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Torts and Tourists in the Supreme Court of Canada
In Sinclair v Venezia Turismo, 2025 SCC 27 (available here) the Supreme Court of Canada has, by 5-4 decision, held that the Ontario court does not have jurisdiction to hear claims by Ontario residents against three Italian defendants in respect of a tort in Italy. The Sinclair family members were injured in a gondola collision in Venice that they alleged was caused by the Italian defendants. But there were several connections to Ontario. The trip to Italy had been booked by Mr Sinclair using a premium credit card’s concierge and travel agency service [4, 156] and the gondola ride had been arranged through that service [15, 160]. The card was with Amex Canada and one or more contracts connected to the gondola ride had been made in Ontario. The Sinclairs were also suing Amex Canada and the travel service for carelessness in making the arrangements with the Italian defendants, and those defendants attorned in Ontario [167, 172]. A core overall issue, then, was whether the plaintiffs would be able to pursue all of their claims arising from the gondola collision, against various defendants, in one legal proceeding in Ontario.
According to the French Cour de Cassation, the law applicable to the sub-purchaser’s direct action against the original seller depends on who brings the claim!
Written by Héloise Meur, Université Paris 8
In two rulings dated 28 May 2025, the French Cour de cassation (Supreme Court) ruled on the issue of the law applicable to a sub-purchaser’s direct action in a chain of contracts transferring ownership, under European private international law. The issue is sensitive. The contractual classification under French law —an outlier in comparative law— had not been upheld by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to determine international jurisdiction under the Brussels system (CJEU, 17 June 1992, C-26/91, Jakob Handte). Despite CJEU’s position, the Cour de cassation had consistently refused to adopt a tort-based qualification to determine the applicable law (esp. Civ. 1st, 18 dec. 1990, n° 89-12.177 ; 10 oct. 1995, n° 93-17.359 ; 6 feb. 1996, n° 94-11.143 ; Civ. 3rd, 16 janv. 2019, n° 11-13.509. See also, Civ. 1st, 16 jan. 2019, n° 17-21.477), until these two rulings rendered under the Rome II Regulation.
“Towards an EU Law on International Commercial Arbitration?” A Sorbonne Law School Research Project
Written by Dr. Nima Nasrollahi-Shahri (Sorbonne Law School) and Vincent Bassani-Winckler (PhD Candidate, Sorbonne Law School), both authors participated in the Working Group.
A few days ago, the Sorbonne Law School released the final report of a collective research project chaired by Professors Mathias Audit and Sylvain Bollée, entitled “Towards an EU Law on International Commercial Arbitration?”.
Conducted within the IRJS (Institut de Recherche Juridique de la Sorbonne), and more specifically its research group on private international law, SERPI (Sorbonne – Étude des Relations Privées Internationales), this project sets out to examine whether and how to improve the relationship between commercial arbitration and EU law.
News
[Out Now] Bruijnen on Recognition of Kafala and Child Marriage in Family Law and Migration Law
Leontine Bruijnen (Maastricht University) has recently published a book titled Recognition of kafala and child marriage in family law and migration law (Wolters Kluwer, 2025) based on her dissertation written under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Thalia Kruger and Prof. Dr. Marta Pertegás. Read more
Out Now: Un Derecho Internacional Privado centrado en los derechos de las personas (Tirant lo Blanch 2025)
By Eduardo Álvarez-Armas, Assistant Professor of Law at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Spain) and Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)
Earlier this year, publishing house Tirant Lo Blanch released “Un Derecho Internacional Privado centrado en los derechos de las personas” (Private international law as focused on the rights of individuals), a volume that compiles the papers presented in the “VII Seminario AEPDIRI sobre temas de actualidad de Derecho Internacional Privado”, the 7th workshop on trending topics in private international law organized by the Spanish Association of International Law and International Relations Professors. These workshops on trending topics, initiated in 2015, have become one of the most significant academic activities of the Asociación Española de Profesores de Derecho Internacional y Relaciones Internacionales (AEPDIRI). They provide a yearly forum for collective reflection on the most dynamic and debated questions in each of the association’s academic branches (public international law, private international law and international relations), enhancing the exchange of research and practice ideas among academics, judges, and legal professionals, from Spain and beyond.
HCCH Monthly Update: December 2025
HCCH Monthly Update: December 2025
Membership
On 4 December 2025, Indonesia applied to become a Member of the HCCH. On the same day, the Secretary General of the HCCH opened the six-month voting period during which all current Members of the HCCH may cast their vote on the proposal. Following this voting period, and provided a majority of votes are cast in favour, Indonesia will be invited to become a Member by depositing an instrument of acceptance of the Statute of the HCCH. More information is available here.
Meetings & Events
On 1 December 2025, the third meeting of the Working Group established to finalise the Good Practices document relevant to the 1965 Service, 1970 Evidence, and 1980 Access to Justice Conventions was held online. More information is available here.
From 2 to 4 December 2025, the Experts’ Group on Carbon Markets met for the third time, continuing its study of the private international law issues arising from carbon markets. More information is available here.
On 10 December 2025, the third Post Adoption Services Workshop was held online, hosted by the Central Authority of Canada under the 1993 Adoption Convention. The event had over 120 participants from over 35 Contracting Parties to the Convention. More information is available here.
On 11 December 2025, the Permanent Bureau (PB) of the HCCH hosted a book launch for the publication of The Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements: A Commentary, in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of the 2005 Choice of Court Convention. More information is available here.
Other Developments
The PB of the HCCH has launched a public consultation on the Draft Text of a possible new convention on parallel proceedings and related actions, to be held from 18 November 2025 to 26 January 2026. Experts, practitioners and judges from diverse legal traditions with experience in cross-border litigation and private international law more broadly are encouraged to participate in the consultation. More information is available here.
On 23 December, the PB of the HCCH announced the conclusion of the e-Country Profiles project, resulting in the development and modernisation of online Country Profiles for a number of key HCCH Conventions. Contracting Parties to these Conventions can now easily publish legal and practical information about their implementation of these instruments, making the e-Country Profiles a valuable tool for use by public authorities, legal practitioners and other interested parties. More information is available here.
These monthly updates are published by the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), providing an overview of the latest developments. More information and materials are available on the HCCH website.