ABLI-HCCH Webinar: HCCH 1970 Evidence Convention and Remote Taking of Evidence by Video-link on 1 June 2021

Singapore-based Asian Business Law Institute (ABLI) is jointly holding a webinar with the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) on the HCCH 1970 Evidence Convention and Remote Taking of Evidence by Video-link on Tuesday, 1 June 2021 from 4pm to 5:15pm (SGT) or 10am to 11:15 am (CEST).

This event, organised in the context of the ongoing celebrations of the golden anniversary of the 1970 Evidence Convention, will discuss the practical challenges of the cross-border taking of evidence, as well as possible solutions to further facilitate cross-border proceedings in the coming years, including the use of video-link technology for the taking of evidence abroad under the 1970 Evidence Convention. A short introduction of the HCCH 1965 Service Convention will be provided at the end of the session.

Invited speakers include, in alphabetical order, Alexander Blumrosen, Partner at Polaris Law, Edmund J. Kronenburg, Managing Partner at Braddell Brothers LLP and Justice Anselmo Reyes, International Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court. Dr João Ribeiro-Bidaoui, First Secretary at the HCCH, and the Representative for the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) of the HCCH, Professor Yun Zhao, will also speak at the session.

More details about the programme can be found here.

Readers of this blog can enter promo code ABLISG and select ticket category ABLI Founding Partners when registering online to enjoy 10% discount.

Inquiries about the programme or how to register can be directed to Catherine at catherine_shen@abli.asia.

AG Richard de la Tour on jurisdiction in private enforcement in case Volvo, C-30/20

By its preliminary question referred to the Court of Justice in the case Volvo, C-30/20, the referring court was indenting to clarify whether Article 7(2) of the Brussels I bis Regulation has to be interpreted as establishing only the international jurisdiction of the courts of the Member State for the ‘place where the harmful event occurred or may occur’ or establishing also national territorial jurisdiction. This question arose in the context of the proceedings on a follow-on action, based on the Commission’s decision, by which the applicant claims damages for loss and damage caused by certain anticompetitive practices.

In his Opinion delivered this Thursday, Advocate General Richard de la Tour not only answers the preliminary question in the affirmative (points 35 to 48) but also addresses other issues pertaining to the jurisdictional side of the private enforcement of EU competition law.

On the one hand, Advocate General explains how one should precisely determine the place where the damage occurred in order to identify the court having jurisdiction under Article 7(2) of the Brussels I bis Regulation (points 49 to 111). As he acknowledges at point 70 of the Opinion, the finding that the damage occurred within the market affected by the anticompetitive practices, is not, on its own, sufficient to identify the court having territorial jurisdiction to hear an action pertaining to these practices. For this very reason, the Opinion provides a detailed guidance on how to identify a competent court.

On the other hand, AG Richard de la Tour examines whether and to what extent the Member States are authorized to concentrate jurisdiction for the actions on anticompetitive practices (points 112 to 130).

The Opinion can be consulted here (so far the English version is not available).

CJEU on the law applicable to detrimental acts under the Insolvency Regulation in Oeltrans Befrachtungsgesellschaft, C-73/20

This Thursday, the Court of Justice delivered its judgment in the case Oeltrans Befrachtungsgesellschaft, C-73/20, on the interpretation of the Insolvency Regulation and the law applicable to detrimental acts. This judgment, pertaining to Articles 4(2)(m) and 13 of the Regulation No 1346/2000, completes therefore the case law constituted most notably by the judgment in the case Vinyls Italia, C-54/16.

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Pax Moot underway

23 teams from al over the globe are participating in the Pax Moot that is currently ongoing (from 21 to 23 April). The case concerns private international law aspects of the race to a Covid vaccine. It involves the application of various EU and international instruments.

Spectators are welcome at the semifinals and finals on Friday 23 April. You can join by first logging into your own Zoom account and then clicking the link on the schedule to the relevant session. After the final round Ms Pia Lindholm of the European Commission will address the students. Then the winners of the written rounds, the oral rounds and the best pleader will be announced.

Call for papers – New Zealand Yearbook of International Law

The New Zealand Yearbook of International Law (Brill) is an annual, internationally refereed publication. The Editors call for both short notes and commentaries, and longer in-depth articles, for publication in Volume 18 of the Yearbook (2020), which will be published in early 2022.

Notes and commentaries should be between 3,000 to 7,000 words. Articles may be from 8,000 to 15,000 words.

The Editors seek contributions on any current topic in public or private international law. The Editors particularly encourage submissions that are relevant to the Pacific, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica, and New Zealand.

Submissions will be considered on a rolling basis. However, the closing date for submissions for Volume 18 is 15 July 2021.

Contributions must be original unpublished works and submission of contributions will be held to imply this. Manuscripts must be word-processed and in compliance with the fourth edition of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation. The Guide is available online at: http://law.unimelb.edu.au/mulr/aglc/about.

Submissions should be provided in English, using MS Word-compatible word processing software, and delivered by email to the General Editor at james.mehigan@canterbury.ac.nz.

International Commercial Arbitration in the European Union – Brussels I, Brexit and Beyond

With a comprehensive and informative manuscript, in International Commercial Arbitration in the European Union – Brussels I, Brexit and Beyond (Edward Elgar, 2020, 320 pp.: see here a previous announcement of the publication) Chukwudi Ojiegbe provides a wide-ranging overview of the status quo of international commercial arbitration in the European Union, also duly taking into account the effects arising, in this specific area of the law, from the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

By means of a detailed historical and policy-oriented reconstruction, the Author assesses the history of the Brussels I Recast as it pertains to the provision on the arbitration exclusion. With careful analysis, he considers the implications of the nuanced and debated interface between arbitration and litigation in accordance with the Brussels I Regime as well as the consequences of such interface for the EU exclusive external competence in aspects of international commercial arbitration. Against this background, and further contributing to this complex area of the law, he sets out the findings on the impact of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union.

