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Establishing Foreign Law: In the Search for Appropriate Cooperation Instruments – International Symposium, 28th November 2019, Cour de cassation, Paris
Many thanks to Gustavo Cerqueira for this post:
The Société de législation comparée and the International Commission on Civil Status organize in partnership with the universities of Strasbourg and Reims an international symposium dedicated to the establishment of the content of foreign law and the need to consider appropriate instruments for cooperation.
The importance of the subject is major. On the one hand, the place nowadays given to foreign law in the settlement of disputes is growing. On the other hand, the intensified role of the various legal professions in the application of foreign law is indisputable. While judges and civil registrars were more traditionally exposed to such an office, nowadays it is notaries and lawyers in their dual role of advising and drafting documents who are called upon to take into account or implement foreign law.
In this context, while European Union law is often at the root of the involvement of these various actors in the application of foreign law, another, more recent phenomenon further increases the occurrences of how the law is handled: the extensive jurisdictional competition between European States as a result of Brexit. Indeed, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and other capitals establish courts and chambers specializing in international litigation and the application of foreign law.
The stakes are high. The search for appropriate cooperation instruments for a good knowledge of foreign law is necessary in the face of rapidly evolving national laws and case law. These changes, which are specific to each system, therefore reinforce the need for access to reliable foreign law content in order to guarantee legal certainty for litigants, as well as to avoid the civil liability of legal service providers and even fraud in the manipulation of foreign solutions.
The research envisaged takes place in an environment in which there are formal and informal cooperation mechanisms whose effectiveness is only partial in view of the complexity of the phenomena that covers the application of foreign law. Indeed, they were designed to deal with a foreign law that is supposed to be stable and not plural in its sources. These mechanisms, which are not very visible, are also unknown by the practitioners themselves. The current discussions at European (EU) and international level (Hague Conference) attest to the urgent need to consider responses in this area through one or more relevant and effective instruments.
This is the purpose of the symposium. After having established a large inventory, it will be necessary to discuss solutions adapted to the different requirements revealed by both the type of situation to be dealt with and the type of professional involved.
The symposium will be held on 28 November 2019 at the French Court of Cassation (Chambre Criminelle, 5, Quai de l’Horloge, 75001 – Paris).
Registration: emmanuelle.bouvier@legiscompare.com
Conference Directors:
Dr. Gustavo Cerqueira, Agrégé des Facultés de droit, University of Reims (France)
Dr. Nicolas Nord, Deputy Secretary General of the ICCS, Senior Lecturer at the University of Strasbourg (France)
Second Issue of 2019’s Revue Critique de Droit International Privé
The last issue of the Revue Critique de Droit International Privé will shortly be released. This is a special edition composed of four articles on Brexit. It also contains several case notes, inter alia, a commentary by Horatia Muir Watt on Vedanta v Lungowe, major decision on the parent company’s duty of care and private international law, rendered by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on 10 April 2019 (see also here).
The first article is authored by Paul James Cardwell (“Naviguer en eaux inconnues. Les défis rencontrés par la recherche juridique au Royaume-Uni à l’heure du Brexit”). The abstract reads as follows: “The consequences of the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) remain uncertain still. For legal scholars, Brexit has posed a series of complex legal questions, some of which have not been considered for over 40 years, if at all. This article aims to consider some of the main questions that have arisen during the Brexit process, and some of the potential responses. The article also evaluates the challenges that Brexit represents for researchers and teachers in the various sub-disciplines within legal scholarship, including the fast-paced, ever changing legal landscape. Although only a small number of the questions and challenges can be considered here, it goes without say that Brexit will undoubtedly have significant consequences for the UK, the EU and its Member States as well as for the systems of global governance, in which private international lawyers are inherently linked”.
The second article (“Le Brexit et les conventions de La Haye”) is written by Hans van Loon. The abstract reads as follows: “There are two possible scenarios at present for the immediate future of private international law in the relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union of Twenty-seven in the event of Brexit. Under the first, the “Withdrawal Agreement” approved by the European Council on 25th November 2018 enters into force; under the second (the “no-deal” scenario) the status quo will end abruptly on 31st October 2019. Both of these hypotheses have important and complex implications. Under the Withdrawal agreement, a transition period is organised and when this period ends, specific transitory provisions take over. In such a regime, the law issuing from the conventions has a significant role to play. But in the event of a no-deal Brexit, all the treaties establishing, and concluded by, the European Union, and, as a result, European Union secondary law, including the regulations on private international law cease immediately to apply to the United Kingdom. The Hague conventions, including the new convention of 2 July 2019 on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in civil or commercial matters will fill this gap to a large extent. However, the consequences may nevertheless be brutal for citizens, and in order to mitigate these, the transitory provisions of the Withdrawal agreement should be applied here by analogy”.
The third article, written by Uglješa Grušic (“L’effet du Brexit sur le droit international privé du travail”), describes the likely effect of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on the private international law of employment. “More specifically, it deals with the likely effect of Brexit on employment law, the law of international jurisdiction in employment matters and the law on choice of law for employment matters in the United Kingdom and the European Union, with particular emphasis on private international law in England”.
The fourth article is authored by Louise Merrett (“La reconnaissance et l’exécution en Angleterre des jugements venant des États de l’Union européenne, post-Brexit”). It describes the likely effect of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on the recognition and enforcement of judgments from EU Members States: “If the UK leaves the European Union without any new agreement in place allowing for mutual recognition and enforcement, the recognition and enforcement of judgments from EU Members States will prima facie only be possible under the existing common law rules. This article will describe the common law rules and draw attention to the key differences between them and the rules which currently apply to the enforcement of judgments under the Brussels I Regulation recast”.
A full table of contents is available here.
Nicaragua has joined the Hague Service Convention
On 24 July 2019 Nicaragua joined the HCCH Convention of 15 November 1965 on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (Service Convention). For more information, click here.
In accordance with Article 28 of the Service Convention, there is a six-month objecting period which will end for Nicaragua on 25 January 2020. If a Contracting State objects, then the Convention will not enter into force at all for Nicaragua. However, an objection has never been made under this Article in practice.
In the absence of any objection, the Service Convention will enter into force for Nicaragua on 1 February 2020.
The latest State to join was Brazil (EIF: 1 June 2019), which signals a growing interest in this Convention in the Latin American region.