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How many monetary judgments that Chinese courts decided to enforce are successfully enforced?
It is necessary to distinguish (1) a court’s decision to acknowledge the validity of a foreign judgment (judgment recognition and enforcement), and (1) whether a judgment creditor successfully recovers the awarded amount in practice.
Insights and Future Directions of PIL Based on the 2024 Online Summer Courses at The Hague Academy of International Law
By Birgit van Houtert, Assistant Professor of Private International Law at Maastricht University
From 29 July till 16 Augustus 2024, the Summer Courses on Private International Law (PIL) were held at the 93rd session of the summer courses of the Hague Academy of International Law. The PIL courses were followed by 250 onsite attendees and remotely 61 attendees from 74 different countries. The inaugural lecture was presented by Lord Lawrence Collins of Mapesbury (Former Justice at the United Kingdom Supreme Court) on the “Use and Abuse of Comity in International Litigation”. In the next three weeks, the general course was given by Charalambos Pamboukis (Professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) titled “The Metamorphoses of Private International Law”. During these three weeks, six special courses were given by Alessandra Zanobetti (Professor at the University of Bologna) on “The Effects of Economic Sanctions and Counter-Measures on Private Legal Relationships”; Natalie Y. Morris-Sharma (Director at the Attorney-General’s Chambers of Singapore) on “The Singapore Convention and the International Law of Mediation”; Carlos Esplugues Mota (Professor at the University of Valencia) on “New Dimensions in the Application of Foreign Law by Courts (and Arbitrators) and Non-judicial Authorities”; Jack Coe (Professor at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law) on “Non-ICSID Convention Investor-State Awards in Domestic Courts”; Eva Lein (Professor at the University of Lausanne) on “Breathing Space in International Commercial Litigation”; Andrew Dickinson (Professor at the University of Oxford) on “Natural Justice in Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgements”. These PIL experts provided very interesting and valuable insights, including future (desirable) directions on PIL that can guide and inspire students, researchers, legal practitioners, courts, and legislators. The courses will be published by Brill in the series Collected Courses of The Hague Academy of International Law / Recueil des cours de l’Académie de La Haye. The fact that the courses commonly focused on PIL globally, by including national, regional and international PIL, is particularly laudable in view of our interconnected world. This blog aims to describe common threads of the 2024 Online Summer Courses on PIL that may encourage you to read the Hague Academy Collected Courses and inspire further research.[1]
The Public Law-Private Law Divide and Access to Frozen Russian Assets
By Csongor István Nagy, Professor of Law at the University of Galway, Ireland, and at the University of Szeged, Hungary, and research professor at the HUN-REN Center for Social Sciences, Hungary.
The overwhelming majority of the international community condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine as a gross violation of international law and several countries introduced unilateral measures freezing Russian assets. It has been argued that countries should go beyond that and use these assets for the indemnification of Ukrainian war damages. Confiscation would, however, be unprecedented and raise serious international law concerns. While states have, with good reason, been reluctant to react to one wrongful act with another, this question has given rise to intensive debate. Recently, the EU authorized the use of net profits from the frozen assets but not the assets themselves to support Ukraine.
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HCCH Monthly Update: March 2025
HCCH Monthly Update: March 2025
Membership
On 5 March 2025, Rwanda deposited its instrument of acceptance of the Statute, becoming the 92nd Member of the HCCH. On the same day, Guatemala applied to become a Member of the HCCH. More information is available here.
The Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China issued the Notice on Procedural Matters Related to Civil Cases Involving Foreign State Immunity
(This is written by Xiaoxuan Gu, a PhD student in School of Law, University of Macau)
The Foreign State Immunity Law of the People’s Republic of China (CFSIL) took effect on January 1, 2024.[i] To ensure its proper implementation and guide courts nationwide in lawfully and efficiently adjudicating civil cases involving foreign state immunity, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) formulated supporting procedural rules. On March 26, 2025, the SPC issued the Notice on Procedural Matters Related to Civil Cases Involving Foreign State Immunity (hereinafter the “Notice”), which provides definitive guidance to courts at all levels in handling such novel foreign-related cases.
The Notice stipulates provisions on key procedural matters, including case acceptance criteria, centralized jurisdiction mechanisms, service of process rules, jurisdictional immunity review procedures, and protocols for obtaining evidentiary certifications from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Read more
ASADIP: Annual Conference, Moot and New Board
Annual conference
The Annual Conference of the American Association of Private International Law (ASADIP) will take place on 7-9 August 2025 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). More information will be available soon. Read more