New Regulations on Matrimonial Property and Property of Registered Partnerships: Commentary

The enactment of Regulations 2016/1103 and 2016/1104, implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of decisions in matters of matrimonial property regimes and of the property consequences of registered partnerships, represents a significant step forward in the development of a European Private International Law in the field of Family and Successions Law.

The application of the application of these instruments from January the 29th 2019, is also going to deeply affect the autonomous Private International Law systems of those Member States which participate in such enhance cooperation proceeding.

A selected group of Spanish academics and legal practitioners (including, Lawyers, Judges, Notaries and Land Registers) published a profound analysis of those Regulations, as well as their coordination with other instruments in the field of Judicial Cooperation in Civil matters and its interaction with national provisions from participating Member States: see here.)

This book constitutes the first Spanish Commentary devoted to Regulations 2016/1103 and 2016/1104, prepared by the same experienced group of specialists, edited by Profs. Iglesias Buhigues and Palao Moreno (University of Valencia), who previously edited an aclaimed Commentary to the EU Successions Regulation 650/2012 (see  here).

Brand, “The Circulation of Judgments Under the Draft Hague Judgments Convention”

The 2018 draft of a Hague Judgments Convention adopts a framework based largely on what some have referred to as “jurisdictional filters.” Article 5(1) provides a list of thirteen authorized bases of indirect jurisdiction by which a foreign judgment is first tested. If one of these jurisdictional filters is satisfied, the resulting judgment is presumptively entitled to circulate under the convention, subject to a set of grounds for non-recognition that generally are consistent with existing practice in most legal systems. This basic architecture of the Convention has been assumed to be set from the start of the Special Commission process, and will be key to the Convention’s acceptability to countries which might ratify or accede to any final Convention. An alternative approach to convention architecture, which would allow the test for judgment circulation to be built on as few as four rules, was considered and passed over in the earlier Working Group which preceded the Special Commission process.

Ronald Brand’s new article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each of the 2018 draft Convention text as well as the alternative approach. It then suggests that, no matter which approach one considers to be better, the 2019 Diplomatic Conference should begin with an awareness of both options, and an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each, and move forward with a clear decision that the option chosen is the best alternative. Such consideration may (1) lead to the conclusion that the choices already made are the best for a multilateral treaty; (2) result in a determination that an alternative approach is a better option; or (3) demonstrate that one approach works best for some legal systems while another approach works best for other legal systems – leading to dual texts that could form the bases for differing bilateral and multilateral treaty relationships across the globe, while still improving the global framework for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.

It is available here

New Article on International Commercial Courts in the Litigation Market

Prof. Dr. Marta Requejo Isidro (Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law) recently posted a new paper in the MPILux Research Paper Series, titled International Commercial Courts in the Litigation Market.

Here is an overview provided by the author.

The expression “international commercial courts” refers to national judicial bodies set up in the last fifteen years in several jurisdictions throughout the world -Asia, Middle East, Europe- to suit the specific demands of international commercial litigation. The courts and the proceedings before them share unique features often imported from the common law tradition and the arbitration world, with a view to providing a dispute resolution mechanism tailored to the subject-matter. This notwithstanding there is no single model of international commercial court: on the contrary, each of them presents distinctive characteristics, which determine their greater or lesser capacity to fulfil the objective of serving international commercial litigation. By way of example: in their origin the courts of Dubai and Abu Dhabi were created not so much to reproduce a successful model of international commercial litigation, as to separate – and complement at the same time – the local legal system of the Emirates, based on Sharia and the tradition of civil law and with Arabic as the official language. In the wish to capture in as much as possible the advantages of international arbitration, parties before the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts are given the possibility of “converting” a DIFC Court’s decision into an arbitral award; no other court offers this chance. The authorization to use English as the language of the process varies from court to court in Continental Europe. In the Old Continent only the (still pending) Brussels International Business Court would be staffed with foreign judges.

