Views
Recognition and Enforcement: 30 years from the entry into force of the Brussels Convention in Greece – A practitioner’s account –
I. Introduction
It was the 3rd of March 1989, when an announcement was published in the Official Gazette of the Hellenic Republic, stating that the Brussels Convention would finally enter into force on April 1, 1989. Why finally? Because it took the state nearly a decade after the accession to the EC [1.1.1981] to activate the Brussels Convention in the country. After a long hibernation time, Law Nr. 1814/1988 was published in November 11, 1988, marking the official ratification of the Convention. In less than a year, the Convention became operative in the Greek legal order. Since that time, a great number of judgments were published in the legal press, some of them with elucidating notes and comments. Commentaries and monographs paved the path for widespread knowledge and ease of access to the new means of handling cross border cases within the EC. Read more
The Council of the HCCH has spoken – the Conclusions & Recommendations are available
The Conclusions & Recommendations (C&R) of the governance body of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) (i.e. the Council on General Affairs and Policy) are available in both English and French.
The conclusions that are worthy of note are the following:
The Parentage/Surrogacy Project is going ahead. The Council endorsed the continuation of the work in line with the latest report of the Experts’ Group (see my previous post here). See C&R 7-12.
The Tourist and Visitors Project is also moving forward. See C&R 14-17.
A meeting of the Experts’ Groups on these respective topics will take place in the near future.
As regards the HCCH publications, it should be noted that there were two Guides on family law, one Guide on the Evidence Convention and one WIPO-HCCH Guide on intellectual property that were submitted for approval to Council; the full titles of which are:
- The revised draft Practical Guide on the cross-border recognition and enforcement of agreements reached in the course of family matters involving children
- The revised draft Guide to Good Practice on Article 13(1)(b) of the 1980 Child Abduction Convention
- The draft Guide to Good Practice on the Use of Video-link under the Evidence Convention
- The WIPO-HCCH Guide on “When Private International Law meets Intellectual Property Law – A Guide for Judges”
See also my previous posts here (Child Abduction) and here (Evidence Convention).
The Council approved only one: the WIPO-HCCH Guide. With regard to the other three, the Council decided instead to put into place a procedure to obtain further comments from Members. Importantly, there were concerns expressed by Members regarding the two family law guides, which means that further work is needed. An important issue that might have played a role in these decisions is the massive amount of information that was submitted this year to Council.
Because of the complexity of the conclusions, I prefer to include some excerpts below:
“19. In light of concerns expressed, Council did not approve the revised draft Practical Guide [on the cross-border recognition and enforcement of agreements reached in the course of family law matters involving children]. Council asked that the draft Practical Guide be re-circulated to Members to provide additional comments within a three-month period. All comments received will be made available to other Members on the Secure Portal of the HCCH website. The draft Practical Guide would then be revised by the Experts’ Group with a view, in particular, to increasing its readability for a wider audience. The finalised draft Practical Guide would be circulated to Members for approval. In the absence of any objection within one month, the draft Practical Guide would be taken to be approved; in the case of one or more objections, the draft Practical Guide would be put to Council at its 2020 meeting, without any further work being undertaken. Council requested that the Permanent Bureau immediately notify the Members of any objections.”
“24. Council thanked the Working Group and stressed the importance of the Guide to Good Practice on Article 13(1)(b). In light of concerns expressed, Council did not approve the revised draft Guide. Council asked that the draft Guide be re-circulated to Members to provide additional comments within a two-month period. All comments received will be made available to other Members on the Secure Portal of the HCCH website. The draft Guide would then be revised by the Working Group. The finalised draft Guide would be circulated to Members for approval. In the absence of any objection within one month, the draft Guide would be taken to be approved; in the case of one or more objections, the draft Guide would be put to Council at its 2020 meeting, without any further work being undertaken. Council requested that the Permanent Bureau immediately notify the Members of any objections.”
Council was more lenient with regard to the Video-link Guide:
“38. Council welcomed the preparation of the draft Guide to Good Practice on the Use of Video-Link under the Evidence Convention and thanked the Experts’ Group. Council asked that the draft Guide be re-circulated to Members to provide additional comments within a one-month period. All comments received will be made available to other Members on the Secure Portal of the HCCH website. The draft Guide would then be revised by the Experts’ Group. The finalised draft Guide would be circulated to Members for approval. In the absence of any objection within one month, the draft Guide would be taken to be approved; in the case of one or more objections, the draft Guide would be put to Council at its 2020 meeting, without any further work being undertaken. Council requested that the Permanent Bureau immediately notify the Members of any objections.”
All this means that these three Guides are not final and readers must await the revised versions, which might or might not need to be submitted to the next meeting of the Council in March 2020. I advise you then to be patient.
The International Business Courts saga continued: NCC First Judgment – BIBC Proposal unplugged
Written by Georgia Antonopoulou and Xandra Kramer, Erasmus University Rotterdam (PhD candidate and PI ERC consolidator project Building EU Civil Justice)
1. Mushrooming International Business Courts on the Eve of Brexit
Readers of this blog will have followed the developments on the international business courts and international commercial chambers being established around Europe and elsewhere. While many of the initiatives to set up such a court or special chamber date from before the Brexit vote, it is clear that the UK leaving the EU has boosted these and is considered to be a big game changer. It remains to be seen whether it really is, but in any case the creation of courts and procedures designed to deal with international commercial disputes efficiently is very interesting! Read more
News
Out Now: Torsten Kindt, Transnationale Verträge im nationalen Recht
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a significant portion of international commerce is organized around instruments and structures that do not emanate from national states and laws but from private entities. Traditionally, most legal scholars addressing this phenomenon could be sorted into one of two camps: those who want to limit the notion of ‘law’ to the state and see instances of private ordering primarily as social, rather than legal phenomena; and those who consider national law already as a abstract concept with limited and decreasing importance for the reality of international business. Torsten Kindt belongs to neither of those two camps. With his recently published book, based on his doctoral thesis, he attempts to fill the gap left between the two seemingly irreconcilable positions, with a special focus on the transnational dimension of private ordering.
Vulnerability: a Matter of Perspective(s)
The international seminar “Vulnerability: a Matter of Perspective(s)”, is scheduled to be held online on Friday, 29 September 2023, starting at 10 a.m. CET on Microsoft Teams.
The seminar is centered around Private International Law (PIL). Specifically, various sessions of the seminar will delve into the diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives of PIL in the context of ‘Vulnerability.’ Many presentations will scrutinize the role of PIL, as well as international conventions and treaties, in relation to vulnerable communities, territories, and individuals. Additionally, the seminar will emphasize the importance of PIL in devising viable solutions. These solutions aim to ensure that present and future generations can remain in their homelands and achieve sustainable human development. This encompasses a broad range of societal aspects, including food, housing, artificial intelligence, and finance.
HCCH CODIFI Edition 2023 – CBDCs
The Permanent Bureau is pleased to announce that a colloquium on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), titled “CODIFI Edition 2023 – CBDCs”, will be held online on Thursday 5 October 2023, following the mandate of the Council on General Affairs and Policy (CGAP) at its 2023 meeting (C&D No 17).
CODIFI Edition 2023 – CBDCs will cover selected topics related to the HCCH’s CBDCs Project, established by CGAP in March 2023 with the mandate to study the private international law implications of CBDCs. The colloquium will feature a series of pre-recorded video discussions, led by subject-matter experts of the CBDCs Project and other specialists of academia, government, and industry. Live discussion sessions will also take place on the same day to summarise the proceedings and provide more insights and some ideas on the way forward.