Strategic Litigation – Conference in Munich, 20/21 June 2024

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On 20 and 21 June, a conference dedicated to Stratetic Litigation, organized by Christiane von Bary (LMU Munich) and Tobias Lutzi (University of Augsburg), will take place at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Munich, Germany.

The event, which will be held in German and is free of charge for all attendants, aims to tackle a variety of questions raised by a seemingly growing number of lawsuits that pursue aims beyond the dispute between the litigating parties – only some of which appear societally desireable.
The discussants, many of whom have first-hand experience, will address a number of overarching aspects such as the the role of courts in policy-making or the potential of collective-redress mechanisms and legal tech before diving more deeply into two particularly prominent examples: climate-change litigation and SLAPPs.

More information can be found on this flyer.

Please this link to register for the event.

Out now: RabelsZ 88 (2024), Issue 1

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The latest issue of RabelsZ has just been released. In addition to the following articles it contains fantastic news (mentioned in an earlier post today): Starting with this issue RabelsZ will be available open access! Enjoy reading:

 

Symeon C. Symeonides, The Torts Chapter of the Third Conflicts Restatement: An Introduction, pp. 7–59, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1628/rabelsz-2024-0001 Read more

Rabels Zeitschrift Open Access

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Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht (RabelsZ)

 

Since the beginning of this year, Rabels Zeitschrift is available in open access. For a long time, the journal has published articles in other languages than German in particular English. The new open access model should make it even more attractive for authors wishing to reach an international audience. And it enables readers from places without a subscription – not only, but also in the Global South – to have access to scholarship. What follows  is a translation of the Editorial in Rabels Zeitschrift, Volume 88 (2024) / Issue 1, pp. 1-4: Open Access – was sich mit diesem Heft ändert by Holger Fleischer, Ralf Michaels, Anne Röthel, Christian Eckl, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Translation by Michael Friedman.

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HCCH Monthly Update: March 2024

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Conventions & Instruments

On 14 March 2024, Angola deposited its instrument of accession to the 1993 Adoption Convention. With the accession of Angola, the 1993 Adoption Convention now has 106 Contracting Parties. More information is available here.

On 14 March 2024, Moldova deposited its instrument of accession to the 2005 Choice of Court Convention. With the accession of Moldova, 33 States and the European Union are bound by the 2005 Choice of Court Convention. More information is available here.

On 21 March 2024, El Salvador deposited its instrument of accession to the 1965 Service Convention and the Dominican Republic deposited its instruments of accession to the 1965 Service Convention and the 2007 Child Support Convention. More information is available here.

 

Meetings & Events

From 5 to 8 March 2024, the Council on General Affairs and Policy (CGAP) of the HCCH met in The Hague, with over 429 participants joining both in person and online. HCCH Members reviewed progress made to date and agreed on the work programme for the year ahead in terms of normative, non-normative and governance work. More information is available here.

On 22 March 2024, the Permanent Bureau hosted the webinar “HCCH 2005 Choice of Court Convention: Fostering Access to Justice for Cross-Border Commerce in the Asia Pacific Region”.

 

Publications

On 8 March 2023, the Permanent Bureau announced the publication of the HCCH 2023 Annual Report. 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.

Out Now : A Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Judgments – Why did the Judgments Project (1992-2001) Fail? (by Eva Jueptner)

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Following the publication of two seminal books on the recently adopted HCCH 2019 Judgments Convention (Mattias Weller et al. (eds), The HCCH 2019 Judgments Convention – Cornerstones, Prospects and Outlooks (Hart, 2023) and Ronald A. Brand et al, The 2019 Hague Judgments Convention (OUP, 2023), Eva Jueptner’s newly published work delves into the extensive history of this project, which has now moved on to address issues of international (direct) jurisdiction in civil and commercial matters (for details on the ongoing “Jurisdiction Project”, see here). Entitled “A Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Judgments – Why did the Judgments Project (1992-2001) Fail?” Jueptner’s book attempts to shed light on the root causes of the original project’s setbacks.

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Judicial Cooperation on the African Continent: Two Significant Developments in 2024

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In spite of what the focus of academic discourse sometimes seems to suggest, the area of judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters within regional integration communities is by no means limited to the European Union and perhaps MERCOSUR. To the contrary, initiatives such as the Nigeria Group on Private International Law (NGPIL) and the Uniform Acts developed within the framework of the Organisation pour l’harmonisation en Afrique du droit des affaires (OHADA), as well as the legal assistance instruments long established by the League of Arab States (LAS) along the Mediterranean coast, as well as the Communauté économique et monétaire d’Afrique centrale (CEMAC) and its 2004 Accord on judicial cooperation are striking evidence of a keen interest in Private International Law on the African continent as well (for a comparative perspective see M. Weller, ‘Mutual Trust’: A suitable foundation for private international integration communities and beyond?, RdC 423 (2022), Chapter V, paras. 224-281).

