Erasmus+ Jean Monnet conference: “Consumer Protection and Fundamental Rights” – Riga, 18-19 June

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Riga Graduate School of Law (RGSL) will be hosting the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet conference titled “Consumer Protection and Fundamental Rights” on 18-19 June.

The idea of the RGSL Jean Monnet Project is to conduct a multidisciplinary exploration of Fundamental Rights including their philosophical, geographic, technological, political, cultural, societal and economic dimensions. The project is designed for researchers, public administrators, professional groups and civil society representatives. There are four conferences envisaged with the first conference focusing on consumer protection.

The conference programme is available here.

For more info on the project click here.

Waiting for Brexit: Open issues in the Internal Market and in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice

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The University of Milan-Bicocca – School of Law has issued a call for papers for the Academic Conference “Waiting for Brexit: open issues in the internal market and in the area of freedom, security and justice”. The Conference represents the closing event of the Jean Monnet course “The EU Court of Justice: techniques and instruments” and will be held at the University of Milan-Bicocca on Friday 19 October 2018.

Prof. Antonio Tizzano (Vice-President of the Court of Justice of the European Union) will chair the morning session and Prof. Fausto Pocar (Emeritus of International Law at the University of Milan) will chair the afternoon session.

Concept and main topics of the Conference

The result of the 2016 Brexit referendum was not only a political shock, but also and foremost a symbolic turning point in the history of the EU. The United Kingdom’s foreseen withdrawal from the Union has given rise to many political, legal, economic and social debates.

The main aim of the Conference is to contribute to analyse the impact and effects of Brexit on both EU Law and Italian law in practice. The “Waiting for Brexit” Conference – after a short overview of the main institutional aspects – will offer the audience with an insight into the changes that the withdrawal from the EU of a Member State will have on specific socio-economic areas. In particular, national and international experts (scholars, public officials, legal practitioners, industry representatives) will analyse and discuss topics such as banking and investment law, the transfer of personal data outside the EU, competition law, as well as certain aspects of judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters.

In this context, the present Call aims to provide young researchers (i.e., PhD students and fellow researchers) of all disciplines with the opportunity to present their views on specific topics such as company law, IP law, consumer law, insolvency law, family law, labour law, tax law and customs union, air and maritime transport, relocation of EU agencies, etc. Nevertheless, the Organising Committee welcomes innovative and original contributions that cover topics already analysed by the expert speakers.

Abstract submission guidelines

Interested applicants should submit a short CV and a paper abstract in Italian or English of no more than 700 words (in .doc, .docx or .pdf format) to the attention of the Organising Committee (via e-mail at convegnobrexit.unimib@gmail.com).

The deadline for submission is 15 July 2018. Applications will be selected on the basis of the submitted abstracts and successful applicants will be informed by 6 August 2018.

Afterwards, successful applicants should send the draft papers to the Organising Committee by 15 September 2018. The final versions of the papers should be no longer than 40,000 characters (footnotes and spaces included). The Organising Committee will provide opportunity for publication of the best papers in a top-tier peer-reviewed European law journal.

Organising Committee

The Organising Committee is composed of Costanza Honorati (Full Professor of EU Law and Private International Law, University of Milan-Bicocca), Serena Crespi (Aggregate Professor of EU Law, University of Milan-Bicocca) and Paolo Iannuccelli (Référandaire at the Court of Justice of the European Union).

All questions and inquiries should be addressed to convegnobrexit.unimib@gmail.com. The Organising Committee is committed to answer at its earliest convenience.

Timeline for answers

  • 15 July 2018 – Deadline for the submission of abstracts
  • 6 August 2018 – Notifications sent to the successful applicants
  • 15 September 2018 – Deadline for the submission of the draft papers
  • 19 October 2018 – “Waiting for Brexit” Conference

Extraterritoriality: Outstanding Aspects (Contribution to a Collective Book)

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Prof. Zamora Cabot has just made available on SSRN his contribution to the collective book Implementing the UN Principles on Business and Human Rights. Private International Law Perspectives (F. Zamora, L. Heckendorn, S. de Dycker, eds.), Shulthess Verlag, Zurich, 2017. The abstract reads as follows:

“For some time, the changing concept of extraterritoriality has been associated in a variety of ways with the international protection of Human Rights. It is, for example, linked to efforts to make the reparation mechanisms of the UN’s Guiding Principles accessible. Similarly, the notion is relevant to the States’ formal Extraterritorial Obligations (ETOS), which pressure States to fulfil the framework established in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In both cases, the volume and quality of the technical contributions that have been produced are remarkable and worth taking into consideration.