In anticipation of a possible future recast of the Brussels I Regime, the Author argues in favour of the inclusion of specific rules that will allow the Member State court with jurisdiction under the Brussels I Regime the possibility of staying the litigation in favour of the arbitral tribunal. As he observes, the coordination between the jurisdiction of the courts of the Member States and arbitral tribunals would increase legal certainty, alleviating the problem of parallel court/arbitration proceedings and the risk of conflicting decisions.

Overall, this volume contributes clarity and advances the academic debate on the EU arbitration/litigation interface. By offering clear historical reconstructions and putting forth solutions to this longstanding problem, it will undoubtedly prove to be of interest to scholars and practitioners but it will also be a useful source for students who wish to deepen their understanding of this area of the law.

1st Conference on Private International Law – University of São Paulo, 5-9 July 2021

Under the coordination of Gustavo Ferraz de Campos Monaco, the Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo is hosting its 1st Conference on Private International Law.

For all those interested in submitting papers or attending the conference, further information in English is available here.

Out now: Martin Gebauer / Stefan Huber, Politisches Kollisionsrecht, Tübingen 2021, pp. 133

Another treat for German-reading friends and colleagues of CoL: On the occasion of Erik Jayme’s 85th birthday on 7th June 2019, Martin Gebauer and Stefan Huber, both at the University of Tübingen (one of the few „Universities of Excellence“ in Germany), convened the symposium “Politisches Kollisionsrecht: Sachnormzwecke, Hoheitsinteressen, Kultur”. Friends and colleagues, many of them originating academically from the University of Heidelberg (another one of the few „Universities of Excellence“) and its Institute for Comparative Law, Conflict of Laws and International Business Law, or with close ties to this place, gathered. The book that emerged from this inspiring event collects the prints of the presentations and includes fascinating contributions. Martin Gebauer, for example, deconstructs the myth of “classical” private international law in an eye-opening historical analysis, and Stefan Huber deals with the interplay, and symptomatic antinomies, of substantive law objectives and notions of procedural justice in relation to heads of jurisdiction for the protection of weaker parties under the Brussels regime. The volume is wrapped up by an introduction rich of insights and thoughts by Gebauer and Huber on “Politisches Kollisionsrecht” and by wonderful “news from the academic world” by Erik Jayme in which he shares memories and anecdotes from his rich life as one of the most renowned scholars of private international law worldwide. Highly recommended!

AMEDIP: Webinar by Professor Aline Beltrame de Moura on the Choice of the Law Applicable to International Contracts in the Brazilian Legal System – 15 April 2021 at 5 pm (Mexico time – CDT), 7 pm (BRT time), 12:00 am (CET time) – in Spanish

The Mexican Academy of Private International and Comparative Law (AMEDIP) is holding a webinar on 15 April 2021 at 5:00 pm (Mexico City time – CDT), 7 pm (BRT time), 12:00 am (CET time). The topic of the webinar is the Choice of the Law Applicable to International Contracts in the Brazilian Legal System and will be presented by Professor Aline Beltrame de Moura (in Spanish).

The details of the webinar are:

Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86169347236?pwd=ZFVFSmtZYUJ0SHk0MSt0VXg4Rk5wdz09

Meeting ID: 861 6934 7236

Password: BMAAMEDIP

Participation is free of charge.

This event will also be streamed live: https://www.facebook.com/AmedipMX

 

First Issue of 2021’s Revue Critique de Droit International Privé

The last issue of the Revue critique de droit international privé has been released. It contains several case notes and four articles.

The first article, by Didier Boden (University of Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne), proposes new names and definitions in order to enrich private international law. Pursuant to the author: “Private international law and the other sets of rules of a legal order which touch upon its relations with other legal orders are poorly named and poorly defined”. The article “proposes to remedy that lexical impropriety and that semantic deficiency by presenting a new collection of names and a new collection of definitions”.


The Second article, authored by Frederick T. Davis (Columbia Law School) and Charlotte Gunka (Attorney-at-law, New York Bar), discusses the possibilities offered by the American CLOUD Act, with regard to criminal and digital sovereignty. The abstract reads as follows: “At a time when the Covid-19 crisis has raised awareness over the urgent need for European Member States to enhance their national sovereignty through the European Union, it is essential to go back to the possibilities offered by the U.S. CLOUD Act with regard to criminal and digital sovereignty. The CLOUD Act proposes a reform of current mutual legal assistance mechanisms by establishing access to digital evidence as the benchmark authorizing computer searches outside state borders, regardless of the location of the relevant data. Although this benchmark allows for more extensive extraterritorial application of U.S. criminal proceedings, an analysis of European regulations and legislation currently in force in France and the United Kingdom confirms that the European approach is not so different from the one introduced by the U.S. government. The emergence of the computer world and the acceleration of new technologies have created a “criminal digital space”, ephemeral and borderless, which requires a fundamental transformation of criminal procedures allowing for faster and more efficient international cooperation against transnational crime. This should give an opportunity to Europe, in particular through its new European Public Prosecutor’s Office, to assert its digital sovereignty through the individual fundamental rights that it continues to promote without undermining the security and strategic interests of its Member States”.

The third article, by Vincent Richard (Max Planck Institute Luxembourg) presents the new Regulation (EU) no 2020/1783 adopted on 25 November 2020, which recasts Regulation (EC) no 1206/2001 on cooperation between the courts of the Member States in the taking of evidence in civil or commercial matters.


The fourth article, by Thibaut Fleury Graff (University of Rennes) deals with the issues of the rights of foreigners and international migrations.

A full table of contents is available here.