Views
CJEU on the compatibility with EU law of an arbitration clause in an Intra-EU BIT – Case C-284/16 (Slovak Republic v Achmea BV)
Written by Stephan Walter, Research Fellow at the Research Center for Transnational Commercial Dispute Resolution (TCDR), EBS Law School, Wiesbaden, Germany
Today, the CJEU has rendered its judgement in Slovak Republic v Achmea BV (Case C-284/16). The case concerned the compatibility with EU law of a dispute clause in an Intra-EU Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) between the Netherlands and the Slovak Republic which grants an investor the right to bring proceedings against the host state (in casu: the Slovak Republic) before an arbitration tribunal. In concrete terms, the German Federal Court of Justice referred the following three questions to the CJEU (reported here): Read more
The impact of Brexit on the operation of the EU legislative measures in the field of private international law
On 28 February 2018, the European Commission published the draft Withdrawal Agreement between the EU and the UK, based on the Joint Report from the negotiators of the two parties on the progress achieved during the first phase of the Brexit negotiations.
The draft includes a Title VI which specifically relates to judicial cooperation in civil matters. The four provisions in this Title are concerned with the fate of the legislative measures enacted by the EU in this area (and binding on the UK) once the “transition of period” will be over (that is, on 31 December 2020, as stated in Article 121 of the draft).
Article 62 of the draft provides that, in the UK, the Rome I Regulation on the law applicable to contracts and the Rome II Regulation on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations will apply, respectively, “in respect of contracts concluded before the end of the transition period” and “in respect of events giving rise to damage which occurred before the end of the transition period”.
Article 63 concerns the EU measures which lay down rules on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of decisions. These include the Brussels I bis Regulation on civil and commercial matters (as “extended” to Denmark under the 2005 Agreement between the EC and Denmark: the reference to Article 61 in Article 65(2), rather than Article 63, is apparently a clerical error), the Brussels II bis Regulation on matrimonial matters and matters of parental responsibility, and Regulation No 4/2009 on maintenance.
According to Article 63(1) of the draft, the rules on jurisdiction in the above measures will apply, in the UK, “in respect of legal proceedings instituted before the end of the transition period”. However, under Article 63(2), in the UK, “as well as in the Member States in situations involving the United Kingdom”, Article 25 of the Brussels I bis Regulation and Article 4 of the Maintenance Regulation, which concern choice-of-court agreements, will “apply in respect of the assessment of the legal force of agreements of jurisdiction or choice of court agreements concluded before the end of the transition period”(no elements are provided in the draft to clarify the notion of “involvement”, which also occurs in other provisions).
As regards recognition and enforcement, Article 63(3) provides that, in the UK and “in the Member States in situations involving the United Kingdom”, the measures above will apply to judgments given before the end of the transition period. The same applies to authentic instruments formally drawn up or registered, and to court settlements approved or concluded, prior to the end of such period.
Article 63 also addresses, with the necessary variations, the issues surrounding, among others, the fate of European enforcement orders issued under Regulation No 805/2004, insolvency proceedings opened pursuant to the Recast Insolvency Regulation, European payment orders issued under Regulation No 1896/2006, judgments resulting from European Small Claims Procedures under Regulation No 861/2007 and measures of protection for which recognition is sought under Regulation No 606/2013.
Article 64 of the draft lays down provisions in respect of the cross-border service of judicial and extra-judicial documents under Regulation No 1393/2007 (again, as extended to Denmark), the taking of evidence according to Regulation No 1206/2001, and cooperation between Member States’ authorities within the European Judicial Network in Civil and Commercial Matters established under Decision 2001/470.
Other legislative measures, such as Directive 2003/8 on legal aid, are the object of further provisions in Article 65 of the draft.
The domino effect of international commercial courts in Europe – Who’s next?