In the context of this contribution and its focus on private international law, I will however limit my remarks to this particular field. In Section I, I will address questions that are arising in the United States following the US Supreme Court’s decision in the Kiobel case. Following that, in Section II, I will introduce a cross section of extraterritorial laws that particularly impact the fields under consideration here – corporations and human rights – before summing up with some concluding remarks.”

 (You can access to the ToC of the book itself here)

Workshop on ‘Perspectives of Unification of Private International Law in the European Union’, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, 15 June

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On Friday, 15 June, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, will host a workshop on ‘Perspectives of Unification of Private International Law in the European Union’. The programme will be as follows.

12:00 Welcome speech
by Prof. Miklós Király (ELTE)

12:10 The Interface Between the Harmonisation of Contract Law and Private International Law
by Prof. Miklós Király (ELTE)
Comments by Dr. Zoltán Nemessányi (Corvinus University)

12:40 Uniform or Diverging Application of EU Instruments in the Field of Private International Law by National Jurisdictions – Preliminary References in the Area of Judicial Cooperation in Civil Matters
by Dr. Réka Somssich (ELTE)
Comments by Dr. Orsolya Szeibert (ELTE)

13:10 Discussion

13:30 Coffee break

13:45 Companies in EU Private International Law – An EU Law Perspective
by Dr. Tamás Szabados (ELTE)
Comments by Dr. Péter Metzinger (Corvinus University)

14:15 Illusion or Reality: the Interrelation of the Conflict of Laws Rules and the Practices of State Courts and Arbitral Tribunals
by Dr. István Erd?s (ELTE)
Comments by Dr. Kinga Tímár (ELTE)

14:45 Discussion

Further information can be found on the conference flyer.

Call for Abstracts: 2018 Asia Pacific Colloquium on Private International Law (Doshisha University Law Faculty and the Journal of Private International Law)

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The 2018 Asia Pacific Colloquium of the Journal of Private International Law (JPIL) will be held on Monday 10 December 2018 at the Law Faculty of Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan.

Scholars, researchers, legal practitioners and other interested persons are now invited to submit abstracts in English of paper proposals for presentation at the Colloquium.  While proposals for papers to be presented at the Colloquium may be on any topic, they must have as their primary focus the private international law aspects of the chosen topic.  Recent PhD graduates in the Asia Pacific region are especially invited to submit proposals.

The Colloquium will be in the form of an all-day roundtable discussion conducted in English.  Persons whose papers have been chosen will deliver their presentations in turn.  Each presentation will run for 20 minutes and be followed by a discussion of 20 minutes in which all participants in the Colloquium (including members of the JPIL’s Editorial Board and specially-invited private international law academics from the Asia-Pacific region) will comment on the presentation. The objective of the Colloquium will be to assist presenters to improve their papers with a view to eventual publication, possibly in the JPIL subject to acceptance by its Editorial Board.

Abstracts are to be submitted by email to ntakasug@mail.doshisha.ac.jp no later than 5 pm (Japan time) on 1 July 2018.  Abstracts should be accompanied by cvs and contact details of the person making the submission.  Persons whose abstracts have been accepted will be informed accordingly by 15 July 2018.  Such persons will be expected to submit their full papers in PDF format by email to ntakasug@mail.doshisha.ac.jp no later than 5 pm (Japan time) on 1 October 2018.  Papers should be in English and between 4,000 and 10,000 words in length (inclusive of footnotes).  Accepted papers will be circulated in advance among those taking part in the Colloquium.  Persons who have not heard from the Colloquium organisers by 15 July 2018 should assume that their submissions have not been accepted.

Persons selected to make presentations should note that they will be wholly responsible for their travel to and from, and their accommodation in, Kyoto for the Colloquium.  Neither the JPIL nor the Faculty of Law Doshisha University are in a position to provide any funding in respect of a selected person’s expenses.  Further inquiries may be addressed to Professor Naoshi Takasugi at ntakasug@mail.doshisha.ac.jp.

