GEDIP: Working Sessions of the Sixteenth Annual Meeting (2006)

A very interesting report of the working sessions of the 16th Annual meeting of the European Group for Private International Law (GEDIP-EGPIL), held in Coimbra on 22-24 September 2006, has been recently published on the new site of the Group. The summary (in French) has been compiled by N. Ascensão Silva, R. Pereira Dias and G. Rocha Ribeiro (University of Coimbra).

Here’s a list of the matters discussed by the Group, as organized by the authors (in brackets the rapporteurs; our translation and free adaptation from French):

I. EC Private International Law and Third States:

1. The external competence question (C. Kessedjan);
2. The revision of the Lugano Convention (A. Borrás).

II. The Commission’s “Rome III” Proposal and the Green Paper on matrimonial property regimes:

1. The Rome III Proposal (A. Borrás) [on the Green Paper on applicable law and jurisdiction in divorce matters, see also the report of M. Struycken presented at the 2005 meeting (Chania) of the Group and the draft articles on applicable law discussed at the 2003 meeting (Wien)];
2. The Green Paper on matrimonial property regimes (K. Kreuzer) (see also the Response of the EGPIL to the Green Paper, prepared after the meeting of Coimbra).

III. The “Rome I” Proposal [on the revision of the Rome Convention, see also a number of previous proposals and comments on the Group’s site]:

1. Article 3(5) of the Rome I Proposal (Choice of the law of a Third State and mandatory rules of Community law) (E. Jayme);
2. The Report of the Financial Market Law Committee on «Rome I» Proposal («Legal assessment of the conversion of the Rome Convention to Community instrument and the provisions of the proposed Rome I Regulation») (T. C. Hartley).

IV. The mutual recognition method (P. Lagarde) (in particular, the ECJ cases Standesamt Stadt Niebüll/Grunkin, C-96/04 and C-353/06).

V. The codification of European Private International Law (M. Fallon).

VI. Current events:

1. Private international law and human rights – ECHR case Eskinazi and Chelouche v. Turkey (application no. 14600/05) (P. Kinsch);
2. New developments in EC secondary legislation (E. Jayme and C. Kohler);
3. New developments in the Hague Conference (H. van Loon);
4. Current status of EC projects in Private International Law matters (M. Francisco Fonseca).

The report is available here, along with the minutes of all the previous meetings of the Group, since 1991, and a number of related documents and proposals. Highly recommended.