Third Issue of 2007’s Journal du Droit International

The last issue of the Journal du Droit International contains three articles dealing with conflict issues. They are all written in French.

The first is authored by Cecile Legros, who lectures at the Faculty of Law of Rouen. It deals with Conflicts of Norms in the Field of International Contracts for Carriage of Goods (“Les conflits de normes en matière de contrats de transport internationaux de marchandises“). The English abstract reads:

The originality of the international conventions in the field of international transport contracts comes from their comprising, in addition to rules regarding the international transport contract concerned, provisions on jurisdictional competence, arbitration, and sometimes even on recognition and enforcement. The present study aims at analysing these original provisions as well as their links with other international instruments. Could the existence of competence, enforcement and arbitration rules in different sources turn to a conflict of regulations or can such rules coexist? Such are the questions discussed in this study.

The first part of this essay will analyse these orginal rules on competence and enforcement, in order to afterwards be able to consider their relation to European Union instruments. The second part of this article will be published in the next issue of the Journal.

The second article with conflict implications is authored by Professor Manlio Frigo, who teaches at the University of Milan. The article studies The Role of Rules of Conduct Between Art Law and Regulation (“Le role des règles de déontologie entre droit de l’art et régulation du marché“). The English abstract reads:

In the field of international protection of cultural property, and of rules applicable to art work trading, beside the norms contained in international agreements, in the last years one can witness a proliferation of spontaneous or quasi-spontaneous rules that may be approximately classified in the category of rules of conduct. Whether we are dealing with rules capable of creating obligations at least of contractual nature, or with rules lacking true binding nature, we can nonetheless acknowledge a meaningfull likeness with the rules having developed in the commercial domain also by means of the lex mercatoria. In both cases indeed we are faced with a group of rules of conduct created by the same subjects to which they are addressed, functionning as instruments by which professionals milieux and categories involved self-regulate themselves. This study takes into account the main codes of conduct drafted by international organisations, international institutions and national institutions, both public and private, federations and associations, in order to attempt a first survey of their influence on international commerce as instruments of art market regulation.

Finally, Professor Yasuhiro Okuda, of Chuo University in Tokyo, offers a survey of the recent reform of international private law in Japan (“Aspects de la réforme du droit international privé au Japon“). The English abstract reads:

The Japanese statute on private international law that was well known as the Horei has been largely revised in 2006 and newly retitled as Act on the general rules on the application of laws. The new Act came into force on January 1st, 2007 and brings major changes in the field of contractual and non contractual obligations. This article deals with the comparison of these revised provisions and European laws, as well as the interpretation to be discussed before Japanese courts in the future. The text of this Act is translated in French as an appendix to this article.

An English translation of the Act by Professor Okuda can be found here.

Articles appearing in the Journal du droit international cannot be downloaded.