Summer School in International Financial Law (Milan, 21-22 June 2018)

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The University of Milan (Department of International, Legal, Historical and Political Studies) will host on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 June 2018 the Summer School in International Financial Law. Participation is free of charge, but registration is compulsory at Eventbrite. The sessions will be held in English with simultaneous translation into Italian. Here is the programme (available for download):

Thursday 21 June 2018 – 14h00

14h30 Welcome Address

  • Giuseppe De Luca, Deputy-Rector, University of Milan
  • Ilaria Viarengo, Director of the Department of International, Legal, Historical and Political Studies

15h00 Cross-Border Company Matters

Chair: Manlio Frigo, University of Milan

  • The EU Proposal for a Directive on Cross-Border Conversions, Mergers and Divisions (Bartlomiej Kurcz, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission)
  • A German Perspective (Leonhard Hübner, University of Heidelberg)
  • An Italian Private International Law Perspective (Francesca C. Villata, University of Milan)
  • Italian and Comparative Corporate Law Perspectives (Marco Ventoruzzo, Bocconi University)

General discussion (with the participation of Maria Vittoria Fuoco, Department on the Functioning of the Judiciary, Italian Ministry of Justice)

– – –

Thursday 21 June 2018 – 17h30

17h30 Taking Security over Shares and Other Financial Securities

Chair: Giovanna Adinolfi, University of Milan

  • Investors Rights in Securities and Shareholdings in the Post-CSDR Era (Christina Tarnanidou, University of Athens of Economics and Business, Rokas, Athens)
  • Securities settlement through T2S (Aranzazu Ullivarri Royuela, BME Post Trade Services, Madrid)

General discussion

– – –

Friday 22 June 2018 – 9h30

9h30 Financial Collaterals and Bonds

Chair: Giovanna Adinolfi, University of Milan

  • Cross-Border Financial Collateral within the Eurosystem (Klaus Loeber, Market Infrastructures and Payments, European Central Bank)
  • Bonds Issuance (Matthias Lehmann, Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn)

General discussion

10h45 – 13h00 The Proposal on the law applicable to the third-party effects of assignments of claims

Chair: Francesca C. Villata, University of Milan

  • Presentation of the Proposal (Maria Vilar-Badia, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission)
  • Factoring (Christine Van Gallebaert, Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas, Jones Day, Paris)
  • Collateralization (Joanna Perkins, Financial Markets Law Committee, London)

General discussion

– – –

Friday 22 June 2018 – 14h00

14h00 – 17h00 The Proposal on the law applicable to the third-party effects of assignments of claims

Chair: Stefania Bariatti, University of Milan

  • Securitization (Gilles Cuniberti, University of Luxembourg)
  • Selected practical issues (Francisco Garcimartín Alférez, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Linklaters, Madrid)
  • The Relationship with the EU Regulation on Cross-Border Insolvency (Stefania Bariatti, University of Milan, Chiomenti, Milan)
  • The Relationship with the EU Rules on the Cross-Border Insolvency of Banks and Insurances (Matthias Haentjens, University of Leiden)

General discussion – Closing Remarks

(Many thanks to Prof. Francesca Villata for the tip-off)

Reminder: Call for Papers International Business Courts

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Erasmus School of Law (under the ERC project Building EU Civil Justice) in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Procedural Law Luxembourg, and the Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice (Utrecht University) are hosting the seminar ‘Innovating International Business Courts: A European Outlook’ that will take place in Rotterdam on 10 July 2018.

In relation thereto Erasmus Law Review invites submissions for its upcoming special issue on International Business Courts – a European and Global Perspective on topics relating to court specialization, specifically relating to the development of international business courts in Europe and beyond, and focusing on justice innovation and their relevance for access to justice and the judicial system, including the challenges they may pose for judicial administration, litigants and other stakeholders. Contributions can be theoretical, empirical as well as policy oriented. Interdisciplinary approaches are especially encouraged. The issue will also include papers focusing on the Netherlands, the United Kingdom (England and Wales), France, Germany, and Belgium, and deriving from the seminar.

Authors of selected papers will be exempt from registration fees for the seminar and will have the opportunity to present a poster during the drinks after the seminar.

Please submit an abstract in English of no more than 500 words to Erlis Themeli (themeli@law.eur.nl) and Alexandre Biard (biard@law.eur.nl) before 10 June 2018. Please include your name, affiliation, and a link to your research profile. You will be informed on the outcome on 24 June 2018 at the latest. Responsible issue editors are Xandra Kramer (Erasmus University Rotterdam/Utrecht Utrecht) and John Sorabji (University College, London).

The final paper should be 8,000-12,000 words in length (including footnotes) and must comply with the Erasmus Law Review’s Authors Guidelines. Selected papers will go through the regular double-blind peer review process and publication is subject to the outcome of this review process. The deadline for submission of the paper is 1 October 2018.

For more information see the Call for Papers.

