25 years IPRax – Conference in Regensburg

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the German legal journal "IPRax" (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts), a conference took place in Regensburg from 20th to 21st January 2006, where current questions of private international law and international civil procedure law were discussed.

A talk was given by Prof. Dr. W.-H. Roth, (Bonn) who addressed inter alia the question whether primary EU law contains conflict of law rules and whether the principle of mutual recognition can be deduced from the fundamental freedoms. Further he attended – as Prof. Dr. D. Coester-Waltjen did- to the question whether the principle of mutual recognition might be regarded as a corrective of private international law rules.

Prof. Dr. B. Hess (Heidelberg) attended to European civil procedure law and in particular to the methods of interpretation used by the ECJ. He stressed the significance of autonomous interpretation which can be regarded as the most important method of interpretation. While the importance of the comparative interpretation was decreasing, the relevance of a systematical – teleological interpretation was increasing. Further, he favoured a resumption of the ratification process concerning the European Constitution. He argued the entry into force of the Charter for Fundamental Rights would strengthen a constitutional interpretation.

Prof. Dr. S. Leible (Bayreuth) analysed in his speech the relationship between European private international law and European civil procedure rules using the example of the proposal for Rome I and Regulation 44/01/EC with regard to cross-border consumer contracts. He concluded that Rome I will create a very welcome synchronism between jurisdiction and applicable law concerning international consumer contracts.

Prof. Dr. G. Wagner (Bonn) talked about the future Rome II Regulation and drew on the one hand a comparison between the two proposals for a Rome II Regulation (Commission´s proposal and the Parliament´s proposal) and on the other hand a comparison between these proposals and autonomous German law.

And finally Prof. Dr. D. Coester-Waltjen (Munich) addressed in her speech the principle of mutual recognition – in particular in the context of family law. She discussed – after giving a definition of the term “principle of mutual recognition” – especially potential problems such as the question whether only official or also private acts could be recognized. Further, she attended to the embedding of the principle of mutual recognition in international conventions and asked whether the principle of mutual recognition can be derived from European primary or secondary law. Finally she gave guidelines how arising problems could be handled and classified the principle of mutual recognition within the context of private international law methods.

The mentioned speeches as well as short summaries of the respective discussions (in German) can be found in (2006) 4 IPRax.