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No fake news: the Netherlands Commercial Court proposal approved!
By Georgia Antonopoulou, Erlis Themeli, and Xandra Kramer, Erasmus University Rotterdam (PhD candidate, postdoc researcher, and PI ERC consolidator project Building EU Civil Justice)
Today, the Dutch Senate (Eerste Kamer) finally voted in favour of the legislative proposal for the establishment of the Netherlands Commercial Court (NCC) (see here). As of 11 December 2018, the Netherlands is added to the countries that have created an English language court or chamber specialized in international commercial disputes, including Singapore and France.
The proposal was already approved by the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) on 8 March 2018 (see our previous blogpost). Shortly after, we optimistically reported that the bill was scheduled for rubber-stamping by the Senate on 27 March 2018, making it realistic that the NCC would open its doors on 1 July 2018. However, not all senators were convinced by the need for and the modalities of the NCC proposal and it led to heated debates.
The discussions geared primarily around the cost-effective court fees and the fear for a two-tiered justice system (see Report of the meeting of 4 December 2018). The court fees are much higher than in other cases: 15.000 Euros in first instance and 20.000 Euros for appeal proceedings at the NCCA. It was argued that the cost-covering nature of the NCC fees is at odds with the current Dutch court fee system and that it may create and obstacle for small and medium-sized businesses to access the NCC. In response to these objections, the Dutch Minister of Justice and Security emphasized the importance of the NCC for the Netherlands as a trade country, the high quality of the Dutch civil justice system that was nevertheless unattractive due to the Dutch language, and pointed to the establishment of similar courts in other countries. He underlined that the NCC is only available in cross-border cases, that it offers an additional forum that parties can choose while the ordinary courts are still available, and that the court fees are relatively low compared to arbitration or to the fees for commercial courts in several other countries, including the London Commercial Court.
Information on the NCC, a presentation of the court – a chamber of the Amsterdam District Court – and the Rules of Procedure are available on the website of the Dutch judiciary.
The Minister of Justice and Security will issue a decree soon announcing the date of entry into force of the NCC legislation, but in any case the NCC will open its doors early 2019.
Call for Papers: Judges in Utopia – Civil Courts as European Courts
We would like to invite young scholars to submit a paper for the upcoming conference entitled ‘Judges in Utopia: Civil Courts as European Courts’, which will take place in Amsterdam on 7 and 8 November 2019.
The conference’s aim is to reflect with legal scholars and practitioners on the reconceptualization of the role of civil courts in today’s European private legal order. Specifically, the conference’s focus lies on the courts’ potential to open up space in the deliberative process on concepts of justice in European private law. Proposals addressing the following issues and themes are particularly welcome, as are inter-disciplinary, theoretical and case-study based approaches:
- the impact of fundamental rights on European private law and civil procedure;
- the way(s) in which judges may deal with different conceptions of justice at EU and national level;
- the legitimacy of judicial law-making in European private law;
- the contribution of private law adjudication to polity-building in Europe.
The call for papers is open for young scholars, who are currently PhD researchers or who are post-doctoral researchers and have defended their PhD after 1 January 2016.
Proposals in form of an extended abstract (max. 500 words) should be submitted for review by 15 February 2019 to Betül Kas: b.kas@uva.nl. Submissions will be selected based on quality, originality, and their capacity to incite fruitful debates. Decisions on accepted submissions will be made by 1 April 2019. Authors whose contributions are accepted will be invited to present their paper at the conference and will be expected to submit their paper beforehand. Final papers will be circulated among the participants in advance of the conference. The organisers aim to publish some or all conference proceedings in an edited volume with a reputable publisher or a special issue of a European law journal.
Travelling and accommodation costs for presenters will be covered.
More information on the conference and the ‘Judges in Utopia’ project can be found at https://judgesinutopia.eu
The project team:
Prof. Dr. Chantal Mak
Dr. Betül Kas, LL.M.
Anna van Duin, LL.M., MJur (Oxon)
Laura Burgers, LL.M., BA
Fien de Ruiter, BA
Brussels IIa Recast: general agreement in the Council
Thanks to Emmanuel Guinchard for the tip through his blog on European Civil Justice
On 7 December the Council of the European Union approved the General Approach on the Brussels IIa Recast proposed by the Presidency on 30 November 2018.
The text has been heavily discussed and has undergone several changes since the original Commission Proposal of 30 June 2016.
Importantly, the Council has agreed on:
- the complete abolition of exequatur;
- a limitation of jurisdiction for provisional measures to States where the child or property belonging to the child is present;
- allowing the cross-border recognition and enforcement of provisional measures granted by the court to where the child has been abducted when ordering the return;
- the harmonisation of certain rules on actual enforcement;
- making the time frame for return proceedings and their enforcement more stringent;
- providing for the hearing of children;
- clearer rules on the placement of children;
- clearer rules on the circulation of extra-judicial agreements.
See the press release here.
See the General Approach document here.
This probably means that the refinement of the final Regulation will be done within the next few months.