Views
The Justice Initiative Frankfurt am Main 2017
Written by Prof. Dr. Dres. h.c. Burkhard Hess, Executive Director Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law
Against the backdrop of Brexit, an initiative has been launched to strengthen Frankfurt as a hot spot for commercial litigation in the European Judicial Area. On March 30, 2017, the Minister of Justice of the Federal State Hessen, Ms Kühne-Hörmann, organized a conference at which the Justice Initiative was presented. More than 120 stakeholders (lawyers, judges, businesses) attended the conference. The original paper was elaborated by Professors Burkhard Hess (Luxembourg), Thomas Pfeiffer (Heidelberg), Christian Duve (Heidelberg) and Roman Poseck (President of the Frankfurt Court of Appeal). Here, we are pleased to provide an English translation of the position paper with some additional information on German procedural law for an international audience. The proposal has, as a matter of principle, been endorsed by the Minister of Justice. Its proposals are now being discussed and shall be implemented in the next months to come. The paper reads as follows: Read more
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
Jürgen Basedow 1949-2023
Jürgen Basedow, a giant of private international law (and numerous other disciplines), has died – suddenly, and completely unexpectedly, on April 6. He was my teacher (though only briefly so in a formal position), my predecessor as director of the Hamburg Max Planck Institute (where he served as director 1997-2017) and my colleague as an emeritus. His (impressive) vita is still visible on the MPI website.
Words fail me, as they have many, and so I will not attempt to write more here. A longer appreciation of his life and work and personality is in preparation. Until then, you may wish to read one or more of the following announcements that I am aware of; please announce in the comments or by email what I may have overlooked.
Also, the Hamburg Max Planck Institute is setting up a virtual book of condolences. Please consider sharing your own appreciation there, even if you have already written them up somewhere else.
RIP.
Longer appreciations:
Corinna Budras at Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Federico Garau at conflictuslegum
José Carlos Fernández Rozas at his personal blog
Konrad Duden / Matteo Fornasier in EuZW 2023, 395-396
Eva-Maria Kieninger / Ralf Michaels in RabelsZ 87 (2023), 229-235
Anatol Dutta / Christian Heinz in JZ 2023, 610-611
Brief online announcements:
Max Planck Institute for International and Comparative Law, Hamburg
Università degli Studi di Pavia
International Academy of Comparative Law
Brief appreciations on social media (incomplete)
Vasco Becker-Weinberg, Pejovic Caslav, Axel Halfmeier, Matthias Kurth, Michael Kubiciel, Monopolkommission, Gülüm Özçelik, Mateusz Pilich
Final Call for Participation in the EAPIL Working Group Survey on the Reform of the Brussels Ibis Regulation
The following information has kindly been provided by Tess Bens, Research Fellow at the Luxembourg Max Planck Institute:
In September 2022, an EAPIL Working Group met for a conference in Luxemburg to discuss the perspectives and prospects of a reform of the Brussels Ibis Regulation. There were panels on the role and scope of the Brussels Ibis Regulation, collective redress, third state relationships, jurisdiction and pendency, and recognition and enforcement. As a result of the conference, Professor Hess and a team of Researchers of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg published a preliminary Working Paper which put forward 32 proposals for the reform of the Brussels Ibis Regulation.
Parallel to the preliminary Working Paper, a survey was set up to collect reactions and comments on the proposals. By now, over 60 participants from many different Member States have answered the survey. Participation in the survey is open to anybody interested in the reform of the Brussels I bis Regulation, irrespective of whether they are a member of the European Association for Private International Law. Your input is greatly appreciated. Please note that the survey will be open until 15 April 2023.
UK Law Commission – Recruitment for Lead Lawyer
The following information has kindly been provided by Professor Sarah Green, UK Law Commissioner for commercial and common law:
Thank you for your interest in our project Digital assets: which law, which court?. We would like to draw your attention to an opportunity to join the team, as the Law Commission is currently recruiting for a lawyer or legal academic to lead this project. This is an exciting opportunity to be at the forefront of legal policy development in this cutting-edge and complex area, working with a range of domestic and international stakeholders.
We are ideally looking for specific experience or demonstrable interest in the private international law of England and Wales. This role will ultimately require a good knowledge of conflict of laws, digital assets and electronic trade documents. However, we are also interested in receiving applications from lawyers or academics with different commercial or common law backgrounds, with an interest in law reform and who can demonstrate a capacity to quickly acquire knowledge of complex areas of law.
Details of how to apply, along with the full job description, essential qualifications and other details, are available at this link: Law Commission: Commercial and Common Law Team, Lawyer(Ref: 73409) – Civil Service Jobs – GOV.UK
We would be grateful if you could draw this opportunity to the attention of anyone who might be interested. The role is also potentially available as a secondment opportunity from a business or academic institution. Please note that, due to civil service policies, the candidate must be UK-based.
If you would like to discuss further, please contact:
Laura Burgoyne, Head of the Commercial and Common Law Team
Email: laura.burgoyne@lawcommission.gov.uk
Telephone: 07793 966 296