Views
Paris, the Jurisdiction of Choice?
On January 17th, the President of the Paris Commercial Court (Tribunal de commerce) inaugurated a new international division.
The new division, which is in fact the 3rd division of the court (3ème Chambre), is to be staffed with nine judges who speak foreign languages, and will therefore be able to assess evidence written in a foreign language. For now, the languages will be English, German and Spanish, as one juge speaking Spanish and two speaking German are currently on the court.
In an interview to the Fondation de droit continental (Civil law initiative), the President of the Court explained that the point was to make French justice more competitive and attract international cases. It also made clear that France was following Germany’s lead, where several international divisions were established in 2009 in Hamburg and Cologne.
French Commercial Courts
It should be pointed out to readers unfamiliar with the French legal system that French commercial courts are not staffed with professional judges, but with members of the business community working part-time at the court (and for free). In Paris, however, many of these judges work in the legal department of their company, and are thus fine lawyers.
Also, French commercial courts (and French civil courts generally) virtually never hear witnesses, so the issue of the language in which they may address the court does not arise.
Some issues
So, the new international division will be able to read documents in several foreign languages. However, nothing suggests that parties or lawyers will be able either to speak, or to write pleadings, in any other language than French. Lawyers arguing these cases will still need to file their pleadings in French, and thus to translate them in English beforehand for their clients. Furthermore, the interview of the Court’s President seems to suggest that using a foreign language will not be a right for the parties. Quite to the contrary, it seems that it will not be possible if one of the parties disagrees, and demands documents be translated in French.
Will that be enough to attract additional commercial cases to Paris?
I wonder whether introducing class actions in French civil procedure would have been more efficient in this respect.
For the full interview of the Court’s President, see after the jump.
News
First issue of Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly for 2023
The first issue of Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly for 2023 was just published today. It contains the following articles, case notes and book review on private international law:
S Matos, “Jurisdiction, Admissibility and Escalating Dispute Resolution Agreements”
M Phua and M Chan, “The Law Governing whether an Arbitration Agreement binds a Non-party”
Lord Hodge, “The Rule of Law, the Courts and the British Economy”
Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Vos MR, “The Economic Value of English Law in Relation to DLT and Digital Assets”
A new article on private international law was published open-access earlier this week in The Cambridge Law Journal
on: ‘JUSTIFYING CONCURRENT CLAIMS IN PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW‘.
Written by Sagi Peari and Marcus Teo, the article analyses whether claimants can choose between contract and tort claims arising on the same facts with different jurisdictional and/or choice-of-law consequences. While domestic legal systems generally recognise a concurrent liability, commentators object that its extension to private international law would be unprincipled and would threaten the field’s values. This, however, contrasts with the position in common law and under EU Regulations, where concurrent claims are generally recognised with only narrow limits. This article justifies concurrent claims in private international law, arguing that the same premises supporting concurrent liability in domestic law exist in private international law and that no field-unique concerns foreclose it.
AMEDIP’s upcoming webinar: child support cases between Mexico and the United States of America – 23 February 2023 (at 14:30 Mexico City time)
The Mexican Academy of Private International and Comparative Law (AMEDIP) is holding a webinar on Thursday 23 February 2023 at 14:30 (Mexico City time – CST), 21:30 (CET time). The topic of the webinar is the Right to Child Support within the international framework – Mexico and the United States of America and will be presented by Claudia Sierra Martínez of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) (in Spanish).
By way of context, please note that Mexico is not yet a party to the 2007 HCCH Child Support Convention but the United States is. On the other hand, Mexico is a party to the Inter-American Convention on Support Obligations and the United Nations Convention on the Recovery Abroad of Maintenance but the United States is not. Faced with this conundrum and given the great number of Child Support cases between these two countries, other solutions have been made available (think for example of US domestic law / bilateral practices).
The details of the webinar are:
Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87996362538?pwd=QjNuZThqNUpTVHQ3cFZaZ1BXZ0YzQT09
Meeting ID: 879 9636 2538
Password: AMEDIP
Participation is free of charge.
This event will also be streamed live: https://www.facebook.com/AmedipMX