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
Proposal for a EU-Directive on European Cross Border Associations (ECBA)
Tim Wöffen (University of Osnabrück) kindly made us aware of the Proposal for a Directive on European cross-border associations, adopted on 5 September by the Commission. The proposal aims to facilitate cross-border activities of non-profit associations in the EU and to improve the functioning of the Internal Market by removing legal and administrative barriers for non-profit associations that operate or wish to operate in more than one Member State. With regard to private international law, Articles 4 and 22 et seq seem particularly relevant. The public is invited to give their comments until November 1st.
Tim offers some initial thoughts (in German) here.
Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft (ZVglRWiss) 122 (2023) Issue 3: Abstracts
ZVglRWiss 122 (2023) no. 3
A Symposium in Liechtenstein on Comparative and Private International Law
Aspects of Crypto Currencies and Assets
The most recent issue of the German Journal of Comparative Law (Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft, ZVglRWiss) features various contributions to a comparative law symposium that was held at the Private University in the Principality of Liechtenstein (UFL) in autumn 2022. The topic consisted of legal aspects of crypto currencies and assets, with a particular focus on comparative law and private international law. Here are the articles’ German titles and their English abstracts:
Book Launch: Governance of Artificial Intelligence in the European Union What Place for Consumer Protection?
Marion Ho-Dac (Artois University) and Cécile Pellegrini (Lyon Catholic University) are hosting a conference at Lyon Catholic University on Friday 29 September 2023 on the occasion of the launch of their book “Governance of Artificial Intelligence in the European Union What Place for Consumer Protection?”.
The book tackles the interplay between Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance and consumer protection on the European Union (EU) market. An in-depth analysis of the existing and future EU legal framework is conducted in order to assess its capacity to meet the challenges posed by AI. The effectiveness of consumer rights, and more widely of fundamental rights, in the digital single market calls for a regulatory ecosystem that fosters trust and therefore, upstream, transparency and explainability of AI systems. Hence, the book explores different normative paths – from hard law to standardization – as well as monitoring and supervision tools – from ethics to media literacy – that could progressively lead to an inclusive and comprehensive EU governance structure for AI. Several book’s chapters highlight the complexity of balancing conflicting interests such as the protection of consumers against the adverse impacts of AI, supporting AI development and technological innovation and putting AI at the service of empowered consumers. Ultimately, the book offers important insights into thinking about tomorrow’s digital consumer in EU law, inviting a rethinking of European policy boundaries and related legal regimes.
The full programme for the event can be found here.