The Organization of American States (OAS) has announced that the Inter-American Juridical Committee (CJI) has approved the Guide on the Law Applicable to International Commercial Contracts in the Americas. See the summarized recommendations on p. 6, the actual Guide starts on p. 16.

The Rapporteur of the Guide is Dr José Antonio Moreno Rodríguez.

Importantly, one of the recommendations of the Guide is that “OAS Member States, regardless of whether they have or have not ratified, or do or do not intend to ratify the Mexico Convention, are encouraged to consider its solutions for their own domestic legislation, whether by material incorporation, incorporation by reference, or other mechanisms as applicable to their own domestic legal regimes, taking into consideration subsequent developments in the law applicable to international commercial contracts as expressed in the Hague Principles and as described in this Guide.”

Unfortunately, only two States are parties to the Mexico Convention: Mexico and Venezuela. See here.

While the OAS Guide takes into consideration and examines both instruments, it should be noted that the official article-by-article Commentary on the Hague Principles is available here.

The OAS news item is available here (Spanish version of the Guide is not yet available).

This year’s Journée de droit international privé of the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law will be devoted to Interim Measures in International Commercial Litigation, and will take place on 23 May 2019, in Lausanne.

Speakers include George A. Bermann, Andrea Bonomi, Lawrence Boo, Sabine Corneloup, Gilles Cuniberti, Karim El Chazli, Sandrine Giroud, Laurent Hirsch, Alexander Layton, Ilaria Pretelli, and Gian Paolo Romano.

The detailed program, with further information on registration and fees, can be found here.

Following a call for papers announced on this blog a few months ago, the University of Nice will host on 23 and 24 May 2019 a conference exploring the meaning of economic freedoms of movement (Le sense des libertés économiques de circulation).

The event, part of the IFITIS Project led by Jean-Sylvestre Bergé, is the third in a series of multidisciplinary, international and comparative doctoral workshops devoted to the study of movement phenomena.

The goal is to foster discussion on the capacity of the various disciplines represented (including law, economics, management, philosophy, sociology, history and computer science) to question the meaning – reasons for being, justifications, purposes – of economic freedoms of movement (free trade, international trade and European freedoms of movement).

Further information, including as regards registration, may be found here.

Another HCCH Convention has recently reached the number of 100 Contracting Parties. In February and March 2019, two States joined the HCCH Convention of 29 May 1993 on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Intercountry Adoption Convention): Guyana (by accession) and Honduras (by ratification).

The Intercountry Adoption Convention will enter into force for Guyana and Honduras on 1 June 2019 and 1 July 2019, respectively. The status table is available here.

As announced, Guyana and Honduras are the first States in the Americas to become a party to all four modern HCCH Children’s Conventions. In addition to the Intercountry Adoption Convention, the other modern HCCH Children’s Conventions are:

• the HCCH Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (Child Abduction Convention);
• the HCCH Convention of 19 October 1996 on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children (Child Protection Convention); and
• the HCCH Convention of 23 November 2007 on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance (Child Support Convention).

There is also a Protocol of 23 November 2007 on the Law Applicable to Maintenance Obligations but neither of them is yet a party.

The other two Hague Conventions that have reached 100 or more Contracting Parties are the Child Abduction Convention (see my previous post here) and the HCCH Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille Convention). The latter has 117 Contracting Parties, the latest one being the Philippines (to enter into force on 14 May 2019 see here).

The HCCH news item is available here.