Virtual workshop on ‘Smart Court in Cross-Border Litigation’

/in /by

On Tuesday, 4 January 2022 at 11 am (CET) Max Planck Institute on Comparative and International Private Law will host a virtual workshop in the series “Current Research in Private International Law”.  Professor Zheng Sophia Tang (Wuhan University) will speak on “Smart Court in Cross-Border Litigation”. You can find more details here.

 

About the speaker:

Zheng (Sophia) Tang is a professor at the Wuhan University Institute of International Law, an Associate Dean at the Wuhan University Academy of International Law and Global Governance (China Top Thinktank), and a visiting professor at the Newcastle University. She is a barrister, an arbitrator and a mediator. 

 

About the topic:

Smart courts integrate modern technology in the court proceedings to improve the efficiency of trial. It can particularly benefit cross-border litigation, which is remarked by the cost and inconvenience for a party to take part in proceedings abroad. However, the current construction of smart courts primarily focuses on domestic trials and leaves the cross-border litigation behind. Although technology can improve procedural efficiency, legal obstacles in cross-border litigation make the efficiency impossible to achieve. Identity verification, service of proceedings, evidence and hearing are four examples demonstrating how the current law, especially the old-fashioned concept of sovereignty, hampers the functioning of smart courts in cross-border litigation. In order to fully embrace the benefit of smart courts, the concept of judicial sovereignty needs to be reconceptualised in the age of technology.

 

About the virtual workshop series:

The virtual workshop series “Current Research in Private International Law” is organised by Prof. Dr. Ralf Michaels and Michael Cremer. The series features guest speakers and Institute staff members who present and discuss their work on current developments and research topics in private international law. The workshops are geared to scholars who are researching in the field of private international law, but attendance is open to all individuals having an academic interest (including doctoral candidates and students).

 

The virtual workshop will be held as a video conference via Zoom. After having registered no later than 3 January 2022 using this LINK you will receive the login details on Monday afternoon. Please confirm upon registration that you agree to the use of Zoom and that you will not record the event. By attending the event you confirm that you have read and agreed to Zoom’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You will find them here and here.

HCCH Monthly Update: December 2021

/in /by

Meetings & Events

On 1 December 2021, the HCCH hosted HCCH a|Bridged – Edition 2021, an online event focused on contemporary issues relating to the application of the HCCH 2005 Choice of Court Convention, including the promotion of party autonomy. More information is available here.

On 6 and 7 December 2021, the HCCH Administrative Cooperation Working Group on the 2007 Child Support Convention met via videoconference. The Group continued its work as a forum for discussion of issues pertaining to administrative cooperation, discussing in particular the collection of statistics under the Convention. More information is available here.

On 10 December 2021, the HCCH hosted a virtual seminar on the HCCH 2005 Choice of Court Convention and the HCCH 2019 Judgments Convention for the Supreme Court of Ukraine. This was the third of a series of seminars, organised with the generous support of the EU Project Pravo-Justice, aimed at facilitating the proper and effective implementation of the HCCH Conventions and instruments in Ukraine.

Publications and Documentation

On 9 December 2021, the Permanent Bureau announced the publication of translations, in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish, of the Legal Guide to Uniform Instruments in the Area of International Commercial Contracts, with a Focus on Sales. With these new translations, the Legal Guide is now available in all UN languages. More information is available here.

On 14 December 2021, the Permanent Bureau announced the publication of 21 new translations of the Guide to Good Practice on the Use of Video-Link under the Evidence Convention. With these new translations, the Guide to Good Practice is now available in 23 European Union languages. More information is available here.

Vacancies

Applications are now open for the 2022 Peter Nygh Hague Conference Internship. The deadline for the submission of applications is 30 January 2022. 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.

 

CJEU on mosaic approach and jurisdiction for action on compensation for damage resulting from an online publication under Article 7(2) of the Brussels I bis Regulation in the case Gtflix Tv, C-251/20

/3 Comments/in /by

This Tuesday the Court of Justice delivered its judgment in the case Gtflix Tv, C-251/20, where it has been asked to interpret Article 7(2) of the Brussels I bis Regulation in the context of an online publication allegedly disparaging a legal person and an action for compensation brought by that person before the court of a Member State in the territory of which that content was accessible.

Read more

Doctoral scholarship: International accountability through the value chain in Antwerp

/in /by

The University of Antwerp is looking for a doctoral candidate in the domain of International Accountability through the value chain.

The research addresses the question of how entities in the North can be held accountable for human rights infringements that happen in their value chain, often in the South. It examines recent and pending legislation on value chain due diligence in selected countries and/or regional organisations. The research can be approached from the perspective of human rights law, public international law or private international law, including private law mechanisms (either in tort or in contract law).