This paper summarizes the main traits of several international commercial courts prior to exploring their relationship with international arbitration, on the one hand, and among them, on the other, at a time when the term “litigation market” is used matter-of-factly, and the “competition” among dispute resolution mechanisms is regarded as an incentive for the improvement within justice systems at a global level. In this context, elements such as the language of the process, the possibility of being represented by a foreign lawyer, the facilities to apply English law to the merits of the case, or the existence of a network of instruments for the enforcement of decisions abroad, may prove decisive in the choice of the users to file a claim with an international commercial court (and which one among them), or going to arbitration.

Reminder: Second German Conference for Young Scholars in PIL

Registration for the Second German Conference for Young Scholars in Private International Law, which will be held at the University of Würzburg on 4 and 5 April 2019, are still possible for another two weeks (until 10 March 2019). Further information can be found in this flyer and on the conference website; registrations can be completed via this online form.

The conference will be followed by an international workshop, further information on which can be found here.

Out now: RabelsZ 83 (2019), Issue 1

The latest issue of RabelsZ has just been released. It contains the following articles:

Kutner, Peter, Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgements – The Common Law’s Jurisdiction Requirement, pp. 1 et seq

The “Dicey Rule” has been treated as canonical in England and elsewhere. However, it has changed over time, it has been based in part on UK legislation, and it does not reflect other possible bases of jurisdiction that have been accepted in some cases. This article will set forth what the common law (the law without specific alteration by statute) has been and now is on the subject of “ jurisdiction in the international sense”. Drawing on case law and authoritative writing from across the common law world, the article will identify and examine established and debatable grounds for jurisdiction and how they have been applied. As will be seen from references to cases in courts outside England and writings on conflict of laws in countries other than England, for some countries the law on jurisdictional “competence” is or may be different from what is stated in the current version of the Dicey Rule.

Lehmann, Matthias and Eichel, Florian, Globaler Klimawandel und Internationales Privatrecht – Zuständigkeit und anzuwendendes Recht für transnationale Klagen wegen klimawandelbedingter Individualschäden (Climate Change and Private International Law – Jurisdiction and Applicable Law in Transnational LitigationConcerning Individual Losses Caused by Global Warming), pp. 77 et seq

Increasingly, victims of global warming venture outside their own jurisdiction to sue polluters. Following the example of the United States, the phenomenon has now reached Europe. This article addresses the many questions raised by climate change litigation in a cross-border context. Starting from the treaty framework for greenhouse gas emissions, it analyses issues in respect of court jurisdiction and the applicable law from a European perspective. The authors argue for a balancing of the legitimate interests of, on one hand, private individuals who suffer the consequences of climate change and, on the other, industrial firms that have acquired and relied on emission rights. With regard to the competent court, they suggest limiting court jurisdiction under Art. 7(2) Brussels Ia Regulation to those places where it was foreseeable, from the perspective of the polluter, that damage would occur. With regard to the applicable law, they propose tempering Art. 7 Rome II Regulation by an analogous application of Art. 5(1) para. 2 of the same Regulation. While the victim can generally choose between the law of the country where the damage originated and where the damage occurred, the latter option should be restricted in the case of climate change litigation because the place of damage is typically unforeseeable for the tortfeasor. Furthermore, a valid authorization by the state of emission should be taken into account under Art. 17 Rome II Regulation insofar as appropriate. The law of the country where the damage occurred could apply to liability where an authorization does not exist, was obviously invalid, obtained by fraud or where such authorization has been consciously transgressed.

