ABLI-HCCH webinar: Electronic Service of Documents and Remote Taking of Evidence (10 July 2025)

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Written by Catherine Shen, Senior Assistant Director, ABLI

Following successful sessions in 2021, 2022 and 2023, the Singapore-based Asian Business Law Institute (ABLI) and the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) return after a one-year hiatus with their fourth joint webinar, this time on electronic service of documents and remote taking of evidence.

Titled Cross-border Commercial Dispute Resolution – Electronic Service of Documents and Remote Taking of Evidence, the webinar will take place on Thursday 10 July between 5 to 6:10pm (Singapore time) or 11am to 12:10 noon (CEST), and is expected to discuss, among others, electronic transmission of requests under the Service Convention, such as the use of IT for communication among Central Authorities and other competent authorities, service by electronic means across different jurisdictions, and remote taking of evidence by video-link and electronic evidence under the Evidence Convention.

Invited speakers include Melissa Ford, Secretary of HCCH,  Lucinda Orr, Partner of Enyo Law LLP, Justice Anselmo Reyes, International Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court, and Dr Xu Guojian, Senior Partner of SGLA Law Firm.

More about the webinar and its speakers can be found in the flyer.

For more information or to register, click here. Early bird discount is available till 10 June. Queries about the webinar can be directed to Catherine of ABLI at abli_info@abli.asia.

XVIII ASADIP Conference – Rio de Janeiro, 7-9 August

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Registration has now opened to participate in the XVIII ASADIP Conference – Regional Imaginaries, Global Resonance: Inter-American Private International Law and the World Stage, to be held in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 7 to 9 August 2025. This year, ASADIP is organising the Conference in collaboration with the Organisation of American States, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Inter-American Conference on Private International Law and the OAS Course on International Law. Preliminary programme, registration link and further info.

HCCH Monthly Update: April 2025

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HCCH Monthly Update: April 2025

 

Membership

On 10 April 2025, Qatar applied to become a Member of the HCCH. On the same day, the Secretary General of the HCCH opened the six-month voting period during which all current Members of the HCCH may cast their vote on the proposal. Following this voting period, and provided a majority of votes are cast in favour, Qatar will be invited to become a Member by depositing an instrument of acceptance of the Statute of the HCCH. More information is available here.

 

Meetings & Events

From 2 to 4 April 2025, the conference “15 Years of the HCCH Washington Declaration: Progress and Perspectives on International Family Relocation” was held at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C., United States of America. The conference was jointly organised by the Embassy of Canada, the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL), and the HCCH. More information is available here.

From 7 to 11 April 2025, the Working Group on Parentage / Surrogacy met for the fourth time. Pursuant to its mandate, the Working Group continued its consideration of draft provisions for one new instrument on legal parentage generally, including legal parentage resulting from an international surrogacy agreement. More information is available here.

On 30 April 2025, the seventh meeting of the Working Group established to complete the Country Profile and work on the draft Cooperation Request Recommended Model Form for the 1996 Child Protection Convention was held online, hosted by the Permanent Bureau. More information is available here.

 

Upcoming Events

The webinar “HCCH 2019 Judgments Convention: Bridging Global Justice” will be held via Zoom on Tuesday 6 May 2025 from 4.00 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. (Hong Kong time), hosted by the HCCH’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. Interested persons should register no later than this Friday, 2 May 2025, at 5.00 p.m. (Hong Kong time). More information is available here.

 

These monthly updates are published by the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), providing an overview of the latest developments. More information and materials are available on the HCCH website.

Report from the inaugural conference of the Australasian Association of Private International Law (AAPrIL)

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On 16 and 17 April 2025, the Australasian Association of Private International Law (AAPrIL) held its inaugural conference in Brisbane, Australia. Hosted by Griffith University—the home of AAPrIL President Mary Keyes—the conference featured stimulating panel presentations from speakers from around Australia and abroad.