The deadline for applications is 14 February 2022 and the start date is 15 September 2022. For more information, see the full vacancy text.

Revised Canadian Statute on Jurisdiction

/in /by

Written by Stephen G.A. Pitel, Western University

Many Canadian and some other conflicts scholars will know that the Uniform Law Conference of Canada (ULCC) has drafted (in 1994) model legislation putting the taking of jurisdiction and staying of proceedings on a statutory footing. This statute, known as the Court Jurisdiction and Proceedings Transfer Act (CJPTA), has subsequently been adopted and brought into force in 4 of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories (British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Yukon).

The ULCC has now released a revised version of the CJPTA. It is available here and background information is available here.

Read more

Chronology of Practice: Chinese Practice in Private International Law in 2020

/in /by

This post has been prepared by He Qisheng, Professor of International Law, Peking University Law School, and Chairman at the Peking University International Economical Law Institute, has published the 7th Survey on Chinese Practice in Private International Law.

 

This survey contains materials reflecting the practice of Chinese private international law in 2020. First, regarding changes in the statutory framework of private international law in China, three legislative acts, one administrative regulation on the Unreliable Entity List and ten judicial interpretations of the Supreme People’s Court were adopted or amended in 2020 on a wide range of matters, including conflict of laws, punitive damages, international civil procedure, etc. Second, 11 typical cases involving Chinse courts’ jurisdiction are selected to highlight the development in Chinese private international law, involving standard essential patents, abuse of market dominance, declaration of non-infringement of patent, asymmetric choice of court agreement and other matters. Third, nine cases on choice of law questions relating, in particular, to habitual residence, rights in rem, matrimonial property regimes and ascertainment of foreign law, are examined. Fourth, five cases involving anti-suit injunction or anti-enforcement injunction are reported and one introduced in detail. Fifth, the first occasion for on international judicial assistance of extracting DNA, as well as three representative cases on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, are discussed. The Statistics of international judicial assistance cases in China is first released in this survey. Finally, this survey also covers five recent decisions illustrating Chinese courts’ pro-arbitration attitude towards the uncertainty brought about by contractual clauses referring to both litigation and arbitration.

Here are the links to the article:

·         Standard link (you may share this link anywhere):
https://academic.oup.com/chinesejil/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/chinesejil/jmab031/6449363

·         Free-access link (see below for how you may use this link):
https://academic.oup.com/chinesejil/advance-article/doi/10.1093/chinesejil/jmab031/6449363?guestAccessKey=4f7f76a9-41f4-4c46-9366-ea0198ab74ca

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Overview

II.A. Report on the Work of the SPC in 2020

II.B. Laws and the SPC’s interpretation

II.C. Provisions on punitive damages

III. Jurisdiction

III.A. Intellectual property

III.A.i. Jurisdiction over the standard essential patent disputes

III.A.ii. Jurisdiction over the disputes of abuse of market dominance

III.A.iii. Jurisdiction over the giving of declaratory judgment in patent disputes

III.B. Choice of court agreement

III.C.i. An asymmetric choice of court agreement

III.C.ii. Choice of court agreement and hierarchical jurisdiction of the Chinese court system

III.C. Other choices in contracts

  1. Choice of law

IV.A. Habitual residence

IV.B. Proprietary rights

IV.C. Matrimonial assets

IV.D. Ascertainment of foreign law

  1. International judicial assistance

V.A. Statistics of judicial assistance in civil or commercial matters

V.B. Taking of evidence for foreign courts

  1. Action preservation and anti-suit Injunction  

VII. Recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments

VIII. International arbitration

VIII.A. Agreements with jurisdiction and arbitration clauses

VIII.B. Construction on “judgment upon the award”

Golan v. Saada: A New Hague Child Abduction Case at the U.S. Supreme Court

/in /by

Last week, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear a case concerning Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Amy Howe has an excellent summary of the case on her blog, Howe on the Court.

Under the convention, children who are wrongfully taken from the country where they live must be returned to that country, so that custody disputes can be resolved there. The convention makes an exception for cases in which there is a “grave risk” that returning the child would expose him or her to physical or psychological harm.