Written by Georgia Antonopoulou and Erlis Themeli, Erasmus University Rotterdam (PhD candidate and postdoc researchers ERC project Building EU Civil Justice)
On February 7, 2018 the French Minister of Justice inaugurated the International Commercial Chamber within the Paris Court of Appeals following up on a 2017 report of the Legal High Committee for Financial Markets of Paris (Haut Comité Juridique de la Place Financière de Paris HCJP, see here). As the name suggests, this newly established division will handle disputes arising from international commercial contracts (see here). Looking backwards, the creation of the International Commercial Chamber does not come as a surprise. It offers litigants the option to lodge an appeal against decisions of the International Chamber of the Paris Commercial Court (see previous post) before a specialized division and thus complements this court on a second instance. Read more
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The University of Bologna Summer School on Transnational Litigation: what you should know about its 2023 edition
[This post has been prepared by Ms. Francesca Albi, J.D. Candidate | Università degli Studi di Verona]
The Summer School on Transnational Litigation has been organized since 2019 within the Ravenna Program on Cross-Border Disputes by the University of Bologna, Department of Juridical Sciences – Ravenna Campus (Italy), under the direction of Prof. Michele Angelo Lupoi.
The organization of its 2023 edition confirms the success this projects continues to enjoy among participants from all over the world, who, over the years, are contributing to build a promising network of Private International Law enthusiasts. Indeed, this project has proven to be a building-bridges catalyst to connect people with the same interests in Private International Law issues: in this sense, this multi-year Summer School actively contributes to the sharing and spread of knowledges and views, which go beyond borders in every possible sense.
In 2023, the Summer School will take place from Monday 17 to Saturday 22 July, both in person at the Faculty of Law (Via Oberdan 1/2) in Ravenna – Italy, and online.
The title, which summarises the hot topics of the courses of this year’s edition, is “Cross-border litigation and international arbitration”. As a matter of fact, the themes dealt with will concern, on one hand, transnational litigation from a wide perspective (i.e., involving climate litigation, cross-border maritime litigation, family and succession Private International Law, civil and commercial litigation), and, on the other hand, the increasingly interesting matter of international arbitration. The full schedule of classes is available and may be downloaded at https://site.unibo.it/transnational-litigation/en/program.
Participants will have the outstanding opportunity to acquire specialised knowledges on these relevant topics of growing importance directly from experts in such matters. In fact, the faculty consists of renowned scholars and legal practitioners, who will offer their experience involving diverse professional backgrounds developed in different States over the world. In detail, the lecturers in this edition are (in alphabetical order) Apostolos Anthimos, Giovanni Chiapponi, Elena D’Alessandro, David Estrin, Marco Farina, Francesca Ferrari, Chris Helmer, Albert Henke, Emma Roberts, Marco Torsello, Stefano Alberto Villata and Anna Wysocka-Bar. Their biographies and professional experience may be consulted at https://site.unibo.it/transnational-litigation/en/faculty.
Registration to the School are now open!
In order to participate, some requirements should be met: applicants must be students or graduate students of a Bachelor (three-years) or Master (five-years) Degree (or equivalent under previous systems) in Law (LMG/01), Legal Services Science (L-14), Political and International Relationships Science (L-36), International Relationships (LM52), or Political Sciences (LM62). Other candidates may also be accepted upon the presentation of the CV which should be show a connection to the topics of the Summer School. Alongside students and post-grad students, also practitioners in legal matters are invited to participate. In this regard, it must be noticed that the Ravenna Bar Association will grant 20 formative credits to Italian lawyers who attend the Summer School.
Registration to the Summer School is possible upon the payment of a fee, whose amount is €250,00 and which does not cover expenses for the accommodation and meals (please, note that registration is considered completed only when the payment of the fee is fulfilled). Applications are open until 6 July 2023 (h 23.59 CET); it is not possible to apply beyond this deadline. The application procedure is described at https://site.unibo.it/transnational-litigation/en/fees-and-forms.
In this regard, it is worth mentioning that, in order to give to one deserving law student or law graduate, who meets specific age requirements, the opportunity to attend the Summer School online free of charge, a call for papers has been launched. It consists in the submission of an originally and previously unpublished paper on a topic concerning transnational litigation and international arbitration. A selection committee, composed by staff and faculty members of the Summer School, will evaluate the papers and will reward the author of the best one through the possibility to attend the full Summer School online without paying the ordinary registration fee. Moreover, the best three papers will be published in the Linkedin Newsletter of the Summer School on Transnational Litigation “Transnational litigation pills”. Every submission is truly appreciated. Detailed information on this call for papers may be found on the website of the Summer School, especially in the section “Fees and forms”.
