Views
Insights and Future Directions of PIL Based on the 2024 Online Summer Courses at The Hague Academy of International Law
By Birgit van Houtert, Assistant Professor of Private International Law at Maastricht University
From 29 July till 16 Augustus 2024, the Summer Courses on Private International Law (PIL) were held at the 93rd session of the summer courses of the Hague Academy of International Law. The PIL courses were followed by 250 onsite attendees and remotely 61 attendees from 74 different countries. The inaugural lecture was presented by Lord Lawrence Collins of Mapesbury (Former Justice at the United Kingdom Supreme Court) on the “Use and Abuse of Comity in International Litigation”. In the next three weeks, the general course was given by Charalambos Pamboukis (Professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) titled “The Metamorphoses of Private International Law”. During these three weeks, six special courses were given by Alessandra Zanobetti (Professor at the University of Bologna) on “The Effects of Economic Sanctions and Counter-Measures on Private Legal Relationships”; Natalie Y. Morris-Sharma (Director at the Attorney-General’s Chambers of Singapore) on “The Singapore Convention and the International Law of Mediation”; Carlos Esplugues Mota (Professor at the University of Valencia) on “New Dimensions in the Application of Foreign Law by Courts (and Arbitrators) and Non-judicial Authorities”; Jack Coe (Professor at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law) on “Non-ICSID Convention Investor-State Awards in Domestic Courts”; Eva Lein (Professor at the University of Lausanne) on “Breathing Space in International Commercial Litigation”; Andrew Dickinson (Professor at the University of Oxford) on “Natural Justice in Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgements”. These PIL experts provided very interesting and valuable insights, including future (desirable) directions on PIL that can guide and inspire students, researchers, legal practitioners, courts, and legislators. The courses will be published by Brill in the series Collected Courses of The Hague Academy of International Law / Recueil des cours de l’Académie de La Haye. The fact that the courses commonly focused on PIL globally, by including national, regional and international PIL, is particularly laudable in view of our interconnected world. This blog aims to describe common threads of the 2024 Online Summer Courses on PIL that may encourage you to read the Hague Academy Collected Courses and inspire further research.[1]
The Public Law-Private Law Divide and Access to Frozen Russian Assets
By Csongor István Nagy, Professor of Law at the University of Galway, Ireland, and at the University of Szeged, Hungary, and research professor at the HUN-REN Center for Social Sciences, Hungary.
The overwhelming majority of the international community condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine as a gross violation of international law and several countries introduced unilateral measures freezing Russian assets. It has been argued that countries should go beyond that and use these assets for the indemnification of Ukrainian war damages. Confiscation would, however, be unprecedented and raise serious international law concerns. While states have, with good reason, been reluctant to react to one wrongful act with another, this question has given rise to intensive debate. Recently, the EU authorized the use of net profits from the frozen assets but not the assets themselves to support Ukraine.
Tesseract: Don’t Over-React! The High Court of Australia, Proportionate Liability, Arbitration, and Private International Law
By Dr Benjamin Hayward
Associate Professor, Department of Business Law and Taxation, Monash Business School
X: @LawGuyPI, @MonashITICL
On 7 August 2024, the High Court of Australia handed down its long-awaited decision in Tesseract International Pty Ltd v Pascale Construction Pty Ltd [2024] HCA 24. The dispute arose out of a domestic commercial arbitration seated in South Australia, where the Commercial Arbitration Act 2011 (SA) is the relevant lex arbitri. That Act is a domestically focused adaptation of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration (with its 2006 amendments).
The respondent to the arbitration sought to rely upon proportionate liability legislation found in the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence and Apportionment of Liability) Act 2001 (SA) and in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). The High Court was asked to determine whether those proportionate liability regimes could be applied in the arbitration. A very practical difficulty arose here, reflected in Steward J noting (in dissent) that the High Court was ‘faced with an invidious choice’: see [228]. Were the proportionate liability laws not to apply in the arbitration, the respondent might find themselves liable for 100% of the applicant’s loss, when they would not be liable to that same extent in court proceedings applying the same body of South Australian law. But were the proportionate liability laws to apply, the applicant might find themselves able to recover only a portion of their loss in the arbitration, and might then have to then pursue court proceedings against another third party wrongdoer to recover the rest: given that joinder is not possible in arbitration without consent. Read more
News
19th Regional PIL Conference on 20 September 2024 at the University of East Sarajevo, B&H
The 19th Regional Private International Law Conference will take place on 20 September 2024 at the Faculty of Law, University of East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the support of the Deutche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ). The theme of the Conference is Application of General Legal Principles in Contemporary Private International Law.
The opening panel will feature the following topics and speakers:
- Christophe Bernasconi, Secretary General, The HCCH and its Ongoing Work, with a Focus on Transnational Litigation, The Hague Conference on Private International Law
- Vesna Lazic, Corporate Sustainability and Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD): Relevance for Private International Law, Utrecht University and Asser Institute, The Hague
- Meliha Povlakic and Sevleta Halilovic, The Collision Issues Regarding the Agreement as to Succession in B&H: Cross-Border and Interlocal Conflicts of Law, University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Law
- Toni Deskoski and Vangel Dokovski, Temporal Application Challenges of Private International Law: A Judicial Perspective, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Faculty of Law Iustinianus Primus
The full programme of the conference can be found here.
The working language of the Conference will be English, and it will also be streamed online via Zoom (https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84284962839?pwd=alsUT8OQf9DR0y5shNlG0u12dxnc01.1; Meeting ID: 842 8496 2839; Passcode: 059110).
Conference proceedings will be published next year. Last year’s conference proceedings can be found here.
ISS – International Conference on 9 October 2024 (hybrid format)
The International Social Service (ISS) is celebrating its 100th anniversary and to mark this milestone it is organising several events in Geneva from 7 to 10 October 2024. In particular, it will be holding an International Conference entitled “Throughout time, across borders: Navigating child protection and restoring family links” on 9 October 2024 in a hybrid format.
Job Opportunity – Postdoctorand in Transnational Family Law (Swiss Institute of Comparative Law)
The Swiss Institute of Comparative Law (Lausanne) is looking for a Postdoctorand in transnational family law (80%).
The announcement can be found here.
The position will be integrated in the SICL’s team of international lawyers and researchers and be part of a project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation on applicable law, jurisdiction, recognition and international cooperation in the field of filiation with foreign elements.
The aim is to respond to the new legal requirements created by the use of innovative methods of assisted reproductive techniques (ART) and new forms of surrogate motherhood.