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International Jurisdiction between Nationality and Domicile in Tunisian Private International Law – Has the Perennial Debate Finally been Resolved?
I would like to thank Prof. Lotfi Chedly for providing me with the text of the decision on which this post is based.
I. Introduction
Scholars of private international law are well familiar with the classic debate on nationality and domicile as connecting factors in the choice of applicable law (see, for example, L. I. de Winter, “Nationality or Domicile? The Present State of Affairs” 128 Collected Courses III (1969) pp. 357 ff). In Tunisian private international law, this controversy has been particularly pronounced with regard to the role of nationality as a ground for the international jurisdiction of Tunisian courts. Since the enactment of the Tunisian Private International Law Code (“PILC”) in 1998 (for an English translation, see J. Basedow et al. (eds.) Encyclopedia of Private International Law – Vol. IV (Elgar Editions, 2017) 3895 and my own translation of the provisions dealing with international jurisdiction and the enforcement of foreign judgments in 8 Journal of Private International Law 2 (2012) pp. 221 ff)), the debate between opponents and proponents of nationality as a ground for international jurisdiction, especially in family law matters, has never ceased to be intense (for detailed analyses, see eg. Salma Triki, “La compétence internationale tunisienne et le critère de nationalité” in Ben Achour/Triki (eds.), Le Code de droit international privé – Vingt ans d’application (1998-2018) (Latrach edition, 2020) 119ff). This divergence in academic opinion is also reflected in the judicial practice of the courts, with the emergence of two opposing trends: one extends the international jurisdiction of the Tunisian courts when the dispute involves a Tunisian party, in particular as a defendant even when domiciled abroad. The other firmly rejects nationality as a ground for international jurisdiction.
An Answer to the Billion-Dollar Choice-of-Law Question
On February 20, 2024, the New York Court of Appeals handed down its opinion in Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. v. MUFG Union Bank, N.A. The issue presented—which I described in a previous post as the billion-dollar choice-of-law question—was whether a court sitting in New York should apply the law of New York or the law of Venezuela to determine the validity of certain bonds issued by a state-owned oil company in Venezuela. The bondholders, represented by MUFG Union Bank, argued for New York law. The oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (“PDVSA”), argued for Venezuelan law.
In a victory for PDVSA, the New York Court of Appeals unanimously held that the validity of the bonds was governed by the law of Venezuela. It then sent the case back to the federal courts to determine whether the bonds are, in fact, invalid under Venezuelan law.
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New EU Digitalisation Regulation: A Stepping Stone to Digitalised EU?
Author: Martina Ticic, assistant at the University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law and doctoral student funded by the Croatian Science Foundation (Hrvatska zaklada za znanost – HRZZ)
On 13 December 2023, two years after the first legislative proposal has been published, the new Regulation (EU) 2023/2844 of the European
Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2023 on the digitalisation of judicial cooperation and access to justice in cross-border civil, commercial and criminal matters, and amending certain acts in the field of judicial cooperation (Digitalisation Regulation) has been adopted. While the process of digitalisation of judicial cooperation and cross-border procedures in the EU has been ongoing for some time already, the new Digitalisation Regulation represents a major step for advancing digitalisation practices in the EU.