Buxbaum: The Interpretation and Effect of Permissive Forum Selection Clauses Under U.S. Law

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Professor Hannah Buxbaum has recently published an important report (see here), prepared for the International Academy of Comparative Law’s International Congress, on forum selection clauses.  Below is the abstract.

Abstract

A forum selection clause is a form of contractual waiver. By this device, a contract party waives its rights to raise jurisdictional or venue objections if a lawsuit is initiated against it in the chosen court. The use of such a clause in a particular case may therefore raise a set of questions under contract law. Is the waiver valid? Was it procured by fraud, duress, or other unconscionable means? What is its scope? And so on. Unlike most contractual waivers, though, a forum selection clause affects not only the private rights and obligations of the parties, but something of more public concern: the jurisdiction of a court to resolve a dispute. The enforcement of such a clause therefore raises an additional set of questions under procedural law. For instance, if the parties designate a court in a forum that is otherwise unconnected to the dispute, must (or should) that court hear a case initiated there? If one of the parties initiates litigation in a non-designated forum that is connected to the dispute, must (or should) that court decline to hear the case?

This report, prepared for the International Academy of Comparative Law in connection with its XXth International Congress, analyzes the approach to these questions in the United States. The bottom line is straightforward: almost always, in consumer as well as commercial contracts, forum selection clauses will be enforced. Navigating the array of substantive, procedural, and conflicts rules whose interplay yields that result, though, is far less straightforward. That is the task of this report. Following a short background, it surveys current state law on their use, in consumer as well as commercial contracts. The report then discusses the interpretation and enforcement of forum selection clauses in both state and federal courts. It analyzes their effect on jurisdiction as well as on doctrines involving venue, such as removal and forum non conveniens. The report also covers choice of law problems, particularly as they arise in the course of litigation in federal courts.

Le droit international privé dans le labyrinthe des plateformes digitales

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To celebrate its 30th Private International Law Day, the SICL is holding a conference devoted to the new challenges of what is sometimes described as the “collaborative” or “sharing” economy. It will take place in Lausanne on 28th June 2018.

The concept of economy includes crowdfunding, “Uberisation” and all other intermediary activities using a digital platform. These mass phenomena, witnessed on a global scale, put in question the very notion of the territorial division of state borders. Is the digital space in which these platforms operate a true space, capable of being delineated and regulated at the national level, and which falls into the territorial scope of application of a law? Or is it rather a volatile cloud, globalised, delocalised, incapable of being pinned down on such a territorial basis? Is it still possible for nation states to guarantee their citizens and/or residents legal protection with regard to the intermediaries who employ them or who offer them their services? Or has it not become essential, even urgent, that a supranational law be devised and placed in the same cloudy skies in which the platform operates? Further still: is it possible to require platforms and their operators to be measured against the particular requirements of a state, notably those concerning the protection of workers and consumers? What role can contemporary private international law play in this regard?

All these questions present a challenge to the supposed neutrality sought by private international law and bring to the fore its potential political and protective role. In this respect, the state can use private international law in order to guarantee cross border protection to the weakest actors in the marketplace – notably, workers and consumers – who reside within its territory (and/or its citizens). On the other hand, however, it may be argued that state interference aimed at constraining those who operate in the digital economy may lead to harmful distortions of the global market. In this regard, what guarantees should be afforded to the freedom of the internet and, at the same time, to that of workers, whose decisions to join and work with a digital platform are made of their own free will? These considerations therefore demand that we draw on the traditional principles of party autonomy and decisional harmony. Speakers include Janine Berg, ILO Genève, Andrea Bonomi, Université de Lausanne, Miriam Cherry, University of St. Louis, Valerio De Stefano, KU Leuven, Marie-Cécile Escande Varniol, Université Lumière, Lyon II, Pietro Franzina, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Ljupcho Grozdanovski, Université de Genève, Florence Guillaume, Université de Neuchâtel, Tobias Lutzi, University of Oxford, Anne Meier, MSS Law, Edmondo Mostacci, Università Bocconi, Etienne Pataut, Université Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, Ilaria Pretelli, Institut suisse de droit comparé, Teresa Rodríguez de las Heras Ballell, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Gian Paolo Romano, Université de Genève, et Gerald Spindler, Georg-August-Universität.

Click here for whole program and further information.

Recast of the Evidence and Service Regulations

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The European Commission has published yesterday two communications, proposing the amendment of the Evidence and Service Regulations (1201/2000 & 1393/2007 respectively). The texts can be retrieved here  and here.

The key amendments suggested by both proposals have been summarized by Prof. Emmanuel Guinchard here and here.