Private International Law and Sustainable Development in Asia: REMINDER–Still Time to Submit Your Proposals

The United Nations Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seems to have a blind spot for the role of private and private international law. That blind spot is beginning to be closed. A collective volume with global outlook published in 2021 addressed “the private side of transforming our world”: each of the 17 SDGs was discussed in one chapter of the book devoted to the specific relevance of private law and private international law. In 2022, the IACL-ASADIP conference in Asunción, Paraguay discussed sustainable private international law with regard to Latin America; the contributions published in 2023 in a special issue of the University of Brasilia Law Journal – Direito.UnB., V.7., N.3 (2023).

In this occasion the focus is on Asia. The Chinese Journal of Transnational Law invites submissions for its Vol. 2 Issue 2, to be published in 2025, engaging critically with the functions, methodologies and techniques of private international law in relation to sustainability from an Asian perspective, as well as in relation to the actual and potential contributions of private international law to the SDGs in Asia. Read more

Roundtable: PIL and global trends, Zagreb, 22 January 2024

The Croatian Academy of Science and Art organises the roundtable titled “Private international law and global trends“, which will be held on Monday, 22 January 2024, at 11 h, in the premises of the Faculty of Law in Zagreb in Cirilometodska street, 4 (due to ongoing renovation of the Academy’s building which suffered damage in the earthquake of 2020, as visible in the photo when expanded). Attendance is open to all, but your intention to join should be communicated to Ms. Muhek at zmuhek@hazu.hr.

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Virtual Workshop (in German) on February 6: Heinz-Peter Mansel on Supply Chains and Conflict of Laws – Selected Issues

On Tuesday, February 6, 2024, the Hamburg Max Planck Institute will host its 41st monthly virtual workshop Current Research in Private International Law at 11:00-12:30 (CET). Heinz-Peter Mansel (Universität zu Köln) will speak, in German, about

Supply Chains and Conflict of Laws – Selected Issues

The presentation will be followed by an open discussion. All are welcome. More information and sign-up here.

If you want to be invited to these events in the future, please write to veranstaltungen@mpipriv.de.

Two PhD Positions at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle (Saale), Germany, is advertising two PhD positions in Private Law within the context of a research project on “Cultural Diversity in
Private Law” lead by Dr Mareike Schmidt.

More information can be found here.

Seminar Series – International Perspectives on Scots Law

The University of Stirling is bringing together academics, practitioners and other stakeholders to present research examining the role of Scots law in the international legal landscape. It is hoped this will promote the ways in which Scots law can offer solutions to global legal challenges but also to offer critiques of the way in which Scots law can or must evolve to preserve and promote its value.

With many Law Schools diversifying their programme offerings beyond Scots law it is a critical time to explore the interactions between Scots law and other jurisdictions. It is also necessary to consider the relationships between the curriculum within Law Schools and the needs of legal practice.

Seminars will be delivered in hybrid format to enable busy stakeholders to engage with these discussions.

Please register for each event in the series individually here, and find out more about a seminar by emailing internationalisationofscotslaw@stir.ac.uk.

This seminar series has been generously funded by the Clark Foundation for Legal Education.

UK has signed the 2019 Judgments Convention

On 12 January 2024, the United Kingdom has signed the 2019 Judgments Convention (Convention of 2 July 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters), as announced in the press release of the Hague Conference on Private International Law.

This a milestone within the coming about of the worldwide framework for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and a welcome addition to the post-Brexit legal landscape.

A milestone for the Apostille Convention: today it enters into force for Canada

On 11 January 2024, the Apostille Convention entered into force for Canada. The accession of Canada to the Apostille Convention on 12 May 2023 was a milestone for the Apostille Convention and it is perhaps a development that has gone under the radar.

Considering that the Apostille Convention was adopted in 1961 (EIF: 24-I-1965), one may wonder why Canada took so long to join the Apostille Convention. This is primarily because there is no statutory requirement for the legalisation of incoming public documents in Canada. In its response to the 2021 Questionnaire, Canada indicated:

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Circulation of Personal Status – International symposium, January 19, 2024

An international symposium on the circulation of personal status be held on January 19, 2024 at the Italian Court of Cassation.

The symposium is organized by the Société de législation comparée (Section méthodologie comparée du droit civil), the Associazione Civilisti Italiani, the International Commission on Civil Status in collaboration with the Law Faculty of the Université Côte d’Azur.

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Van Den Eeckhout on CJEU case law in PIL matters – Follow up and a recently published paper

Veerle Van Den Eeckhout (working at the CJEU) has published a short article on recent CJEU case law in Private International Law matters.

The paper is entitled “CJEU case law. A few observations on recent CJEU case law.” It has been published as a contribution to the fifth volume in the series of the Dialog Internationales Familienrecht. The article sets the scene and contextualizes the findings detailed in the presentation given by the author on April 29, 2023 at the Dialog Internationales Familienrecht 2023 at the University of Münster. See also previously here on the presentation.

In essence, while presenting case law of the CJEU in PIL matters, the Author explored selected methodological aspects of reasoning employed by the Court of Justice, including deductive arguments and those aiming to ensure “consistency” within the whole system.

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German Federal Court of Justice rules on what constitutes a genuine international element within the meaning of Art. 3(3) of the Rome I-Regulation (BGH, judgment of 29 November 2023, No. VIII ZR 7/23)

by Patrick Ostendorf (HTW Berlin)

The principle of party autonomy gives the parties to a contract the opportunity to determine the applicable substantive (contract) law themselves by means of a choice-of-law clause – and thus to avoid (simple) mandatory rules that would otherwise bite. According to EU Private International law, however, the choice of the applicable contract law requires a genuine international element: in purely domestic situations, i.e. where “all other elements relevant to the situation at the time of the choice are located in a single country, all the mandatory rules of this country remain applicable even if the parties have chosen a foreign law (Art. 3 (3) Rome I Regulation).

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