In Golan v. Saada, a U.S. citizen married an Italian citizen in 2015; they had a child, born in Milan, in 2016. The husband was allegedly abusive toward the wife throughout the marriage, but he did not directly abuse their son. In 2018, the wife took the child to the United States and did not return, remaining in a domestic-violence shelter in New York. The husband went to federal court there, trying to compel the child’s return to Italy.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that, when a district court concludes that a child’s return would pose a grave risk of harm, the district court must consider measures that would reduce that risk. This holding clashes with the holdings of other courts of appeals, which do not mandate the consideration of such measures, particularly in cases involving domestic violence. The case then went back to the district court, which ordered the child’s return to Italy with a variety of protective measures in place – for example, mandatory therapy and parenting classes. The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether courts are required to consider all measures that might reduce the grave risk of harm if the child were to return home.

The case will be argued in the Spring and decided before June 2022; the docket and publicly available filings can be accessed here.

The fifth EFFORTS Newsletter is here!

/in /by

EFFORTS (Towards more EFfective enFORcemenT of claimS in civil and commercial matters within the EU) is an EU-funded Project conducted by the University of Milan (coord.), the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law, the University of Heidelberg, the Free University of Brussels, the University of Zagreb, and the University of Vilnius.

The fifth EFFORTS Newsletter has just been released, giving access to up-to-date information about the Project, save-the-dates on forthcoming events, conferences and webinars, and news from the area of international and comparative civil procedural law.

Regular updates are also available via the Project’s website, and  LinkedIn and Facebook pages.

Project JUST-JCOO-AG-2019-881802
With financial support from the Civil Justice Programme of the European Union

CJEU on action for unjust enrichment under Brussels I Regulation in the case HRVATSKE ŠUME, C-242/20

/in /by

Do actions for recovery of sums unduly paid by way of unjust enrichment fall within exclusive jurisdiction under Article 22(5) of the Brussels I Regulation and, if not, do they fall within alternative jurisdiction set out in Article 5(3) in respect of “quasi-delicts”?

This is the twofold question that a Croatian court addressed to the Court of Justice in the case HRVATSKE ŠUME, C-242/20.

Last week, on 9th December, the Court handed down its judgment in this case.

Read more

CJEU Rules on jurisdiction in actions brought by the injured party against the insurer and the insured (BT v Seguros Catalana Occidente, EB, Case C-708/20)

/in /by

In its Judgment BT v Seguros Catalana Occidente, EB, Case C-708/20, rendered on 9 December 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union interpreted Article 13 Brussels Ibis Regulation. Amongst other things, the provision at hand takes into consideration direct actions of the injured party against the insurer domiciled in a Member State. Two main scenarios are taken into account. Either the injured party starts proceedings against the insured, and the insurer joins proceedings at a second moment, or the damaged party brings a direct action against the insurer. In this last case, the court having jurisdiction over the insurer shall have jurisdiction over the insured as well (that is, the contractually weaker party).

 

In Seguros Catalana Occidente, the damaged party, domiciled in the UK, spent some time at a holiday accommodation in Spain, and was there injured due to a fall on the patio. The insurance company of the immovable property was Spanish, and the insured/owner of the premises where the accident occurred, and who previously entered into an accommodation contract allowing the stay of the injured party, was domiciled in Ireland. By making use of its own forum actoris under Article 13(2) Brussels Ibis Regulation, the injured party started proceedings against the insurance company before British courts. British courts were also seised by the injured party for an action in damages against the insured party/owner of the property, who contested jurisdiction arguing that Article 13(3) Brussels Ibis was not applicable as a claim for damages arising from alleged negligence in the provision of a holiday accommodation would not constitute an ‘insurance claim’ (para. 18).

 

Whereas the nature of the injured person’s direct action against the insurer under national law is irrelevant for the purposes of qualifying an action as falling within the notion of ‘insurance matters’ (as already noted in C-463/06), the CJEU accedes to the interpretation that a claim against an insured for damages arising from alleged negligence in the provision of holiday accommodation does not fall within the scope of Article 13(3) Brussels Ibis Regulation, rather it being a matter of tort. For the section on insurance matters to be applicable, ‘the action before the court must necessarily raise a question relating to rights and obligations arising out of an insurance relationship between the parties to that action’ (para. 30). In other words, ‘a claim brought by the injured person against the policyholder … cannot be considered to be an insurance claim merely because that claim and the claim made directly against the insurer have their origin in the same facts or there is a dispute between the insurer and the injured person relating to the validity or effect of the insurance policy’ (para. 31).

 

In the CJEU’s eye, allowing the injured party to bring an action unrelated to insurance matters against the insured on the basis of Article 13(3) Brussels Ibis would circumvent the rules of that regulation concerning jurisdiction in matters of tort and lead to the effect that damaged parties could start proceedings against insurers before their own forum actoris under Article 13(2) ‘in order, subsequently, to bring an action against the insured, as a third party to those proceedings, on the basis of Article 13(3)’ (para. 36).