Online seminar “New challenges and opportunities concerning the rights of the child in cross-border cases”, including Regulation Brussels II ter – Universidad de Valencia, 28 January 2021 (in Spanish/Portuguese)
The Universidad de Valencia is organizing a seminar entitled “nuevos desafíos y oportunidades de los derechos del menor en asuntos transfronterizos”, to be held on 28 January 2021 online (in Spanish / and Portuguese in one panel). The Conflictus Legum blog published information about this seminar here.
This seminar is held in the context of “Minor’s Right to Information in civil actions (MiRI) – Improving children’s right to information in cross-border civil cases”, a Project co-funded by the European Union Justice Programme 2014-2020, JUST-JCOO-AG-2018, under Grant Agreement No 831608.
Among the speakers are: Cristina González Beilfuss, Andrés Rodríguez Benot, Mónica Herranz Ballesteros, Isabel Reig Fabado, Elena Rodríguez Pineau, Mercedes Soto Moya, María Carmen Chéliz Inglés, Idoia Otaegi Aizpurua, David Carrizo Aguado, etc.
The Council Regulation (EU) 2019/1111 of 25 June 2019 on jurisdiction, the recognition and enforcement of decisions in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility, and on international child abduction (Brussels II ter Regulation) will be discussed throughout the day (but particularly in panel #1).
Participation is free of charge (and there is no need to register). The link to the seminar is here.
Call for Papers: I International Congress on Civil Procedural Law, Universidade Portucalense (Porto), 20 and 21 May 2021
Universidade Portucalense (in Porto, Portugal), and its Research Center – Instituto Jurídico Portucalense and IJP IPLeiria, in collaboration with the University of Vigo, the University of Malaga, the University of Salamanca, the University of Granada and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, organize the I International Congress on Civil Procedural Law – The Challenges of Sustainable Global and Digital Development, to be held on 20 and 21 May 2021, in virtual format.
One of the Thematic Lines will be of interest to readers of this blog, namely “Transnational and European Civil Procedure. Global development process and challenges”.
More information here.
AJIL Unbound symposium: Global Labs of International Commercial Dispute Resolution
The American Journal of International Law’s online publication, AJIL Unbound, has recently published a symposium on the changing face of international commercial dispute resolution around the world. The symposium, entitled Global Labs of International Commercial Dispute Resolution, includes works by scholars from China, Hong Kong, Europe, UK, US, and Australia.
The contributions consider the emergence of new legal hubs, international commercial courts, and arbitral courts around the world, and their implications for global commercial dispute resolution.
The contributions include:
Introduction by Anthea Roberts
Experimenting with International Commercial Dispute Resolution by Pamela K. Bookman and Matthew S. Erie
The Resolution of International Commercial Disputes – What Role (if any) for Continental Europe? by Giesela Rühl
Conservative Innovation: The Ambiguities of the China International Commercial Court by Julien Chaisse and Xu Qian
EU feedback period is open! The roadmap to modernising judicial cooperation between EU countries – use of digital technology
Last week, the EAPIL blog published a post on the EU feedback period on modernising judicial cooperation between EU countries – use of digital technology (see here). This feedback period is open until 5 February 2021 (midnight Brussels time) and may be provided by clicking here. A possible future type of act is a proposal for a regulation.
The relevant documents are: the Inception impact assessment – Ares(2021)172677 (available on the feedback page) and the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.
In general, the objective and target groups of such feedbacks are: “Inception Impact Assessments aim to inform citizens and stakeholders about the Commission’s plans in order to allow them to provide feedback on the intended initiative and to participate effectively in future consultation activities. Citizens and stakeholders are in particular invited to provide views on the Commission’s understanding of the problem and possible solutions and to make available any relevant information that they may have, including on possible impacts of the different options.” But it is possible for non-EU citizens to provide feedback.
Apparently, an official public consultation – by way of a questionnaire – is upcoming (although there seems to be a mistake on the year on the website).