Wendelstein, Christoph, „Menschenrechtliche“ Verhaltenspflichten im System des Internationalen Privatrechts (The Role of Human Rights in Private International Law), pp. 111 et seq

The article examines the significance of human rights in the field of private law and conflict of laws. The author points out that human rights per se have no relevance in the field of private law. However, human rights are suitable for modifying the content and scope of subjective private rights, particularly through the (judicial) elaboration of behavioural duties. With regard to Art. 4(1) Rome II Regulation and the question of determining the place where the damage occurs, the author proposes to distinguish between “subjective private rights with a physical reference object defined also via the duty side” (e.g. property) and “subjective private rights without a physical reference object defined only via the duty side” (e.g. personality rights). As to the former, rights are located at the place where one finds the reference object (e.g. “things” in the case of property law). As to rights associated with the latter, a further distinction is offered: (i) If the duty limits another subjective right having a physical reference object, the non-objective subjective private right is located at the place where the reference object of the restricted subjective right is found. (ii) If the duty limits a subjective right without a physical reference object, the habitual residence of the bearer of the right should be decisive. A deviation from the designated law through escape clauses (Arts. 4(3), 17 Rome II Regulation), the public policy exception (Art. 26 Rome II Regulation) or mandatory rules (Art. 16 Rome II Regulation) is excluded for methodological reasons. Moreover, a correction is not required as the connecting factor of Art. 4(1) Rome II Regulation leads to just and reasonable results even in constellations with a link to human rights.

Rupp, Caroline S.,Verliebt, verlobt, rückabgewickelt? – Ansprüche bei der Auflösung von Verlöbnissen aus grenzüberschreitender Perspektive (Enamoured, Engaged, Annulled – Broken Engagement Claims from a Cross-Border Perspective), pp. 154 et seq

Even in the twenty-first century, financial claims after a broken engagement to marry play an important role and can cause difficulties, especially in cross-border relationships. Firstly, damages may be claimed for financial losses due to wedding and marriage preparations; secondly, the fate of engagement gifts, especially the ring, needs to be determined. This article examines engagement-related claims under German, French and English law, deriving a suggestion for useful contemporary rules from their comparison. A comparative inquiry into the conflict of laws rules then shows that the current rules pose various problems due to lacunae and disputes. The article develops a proposal to resolve these problems through clear, specifically engagement-related conflict of laws rules.

Budapest: Conference on Cross-Border Litigation in Central-Europe

On February 26, Budapest will see the kick off conference for an EU-sponsored cooperation of seven universities on the operation of EU private international law in Central Europe. The conference program and the registration link are available here.

Enhancing the protection of vulnerable adults in cross-border cases in Europe: a seminar in Milan

On 22 March 2019 the Catholic University of Milan will host a seminar (in English) on The International Protection of Adults in the European Union – Improving the Operation of the Hague Convention of 13 January 2000 between Member States.

The event is part of the European Law Institute’s project on The protection of adults in international situations.

The aim of the project is to outline the text of the measures that the European Union could adopt in order to enhance, in cross-border situations, the protection of persons aged 18 or more who, by reason of an impairment or insufficiency of their personal faculties, are not in a position to protect their interests. The project builds on the idea that the Hague Convention of 13 January 2000 on the international protection of adults, which is currently in force for twelve States (eleven of which are Member States of the Union), provides an excellent framework of cooperation in this area, but that its operation could be further improved regionally through Union’s legislation.

The main proposals prepared by the expert group in charge of the project will be illustrated and discussed in the seminar, in light of the latest developments in this area, including the Conclusions and recommendations adopted at the EC-HCCH Joint Conference on the Cross-border Protection of Vulnerable Adults of 5-7 December 2018 in Brussels.

Speakers include academics, representatives of the Union’s institutions and the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference, notaries and government officials.

The agenda of the seminar is available here.

Attendance is free, but those wishing to take part in the seminar are invited to send an e-mail to pietro.franzina@unicatt.it by 10 March 2019 (early registration is recommended).

New Zealand Yearbook of International Law: Call for Papers

Posted on behalf of Jan Jakob Bornheim

The New Zealand Yearbook of International Law (Brill) is an annual, internationally refereed publication. The Editors call for both short notes and commentaries, and longer in-depth articles, for publication in Volume 16 of the Yearbook (2018), which will be published in 2019.

Notes and commentaries should be between 3,000 to 7,000 words. Articles may be from 8,000 to 15,000 words.The Editors seek contributions on any current topic in public or private international law. The Editors particularly encourage submissions that are relevant to the Pacific, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica, and New Zealand.

