Out Now: Cheshire, North and Fawcett (15th ed)

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The 15th edition of the leading text on private international law, Cheshire, North & Fawcett: Private International Law, has been released.

This new edition is edited by Paul Torremans, Uglješa Gruši?, Christian Heinze, Louise Merrett, Alex Mills, Carmen Otero García-Castrillón, Zheng Sophia Tang, Katarina Trimmings, and Lara Walker, with James J. Fawcett as the Consultant Editor. It provides comprehensive coverage of the full range of private international law topics; offers not only in-depth academic treatment of the principles, but also an examination of important commercial topics within the subject, such as the private international law treatment of contracts, jurisdiction and enforcement of judgments; and written by an expert team with a wealth of both academic and practical experience.  Read more...

Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts (IPRax) 6/2017: Abstracts

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

Codification in International and EU Law – Call for Papers

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The XXIII Annual Conference of the Italian Society of International and EU Law (SIDI-ISIL) will take place at the University of Ferrara on 7 and 8 June 2018. Read more  Read more...

Key issues of the UK government’s policy paper from a dispute resolution perspective

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I was recently asked to shortly analyse the key issues of the UK government’s policy paper on providing a cross-border civil judicial cooperation framework with the EU after Brexit from a dispute resolution perspective. The text of the inteview is available here.

Commercial Issues in Private International Law Conference, Sydney, 16 February 2018

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The University of Sydney Law School is hosting a conference on Commercial Issues in Private International Law on 16 February 2018. The organisers have provided the following information about the conference’s theme: Read more  Read more...

First CJEU Ruling on the Succession Regulation. Case C-218/16

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The first ruling on Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 was rendered on Thursday 12. These are the facts of the case as summarized by the Court:

Ms Kubicka, a Polish national resident in Frankfurt an der Oder (Germany), is married to a German national. Two children, who are still minors, were born from that marriage. The spouses are joint owners, each with a 50% share, of land in Frankfurt an der Oder on which their family home is built. In order to make her will, Aleksandra Kubicka approached a notary practising in Slubice (Poland).  Read more...

A.G. Saugmandsgaard on the recognition of private (Sharia) divorces under Rome III

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It does not happen too often that (the notion of) European Private International Law hits the front pages of the daily news. But on Friday it did: Germany’s foremost (conservative) newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), addressed A.G. Saugmandsgaard’s recent opinion on the recognition of private (Sharia) divorces under the Rome III Regulation. In so doing the FAZ expressly pointed out, on page 1, that it was unclear whether “European rules on choice of law (“Europäisches Kollisionsrecht”) actually applied in the case at bar.

The A.G.’s full opinion according to which the Rome III Regulation (if it applies at all) does not allow a private divorce to be recognized as valid where the applicable foreign law is discriminatory, is available here (in a number of languages, but not yet in English). The official press release can be downloaded here.

Brexit Policy Paper on Providing a Cross-Border Civil Judicial Cooperation Framework – a Future Partnership

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The Department for Exiting the European Union has published a policy paper on providing a cross-border civil judicial cooperation framework – a future partnership paper – as part of the negotiations with the EU on Brexit. The paper outlines the United Kingdom’s position on cross-border civil judicial cooperation for the time after Brexit.

The summary reads as follows:  Read more...

  1. As the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, the Government will seek a deep and special partnership with the EU. Within this partnership, cross-border commerce, trade and family relationships will continue. Building on years of cooperation across borders, it is vital for UK and EU consumers, citizens, families and businesses, that there are coherent common rules to govern interactions between legal systems.

Brexit: EU Position Paper on Judicial Cooperation in Civil and Commercial Matters

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The European Commission Task Force for the Preparation and Conduct of the Negotiations with the United Kingdom under Article 50 TEU has submitted a Position Paper on Judicial Cooperation in Civil and Commercial Matters on 28 June 2017.  It claims to contain the main principles of the EU position in this regard. A closer look, however, reveals that it only deals with the temporal application of the relevant EU instruments, notably the Brussels Ia Regulation, the Rome I Regulation and the Rome II Regulation. It suggests that all EU instruments should continue to apply to all choices of forum and choices of law made prior the withdrawal date and that judicial cooperation procedures that are ongoing on the withdrawal date should continue to be governed by the relevant provisions of Union law applicable on the withdrawal date.  Read more...