Views
Review of: PP Penasthika, Unravelling Choice of Law in International Commercial Contracts: Indonesia as an Illustrative Case Study (The Hague: Eleven Publishers 2022)
Very recently, Indonesian private international law has attracted significant scholarship in the English language.[1] Dr Penasthika’s monograph (‘the monograph’)[2] is one such work that deserves attention for its compelling and comprehensive account of choice of law in international commercial contracts in Indonesia. My review attempts to capture the methodology, summarise the contents, and give a verdict on the quality of this monograph.
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.
News
HCCH Monthly Update: April 2025
HCCH Monthly Update: April 2025
Membership
On 10 April 2025, Qatar applied to become a Member of the HCCH. On the same day, the Secretary General of the HCCH opened the six-month voting period during which all current Members of the HCCH may cast their vote on the proposal. Following this voting period, and provided a majority of votes are cast in favour, Qatar will be invited to become a Member by depositing an instrument of acceptance of the Statute of the HCCH. More information is available here.
Meetings & Events
From 2 to 4 April 2025, the conference “15 Years of the HCCH Washington Declaration: Progress and Perspectives on International Family Relocation” was held at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C., United States of America. The conference was jointly organised by the Embassy of Canada, the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL), and the HCCH. More information is available here.
From 7 to 11 April 2025, the Working Group on Parentage / Surrogacy met for the fourth time. Pursuant to its mandate, the Working Group continued its consideration of draft provisions for one new instrument on legal parentage generally, including legal parentage resulting from an international surrogacy agreement. More information is available here.
On 30 April 2025, the seventh meeting of the Working Group established to complete the Country Profile and work on the draft Cooperation Request Recommended Model Form for the 1996 Child Protection Convention was held online, hosted by the Permanent Bureau. More information is available here.
Upcoming Events
The webinar “HCCH 2019 Judgments Convention: Bridging Global Justice” will be held via Zoom on Tuesday 6 May 2025 from 4.00 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. (Hong Kong time), hosted by the HCCH’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. Interested persons should register no later than this Friday, 2 May 2025, at 5.00 p.m. (Hong Kong time). More information is available here.
These monthly updates are published by the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), providing an overview of the latest developments. More information and materials are available on the HCCH website.
Report from the inaugural conference of the Australasian Association of Private International Law (AAPrIL)
On 16 and 17 April 2025, the Australasian Association of Private International Law (AAPrIL) held its inaugural conference in Brisbane, Australia. Hosted by Griffith University—the home of AAPrIL President Mary Keyes—the conference featured stimulating panel presentations from speakers from around Australia and abroad.
The conference started with a panel on jurisdiction and judgments, chaired by Richard Garnett of Melbourne Law School. Reid Mortensen of USQ kicked things off with a presentation on Australia’s cross-vesting scheme. Priskila Penasthika of the Universitas Indonesia then spoke on ‘The Indonesian Language Contract Requirements versus Arbitration as a Choice of Forum’. Read more