Submissions will be considered on a rolling basis. However, the closing date for submissions for Volume 16 is 31 May 2019.

Contributions must be original unpublished works and submission of contributions will be held to imply this. Manuscripts must be word-processed and in compliance with fourth edition of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation. The Guide is available online at: http://law.unimelb.edu.au/mulr/aglc/about.

Submissions should be provided in English, using MS Word-compatible word processing software, and delivered by email to the General Editor at janjakob.bornheim@canterbury.ac.nz.

Job Vacancy: PhD/Research Assistant at the University of Cologne

The Institute for Private International and Comparative Law of the University of Cologne (Professor Mansel) is looking to appoint a Research Assistant (Wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in) with knowledge of French, Italian, Dutch, or Spanish (edit: and who have completed a German State Exam in Law with an above-average degree). It is a part-time position with 19.92 hours per week (50%), which allows for the completion of a PhD thesis. Provided that the legal conditions are met, the remuneration will be based on pay group 13 TV-L. The University of Cologne promotes equal opportunities and diversity in its employment relationships. Women are expressly invited to apply and are given preferential treatment in accordance with the LGG NRW. Applications from severely disabled persons are welcome. They will be given preferential consideration if they are suitable for the position.

Interested candidates are invited to send their detailed application including the usual documents by 20 March 2019 to ipr-institut@uni-koeln.de, for the attention of Professor Mansel.

Issues 2018.3 and 4 Dutch Journal on Private International Law (NIPR)

The Dutch Journal on Private International Law (Nederlands Internationaal Privaatrecht) publishes papers in Dutch and in English.

Here are the abstracts of the last two issues of 2018.

Issue 2018.3

Ian Sumner, ‘Editorial: Groundbreaking decision or a tiny tremor? The Court of Justice decision in Coman, p. 1-3.

The third issue of 2018 of the Dutch Journal on Private International Law, Nederlands Internationaal Privaatrecht, contains contributions on the recognition of legal parentage established abroad, the recent decision rendered by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands on recognition and enforcement of annulled arbitral awards (NLMK), the main private international law aspects of the new Geo-blocking Regulation (especially with regard to cross-border consumer contracts), the most glaring contradictions and ambiguities in jurisprudence on the free movement of companies in the EU and the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Bolagsupplysningen about the internet, freedom of speech and the protection of privacy.

Susan Rutten, ‘Erkenning van in het buitenland gevestigde afstamming’, p. 4-24.

This contribution discusses current case law on the recognition of legal parentage established abroad. The issues that are involved concern the descent from polygamous marriages, descent from invalid, void or non-existing marriages, and the recognition of children abroad by married men. With the judgment of the Dutch Supreme Court of 19 May 2017 (ECLI:NL:HR:2017:942; NJ 2017/435) on the descent of children born from polygamous marriages in mind, it will be examined which interests judges consider to be essential when assessing and deciding the foreign parentage, and whether or not the foreign parentage can be recognized as legal parentage in the Netherlands. Th e conclusion of the article is that the principles involved in the judicial decisions, in particular the principles of family life and public policy, do not seem to be always consistently relied upon by the Supreme Court.

D.G.J. Althoff, ‘Internationale arbitrage en IPR: toepassing van erkenningsvoorwaarden uit het Nederlandse commune IPR bij erkenning en tenuitvoerlegging van vernietigde buitenlandse arbitrale vonnissen onder het Verdrag van New York 1958’, p. 25-43.

