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NUON-Claim v. Vattenfall: Pivotal or dud for collective actions in the Netherlands?

Written by Jos Hoevenaars (Erasmus University Rotterdam) & Eduardo Silva de Freitas (Erasmus University Rotterdam), members of the Vici project Affordable Access to Justice, financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), www.euciviljustice.eu.

On 9 October, the District Court of Amsterdam issued its final judgment in a collective action against energy supplier Vattenfall. This judgment was eagerly awaited as it is the very first judgment in a mass damage claim under the Dutch WAMCA procedure. The new framework for collective redress, which became applicable on 1 January 2020 (see also our earlier blogpost), has received a lot of attention in international scholarship and by European legislators and policy makers due to its many innovations and making it easier for consumers and small businesses to litigate against large companies. The most notable change in the Dutch act compared to the old collective action regime is the possibility to request an award for damages, making such proceedings attractive for commercial litigation funders. A recent report commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security (published in an English book here) found that most collective actions seeking damages brought under the WAMCA have an international dimension, and that all of these claims for damages are brought with the help of third party litigation funding (TPLF). Read more

Virtual Workshop (in German) on November 12: Dennis Solomon on the foreign element in Private International Law and International Civil Procedure Law

On Tuesday, November 12, 2024, the Hamburg Max Planck Institute will host its monthly virtual workshop Current Research in Private International Law at 11:00-12:30 (CET). Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Dennis Solomon, LL.M. (Berkeley) (University of Passau) will speak, in German, about the topic

The foreign element in Private International Law and International Civil Procedure Law: same same, but different?

The presentation will be followed by open discussion. All are welcome. More information and sign-up here.

If you want to be invited to these events in the future, please write to veranstaltungen@mpipriv.de.

Children’s rights, private law and criminal law perspectives of parental child abduction

Written by Fanni Murányi, who will defend her PhD on Children’s rights, private law and criminological perspectives of parental child abduction at the Eötvös Loránd University (expected in 2024).

In this short summary of her research, Fanni highlights her conclusions on the role of the child’s views in abduction cases and the link between international child abduction and criminal law. She considered the legislative frameworks of the Hague Child Abduction Convention of 1980, the Brussels IIb Regulation (2019/1111) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). She also investigated as well as the role of (domestic) criminal law. Read more

News

ERA online seminar on Migrants in European Family Law

An ERA online seminar on Migrants in European Family Law will take place on 6-7 February 2025. For more information, click here. The programme is available here.

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Out Now: The 26th Volume of the Japanese Yearbook of Private International Law (2024)

The 26th Volume of the Japanese Yearbook of Private International Law (Kokusai Shiho Nenpo) published by the Private International Law Association of Japan (Kokusai Shiho Gakkai) (hereinafter “PILAJ”)has recently been released.

This new volume features the following table of content (all links direct to the papers’ English abstracts)

Part 1 – The Status and Development of Private International Law from a Global Perspective

Corporate Climate Liability in Private International Law (in English)

Marc-Philippe WELLER and Madeleine Petersen WEINER Read more

ILA Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Call for Papers

The International Law Association Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) has issued a Call for Papers for a conference scheduled for 7 April 2025 titled ‘Shaping Appropriate ADR in International Law’. Further information is available hereThe deadline for submissions is 5 February 2025.

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