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 (“the 1976 Act”) or on some other basis. The question which law applies was ordered to be tried as a preliminary issue.

There are two relevant respects in which an award under English Law, specifically the 1976 Act, may differ from an award under the relevant German Law, “the BGB”. First, damages awarded to a widow under the BGB will take account of any legal right to maintenance by virtue of a subsequent remarriage or a subsequent non-marital relationship following the birth of a child. Section 3(3) of the 1976 Act expressly excludes remarriage or the prospect of remarriage as a relevant consideration in English law. Secondly, Section 844 of the BGB confers no right to a solatium for bereavement. Under section 823 of the BGB the widow may in principle be entitled to compensation for her own pain and suffering, but this would require proof of suffering going beyond normal grief and amounting to a psychological disturbance comparable to physical injury.

English rules of private international law distinguish between questions of procedure, governed by the law of the forum i.e. in this case England, and questions of substance, governed by the local laws, in this case Germany. The issue in the present case is whether Mrs Cox is entitled to rely on the provisions of sections 3 and 4 of the 1976 Act. They provide for a measure of damages substantially more favourable to her than the corresponding provisions of German law, mainly because of the more favourable rule concerning the exclusion of her current partner’s payments of maintenance. This issue depends on whether the damages rules in sections 1A and 3 of the 1976 Act fall to be applied (i) on ordinary principles of private international law as procedural rules of the forum, or (ii) as rules applicable irrespective of the ordinary principles of private international law.

The Court of Appeal held that English law should adopt the German damages rules as its own and apply them not directly but by analogy.

JUDGMENT

The Supreme Court unanimously dismisses the appeal and finds that the German damages rules apply. Lord Sumption writes the leading judgment and Lord Mance writes a concurring judgment [37].

REASONS FOR THE JUDGMENT

Read more

Castermans and de Graaf on Competition in European Insolvency Law

image_pdfimage_print

Alex Castermans and Ruben de Graaf (Leiden Law School) have posted The General Concept of Concurrence Applied to European Insolvency Law on SSRN.

In the current multilevel legal order, private relationships are governed by rules rooted in different international, European and national regimes. Where these rules lead to conflicts, important questions arise. May they be applied simultaneously, or should one of the regimes be excluded in favor of the other? And if the latter is the case, who should make that choice: the claimant or the court?

To solve these questions, a method of interpretation is needed, crafted with private relationships in mind. This contribution seeks to uncover such a method within the area of European insolvency law, where issues of concurrence arise as the result of the division of companies and as a result of private international law.

Note: The contribution has been published in the Liber Amicorum for Prof. Bob Wessels (international insolvency law, Leiden Law School).

Munagorri on Hierarchy of Norms and PIL

image_pdfimage_print

Rafael Munagorri (university of Nantes) has posted Droit international privé et hiérarchie des normes: Observations sur une rencontre (Private Law and Hierarchy of Norms: Some Remarks on Their Relations) on SSRN.

Traditional methods to solve conflicts of laws and conflict of jurisdictions have been shaped without the idea of the hierarchy of norms. Moreover, some specialists of international private law consider that the very idea of hierarchy of norms is inappropriate within their field. This opinion reflects an ideological point of view. Hierarchy of norms is interesting in order to understand historical, theoretical and epistemological dimensions of international private law.

The paper was published in the Journal for Constitutional Theory and Philosophy of Law in 2013.

ECJ Rules on Territorial Reach of EU Data Protection Law

image_pdfimage_print

Many readers will have heard of the landmark decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union of May 13 in Gonzales v. Google (case C 131/12).

In 2010 Mario Costeja González, a Spanish national, lodged with the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (Spanish Data Protection Agency, the AEPD) a complaint against La Vanguardia Ediciones SL (the publisher of a daily newspaper with a large circulation in Spain, in particular in Catalonia) and against Google Spain and Google Inc. Mr Costeja González contended that, when an internet user entered his name in the search engine of the Google group (‘Google Search’), the list of results would display links to two pages of La Vanguardia’s newspaper, of January and March 1998. Those pages in particular contained an announcement for a real-estate auction organised following attachment proceedings for the recovery of social security debts owed by Mr Costeja González.

