Views
International high-tech surrogacy and legal developments in the Netherlands
This blogpost is an edited version of this blogpost written in Dutch by Stichting IJI (The Hague Institute for private international law and foreign law). We thought it was interesting to also bring it to the attention of the international readership of this blog.
Introduction
In the Netherlands, international high-tech surrogacy is a hot topic, resulting in interesting legal developments. Recently, a Dutch District Court dealt with a case on the recognition of US court decisions on legal parenthood over children born from a high-tech surrogacy trajectory in the US, providing many private international law insights on how to assess such request for recognition. Furthermore, on July 4 a bill was proposed that encloses several private international law provisions. This blogpost briefly highlights both developments.
Same-sex relationships concluded abroad in Namibia – Between (Limited) Judicial Recognition and Legislative Rejection
There is no doubt that the issue of same-sex marriage is highly controversial. This is true for both liberal and conservative societies, especially when the same-sex union to be formed involves parties from different countries. Liberal societies may be tempted to open up access to same-sex marriage to all, especially when their citizens are involved and regardless of whether the same-sex marriage is permitted under the personal law of the other foreign party. For conservative societies, the challenge is even greater, as local authorities may have to decide whether or not to recognise same-sex marriages contracted abroad (in particular when their nationals are involved). The issue becomes even more complicated in countries where domestic law is hostile to, or even criminalises, same-sex relationships.
Cassirer on Remand: Considering the Laws of Other Interested States
This post is by Carlos Manuel Vázquez, a professor of law at Georgetown Law School. It is cross-posted at Transnational Litigation Blog.
Claude Cassirer brought suit in federal court in California eighteen years ago against the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum of Madrid, Spain, to recover a painting by Camille Pissarro that was stolen from his grandmother by the Nazis during World War II. After a reversal and remand from the U.S. Supreme Court last summer, the case is now before the Ninth Circuit for decision of the legal question that is likely to be decisive: which law governs?
The district court and the court of appeals have so far framed the issue as a binary choice: the governing law on the merits is either that of Spain or that of California. I suggest here that the issue is better framed as a choice between the law of Spain, on the one hand, and the laws of all the other states or countries with connections to the dispute, on the other. (Disclosure: I submitted expert declarations in support of the plaintiffs on issues of public international law during earlier phases of this case.)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed the district court’s holding that, under the law of Spain, the plaintiff loses because the museum acquired title to the painting through adverse possession (otherwise known as acquisitive prescription). It is equally clear that, under the law of California, the plaintiff would prevail because California does not recognize the acquisition of title to moveable property through adverse possession. What has so far not featured prominently in the courts’ analyses of the choice-of-law issue is that the plaintiff would also prevail under the laws of all the other jurisdictions that have relevant connections to the dispute. Under governmental interest analysis, this should be central to the analysis. Read more
News
Book Launches for Research Methods in International Private Law
Following the publication of the book Research Methods in Private International Law: A Handbook on Regulation, Research and Teaching (Elgar, 2024), edited by Xandra Kramer and Laura Carballo Piñeiro (see our earlier news item), we are organising two launch events.
Cut, Paste, and Overruled! SICC Voids Retired Indian Judge’s Award for Arbitrator I?m?Partiality
Written by Tarasha Gupta and Akshath Indusekhar, Jindal Global Law School, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India
Recently, the Singapore International Commercial Court (“SICC”) in DJO v. DJP & Others set aside an award authored by retired Indian judges that it deemed to have copied and pasted portions of another arbitral award. The SICC reasoned its decision on the basis that the copy and pasting reflected the arbitrators’ partiality and their being influenced by arguments extraneous to the arbitration at hand. This article unravels the rationale for the SICC’s judgement in this peculiar case and explores its implications on international commercial arbitration for seat courts across jurisdictions worldwide.
Second Issue of the Journal of Private International Law for 2024
The second issue of the Journal of Private International Law for 2024 has just been published. It contains the following articles:
Reid Mortensen & Kathy Reeves, The common law marriage in Australian private international law
The common law marriage is a curiosity in the private international law of marriage in the Commonwealth and Ireland. In some cases, a marriage that is invalid under the law of the place where it was solemnised (lex loci celebrationis) may nevertheless be recognised as valid if it meets the requirements of a common law marriage. These originate in the English canon law as it stood in the eighteenth century and include the central requirement of the parties’ present declaration that they are married. The parties also had to meet the essentials of a Christian marriage as described in Hyde v Hyde (1866): “a voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others”. Read more