As stated on the EU website, the summary of this initiative is the following:
“This initiative aims to make judicial cooperation in cross-border cases throughout the EU more efficient and more resilient to crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
It will make it mandatory for the authorities involved in each country to use digital technology, instead of paper, to communicate.
It will improve access to justice by ensuring that individuals, businesses and legal practitioners involved in cases can communicate digitally with the competent authorities in the other countries.”
It is worth noting the following excerpt of the Impact Assessment about the likely economic impacts:
“Positive. The initiative could require new investment from EU countries to develop the necessary infrastructure that can interact with e-CODEX. Investment would depend on the current national level of digitalisation, level of involvement in the e-CODEX project, the interoperability of solutions implemented by EU countries and the possibility under national law to allow for electronic transmissions. However, in the long run, digitalization of justice would significantly decrease the costs incurred by national justice systems in cross-border procedures.
To address cost concerns, the initiative could also propose that the Commission develops and provides EU countries with a reference implementation software solution (back-end portal) for their national use.
As mentioned in the Communication on the digitalization of justice, the upcoming Multiannual Financial Framework and financial instruments for Next Generation EU could also provide funding.
The EU countries could reduce costs by re-using the infrastructure being developed for the European Investigation Order in criminal proceedings (eEDES) and for Service of Documents and Taking of Evidence also for other judicial cooperation instruments.
With its potential to substantially cut the cost of participating in cross-border cases, the initiative would also directly benefit citizens and businesses (including small/medium firms) concerned by the various EU civil law instruments. Use of these instruments (e.g. the European Small Claims procedure and European Order for Payment) by citizens, businesses and legal practitioners would also increase, through the new electronic access point.”
The EU press release is available here.
Private International Law in Europe: Webinar series on Current Developments in Jurisprudence
The Interest Group on Private International Law of the Italian Society of International Law invites you to a series of webinars on current developments in jurisprudence in various topics of private international law.
The webinars will be hosted on Teams by Microsoft 365. In order to attend one or more webinars please write a message to the email address sidigdipp@gmail.com to be added to the relevant Teams group. Once the request has been made for one webinar, there will be no need to repeat it for subsequent events.
The webinars will take place in English except where indicate otherwise.
All webinars will be chaired by Prof. Stefania Bariatti (Università degli Studi di Milano), convenor of the Interest Group.
Programme:
29 January 2021 @ 4-6 PM (CET):
Limiting European Integration Through Constitutional Law? Recent Decisions of the German Bundesverfassungsgericht and their Impact on Private International Law
Speaker: Christian Kohler, Universität Saarbrücken
Discussant: Giulia Rossolillo, Università degli Studi di Pavia
19 February 2021 @ 4-6 PM (CET):
State Immunity and Jurisdiction in Civil and Commercial Matters in Recent Court of Justice Rulings
Speaker: Alexander Layton, King’s College London
Discussant: Lorenzo Schiano di Pepe, Università di Genova
12 March 2021 @ 4-6 PM (CET):
La trascrizione dell’atto di nascita nella recente giurisprudenza della Corte costituzionale italiana (in Italian)
Speaker: Sara Tonolo, Università degli Studi di Trieste
Discussant: Elena Rodriguez Pineau, Universidad Autonóma de Madrid
9 April 2021 @ 4-6 PM (CET):
Law Governing Arbitration Agreements in a Recent Judgment of the UK Supreme Court
Speaker: Adrian Briggs, University of Oxford
Discussant: Pietro Franzina, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
TBC 23 April 2021 @ 4-6 PM (CET) TBC:
Jurisdiction in Matters Relating to Cross-Border Torts according to the Recent Volkswagen Judgment of the Court of Justice
Speaker: Giesela Rühl, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Discussant: Fabrizio Marongiu Buonaiuti, Università di Macerata
Launch: Latin American Center of European Studies
Written by Aline Beltrame de Moura, Professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, in Brazil
It is with great satisfaction that we announce the launch of the Portal of the Latin American Center of European Studies (LACES) – www.eurolatinstudies.com.