For any question regarding the application process or logistics, the contact person is Dr. Cinzia Cortesi, Manager of Fondazione Flaminia (master@fondazioneflaminia.it; +39 0544 34345). Otherwise, in order to acquire further information on the project, courses and call for papers, it is possible to contact Prof. Michele Angelo Lupoi, Director of the Summer School (micheleangelo.lupoi@unibo.it) or Francesca Albi, Tutor (francesca.albi@unibo.it).
Further information may be found in the official website of the Summer School at https://site.unibo.it/transnational-litigation/en.
The organization team of the Summer School warmly invites everyone who meets the requirements listed above to apply for the 2023 edition courses, in order to allow as many people as possible the exciting chance to become part of a group of colleagues and friends with the common interest in Private International Law, that is larger and larger every year.
New Journal Announcement: the Chinese Journal of Transnational Law
Wuhan University Institute of International Law, in partnership with global research leader SAGE, is delighted to announce the launch of a new journal “Chinese Journal of Transnational Law”.
The Chinese Journal of Transnational Law is a double-blind peer-reviewed journal that aims to address global challenges from the perspective of transnational law, which is broadly defined to cover international law (public and private), international economic law, comparative law, the interaction between domestic and international law, and any other legal field possessing a cross-border element. This journal embraces relevant submissions from different cultures and regions and attracts readers from the global, regional and Chinese markets. The journal shall be open to not only traditional doctrinal and theoretical legal research on transnational law, but also contextual and inter-disciplinary research. Although focused on contemporary matters in its aspiration to be a forum for the latest debates on transnational legal studies, it also considers submissions inspired by in-depth historical perspectives that cast new light on present developments. The CJTL covers broad topics including but not limited to:
- Innovative transnational dispute resolution, including both state-to-state and private dispute resolution mechanisms and the impact of culture, psychology, language and geopolitics on dispute resolution;
- Transnational trade, investment and economic governance;
- Transnational family law and the wellbeing of children, including surrogacy, child abduction and same sex marriage in the cross-border context;
- Transnational regulation of technology;
- Transnational corporate responsibility and governance;
- Transnational protection of private rights in tort and transactions;
- Transnational law and development;
- Transnational law and global health governance;
- Transnational environment protection and climate change;
- Transnational criminal law;
- Unilateral sanctions, extraterritorial regulations and blocking law.
The Chinese Journal of Transnational Law accepts submissions year round on any topic covered in the journal scope. In the meantime, the journal will publish calls for special issues occasionally. A call for the first special issue is going to be announced soon. You can find more information about this journal and submit your paper here.
Summer school on Consumer’s Rights and Market Regulation in the EU invites applicants
We can feel it in the air but also in the incoming announcements – the summer is approaching. One of the great ways to spend a part of it is at a summer school. The University of Uidne (Italy) is the host to the 16th edition of the summer school Consumer’s Rights and Market Regulation in the European Union, to be held on 12-21 July 2023.
The programme addresses aspects of legal protection of consumers and market regulation, including the private international law topics, and a moot court. The full schedule is available here. The course accepts undergraduate students, graduates (who graduated no more than five years ago), PhD students from faculties of law, economics, political science or international relations., and limited amount of posts are available on the academic qualifications bases. The early bird is until 30 April 12:00 pm GMT, and the enrollment closes on 31 May 12:00 pm GMT. For details, please consult the Call for applications Udine Summer School 2023.
The summer school is organised within the Jean Monnet Module “CoRiMaR” (Consumer’s Rights and Market Regulation in the European Union) by the Department of Legal Sciences of the University of Udine (Italy), together with a consortium of European universities including University of Essex (UK), De Montfort University (UK), Universitatea de Vest din Timisoara (Romania), East Anglia University (UK), University of Belgrade (Serbia), University of Rijeka (Croatia) and University of Szeged (Hungary).