Views
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.
Read more
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.
Bahraini High Court on Choice of Court and Choice of Law Agreements
I. Introduction
It is widely recognized that choice of court and choice of law agreements are powerful tools for structuring and planning international dispute resolution. These agreements play an important role in “increasing legal certainty for the parties in cross-border transactions and reducing incentives for (the harmful version of) forum shopping.” (Alex Mills, Party Autonomy in Private International Law (CUP, 2018) p. 75). However, the realization of these objectives depends on the enforcement of the parties’ choice. Unfortunately, general practice in the MENA (North Africa and the Middle East) region shows that, with a few exceptions, the status quo is far from satisfactory. Choice-of-court agreements conferring jurisdiction on foreign courts are often disregarded or declared null and void. Similarly, the foreign law chosen as the governing law of a contract is often not applied because of the procedural status of foreign law as a matter of fact, the content of which must be ascertained by the party invoking its application. The recent judgment of the High Court of Bahrain (a first instance court in the Bahraini judicial system) in the Case No. 2/13276/2023/02 of 17 January 2024 is nothing but another example of this entrenched practice that can be observed in the vast majority of countries in the region.
News
Migrant Workers and Social Security Rights across Borders: a Right or a Privilege?
You are invited to the third meeting of Migration Talks organized by the Jean Monnet Chair in Legal Aspects of Migration Management in the European Union and in Türkiye.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Laura Carballo Piñeiro, Chair of Private International Law, Dean, Faculty of International Relations, University of Vigo
Title: Migrant Workers and Social Security Rights across Borders: a Right or a Privilege?
Date and Time: Wednesday, March 19, 2024, 10.30 a.m. -11.30 a.m. (CET)
Location: via Zoom (The link shall be provided upon request: migration@bilkent.edu.tr)
Abstract
Access to social security is a human right that only a quarter of the world population enjoy. Such an access is particularly challenging for workers who cross national borders, as they may not get access to a national scheme, get access only in a limited way compared to other national or resident workers in the country, be obliged to contribute to more than one system, or not benefit from a system to which had previously contributed due to relocation to their home country or a third country. State coordination in these matters is thus of the essence, in particular to ensure that contributions are only paid to one system at a time, aggregation and maintenance of acquired rights for those workers that are in the course of acquisition, and portability of benefits. Even in a coordinated scenario, legal divergence across countries might further complicate access to benefits. For example, the funding of a benefit by taxes and not contributions might automatically exclude posted workers from their enjoyment. The EU Social Security Coordination Regulation will be used in the presentation to address these principles, the challenges faced by States and social partners in their enforcement, and tools developed to address them. Outside this privileged area, coordination relies on a complex, but insufficient network of treaties which very much focus on the role of receiving countries. As the movement of workers increases, more attention should be paid to the role of sending States by researching the interplay between social protection and migrant studies.
Limitation period of the enforcement of a UK judgment in Greece
Limitation period of the enforcement of a UK judgment in Greece
A judgment issued by the Division of Maritime Disputes of the Piraeus first instance court at the end of last year [nr. 3400/2024, unreported] was confronted with an issue which seldomly appears before Greek courts.
The issue raised before the Piraeus Court of First Instance, in the context of Regulation 44/01, was the following: Is it permissible to revoke the recognition of a foreign (English) judgment (order) that was declared enforceable in Greece, when allegedly it is no longer enforceable in the State of origin? Read more
Exploring the Inference of Similarity in Foreign Law
Hot off the press and published in the Cambridge Law Journal, the article “The Inference of Similarity,” written by Marcus Teo, delves into the intricacies of what has traditionally been referred to as the “presumption of similarity” in English legal proceedings. Teo’s work challenges the conventional understanding of this presumption, arguing that it should be seen not as a true presumption but rather as an inference that courts can draw under certain circumstances.
Teo begins by outlining the challenges litigants who wish to rely on foreign law in English courts face. They must first demonstrate that the relevant choice-of-law rule selects the foreign law as applicable and then prove that the foreign law supports their claim or defence. This task is often complicated by the patchy or vague nature of foreign law evidence, leading courts to apply what has been termed a “presumption of similarity”—the idea that foreign law is presumed similar to English law when not sufficiently proven. Read more