Symposium on 10 April: Parental Child Abduction and Mediation in a Globalized World at Stanford Law School

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An International Symposium on Parental Child Abduction and Mediation in a Globalized World will take place at Stanford Law School on 10 April 2018 (one day only – California, USA). One of the aims of the symposium is to discuss what is happening between the United States and Mexico, one of the busiest borders with respect to  child abduction cases (see the latest statistical survey published by the Hague Conference on Private International Law -HCCH-). Click here for more information on the event and to register.

The event is free and open to the public. Speakers will include Professor Nuria González Martín (UNAM), the former Secretary General of the HCCH Hans van Loon, academics, judges, and Central Authority officials. Click here for the full program.

HCCH publication on international child protection is relaunched!

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By Frédéric Breger, Legal Officer at the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH)

In March 2018, the Permanent Bureau of the HCCH relaunched the publication of the Judges’ Newsletter on International Child Protection after almost four years of absence. Volume XXI of the Judges’ Newsletter (Winter-Spring 2018) has now been released on the HCCH website.

This issue of the Judges’ Newsletter includes a Special Focus on the Seventh meeting of the Special Commission on the Practical Operation of the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention and the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention meant to provide an insight into the discussions held during the meeting on a selected range of topics. It reflects, amongst others, the discussions held on topics such as a Draft Guide to good practice on Article 13(1)(b) of the 1980 Convention, addressing delays under the 1980 Convention, the benefits and use of the 1996 Convention in relation to the 1980 Convention, the revision of forms for return and access under the 1980 Convention, recognition and enforcement of protection orders, etc.

Following the Conclusions and Recommendations adopted at this Special Commission meeting, the Judges’ Newsletter will henceforth be edited in-house and published in electronic format only. All previous volumes of the Judges’ Newsletter are available here.

Call for Papers: Big Data – New Challenges beyond Data Protection

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The first edition of the doctoral seminar in Public, International and European Law of the University of Milan will take place on 15, 16 and 17 October 2018. This year’s topic is Big Data and the Law – New Challenges beyond Data Protection.

The seminar will consist of three panels: (1) Big Data and Public Law: artificial intelligence, algorithmic decision and algorithmic transparency, Big data and Public Health, Big data and Taxation; (2) Big Data and State Jurisdiction (The un-territoriality of Data): how territoriality is challenged by the present day dynamics governing the search and seizure of digitized information; (3) Digitization of Public Administration and Big Data: tools, challenges and prospects of the transition to a digitalized public administration.

Each panel will host presentations by three PhD students, followed by a brief discussion by another PhD student.

The seminar will take place in Gargnano, on the shores of Lake Garda, at the historical Palazzo Feltrinelli.

Interested PhD students are encouraged to submit an 800-word abstract of their presentation, in English, by 30 April 2018. The abstracts should address one of the above issues from a public, international (including private international) or EU law perspective.

See here for further information.

Now online: Report on the IC²BE Workshop on Setting up a European Case Law Database

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On 26 February 2018, a well-attended, high-level workshop on the organization of databases on European civil procedural law took place at the Max-Planck-Institute (MPI) Luxembourg that was organized by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Burkhard Hess and our fellow conflictoflaws.net-editor Prof. Dr. Marta Requejo Isidro.

The event gathered contributions of experts from the European Commission, the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union. The workshop was part of a research project in which the MPI is participating together with major European Universities (Antwerp, Complutense, Freiburg [coordinator], Milan, Rotterdam, Wroclaw), the so called IC²BE study (Informed Choices in Cross-Border Enforcement). The final aim of this endeavor is to assess the working in practice of the “second generation” of EU regulations on procedural law for cross-border cases, i.e., the European Enforcement Order, Order for Payment, Small Claims (as amended by Regulation [EU] 2015/2421) and the Account Preservation Order Regulations. Marta Requejo Isidro has written a detailed report on the workshop that is available at the MPI’s website here.

Online symposium on the private international law of parentage and filiation

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Dr. Philipp M. Reuß (University of Munich) is organizing a serialized online symposium on the private international law of parentage and filiation. The conferences will be held in German and feature a list of highly distinguished experts. The first event will take place on 19 April 2018, at 2 p.m. (local time). For the programme and further information on registration, please click here.

