First issue of 2008’s Journal du Droit International

The first issue of French Journal du Droit International (also known as Clunet) will be released shortly. It contains four articles dealing with conflict issues.

The first is authored by Pascal de Vareilles-Sommieres, who teaches at Paris I University, and Anwar Fekini, who is a practising lawyer in Paris and Tripoli. It discusses The New International Oil Exploration and Sharing Agreements in Libya (Les nouveaux contrats internationaux d’exploration et de partage de production pétrolière en Libye. Problèmes choisis). The English abstract reads:

The article intends to study the legal regime of the exploration and production sharing agreements (EPSAs) entered into by the Libyan National Oil Company with foreign oil companies since 2005. In this first part, the authors focus on legal sources governing Libyan EPSAs. Though admitting the prominent part of Libyan law chosen by the parties in a choice of law provision among these sources, the authors wonder whether the parties simultaneously intended to get other possible legal sources combined with it. A possible choice of public international law is first examined. Scrutinising the parties intention, the article comes to the conclusion that no sign pointing to an internationalisation of the EPSAs appears in the agreements. As a consequence, international contract law is not to be combined with Libyan law as far as the legal regime of the EPSAs is concerned. The study then looks for possible hints of the parties intention to get the lex mercatoria involved in the regulation of their agreement along with Libyan law. Several signs are brought to the light showing the parties’ common intention to let international trade usages interfere with Libyan law to be combined with it in order to finally make up the lex contractus.

The second part of this study will be published this year in a forthcoming issue of this Journal.

The second article is a study of the Rome II Regulation (Le règlement (CE) n° 864/2007 du 11 juillet 2007 sur la loi applicable aux obligations non contractuelles (« Rome II »)). It is authored by Carine Briere, who lectures at Rouen University. Here is the English abstract:

The aim of this article is to present Regulation (EC) n° 864/2007 known as « Rome II », which is the result of a long process of elaboration. Codecision procedure has been used to adopt this text which harmonises rules of conflict of laws regarding noncontractual obligations to improve predictability concerning the law applicable. It constitutes a new step towards the construction of a private international community law. The Regulation follows current private international law trends that give competence to the law of the country in which the damage arises. Nevertheless, an escape clause introduces a flexible approach when the lex loci damni seems to be inappropriate. Specific rules for certain torts and restitutionary obligations are also laid down. They derogate the general rule. Moreover, the Regulation upholds in an extensive way the choice of law principle and determines the link with other norms such as the Hague Conventions on which it does not take precedence.

However, this Regulation, adopted in order to facilitate correct workings of the internal market, shall not prejudice the application of internal market legislation.

The third article from Moustapha Lô Diatta from HEI in Geneva presents the Evolution of Bilateral Treaties on Migratory Workers (L’évolution des accords bilatéraux sur les travailleurs migrants). The abstract reads:

Bilateral labour agreements represent not only the oldest but also the most important source of international migrant workers law. Since their appearance in earlier twentieth century, they have been changing at contracting parties’ will, by reference to the political and economic context, the developments of international labour migration and the progress made by international legislation in protecting migrant workers. The purpose of this study is to show to what extent the lessons that can be drawn from this evolution could contribute to the ongoing debate and consultations within the international bodies to establish a multilateral framework in which international labour migration would be mutually beneficial.

Finally, Philippe Roussel Galle from Dijon University presents a Few Ideas on the Interpretation of Regulation 1346/2000 on Insolvency Proceedings after the French Circular of 15 December 2006 (De quelques pistes d’interprétation du règlement
(CE) n° 1346/2000 sur les procédures d’insolvabilité : la circulaire du 15 décembre 2006).

The entry into force of law n° 2005-845 of 26 July 2005 which institutes, among other things, a safeguard procedure, combined with the first court decisions enforcing regulation (EC) n° 1346/2000 on insolvency proceedings, have lead the French Ministry of Justice to repel and replace the circular of 17 March 2003 regarding the implementation of the regulation. The new circular, enacted on December 15th 2006, gives precisions and interpretation guidelines on the European text and brings, notwithstanding sovereign judicial appreciation, solutions to the difficulties its implementation might create in France.