HCCH Asia Pacific Week 2023 – Access to Justice and Sustainable Development: The Impact of the HCCH in an Inter-Connected World, was successfully held from 11 to 14 September 2023 in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), China.
The HCCH celebrated its 130th Anniversary during the HCCH Asia Pacific Week. During the week, many important conventions and instruments of the HCCH were promoted and examined by the experts from around the Asia Pacific Region.
The second issue of 2023 of the Rivista di diritto internazionale privato e processuale (RDIPP, published by CEDAM) was just released. It features:
Yuriko Haga, Professor at Seikei University, Avatars, Personalities in the Metaverse: Introductory Analysis on Conflict-of-Laws
When people perform various activities in the metaverse, another world on the Internet, they make avatars as their “proxy”, representing their personality. However, the connection between an avatar and its user is often unclear. In fact, avatars do not necessarily resemble to their user’s figure or face because people can decide its appearance at their disposal. The first question thus arises as to whether the attack on an avatar can be assimilated to an attack on the personality of a user, a person in real world. An avatar should be deemed part of the online personality of its user, and, considering the existing theory of personality rights, it is not completely separate from the person in the real world. Therefore, an attack brought against an avatar can deemed more or less an infringement against the user’s personality. The second question is then how to select the applicable law to such cases. An infringement of personality rights in the metaverse is by nature “international” because users can connect to that virtual “world” from all corners of the planet. This leads to a difficulty in determining the place that the connecting factor designates. This paper examines the applicability of actual Japanese conflict-of-laws rule to issues occurring in the metaverse to show its boundary. The traditional theory posits to apply national laws to resolve legal issues, but the world of metaverse is often governed by rules of its own. It follows that the conflict-of-laws theory should now consider the applicability of the rules of other communities, such as the metaverse.
The first issue of 2023 of Giustizia Consensuale (published by Editoriale Scientifica) has just been released, and it features:
Annalisa Ciampi (Professor at the University of Verona), La giustizia consensuale internazionale (International Consensual Justice; in Italian)
All means of dispute settlement between States, including adjudication, are based on the consent of the parties concerned. The post-Cold War era saw an unprecedented growth of third-party (judge or arbitrator) dispute resolution systems. In more recent years, however, we are witnessing a weakening of the international judicial function. This paper analyses and explains similarities and differences between dispute settlement between States and dispute resolution between private parties at the national level. Whilst doing so, it makes a contribution to the question of whether the de-judicialisation taking place in Italy and elsewhere, as well as in the international legal system, can be considered a step in the right direction.
Does a preliminary contract obliging the parties to conclude a future ‘contract for the provisions of services’ within the meaning of Article 7(1)(b) of the Brussels I bis Regulation borrow its characterisation from such a future contract and, as a consequence, the claims resulting from this preliminary contract can be brought before the courts for the place where the services were or should have been provided? This is the question that the Court of Justice answered in the negative in its judgment handed down this morning in the case EXTÉRIA, C-393/22.
The Japan Commercial Arbitration Association (JCAA), one of the oldest international arbitration institutions in the world, founded in 1950, has started to publish its annual journal on commercial arbitration – “Japan Commercial Arbitration Journal” – entirely in English. The Journal’s Volume 4, which has been published recently, features the following articles:
Miriam Rose Ivan L. Pereira
Combining Interactive Arbitration with Mediation: A Hybrid Solution under the Interactive Arbitration Rules
Masaru Suzuki, Shinya Sakuragi
The Use of Technology in the International Commercial Arbitration and the Consideration of Rulemaking
Kazuhisa Fujita
Current Status of International Arbitration from the Perspective of Corporate Law and Japan as the Place of Arbitration
Dai Yokomizo
International Commercial Arbitration and Public Interests: Focusing on the Treatment of Overriding Mandatory Rules
Yuji Yasunaga
Extending the Application of an Arbitration Agreement Involving a Corporation to Include its Representative
Kazuhiro Kobayashi
Scope, Amount and Sharing of Arbitration Expenses and Court Costs in Japan
Leon Ryan, Shunsuke Domon
Disputes in India ? Lessons from Mittal v Westbridge
Junya Naito, Motomu Wake
Potential for a New Arb-Med in Japan
Yoshihiro (Yoshi) Takatori
Arbitrator Training and Assessment ? How to Increase and Strengthen Resource of Arbitrators and ADR Practitioners
Shuji Yanase
On Dual Conciliation by Two Conciliators
Takeshi Ueda
Discussions and Challenges in Promoting Online Dispute Resolution
Shinji Kusakabe
Civil Litigation after the Introduction of IT, as Suggested by Scheduled Proceedings in Commercial Arbitration
All volumes can also be freely consulted and downloaded here.
The Institute of Legal Research of the University of Coimbra is organising an event in their series of Transatlantic Dialogues in Private International law. On 12 and 13 October the topic is Family and Personal Status on the Move.
The programme includes the main developments in family law and personal status, name, multiple parenthood, gender and polyamorous relationships. Besides, there is a session for young researchers, for whom the organisers opened a call for papers. A 300-word abstract should be submitted by mail to dulcel@fd.uc.pt and paulavit@fd.uc.pt. by 20 September.
See the Call for papers booklet
The organisers are Dulce Lopez, Guillermo Palao Moreno, Nicolas Nord and Paula Távora Vítor.
The event is hybrid, but registration is required.
Vesna Lazic and Peter Mankowski, The Brussels I-bis Regulation: Interpretation and Implementation, Edward Elgar 2023 (602 pp)
This impressive book on the Brussels I-bis Regulation has just been published. It results from a project headed by Vesna Lazic (Utrecht University/T.M.C. Asser Institute) and the late Peter Mankowski (formerly University of Hamburg), in co-operation with Lucia Pein (Hamburg University), entitled ‘Regulation Brussels Ia: a standard for free circulation of judgments and mutual trust in the European Union’ (JUDGTRUST) funded by the European Commission’s Justice Programme (JUST-AG-2017/JUST-JCOO-AG-2017). The research for this project consisted among others of a questionnaire and national reports from all the Member States on the application of the Regulation. This book provides an extensive overview of the CJEU rulings and analysis of case law, which will be of great importance for future reference and the ongoing evaluation and revision of the Brussels I-bis Regulation.
How does the anchor defendant mechanism operate in the realm of EU trade marks and actions on trade mark infringement? Is the existence of an exclusive distribution agreement between the defendants sufficient to rely on this mechanism? Those are the questions that the Court of justice addresses in its judgment handed down this morning in the case Beverage City Polska, C-832/21.
On 27 October 2023, the Department of Private Law of Maastricht University (the Netherlands) is hosting a lecture by Prof. Dr. Horatia Muir Watt, Professor at the Sciences Po Law School (Paris), entitled: “Ecological Jurisprudence: The Shape of Legality at its Own Last Frontier (a Private International Law Approach)” at 17:00 (CEST time). This event will take place onsite and in English. For more information, click here.