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The Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria’s final decision in the Pancharevo case: Bulgaria is not obliged to issue identity documents for baby S.D.K.A. as she is not Bulgarian (but presumably Spanish)
This post was written bij Helga Luku, PhD researcher at the University of Antwerp.
On 1 March 2023, the Supreme Administrative Court of the Republic of Bulgaria issued its final decision no. 2185, 01.03.2023 (see here an English translation by Nadia Rusinova) in the Pancharevo case. After an appeal from the mayor of the Pancharevo district, the Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria ruled that the decision of the court of first instance, following the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in this case, is “valid and admissible, but incorrect”. It stated that the child is not Bulgarian due to the lack of maternal ties between the child and the Bulgarian mother, and thus there is no obligation for the Bulgarian authorities to issue a birth certificate. Hereafter, I will examine the legal reasoning behind its ruling.
UK Supreme Court in Jalla v Shell: the claim in Bonga spill is time barred
The UK Supreme Court ruled that the cause of action in the aftermath of the 2011 Bonga offshore oil spill accrued at the moment when the oil reached the shore. This was a one-off event and not a continuing nuisance. The Nigerian landowners’ claim against Shell was thus barred by the limitation periods under applicable Nigerian law (Jalla and another v Shell International Trading and Shipping Company and another [2023] UKSC 16, on appeal from [2021] EWCA Civ 63).
On 10 May 2023, the UK Supreme Court has ruled in one of the cases in the series of legal battles started against Shell in the English courts in the aftermath of the Bonga spill. The relevant facts are summarized by the UK Supreme Court as follows at [6] and [7]:
Data on Choice-of-Court Clause Enforcement in US
The United States legal system is immensely complex. There are state courts and federal courts, state statutes and federal statutes, state common law and federal common law. When I imagine a foreign lawyer trying to explain this system to a foreign client, my heart fills with pity.
This feeling of pity is compounded when I imagine this same lawyer trying to advise her client as to whether a choice-of-court clause will be enforced by a court in the United States. The law on this subject is complicated. It is, moreover, not easy to determine how it is applied in practice. Are there differences in clause enforcement rates across the states? Across federal circuits? Do state courts enforce these clauses at the same rate as federal courts? Until recently, there was no data that would allow a foreign lawyer – or a U.S. lawyer, for that matter – to answer any of these questions.
Over the past several years, I have authored or co-authored several empirical articles that seek to answer the questions posed above. This post provides a summary of the data gathered for these articles. All of the cases referenced involve outbound choice-of-court clauses, i.e. clauses that select a jurisdiction other than the one where the suit was filed. Readers interested in the data collection process, the caveats to which the data is subject, or other methodological issues should consult the articles and their appendices. This post first describes state court practice. It then describes federal court practice. It concludes with a brief discussion comparing the two.
News
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 here. The deadline for submissions is 5 February 2025.
Workshop on Addressing Conflict of Laws and Facilitating Digital Product Passports
UN/CEFACT would like to invite you to attend: The 5th Working Group Meeting on Addressing Conflict of Laws and Facilitating Digital Product Passports in Cross-Border Value Chain: –19 Mar 7-8:00 pm (Sydney Time), Dr. Fabian Sack, Sydney University (Zoom): Life cycle assessment For the zoom link and previous meeting minutes, please refer to the project […]