Scholars are debatting whether there is now a right to be forgotten. The case also has a choice of law dimension, as it accepts that the Data Protection Directive applies to Google.

The press release of the Court summarized the ruling on this point as follows.

As regards the directive’s territorial scope, the Court observes that Google Spain is a subsidiary of Google Inc. on Spanish territory and, therefore, an ‘establishment’ within the meaning of the directive. The Court rejects the argument that the processing of personal data by Google Search is not carried out in the context of the activities of that establishment in Spain. The Court holds, in this regard, that where such data are processed for the purposes of a search engine operated by an undertaking which, although it has its seat in a non-member State, has an establishment in a Member State, the processing is carried out ‘in the context of the activities’ of that establishment, within the meaning of the directive, if the establishment is intended to promote and sell, in the Member State in question, advertising space offered by the search engine in order to make the service offered by the engine profitable.

Read more

Latest Issue of “Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts” (3/2014)

image_pdfimage_print

Recently, the May/June issue of the German law journal “Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts” (IPRax) was published.

  • Rolf Wagner: “15 years of judicial cooperation in civil matters”

With the Treaty of Amsterdam entering into force on 1 May 1999 the European Union has obtained the legislative competence concerning the judicial cooperation in civil matters. This event’s 15th anniversary gives ample reason to pause for a moment to briefly appreciate the achievements and to look ahead.

  •  Marc-Philippe Weller: “Habitual residence as new connecting factor in International Family Law – Counterbalancing changes in the applicable law by the local and moral data approach”

In International Family Law, the traditional connecting factor of nationality is more and more substituted by habitual residence. E.g., according to Article 8 Rome III-Regulation divorce and legal separation shall be subject to the law of the State where the spouses are habitually resident at the time the court is seized. The connecting factor of habitual residence reflects the greater mobility in the 21st century’s open societies. However, it affects the permanence of the law applicable in family matters and causes a change in the applicable law with every cross border-transfer of the spouses’ habitual residence. This volatility of substantive family law conflicts with the principle of predictability and interferes with the cultural identity of the individual. It therefore requires counterbalance by means of substantial law. One method of counterbalancing changes in the applicable law is the local and moral data-approach, advocated by Albert A. Ehrenzweig and pursued by my great academic mentor Erik Jayme, whom this article is dedicated to. It discusses the local and moral data-approach and shows its limits of application, especially in the area of ordre public.

  •  Alfred Escher/Nina Keller-Kemmerer: “On the way to the American Rule? The unconstitutionality of recent German Federal Court’s (BGH) decisions on limiting foreign correspondence lawyers’ reimbursement claims for litigation costs”

German procedural law is guided by the so called Unterliegenshaftung. According to this principle, which is nearly equal to the English Rule, the unsuccessful party is obliged to pay the costs of the proceedings and the extrajudicial costs necessarily incurred by the applicant in taking the appropriate legal action (lawyers’ fees and expenses). In accordance to this guiding principle of German procedural law, the determination of the amount of fees for foreign correspondence lawyers had been based on the relevant foreign law and was not limited to the amount of German correspondence lawyers. In 2005 however, the German Federal Court (BGH) changed this lawful and prevailing jurisprudence and limited the fees for foreign correspondence lawyers to the regulations of the German Rechtsanwaltsvergütungsgesetz (Act on the Remuneration of Lawyers). This article takes the BGH’s recent decision of 2012 concerning this question of law as a reason to stress especially two important aspects which only received little attention in the discussions in 2005: That the German Federal Court’s decision is not only inconsistent with fundamental principles of German procedural law, but also incompatible with the Constitution.