The conference started with a panel on jurisdiction and judgments, chaired by Richard Garnett of Melbourne Law School. Reid Mortensen of USQ kicked things off with a presentation on Australia’s cross-vesting scheme. Priskila Penasthika of the Universitas Indonesia then spoke on ‘The Indonesian Language Contract Requirements versus Arbitration as a Choice of Forum’. Read more

Workshops on Addressing Conflict of Laws and Facilitating Digital Product Passports (DPPs) in Cross-border Value Chains

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UN/CEFACT would like to invite you to attend:

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New Article on Public Policy Exception

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In every private international law system, the forum state reserves the right to reject the application of a foreign rule that deeply offends the forum’s fundamental sense of justice and fairness. In all systems, this “public policy reservation” (ordre public) operates as an exception to the forum’s choice-of-law rules, not its rules on jurisdiction or access to courts. Surprisingly, the First and Second Conflicts Restatements in the United States deviate from this international consensus by narrowly phrasing the exception as a ground for denying a forum to foreign causes of action rather than as a ground for refusing to apply other foreign rules, including those raised as defenses.

A forthcoming article by Symeon Symeonides titled The Public Policy Exception in Choice of Law: The American Version discusses the origins of this unique formulation in Judge Cardozo’s classic but misinterpreted decision in Loucks v. Standard Oil Co. of New York, the problems it creates, its tacit rejection by most American courts, and the new flexible formulation of the exception in the proposed Third Conflicts Restatement.

The article will be published in Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts (IPRax), as well as in a special issue of the Emory Journal of International Law dedicated to the renowned conflicts scholar Peter Hay.

Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts (IPRax) 3/2025: Abstracts

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The latest issue of the „Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts“ (IPRax) features the following articles:

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Virtual Workshop (in English) on May 6: Konrad Duden on “Squaring the Circle – Recognising Rare Family Forms and Gender Identities Within the EU”

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On Tuesday, May 6, 2025, the Hamburg Max Planck Institute will host its monthly virtual workshop Current Research in Private International Law at 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (CEST). Professor Konrad Duden (University of Hamburg) will speak, in English, about the topic

“Squaring the Circle – Recognising Rare Family Forms and Gender Identities Within the EU”

 

The principle of recognition has long been a feature of European private international law – increasingly also in matters of family law and the law of personal status. Recent case law has focused on so-called rainbow families – same-sex marriages and parenthood – and changes in legal gender markers. These are issues that are treated very differently across the EU, with extensive protection and equal treatment in some Member States, and clear and in some cases constitutional rejection in others. The CJEU is therefore trying to reconcile two contradictory principles: The exclusive competence of Member States in substantive family and civil status law on the one hand and the Union-wide recognition of families and gender identities registered in one Member State on the other. This presentation will examine how the CJEU attempts to resolve this conflict and what conclusions can be drawn from the case law on the nature and scope of the principle of recognition.

 

The presentation will be followed by 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.

5th German Conference for Young Researchers in Private International Law in Heidelberg – Conference Report

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Written by Victoria Hélène Dintelmann (Heidelberg University)

On February 14th and 15th, 2025, more than one hundred young academics gathered at Heidelberg University for the 5th German Conference for Young Researchers in Private International Law to discuss the topic “Digital Transformation and Private International Law – Local Connections in Boundless Spaces”. The conference was organized by Andreas Engel, Sophia Schwemmer, Felix Berner, Aron Johanson, Markus Lieberknecht, Ann-Kathrin Voß, Charlotte Wendland and Anton Zimmermann.

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PIL conference in Ljubljana, 18 September 2025

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University of Ljubljana is organising Private International Law Conference with sessions in Slovenian and English. The conference, which will take place in Ljubljana (Slovenia) on 18 September 2025, will gather reknown academics and practitioners who will address current topics in European and international PIL.

The programme is available by clicking here: PIL-Ljubljana2025 and for more infromation you are welcome to contact the organisers at: ipp.pf@pf.uni-lj.si.