European Council (Art. 50) (23 March 2018) – Guidelines

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Today, the European Council has published a document of guidelines with a view to the opening of negotiations on the overall understanding of the framework for the future relationship EU-UK. In our field of interest those are the relevant ones

10. The future partnership should include ambitious provisions on movement of natural persons, based on full reciprocity and non-discrimination among Member States, and related areas such as coordination of social security and recognition of professional qualifications. In this context, options for judicial cooperation in matrimonial, parental responsibility and other related matters could be explored, taking into account that the UK will be a third country outside Schengen and that such cooperation would require strong safeguards to ensure full respect of fundamental rights.

Judicial cooperation in civil matters is not mentioned.

Guidelines 7 and 15 refer to the CJEU:

7. The European Council further reiterates that the Union will preserve its autonomy as regards its decision-making, which excludes participation of the United Kingdom as a third-country in the Union Institutions and participation in the decision-making of the Union bodies, offices and agencies. The role of the Court of Justice of the European Union will also be fully respected.

15. Designing the overall governance of the future relationship will require to take into account:

iii) the requirements of the autonomy of the EU legal order, including the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union, notably as developed in the jurisprudence.

Future work of the HCCH

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By the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH)

From 13 to 15 March 2018, Members of the HCCH gathered in The Hague for the meeting of the Council on General Affairs and Policy. The Council was attended by 171 participants, representing 63 Members, one REIO and observers from four IGOs / eight NGOs.

The Council reviewed the work of the Organisation carried out during the previous year and charted the course for future work.

It recognised the very good progress made on the Judgments Project and mandated the Permanent Bureau to continue preparations for a Fourth and final Special Commission meeting in May 2018. The Council asked the Permanent Bureau to make arrangements for the preparation of a Diplomatic Session in mid-2019.

The Council also welcomed the work of the Experts’ Group on Parentage / Surrogacy and instructed the Permanent Bureau to convene two more meetings of this group. The Experts’ Group will report to Council at its 2019 Meeting.

The Council invited the Members to provide the Permanent Bureau with comments and a list of additional issues to be addressed in the finalised Report on the Tourists and visitors Project. Following a meeting of an Experts’ Group, the finalised Report of the Consultant and the Experts’ Group’s Conclusions and Recommendations will be submitted to the Members before the end of 2018, for consideration by the Council at its 2019 Meeting.

The Draft Practical Guide to Family Agreements under the Hague Conventions will be submitted to the Council at its meeting in 2019.

Furthermore, the Council mandated its Chair to advise the Netherlands Standing Government Committee on Private International Law that it recommends the reappointment of the Secretary General for a further term of five years.

The full Conclusions & Recommendations are available in English and French.

For further information, see https://www.hcch.net/en/governance/council-on-general-affairs.

Please note that the meetings above-mentioned are open only to delegates or experts designated by the Members of the Hague Conference, invited non-Member States and International Organisations that have been granted observer status.

Reminder: German Workshop on Cross-Border Enforcement in the EU (“IC2BE”)

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As we have already announced on this blog, the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg (Germany) will host a workshop on Friday, 13 April 2018, in the framework of the research project “Informed Choices in Cross-Border Enforcement” (IC2BE). An updated flyer with further information has just been released here. The project aims to assess the working in practice of the “second generation” of EU regulations on procedural law for cross-border cases, i.e. the European Enforcement Order, Order for Payment, Small Claims and the Account Preservation Order Regulations. Confirmed speakers include Professors Gerald Mäsch (University of Münster), Ivo Bach (University of Göttingen) and Stefan Huber (University of Tübingen), as well as Dr. Denise Wiedemann (Max-Planck-Institute, Hamburg) and Dr. Bernhard Ulrici (University of Leipzig). Their presentations will be commented on by distinguished practitioners, namely Dr. Max Peiffer (Munich), Prof. Dr. Andreas Baumert (Achern), Dr. Knut Messer (judge at the Central German Court for European Orders for Payment, Berlin), Dr. Bartosz Sujecki (Amsterdam), Dr. David Einhaus (Freiburg) and Dr. Nils H. Harbeck (Hamburg). The language of the workshop will be German. Participation is free of charge, but requires a registration.

Out now: Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft (ZvglRWiss) 117 (2018) No. 1

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The most recent issue of the German Journal of Comparative Law (Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft) features three articles on private international law. Read more

Business and Human Rights (Empresas y Derechos Humanos)

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A new book co-edited by Prof. F.J. Zamora Cabot and M.C. Marullo has just been published in the field of human rights and business by the Italian publisher house Editoriale Scientifica, as part of the collection  “La ricerca del diritto nella comunità internazionale”. The diversity of the approaches of the contributions – constitutional law, International Public Law, investment arbitration, Procedural Law, Private International Law-, makes it worth for specialists in the different areas.  The index and Foreword can be looked up here.