Views
Financial Hardship and Forum Selection Clauses
The U.S. Supreme Court has long held that a forum selection clause should not be enforced when “trial in the contractual forum will be so gravely difficult and inconvenient” that the plaintiff “will for all practical purposes be deprived of his day in court.” The financial status of the plaintiff is obviously a factor that should be considered as part of this inquiry. Large corporations can usually afford to litigate cases in distant courts. Individual plaintiffs frequently lack the resources to do so. Nevertheless, the lower federal courts in the United States have repeatedly held that financial hardship on the part of the plaintiff is not enough to make an otherwise valid forum selection clause unenforceable. Read more
Revised Canadian Statute on Judgment Enforcement
Two years ago, the Uniform Law Conference of Canada (ULCC) released a revised version of the Court Jurisdiction and Proceedings Transfer Act (CJPTA), model legislation putting the taking of jurisdiction and staying of proceedings on a statutory footing. The statute is available here.
The ULCC has now released a revised version of another model statute, the Enforcement of Canadian Judgments Act (ECJA). The original version of this statute was prepared in 1998 and had been amended four times. It has now been consolidated and substantially revised. It is available here and background information is available here and here.
New Proposed Rules on International Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments in Morocco
Last Thursday, November 9, Draft No. 02.23 proposing the adoption of a new Code of Civil Procedure (al-musattara al-madaniyya) was submitted to the Moroccan House of Representatives. One of the main innovations of this draft is the introduction, for the first time in Moroccan history, of a catalogue of rules on international jurisdiction. It also amends the existing rules on the enforcement of foreign judgments.
News
Revue Critique de droit international privé – issue 2024/4
Written by Hadrien Pauchard (assistant researcher and doctoral student at Sciences Po Law School)
The fourth issue of the Revue Critique de droit international privé of 2024 will very shortly be released. It contains four articles, eight case notes and many book reviews. In line with the Revue Critique’s recent policy, the doctrinal part will shortly be made available in English on the editor’s website (for registered users and institutions). Read more
Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts (IPRax) 2/2025: Abstracts
The latest issue of the „Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts“ (IPRax) features the following articles:
Out now: Festschrift für Thomas Rauscher
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Thomas Rauscher, formerly a professor of private international law at the University of Leipzig (Germany) and still one of the most prolific commentators on German and European PIL, has been honoured by a Festschrift on the occasion of his 70th birthday. The volume, titled “Europeanization of private law”, has 623 pages and is published by CH Beck (Munich). It contains numerous contributions on private international law, comparative law and international civil procedure. The authors come from various countries, including Germany, Austria, Hungary, the United States and Vietnam. Most contributions are in German. For further information and a table of contents, please click here.