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Third seminar on Rights In Rem – Tarragona, 4-5 April 2024

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Third International Seminar on Rights In Rem in the European Union “Conflict of Laws on rights in rem in the EU: Status Quo and Proposals for the Future” is the closing dissemination activity within the project PID2020-112609GB-I0 Property Rights System over Tangible Goods in the Field of European Private International Law: Aspects of International Jurisdiction and Applicable Law, funded by the Spanish Government.

The seminar aims to offer discussions on various aspects of the conflict of laws rules concerning rights in rem. The debate is particularly relevant at a time when more and more academic associations (GEDIP and EAPIL) and other actors in private international law advocate for a legislative proposal by the European Union in this field. The rich conference programme will surely be of interest to many, and infromation about the venue and registration is available at the conference webpage.

This seminar is organised by the Rovira i Virgili University (Tarragona), the University of Barcelona and the University of Lleida, as well as the First and the Second seminars.

Chinese Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 1, Issue 1) was released

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The first issue of the Chinese Journal of Transnational Law (Vol.1 Issue 1, 2024) was recently published by SAGE. It includes three articles relevant to private international law.

Consensus and Compulsion: The Extra-territorial Effect of Chinese Judicial and Specially-Invited Mediation in Common Law Countries, Jie (Jeanne) Huang
This article conducts exhaustive research on case law in major common law jurisdictions (Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK, and the US) regarding the recognition and enforcement of Chinese judicial mediation decisions (MTS). In contrast to the rich literature criticizing the systematic deficiency of Chinese judicial mediation where an adjudicator plays the dual role of mediator and judge in the same case and the consequent injustice to the parties, the deficiency is not an issue currently in recognition and enforcement of MTS in common law jurisdictions. Why is this so and what would be the future trend? Answering these questions, this article explores the recent expansion from judicial mediation to Specially-Invited Mediation at the people’s courts in China and discusses whether the features of Specially-Invited Mediation impact the recognition and enforcement of MTS at the common law jurisdictions. It also addresses controversies on applicable law, challenges to the enforceability of civil liability clauses, debates on the finality of MTS, and recognition and enforcement of MTS under China’s judicial assistance agreements, the Hague Choice-of-Court Convention, the Hague Judgments Convention, and the Singapore Mediation Convention.

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2024 Inaugural Edition of the UNCITRAL Days in the Arab Sates

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The UNCITRAL secretariat is pleased to announce that the inaugural edition of the UNCITRAL Days in the Arab Sates is planned for 2024!

The UNCITRAL Days activities comprise academic gatherings organized with universities and institutions of higher learning in the region, which discuss and consider issues arising in UNCITRAL’s areas of work, i.e. the progressive harmonization and modernization of international commercial law through the adoption, use and implementation of legal texts. The events seek to raise awareness of UNCITRAL instruments and the of legal harmonization amongst the next generations of academics and policymakers.

This series of events will be held between 15 April – 31 December 2024 under the following theme: “The role of UNCITRAL in the modernization of international trade law in the Arab States”.

Information regarding the organization of an event within the framework of the UNCITRAL Days in the Arab States in 2024 can be found in the attached document in Arabic and English language.

If your institution is interested in organizing an event, simply fill out the form available at https://forms.office.com/e/nZifBytPsC or by scanning the QR code below.

The secretariat will contact you afterwards to discuss practicalities.

Who’s Afraid of Punitive Damages? – Conference in Augsburg, Germany

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by Salih Okur (University of Augsburg)

On 8 and 9 March, scholars from more than a dozen different jurisdictions followed the invitation of Tobias Lutzi to discuss recent trends in punitive damages at the University of Augsburg, Germany. Despite an unfortunate combination of rail and flight strikes, only a small number of participants were ultimately unable to make it to Augsburg. While their presence was dearly missed, the option of participating in the conference online meant that nothing stood in the way of more than 50 scholars of private and private international law devoting the next 26 hours to critically discuss whether and to what extent a strict refusal to recognise foreign punitive damage awards – as notably upheld in Germany – was still tenable in light of international developments.

The conference contained five panels overall, which were split into three blocks. It was kicked off by Tobias Lutzi and Marc Lendermann (Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, Germany), who underlined the continued relevance of punitive damages as a research topic, despite the German Federal Court of Justice’s landmark decision from 1992 (BGHZ 118, 312), which appears to have stopped claimants from seeking enforcement of punitive damage awards in Germany. It evidently has not stopped claimants from seeking enforcement of punitive damage awards in other civil law legal systems. As the conference would highlight on the second day, some legal systems, including Italy, France, and South Korea, which originally refused to recognise foreign decisions on grounds similar to those of the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH), have abandoned their strict refusal and adopted a more nuanced approach. This constant flow of international change and developments alone makes it worthwhile to keep the academic conversation going.

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