  • Chris Thomale: “Brussel I and the eastern EU enlargement – defining the scope ratione temporis of Reg (EC) 44/2001”

The European Court of Justice recently held that for the Brussels I-Regulation to be applicable for the purpose of the recognition and enforcement of a judgment, it is necessary that at the time of delivery of that judgment the regulation was in force both in the Member State of origin and in the Member State addressed. This decision raises general questions on the spatial and temporal scope of the Brussels I-Regulation as well as the normative relationship between its Art. 2 et seqq. and Art. 32 et seqq., which are discussed in this article.

  •  Moritz Brinkmann: “International jurisdiction with respect to avoidance claims in the context of insolvency proceedings regarding credit institutions”

At the centre of the case, that is an ancillary proceeding to the insolvency proceedings regarding the Lehman Brothers Bankhaus AG, are intricate issues regarding the international jurisdiction with respect to avoidance claims: The most pertinent is the question whether the doctrine developed in Deko Marty is also applicable in the context of the Directives 2001/24/EC on the reorganisation and winding up of credit institutions and 2001/17/EC on the reorganisation and winding-up of insurance undertakings. If this was answered in the affirmative, one has to ask whether national legislation that implements the directives into the law of a Member State can be interpreted in conformity with the Directive, even though the legislation does not explicitly deal with ancillary proceedings and the autonomous law of that Member State does not follow the approach taken in Deko Marty. In this sense, the case is also about the limits of the duty of the national courts to interpret national legislation in conformity with European law insofar as it implements directives.

  •  Peter Mankowski: “Die internationale Zuständigkeit nach Art. 3 EuUnterhVO und der Regress öffentlicher Einrichtungen”

If public bodies enforce claims for maintenance subrogated by them, jurisdiction is vested in the court of the place where the original creditor is habitually resident, by virtue of Art. 3 (b) Maintenance Regulation. Art. 3 Maintenance Regulation establishes a system of general jurisdiction and does not retain the relation which was previously prevailing between Arts. 2 and 5 (2) Brussels I Regulation. Else an unwilling or defaultive debtor would indirectly benefit from the subrogation and the transfer of the claim to the public body. This would generate quite some unwelcome and counterproductive incentives. Conversely, to vest jurisdiction in the court for the place where the original creditor is habitually resident, proves to be advantageous in many regards.

  •  Christoph Thole: “Member States may take cross-border evidence without recourse to the methods of the Evidence Regulation”

The Council Regulation (EC) No 1206/2001 has no conclusive character. This was recently ruled by the ECJ. The decision confirms the Court’s earlier ruling in Lippens and finally settles a long lasting dispute about the scope of the Regulation. While the ECJ’s arguments, which are primarily based on teleological grounds, are convincing and the ruling to be welcomed, it is questionable though, what effect the decision will have on the factual application of the Regulation. The comment analyses the decision and its consequences.

  • Björn Laukemann: “Public policy control in European insolvency proceedings in the light of fraudulent recourse to the court’s competence and subreption of discharging residual debts: a creditors’ perspective”

Bankruptcy tourism within the European internal market is legion. Especially uninformed and involuntary creditors suffer from cross-border COMIshifts of the insolvent debtor undertaken with fraudulent intention. In this context, it is hardly surprising – as demonstrated by a new decision of the Local court of Göttingen – that the public policy exception comes into play. The article will shed light on the question if the interpretation of Art. 26 of the European Insolvency Regulation has to distinguish between objections concerning the international jurisdiction of the insolvency court (Art. 3 EIR) and alleged violations of the creditors’ right to participate effectively in foreign proceedings. The author will point out that infringements against the latter may, under specific conditions, trigger the application of Art. 26 EIR. In this regard, the adequate balance between the creditors’ need for a prior legal defence, on the one hand, and their obligation to (constantly) inform about the insolvency of their debtor, on the other, is of peculiar importance. The outcome of the current reform of the Insolvency Regulation will show to what extent it will meet the necessity to strengthen the procedural position of foreign creditors – beyond Art. 26 EIR.

Read more

Bamberski’s Trial to Start this Week

image_pdfimage_print

The trial of André Bamberski will be held in Mulhouse on Thursday and Friday (French style: no need to spend several months on that).

