Views
Mbatha v. Cutting: Implications for Litigants of Indian Origin
Guest Post by Chytanya S. Agarwal*
I. Introduction
Rising cross-border migration of people and concomitant increase in lawsuits relating to matrimonial disputes between couples brings to the forefront the issue of conflict of jurisdictional laws (219th Law Commission Report, ¶1.1-¶1.2). Mbatha v. Cutting is one such recent case that grapples with conflict of laws pertaining to divorce and division of matrimonial property when the spouses are domiciled in separate jurisdictions. In this case, the Georgian Court of Appeal dealt with competing claims from a couple who married in New York and had their matrimonial domicile in South Africa. The wife, domiciled in Georgia, USA, argued for the application of the matrimonial property regime of South Africa – their only (though temporary) common matrimonial domicile. In determining the applicable law, the Court upheld the traditional approach, which favours lex situs for real property and lex domicilii for personal property.
Views and News from the 9th Journal of Private International Law Conference 2023 in Singapore
Four years after the 8th JPIL conference in Munich, the global community of PIL scholars finally got another opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas, this time at Singapore Management University on the kind invitation of our co-editor Adeline Chong.
The conference was kicked off by a keynote speech by Justice Philip Jeyaretnam (Singapore International Commercial Court), providing an in-depth analysis of the Court of Appeal’s decision in Anupam Mittal v Westbridge Ventures II [2023] SGCA 1 (discussed in more detail here).
The keynote was followed by a total of 23 panels and four plenary sessions, a selection of which is summarised below by our editors.
The EU Sustainability Directive and Jurisdiction
The Draft for a Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence Directive currently contains no rules on jurisdiction. This creates inconsistencies between the scope of application of the Draft Directive and existing jurisdictional law, both on the EU level and on the domestic level, and can lead to an enforcement gap: EU companies may be able to escape the existing EU jurisdiction; non-EU companies may even not be subject to such jurisdiction. Effectivity requires closing that gap, and we propose ways in which this could be achieved.
(authored by Ralf Michaels and Antonia. Sommerfeld and crossposted at https://eapil.org/)
- The Proposal for a Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence
The process towards an EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is gaining momentum. The EU Commission published a long awaited Proposal for a Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD), COM(2022) 71 final, on 23 February 2022; the EU Council adopted its negotiation position on 1 December 2022; and now, the EU Parliament has suggested amendments to this Draft Directive on 1 June 2023. The EU Parliament has thereby backed the compromise textreached by its legal affairs committee on 25 April 2023. This sets off the trilogue between representatives of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission.
News
University of Edinburgh: Lecturer in Global Law
The University of Edinburgh is looking to fill a new position in Global Law – which is understood to include private international law. More here.
Boskovic on Localisation of Damage in Private International Law
The latest volume (Volume 4) of the Ius Comparatum series, which includes the general reports as well as the national and special reports from the General Congresses and Thematic Congresses of the International Academy of Comparative Law, along with other publications related to the Academy’s activities, has been published. This volume focuses on the Localization of Damage in Private International Law, edited by Prof. Olivera Boskovic (Université Paris Cité).
The book addresses the complex issue of the localization of damage in private international law, a challenge that has long puzzled legal scholars and practitioners. This comparative work brings together contributions from different jurisdictions to address the many issues raised, as outlined in the book’s blurb below:
Localisation in private international law of torts is a notoriously difficult question. How do you localize financial or moral damage? What about latent damage? Should damage in the context of cyber-torts be localized differently? The great variety of tortious actions gives rise to endless difficulties ranging from banal situations involving material damage to climate change. Trying to find suitable solutions requires answering many difficult questions, such as the very definition of damage within the meaning of private international law rules, the influence of various considerations such as foreseeability, protection of the claimant, and the remedy sought. The contributions in this volume address these questions and more from the perspectives of 17 different countries, from Austria to Venezuela.
Box Set Launch on January 23, 2025 in Paris: Le droit étranger. Études de droit international privé comparé
On Thursday, January 23, 2025, at 5 pm, the Société de législation comparée will present the Box Set Le droit étranger – Études de droit international privé comparé. The event will take place in 28 rue Saint-Guillaume – Amphitheater, 1st floor, 75007 Paris. Everybody is welcome to attend.
On the Box Set: Over the past ten years, the Société de législation comparée has conducted a series of collective studies on the theoretical, methodological, and practical issues related to accessing, understanding, and implementing foreign law. These issues are highly relevant today. Foreign law is playing an increasingly significant role in practice—not only for judges, of course, but also for other practitioners such as notaries, civil registrars, and lawyers. In France and elsewhere, when judges, notaries, or civil registrars are required to apply foreign law, understanding and implementing an unfamiliar legal system present numerous challenges. These challenges are even more daunting given that the treatment of foreign law retains a profoundly national dimension, despite the growing unification of conflict-of-law rules in Europe and in Americas.
The studies conducted by the Société de législation comparée aim to go beyond conventional analyses. By exploring the positive law of various countries and regions, they shed light on grey areas, shortcomings, and contradictions — abundant in what constitutes the very essence of Private International Law. Now gathered in a single volume they provide academics and practitioners with a comprehensive overview of the reflections carried out by jurists from diverse backgrounds on the most pressing issues in this often-neglected area of conflict of laws, along with their proposals to ensure the most accurate establishment of foreign law content.
The texts were compiled by Gustavo Cerqueira, professor at Université Côte d’Azur, and Nicolas Nord, Secretary General of the International Commission on Civil Status.