First Issue of 2009’s Revue Critique de Droit International Privé

The first issue of the Revue Critique de Droit International Privé was just released.

It contains two articles and several case notes.

The first article is authored by Dominique Bureau, a professor at Paris II University, and Horatia Muir Watt, a professor at Paris Institute of Political Science (commonly known as Sciences Po). The paper explores whether enforcing forum selection clauses when mandatory rules of the forum are applicable, desactivates the imperativity of such rules (L’impérativité désactivitée ?).

The applicability of mandatory regulation or loi de police does not prevent the enforcement of a choice of forum clause in favour of a foreign court.  In France, the Cour de cassation has adhered in turn to a solution already prevailing in other jurisdictions and for which arbitrability of disputes involving social or economic regulation paved the way.  As with arbitration, the progressive liberalisation of requirements for the cross-border movement of  the chosen court’s decision may empower private actors to cross jurisdictional  boundaries and benefit from a quasi-immunity from the constraints of state law. One possible response to such neutralisation of mandatory rules would be to set up a regime which would be dual from the point of view of the subject-matter of the rules involved (i.e. whether they are protective of weaker parties or whether they carry public economic regulation) and transversally applicable whatever the nature of the chosen forum (i.e. similar principles would apply to choice of arbitrator or foreign court), so as to exclude weaker parties from access to jurisdictional autonomy, including as far as arbitration of their disputes is concerned, while, on the other hand, preserving freedom of choice  of forum and, correlatively, a low level of control  in other cases, subject of course to the procedural precautions which Community law now mandates when the dispute falls within its scope.

The second article is authored by Iraqi scholar Harith Al Dabbagh (Mossoul and Saint Etienne Universities). It discusses the issue of marriages between spouses of different religions (Mariage mixte et conflit entre droits religieux et laique). More specifically, the starting point of the discussion is a case of the Supreme Court of Iraq of March 27, 2007, which ruled on the divorce of a christian Iraqi women and a Turkish muslim man. Unfortunately, no abstract is provided.

The table of contents is not yet online.  Articles of the Revue Critique cannot be downloaded.