Views
HUK-COBURG II: A Case on Mandatory Overriding Law or Jurisdiction?
By Ross Pey, Western University, Canada
1. Introduction
In Case C-86/23 E.N.I. and Y.K.I. v HUK-COBURG-Allgemeine Versicherung AG II (‘HUK-COBURG II’), the principal issue that arose was whether a Bulgarian compensation provision may be interpreted as having mandatory effect. In suggesting that it does not, the Court required the facts to have sufficiently close links with the forum. (Hereinafter the ‘sufficient connexion test’) Ostensibly, a freestanding sufficient connexion test could be viewed as a disguised jurisdictional control of the forum rather than part of a mandatory law analysis. In doing so, parallels to renvoi and forum non conveniens are drawn. Read more
Book Review: L. d’Avout’s La Cohérence Mondiale Du Droit (Brill)
The general course in private international law delivered at the Hague Academy of International Law by Louis d’Avout during the 2022 Summer Session was published in the Academy’s Pocket Books Series (1 032 pages). Louis d’Avout is Professor at Université Paris Panthéon-Assas. In addition to his numerous scholarly works, readers of this blog may recall that his special course on “L’entreprise et les conflits internationaux de lois” was also published in the Academy’s Pocket Books Series in 2019. The general course is title « La cohérence mondiale du droit » (“The Global Coherence of Law”). The publication of a general course in private international law—particularly in the Academy’s Pocket Books Series—deserves the attention of the readers of this blog. The aim of this review is, modestly, to offer a glimpse into this important work so readers who are sufficiently francophone may be encouraged to read it directly, while those who are not are offered a brief overview of the author’s approach. Read more
Trial Supervision System No Longer Impediment in Hong Kong’s Recognition and Enforcement of Chinese Mainland Judgments
1. Introduction
For more than 20 years after the handover, Hong Kong courts had regularly noted difficulties with the ‘trial supervision system’ 
(also known as ‘retrial procedure’ 
) in the Chinese Mainland when attempting to recognise and enforce Mainland judgments under the common law, as the trial supervision system was thought to mean that these judgments fail to meet the ‘final and conclusive’ requirement. Such thinking was criticised by scholars as problematic.[1] To address the issue, statutory regimes on the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments between the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong have been implemented. More recent studies documented changes in the judicial attitude of Hong Kong courts,[2] but there was a lack of definitive rulings to clarify the legal position. This article focuses on the most recent Hong Kong cases which confirmed that the trial supervision system in the Chinese Mainland has no automatic impact on the recognition and enforcement of Mainland judgments in Hong Kong. A party alleging that the trial supervision system has affected the finality and conclusiveness of a Mainland judgment must prove the likelihood of a retrial being ordered through factual and/or expert evidence.
News
JKU Linz: Tenure-Track Position for European and International Civil Procedure Law
Johannes Kepler University Linz is currently advertising a tenure-track professorship in “European and International Civil Procedure Law”.
Out Now: Checa Martínez, Instituciones de estate planning y Derecho internacional privado patrimonial (Marcial Pons 2026)
Miguel Checa Martínez (Kinship Law) has kindly shared the following summary of his latest publication on ‘Instituciones de estate planning y Derecho internacional privado patrimonial’ with us.
First Issue of Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly for 2026
The first issue of the Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly for 2026 was recently published last month. It contains the following works on private international law:
Bulat Karimov, “Arrest of Associated Ships from a Common Law Perspective”
The Arrest Conventions 1952 and 1999 provide for the arrest of ships owned by the person who would be liable for the claim in personam. The widespread use of one-ship companies has effectively circumvented these provisions. It has allowed shipowners to limit or avoid their liability by distributing their fleet between one-ship companies. The only country that has introduced separate associated ship provisions is South Africa. Other countries do not follow this example and generally deal with one-ship companies through beneficial ownership and piercing the corporate veil. The article examines the law and practice of arresting associated ships in South Africa, the US , England, Singapore and Australia. Particular focus is paid to the impropriety criterion, which is part of piercing the corporate veil but is irrelevant to the South African approach. It is concluded that the primary function of impropriety is preventing overreaching, which means subversion of the idea of separate legal personality of a shipowning company. The “objective” and “reasonableness” approaches are suggested as a middle ground to the problem discussed.
This article considers remedies leading to compelling satisfaction of a judgment, from assets in a wealth structure used by a judgment debtor, or assets produced by them, or from persons who have received such assets. These include (1) enforcement by equitable execution, (2) enforcement disregarding “sham” or invalid trusts or through an undisclosed legal power, (3) the effect of the Model Form of Freezing Injunction, and (4) use of the Insolvency Act 1986, s.423 to unwind transactions prejudicing creditors, including when to attribute to others a debtor’s purpose to prejudice creditors. It considers the relevance of a person having legal or de facto control of assets to the availability of these remedies.
Adrian Briggs, “The Death of Henry v Geoprosco“
Michal Hain, “Is a Foreign Judgment a Debt?”
Joseph Khaw, “Going Cherry Picking”
Paul MacMahon, “Pre-emptive Challenges to Recognition of Foreign Arbitral Awards”