Views
The Bahraini Supreme Court on Choice of Court Agreements, Bases of Jurisdiction and… Forum non Conveniens!
I. Introduction:
In a previous post on this blog, I reported a decision rendered by the Bahrain High Court in which the court refused to enforce a choice of court agreement in favour of English courts. The refusal was based on the grounds that the case was brought against a Bahraini defendant and that rules of international jurisdiction are mandatory. The Bahraini Supreme Court’s decision reported here is a subsequent development on the same case. The ruling is significant for many reasons. In a methodical manner, the Supreme Court identified the foundational justifications for the jurisdictional rules applied in Bahrain. Moreover, it clarified the role and effect of choice of court agreements, particularly their derogative effect. Finally, and somehow surprisingly, the Court supported its position by invoking to “the doctrine of forum non conveniens”, explicitly mentioned in its decision. Read more
“Other Appropriate Connections”: China’s Newly Adopted Jurisdiction Ground
Written by Jidong Lin, Wuhan University Institute of International Law
- Background
China’s newly amended Civil Procedure Law (“CPL 2024”), which came into effect on 1 January 2024, introduces several distinct and innovative changes. Among the most notable is the incorporation of “other appropriate connections” as a jurisdiction ground. Article 276 of the CPL 2024 addresses the jurisdiction of Chinese courts over foreign-related disputes where the defendant lacks domicile in China. Paragraph 1 of Article 276 lists six jurisdiction grounds, including the place of contract formation, place of contract performance, place of the subject matter, place of distrainable property, place of tort, and place of representative offices. As a supplement, Paragraph 2 provides that “notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, foreign-related civil disputes that have other appropriate connections with the People’s Republic of China may fall under the jurisdiction of the People’s Courts.” The term “other appropriate connections” represents a legal innovation not only within Chinese legislation but also on a global scale. Currently, there is no official interpretation or guidance on its precise meaning, making it essential to analyze and evaluate this jurisdiction ground and its potential implications for jurisdictional practices. Read more
The Moroccan Supreme Court on the Authenticity of an Apostillised Certificate of Conversion to Islam
I. Introduction
As mentioned in a previous post, Morocco is not only the MENA Arab jurisdiction that has ratified the largest number of the HCCH Conventions (7 in total), but also a country where the HCCH conventions have been actively applied (see here on the application of the HCCH 1980 Child Abduction Convention, and here for a case involving the application of the HCCH 1996 Child Protection Convention). The application of the HCCH Conventions in Morocco offers valuable insights into how these HCCH instruments operate within an Islamic context, challenging the widely held assumption of the existence of an Islamic exceptionalism (though such exceptionalism does exist, but to a varying degree across the Muslim-majority countries. See e.g. Béligh Elbalti, “The Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Filiation Judgments in Arab Countries” in Nadjma Yassari et al. (ed.), Filiation and the Protection of Parentless Children (T.M.C. Asser Press, 2019), 373-402).
News
Out now: Festschrift für Thomas Rauscher
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Thomas Rauscher, formerly a professor of private international law at the University of Leipzig (Germany) and still one of the most prolific commentators on German and European PIL, has been honoured by a Festschrift on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The volume, titled “Europeanization of private law”, has 623 pages and is published by CH Beck (Munich). It contains numerous contributions on private international law, comparative law and international civil procedure. The authors come from various countries, including Germany, Austria, Hungary, the United States and Vietnam. Most contributions are in German. For further information and a table of contents, please click here.
New issue alert: RabelsZ 89(2005)
Issue 1/2025 of RabelsZ has just just been released. It contains the contributions to a family law symposium held at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg in June 2024. All content is Open Access: CC BY 4.0 and more articles are available Online First.
Anne Röthel, Preface to this family law special, pp. 1–2, https://doi.org/10.1628/rabelsz-2025-0003
AMEDIP’s upcoming webinar: Private International Law in the Inter-American system: A glance in the light of the 50 anniversary of the CIDIP (27 February 2025 – in Spanish)
The Mexican Academy of Private International and Comparative Law (AMEDIP) is holding a webinar on Thursday 27 February 2025 at 14:30 (Mexico City time – CST), 21:30 (CET time). The topic of the webinar is ‘Private International Law in the Inter-American system: A glance in the light of the 50 anniversary of the CIDIP’ and will be presented by OAS Director Dante Negro (in Spanish).
CIDIP is the Spanish acronym for the Inter-American Specialized Conferences on Private International Law. For a history of the CIDIP, click here. Read more