The portal proposes to create a channel for dialogue and exchange of good practices between Latin America and Europe through the dissemination of innovative scientific research with the Latin American Journal of European Studies, and relevant news and events in the Observatory on European Studies.
The proposed activities are developed within the scope of the Jean Monnet Network “BRIDGE Project” of the Erasmus + Program of the European Commission, which has a research network formed by professors and researchers from several Latin American and European universities.
We inform that we are already open for submissions of articles for the Journal and news for the Observatory.
In addition, we take the opportunity to invite all the academic community to submit their scientific papers to the Workshop event of the I Jean Monnet Network – BRIDGE Seminar on “EU – Latin America Trade and Investment Relations”, which will take place on the 15 March 2021, at the University of Lisbon (Portugal), through online platform.
The best articles will receive a prize, and it will be possible to publish in the Latin American Journal of European Studies, as well as in the Seminar Annals both backed by AAFDL Publisher. It is also possible to present your paper during the event.
Those who are interested must submit their full article until 8 February 2021 to the e-mail: network@eurolatinstudies.com.
For more information: https://eurolatinstudies.com/index.php/laces/announcement/view/2
First Issue of 2021’s International and Comparative Law Quarterly
The first issue of 2021’s International and Comparative Law Quarterly has recently been published. It features a book review by Dr. Nahel Asfour of Dr. Gianluigi Passarelli’s book titled “Contract Law in Contemporary International Commerce: Considerations on the Complex Relationship between Legal Process and Market Process in the New Era of Globalisation [Nomos, Baden-Baden, 2019]. ” It contains no other topic that is directly on private international law.
On a personal note, I have earlier read Dr. Passarelli’s book to completion at least twice, and found it to be thought provoking and interesting. Dr Passarelli proposes an approach that gives principal focus to a contract as a wealth creation mechanism in addressing private international law matters. He argues that this approach should not be rigid but allow some gap-filling by the judges to a private international law contract.
He then applies this logic to the applicable law in the absence of choice under Rome I Regulation, and challenges the approach of the European Union (“EU”) legislator for giving too much emphasis to certainty through hard and fast rules, at the expense of flexibility. In this connection, he argues that the EU legislator’s approach is contrary to the expectations of international commercial actors. The thesis of his book is that legal certainty in choice of law in determining the applicable law in the absence of choice is overrated under Rome I Regulation.
It is unlikely that the EU legislator at present will be convinced by Dr. Passarelli’s argument that elevates the role of flexibility in the choice of law process, or accept a “regression” to Article 4(5) of Rome Convention style of flexibility that produced uncertainty among Member State Courts. Legal certainty, predictability and uniformity are the cornerstone of EU private international law. My verdict is that Dr. Passarrelli’s work will remain relevant to students, scholars, practitioners, judges and legislators who prize flexibility over legal certainty in private international law.
In Memoriam Prof. Jonathan Fitchen
Written by Abubakri Yekini
We wish to share with us the shocking news of the demise of Professor Jonathan Fitchen. Prof Fitchen died today, Friday 22nd January 2021. His death was announced by Prof Greg Gordon, the Head of Aberdeen Law School in an e-mail sent to colleagues earlier today.
Until his death, Fitchen was a Professor of Law at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He was also the Director of the Centre for Private International Law and the Convenor of the Board of Examiners for the Law School. Prof Fitchen is the author of The Private International Law of Authentic Instruments which was published in the Hart Studies of Private International Law in November 2020. The first chapter is currently accessible for free online.
Prof Fitchen was promoted to a Personal Chair a week before his death. On a personal note, this was a piece of cheering news to me. I am glad that Prof Fitchen received the news of his promotion and witnessed the publication of the book that has taken him several years of hard work before he died.
Prof Fitchen (together with Prof Beaumont) supervised my PhD thesis which I defended in May 2020. Despite his health challenges, he would always create time to discuss my thesis with me and his feedback is always excellent. He was a great mentor.
He is survived by his wife Kathrin and his children Thomas and Sofia.
Addendum Jan 26: The University of Aberdeen has published a tribute.
