Views
Ssangyong Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. v. National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) 2019 SCC OnLine SC 677
By Mohak Kapoor
The recent decision of the apex court of Ssangyong Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. v. NHAI, has led to three notable developments: (1) it clarifies the scope of the “public policy” ground for setting aside an award as amended by the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act 2015, (2) affirms the prospective applicability of the act and (3) adopts a peculiar approach towards recognition of minority decisions. Read more
Work on possible future Private International Law instruments on legal parentage (incl. legal parentage established as a result of an international surrogacy arrangement) is making progress
Written by Mayela Celis
The sixth meeting of the Experts’ Group on Parentage / Surrogacy took place in late October & early November 2019 in The Hague, the Netherlands, and focused on proposing provisions for developing two HCCH instruments:
- a general private international law instrument (i.e. a Convention) on the recognition of foreign judicial decisions on legal parentage; and
- a separate protocol on the recognition of foreign judicial decisions on legal parentage rendered as a result of an international surrogacy arrangement.
As indicated in the HCCH news item, the Experts’ Group also discussed the feasibility of making provisions in relation to applicable law rules and public documents. Read more
The CJEU renders its first decision on the EAPO Regulation – Case C-555/18
Carlos Santaló Goris, Researcher at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law, and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Luxembourg, offers a summary and an analysis of the CJEU Case C-555/18, K.H.K. v. B.A.C., E.E.K.
Introduction
On 7 November 2019, the CJEU released the very first decision on Regulation 655/2014 establishing a European Account Preservation Order (“EAPO Regulation”). From the perspective of European civil procedure, this instrument is threefold innovative. It is the first uniform provisional measure; it is also the very first ex parte piece of European civil procedure (and reverses the Denilauer doctrine); and the first one which, though indirectly, tackles civil enforcement of judicial decisions at European level. This preliminary reference made by a Bulgarian court gave the CJEU the opportunity to clarify certain aspects of the EAPO Regulation. Read more
News
Who’s Afraid of Punitive Damages? – Conference in Augsburg, Germany
by Salih Okur (University of Augsburg)
On 8 and 9 March, scholars from more than a dozen different jurisdictions followed the invitation of Tobias Lutzi to discuss recent trends in punitive damages at the University of Augsburg, Germany. Despite an unfortunate combination of rail and flight strikes, only a small number of participants were ultimately unable to make it to Augsburg. While their presence was dearly missed, the option of participating in the conference online meant that nothing stood in the way of more than 50 scholars of private and private international law devoting the next 26 hours to critically discuss whether and to what extent a strict refusal to recognise foreign punitive damage awards – as notably upheld in Germany – was still tenable in light of international developments.
The conference contained five panels overall, which were split into three blocks. It was kicked off by Tobias Lutzi and Marc Lendermann (Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport, Germany), who underlined the continued relevance of punitive damages as a research topic, despite the German Federal Court of Justice’s landmark decision from 1992 (BGHZ 118, 312), which appears to have stopped claimants from seeking enforcement of punitive damage awards in Germany. It evidently has not stopped claimants from seeking enforcement of punitive damage awards in other civil law legal systems. As the conference would highlight on the second day, some legal systems, including Italy, France, and South Korea, which originally refused to recognise foreign decisions on grounds similar to those of the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH), have abandoned their strict refusal and adopted a more nuanced approach. This constant flow of international change and developments alone makes it worthwhile to keep the academic conversation going.
Virtual Workshop (in German) on April 9: Bettina Heiderhoff on Interfaces between Migration Law and International Family Law
On Tuesday, April 9, 2024, the Hamburg Max Planck Institute will host its 43rd monthly virtual workshop Current Research in Private International Law at 11:00-12:30 (CEST). Bettina Heiderhoff (Universität Münster) will speak, in German, about
Interfaces between Migration Law and International Family Law
The presentation will be followed by an open discussion. All are welcome. More information and sign-up here.
If you want to be invited to these events in the future, please write to veranstaltungen@mpipriv.de.
NGPIL Prize Winner – Miss Peace George
Originally posted on the NGPIL Website
“The winner of the 2024 NGPIL (Nigeria Group of Private International Law) Conflict of Law’s Essay Prize is Peace George, a recent LLB graduate with admission to the Nigerian Law School. Her essay is entitled “Domicile, Nationality and Habitual Residence: What Option for Nigeria” and was awarded 150,000 NGN [Naira] as the winning essay. The essay was of excellent standard and demonstrated a deep understanding of the principles at hand, analysing them to a high standard…”