This article discusses the recent decision rendered by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands on recognition and enforcement of annulled arbitral awards (NLMK). The court ruled that the wording ‘may be refused’ in Article V(1) preamble of the New York Convention (NYC) grants the court a certain margin of discretion to recognise a foreign arbitral award and grant enforcement even if in the specific case one or more of the grounds for refusal set out in Article V(1) NYC apply. Only under special circumstances does Article V(1)(e) NYC not prevent the court from using the margin of discretion to recognise or grant enforcement of annulled foreign arbitral awards. The special circumstance focused on in this article is the one that arises if the foreign judgment that annuls the award is not eligible for recognition in the Netherlands on the basis that one or more conditions for the recognition of foreign judgments under Dutch private international law are not fulfilled. The article commences with a short description of the New York Convention and Article V(1)(e) NYC. After analysing the Yukos Capital/Rosneft-decision and the NLMK-decision within the broader discussion on recognition and enforcement of annulled arbitral awards under the New York Convention, a comparison of both decisions is made. Further, the article discusses the application of the conditions for the recognition of foreign judgments under Dutch private international law in recognition and enforcement procedures of annulled foreign arbitral awards.

María Campo Comba, ‘The new Geo-blocking Regulation: general overview and private international law aspects’, p. 44-57.

This contribution will focus on the main private international law aspects of the new Geo-blocking Regulation, especially with regard to cross-border consumer contracts. The Geo-blocking Regulation has recently entered into force in the EU with the objective of preventing unjustified discrimination regarding online sales. The new Regulation is of special interest from a private international law point of view because of the possible impact on the interpretation of the EU rules on jurisdiction and applicable law concerning cross-border consumer contracts. The present contribution will analyse whether the obligations imposed by the Geo-blocking Regulation might affect the concept of ‘directed activities’ laid down in the Brussels I bis Regulation and Rome I Regulation and interpreted by the ECJ.

Aleksandrs Fillers, ‘Contradictions and ambiguities in ECJ case-law on free movement of companies’, p. 58-72.

The present article looks at some of the most glaring contradictions and ambiguities in jurisprudence on the free movement of companies in the EU. The first major case on free movement of companies was rendered by the ECJ in 1988. After this, the Court rendered a few landmark cases that step by step reshaped the freedom granted to companies in the internal market. In 2017, the ECJ rendered the Polbud case, thereby granting companies more freedom than ever before to choose the legal system they consider best for reincorporation. The road towards greater corporate mobility has been rocky and not always transparent. The ECJ does not expressly overrule its previous cases, but rather creates new distinctions and constantly re-interprets its older jurisprudence. As a result, the judgments are often not only ambiguous and mutually contradictory but even self-contradictory. The author makes an attempt at identifying these contradictions and ambiguities and analyses their causes and their relevance within the current jurisprudence.

Jan-Jaap Kuipers, ‘Nieuwe ronde, nieuwe kansen? Een nieuw arrest van het HvJEU over het internet, vrijheid van meningsuiting en bescherming van de persoonlijke levenssfeer: HvJEU 17 oktober 2017, zaak C-194/16 (Bolagsupplysningen)’, p. 73-80.

The decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in e-Date Advertising has provoked widespread criticism in academic literature. In Bolagsupplysningen, the CJEU has taken the opportunity to confirm its earlier decision. The CJEU also clarified the right of a victim to bring proceedings before the court of its centre of interest. The CJEU however found that a person alleging that his personality rights have been infringed by the publication of incorrect information about him on the internet and the failure to remove comments relating to him cannot bring an action for rectification of that information and removal of those comments before the courts of the individual Member States in which the information published on the internet is or was accessible. Although the CJEU does not go back on its earlier case-law, the concerns raised in legal writings appear to have been taken seriously.

Issue 2018.4

Paulien van der Grinten, ‘2018: A year of anniversaries in private international law, p. 1-4.

C.A. de Visser, ‘The EU conflict of laws rules on the law governing the effects of an assignment against third parties: some fundamental problems of the Proposal’, p. 5-18.

The EU’s Proposal for conflict of laws rules on the law governing the effects of an assignment against third parties aims to provide predictability for parties involved in an assignment. This contribution concludes that, unfortunately, the Proposal’s suggested conflict of laws rule, based on which the law of the assignor’s habitual residence governs the third-party effects, does not provide that predictability. It also concludes that there are some other fundamental problems with the Proposal and the assumptions underlying it. Most importantly, it questions whether the Proposal’s suggestion that priority between competing assignments is determined by the assignment that is valid and effective first in time has a proper legal basis. It also analyses what law governs the effects of an assignment against third parties (other than the debtor of the assigned claim) and concludes that this is the law governing the assigned claim.

