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
New Article in Uniform Law Review
Today, the Uniform Law Review published a private international law article titled: CSA Okoli, “The Significance of a Forum Selection Agreement as an Indicator of the Implied Choice of Law in International Contracts: A Global Comparative Perspective”.
The abstract reads as follows:
Where the parties to an international contract fail to specify the choice of law, a forum selection agreement is one of the most, if not the most, significant factors to consider in implying the choice of law in many international, supranational, regional instruments, and national jurisdictions. However, it is an ill-defined, notoriously complex, and hotly debated issue as to the weight that should be attached to a forum selection agreement in implying the choice of law. Hence, this article is devoted to discussing this topic from a comparative perspective, in order to propose a guide to global uniform criteria. To achieve this, the article covers all relevant international, regional, and supranational instruments, and selected legal systems in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. The legal systems compared include those from the global North and global South, including common law, civil law, and mixed legal systems. The article’s core proposal is that an exclusive forum selection agreement should be a key factor in implying the choice of law. However, except in such cases as where a forum is chosen on a neutral basis, there should be a general requirement of corroboration with at least one other factor of significance. The aim of the proposal is to contribute to greater uniformity, predictability, and certainty in the global community in this field of law.
August 2023 Update: List of China’s Cases on Recognition of Foreign Judgments
Written by Dr. Meng Yu and Dr. Guodong Du, co-founders of China Justice Observer*
On 20 August 2023, China Justice Observer released the 2023 version of List of China’s Cases on Recognition of Foreign Judgments. To date, we have collected 98 cases involving China and 25 foreign States and regions. (Note: Foreign divorce judgments are excluded in the Case List.)
Diccionario digital de Derecho Internacional Privado in open access
Diccionario digital de Derecho Internacional Privado contains no less than 1522 pages in the Spanish language dedicated to analysis of crucial notions in private international law. Each notion is explained in length and accompanies with bibliographic references.
This electronic publication is edited by Jorge Luis Collantes González and features contributions by many private international law authors. It may be downloaded free of charge here.