News
Workshop on Cross-border Protection of Cultural Property-Agenda
Workshop on Cross-border Protection of Cultural Property Agenda
2025.2.28, UTC 8:00 – 12:15 (London Time)
| 8:00 – 8:05 | Opening Remarks | ||
| Zheng Tang | professor of Law, editor in chief, Chinese Journal of Transnational Law; Associate Dean, Wuhan University Academy of International Law and Global Governance | ||
| 8:05 – 8:45 | Keynote Address | ||
| Christa Roodt | Senior Lecturer of History of Art, University of Glasgow | ||
| Zhengxin Huo | Professor of Law, China University of Political Science and Law | ||
| Panel 1: Legal Mechanisms of Cross-Border Cultural Property Protection | |||
| 8:45 – 9:00 | Elena Moustaira | The contribution of Postcolonial Theory to the cross-border protection of Indigenous cultural heritage | |
| 9:00 – 9:15 | Yehya Badr | Restitution of stolen foreign cultural property and hurdles in choice of law | |
| 9:15 – 9:30 | Maggie Fleming Cacot | Forfeiture and freezing orders in transborder cultural property litigation | |
| 9:30 – 9:50 | Commentary and Discussion | ||
| Panel 2: Regional Practices and Challenges in Cultural Property Restitution | |||
| 9:50 – 10:05 | Andrzej’s Jakubowski | Moving People, Shifting State Borders and the Return of Cultural Property: The Case of Poland | |
| 10:05 – 10:20 | Miroslaw Michal Sadowski | From freedom to restitution (with special focus on Central and Eastern Europe and the Lusophone community) | |
| 10:20 – 10:35 | Ekin Omeroglu | The Issue of Applicable Law in Disputes Arising from Violations of Private Law Regulations on Cultural Properties: The Case of Turkiye | |
| 10:35 – 10:50 | Ruida Chen | Restitution of cultural property in China: In search of a new paradigm for cross-border cultural property claims | |
| 10:50 – 11:10 | Commentary and Discussion | ||
| Panel 3: Looking to the Past and the Future | |||
| 11:10 – 11:25 | Dabbie De Girolamo | The Relevance of ADR for transnational cultural property disputes: A Survey and Analysis of China’s experience | |
| 11:25 – 11:40 | Andreas Giorgallis | Restitution of cultural objects unethically acquired during the colonial era: The intersection of Public and Private International Law | |
| 11:40 – 11:55 | Evelien Campfens | Evolving Legal Models of Restitution | |
| 11:55 – 12:15 | Commentary and Discussion | ||
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/87424891864?pwd=8rHX72dmzi7FCDWWnm7F2n1OLIOFaC.1
Meeting ID: 874 2489 1864 Password: 574150
Giustizia consensuale No 2/2024: Abstracts
The second issue of 2024 of Giustizia consensuale (published by Editoriale Scientifica) has just been released, and it features:
Tommaso dalla Massara (Professor at Università Roma Tre), Per un’ermeneutica della certezza nel processo civile romano: tra regula iuris e determinazione pecuniaria (For a Hermeneutics of Certainty in the Roman Civil Process: Between Regula Iuris and Pecuniary Determination; in Italian).
This contribution offers a reflection on procedural certainty, starting from the Roman classical process. In particular, crucial is the idea that, in this procedural system, certainty is to be related to the rule of ‘condemnatio pecuniaria’. Thus, certainty is translated into the determinacy of the pecuniary sentence. What emerges is a peculiar way of understanding judicial activity, which is characterised by the alternativeness between the groundedness and groundlessness of the claim (si paret/si non paret oriented to a certum), as opposed to the hypothesis in which the assessment is left entirely to the judge.
Beatrice Ficcarelli (Associate Professor at the University of Florence), L’acquisizione di informazioni e «prove» nella negoziazione assistita da avvocati: la tessera che mancava (The Acquisition of Information and ‘Evidence’ in Negotiation Assisted by Lawyers: The Missing Piece of the Puzzle; in Italian). Read more
Call for Participants: Quo Vadis Preferential Law Approach? A Survey on the Interpretation of Article 6(2) Rome I Regulation Across EU Member States
Benedikt Schmitz (University of Groningen) has shared the following call for participants with us:
Quo Vadis Preferential Law Approach? A Survey on the Interpretation of Article 6(2) Rome I Regulation Across EU Member States
Project description:
The Rome I Regulation plays a crucial role in determining the applicable law in cross-border consumer contracts within the European Union. Article 6(2) Rome I Regulation allows parties to choose the governing law while ensuring that consumers do not lose the protection granted by mandatory provisions of the law that would apply in the absence of such a choice. Despite its significance, the interpretation of this provision varies across Member States, leading to questions about its practical coherence and effectiveness. Read more