Mr Bamberski is accused of ordering the kidnapping of Dr Dieter Krombach in Germany for delivering him to French authorities so that he could be tried, again, for the murder of Kalinka Bamberski in 1982.

A German court confirmed the decision of German prosecutors not to prosecute Dr Krombach in 1987. He was then sentenced in abstentia by a French court to 15 years of prison in 1995. As he could not be represented by a lawyer under the French criminal procedure of the time, he could successfully sue France before the European Court of Human Rights, and get the Court of Justice of the European Communities to agree that the civil ruling of the French criminal court should be denied recognition in Germany on that ground.

Bamberski did not give up on the idea of seeing Krombach in jail and had him eventually kidnapped in Germany in 2009, and delivered to French authorities. Germany protested, but Krombach was tried again, and sentenced, again, to 15 years.

Appeal to the French Supreme Court

Dr Krombach’s last appeal to the French Cour de cassation was dismissed on 2 April 2014.

But, wait, how could a French court tolerate that criminals be delivered by kidnappers in the middle of the night? That´s all right, the Court ruled, as long as Krombach could get legal representation and the kidnappers were not French (special) officials. Real bad guys only please!

That was an easy one. Harder now: what about mutual trust? Answer: no mutual trust unless you are really obliged to  trust the legal system of other Member states, and, well, there is such obligation only when a special provision of European law mandates so. Article 82 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU is not enough for this purpose.

Dr Krombach´s lawyer announced his intention to bring the matter before the Court of Justice of the European Union, because “le juge français dicte sa loi à l’Europe”. But it seems he had only requested a referrence to the CJUE before the lower court, which rejected it.

And Now

Mr Bamberski´s own trial will now take place. Bamberski has already said that he has no regrets.

A movie on the life of Bamberski seems to be in the making, with Daniel Auteuil in the lead role.

UPDATE: Bamberski got a one year suspended sentence.

Second Issue of 2014’s Journal du Droit International

image_pdfimage_print

The second issue of French Journal du droit international (Clunet) for 2014 was just released. It contains three articles focusing on issues of private international law and several casenotes. A full table of content is available here.

Vincent Chetail (Institute of Graduate Studies, Geneva), Les relations entre droit international privé et droit international des réfugiés : histoire d’une brève rencontre

Although the interaction between private international law and international refugee law has received scant attention from the doctrine, the relationship between the two branches of law highlights both their convergence and specificity. Their mutual influence oscillates between two contradictory trends : interdependence and particularism. On the one hand, private international law constitutes a substantial source of inspiration for elucidating the whole structure of the refugee status. On the other hand, international refugee law paradoxically emancipates from private international law on issues directly pertaining to this last discipline.

Eric Fongaro (Bordeaux University), L’anticipation successorale à l’épreuve du « règlement successions »

The Regulation (EU) N° 650/2012, known as « Regulation Succession » will bring important innovations, when it will come into force, for the settlement of successions which will open as from August 17th, 2015 and which will present elements of foreign origin. However, right now, some revolutionary provisions of the European text have authority to apply to anticipate the future settlements of succession. In this respect, the Regulation contains provisions particularly welcome for fixing the law applicable to provisions on death. However, if the succession treatment of these liberalities is called to raise the succession law, the regulation, by the new criteria of attachments that pose, also authorizes the establishment of new succession anticipation strategies for changing times the law of succession. It facilitates this way, not only the anticipation under the control of the law of succession strategies, but also strategies to directly control the inheritance law itself.

Hugues Fulchiron (Lyon University), La lutte contre le tourisme procréatif : vers un instrument de coopération internationale ?

For several years a global market of procreation is developing, carried by the rising desire to have a child, among heterosexual couples as among gay couples, and the division of States on subjects as sensitive as medically assisted procreation and surrogacy. Beyond the ethical questions raised by the procreative tourism, the issue of the situation of persons involved in the process : intended parents, surrogates, and especially children. Only international cooperation on the model of the Hague Convention regarding international adoption, could help to find a balance between the principles defended by the States and the protection of people, especially children.