Aleksandrs Fillers, ‘The curious evolution of ECJ’s case-law on personal names: beyond the recognition of decisions, p. 19-33.

Free movement of EU citizens has significant influence on the law of personal names in Europe. Since the ruling in the Grunkin-Paul case, the non-recognition of personal names obtained in another Member State, under certain circumstances, may be qualified as an impediment to free movement of EU citizens. The Grunkin-Paul case seemed to operate within the paradigm of recognition of decisions. The author of the article argues that the said paradigm is not a precise conceptualization of the ECJ’s method. This is shown by two later rulings in the Sayn-Wittgenstein and Runevi?-Vardyn cases. The Court’s reasoning in the Sayn-Wittgenstein case shows that the recognition method used by the ECJ may expand to recognition of situations that do not validly exist in any legal order at the moment when recognition is requested. Pursuant to the Runevi?-Vardyn case, non-recognition of the spelling of the personal name may not be an impediment to free movement of EU citizens. The said cases show that the pillar of the Court’s methodology is the so-called ‘serious inconvenience’ test. The test determines the extent to which free movement of EU citizens requires recognition of personal names. Since the ruling in the Grunkin-Paul case, the test has evolved. In the Grunkin-Paul case it functioned within the paradigm of recognition of foreign decisions. Currently, it may be used to restrict that form of recognition or to expand recognition beyond that of foreign decisions.

Georgia Antonopoulou, ‘Defining international disputes – Reflections on the Netherlands Commercial Court proposal’, p. 34-49.

The last decade has seen the rise of international commercial courts also known as international business courts in Europe. Apart from the use of English as court language and the adoption of distinct procedural rules, the emerging courts share the aim to solely handle international disputes. Hence, the internationality of the dispute sets the jurisdictional scope of the international commercial courts and draws the line between these and the rest of the domestic courts. This article focuses on the upcoming Netherlands Commercial Court (NCC) and discusses the provisions defining the international character of a dispute under the respective proposal. First, the NCC internationality criteria are compared to the respective criteria under the Brussels Ibis Regulation and the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements. Subsequently, this article zooms in on two internationality criteria, namely the application of foreign law and the use of a foreign language in the contract. In a comparative way, the suitability of these criteria to effectively encompass disputes with an international aspect is explored. This article concludes highlighting the need for narrow internationality criteria that are aligned with the criteria used under the Brussels Ibis Regulation and the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements so as to safeguard the foreseeability of the NCC’s jurisdiction and square its professed aim to solely handle international disputes.

M.H. ten Wolde, ‘Oberle. De juiste balans tussen de belangen van nalatenschapsgerechtigden en het belang van rechtszekerheid? Hof van Justitie EU 21 juni 2018, C-20/17, NIPR 2018, 295 (Oberle)’, p. 50-58.

In ECJ Case C-20/17 (Oberle) of 21 June 2018 the central question is whether international jurisdiction in respect of the issuing of national certificates of succession regarding cross-border succession cases is governed by the jurisdiction rules of Succession Regulation No. 650/2012. The ECJ answered this question in the affirmative. Its argumentation for this decision is however very weak. At the same time the decision has a huge impact on the cross-border practice of winding up estates. A swift settlement of a cross-border estate by using both a national and a European certificate of succession from different participating Member States is no longer possible. The ECJ wrongly gives priority to legal certainty over the interests of those entitled to the estate of the deceased.

J.A. Pontier, ‘Boekbespreking: Kirsten Henckel, Cross-Border Transfers of Undertakings – A European Perspective; Iris A. Haanappel-van der Burg, Grensoverschrijdende overgang van onderneming vanuit rechtsvergelijkend en conflictenrechtelijk perspectief’, p. 59-68.