Fourth Issue of 2013’s Journal du Droit International

The fourth issue of French Journal du droit international (Clunet) for 2013 was just released. It contains two articles discussing issues of private international law and several casenotes. A full table of content will soon be available here.

In the first article, Hughes Fulchiron (University of Lyon III) discusses the private international law aspects of same-sex marriage after the French statute allowing same sex marriage (Le mariage entre personnes de même sexe en droit international privé au lendemain de la reconnaissance du « mariage pour tous »). The English abstract reads:

Concerned about giving the widest possible international influence to the consecration of same-sex marriage, the french legislator of 17 May 2013 enacted a new rule of conflict of laws according to which « two people of the same sex can contract marriage when for at least one of them, either his [her] personal law or the law of the State in which he [she] has his [her] domicile or residence permits it ». The same rule applies to appreciate the validity in France of same-sex marriages celebrated abroad. The freedom to get married between same-sex persons is setted up as a real French international public policy principle. The new rules arouse many difficulties on the legal plan, but also on the diplomatic plan. Moreover, they increase « lame » marriages. Especially, the legislator in 2013 did not cared about the effects of same-sex marriages, whether the effects in France of a marriage celebrated abroad or effects abroad of a marriage celebrated in France. The question of same-sex marriages in international private law sheds a new light on some of the key issues of the international private law, as it creates original situation, poses complex problems and arouse various legal responses.

In the second article, Fanny Cornette, who is a researcher at the University of Delft (Holland), explores the issue of the COMI of natural persons under the Insolvency Regulation with a special focus on Alsace-Moselle (Le « centre des intérêts principaux » des personnes physiques dans le cadre de l’application du Règlement Insolvabilité dans les départements de la Moselle, du Bas-Rhin et du Haut-Rhin). The English abstract reads:

The notion of « center of main interest », key concept of the Insolvancy Regulation, caused difficulties even when applying this concept to individuals. Abundant jurisprudence was developed in the departments of Moselle, Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin, which are in France, for historical reasons, the only ones concerned by the application of this Regulation to individuals. Lots of debtors, coming from Germany and recently settled in these departments, were denied the application of this text. In fact, judges considered that they moved their center of main interests solely to benefit from the French law, which is more favorable to them than the German one. Therefore, several lines of thoughts should be considered to improve the application of the Insolvency Regulation.