“U.S. Discovery and Foreign Blocking Statues,” by Professor Vivian Curran

A new article titled “U.S. Discovery and Foreign Blocking Statues,” forthcoming in the Louisiana Law Review, has just been posted to SSRN by Professor Vivian Curran from the University of Pittsburgh. The article tackles the interaction between U.S. discovery and the foreign blocking statutes that impede it in France and other civil law states, and how to understand this interaction at a time when companies are multinational in composition as well as in their areas of commerce. To be sure, U.S. courts continue to grapple with the challenge of understanding why they should adhere to strictures that seem to compromise constitutional or quasi-constitutional rights of American plaintiffs, while French and German lawyers and judges struggle with the challenges U.S. discovery poses to values of privacy and fair trial procedure in their legal systems. Each of these issued is addressed in Professor Curran’s article.




Another Reminder: Early-Bird Registration for 77th ILA Conference Ends on 29 February

It has already been announced on this blog that the 77th Biennial Conference of the International Law Association will take place from 7 to 11 August 2016 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

This year’s main topic will be ‘International Law and State Practice: Is there a North/South Divide?’ 

Further information and programme details are available at the official conference website.

This post is meant to remind our readers that early-bird registration ends on 29 February 2016. We are looking forward to seeing many of you in Johannesburg, so don‘t forget to register!




Reminder: Conference From Common Rules to Best Practices – Rotterdam-MPI

As announced earlier on this blog, on 25 and 26 February 2016 a conference will be held at Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands) on the theme From common rules to best practices in European Civil Procedure, jointly organized by Erasmus School of Law and the Max Planck Institute in Luxembourg.

The conference brings together many distinguished academics, practitioners, EU and national legislators and policy makers, discussing in panels the need for common rules to facilitate judicial cooperation and mutual trust, procedural innovation and e-justice in the EU, alternative dispute resolution, and best practices on the operationalization of judicial cooperation in civil matters.

The updated program and more information is available here. Please register as soon as possible if you intend to come!




Out Now: New Expanded Edition of “Principles of European Insurance Contract Law (PEICL)”

PEICL

Edited by Professors Jürgen Basedow, John Birds, Malcolm A. Clarke, Herman Cousy, Helmut Heiss and Dr. Leander D. Loacker, the second expanded edition of “Principles of European Insurance Contract Law (PEICL)” has just been released. The updated volume is based on no less than 15 years of cooperative research in the field of cross-border insurance law, which was initiated at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (Hamburg) under the guidance of Director Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Jürgen Basedow, LL.M. (Harvard), and involved legal scholars from 14 Member States of the European Union as well as Switzerland. In 2009, the Project Group “Restatement of European Insurance Contract Law” first published the Principles of European Insurance Contract Law (PEICL), which provided model rules for a common European insurance contract law in the form of an optional instrument.

While the first edition set out provisions regarding general insurance law, the new expanded volume also covers rules on liability insurance, life insurance and group insurance. In addition, the book contains translated versions of the PEICL rules in Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

For further information, please see the publisher’s website here.




Conference: EU Cross-Border Succession Law (Milan, 4 March 2016)

Conference_logoThe University of Milan will host on 4 March 2016 the final conference of a project co-funded by the Civil Justice Programme of the EU: “Towards the Entry into Force of the Succession Regulation: Building Future Uniformity upon Past Divergencies“.

The project, lasting from April 2014 to March 2016, focuses on the impact of Regulation 650/2012 on national legal systems and the related national and European case law with the aim of assessing the changes that it introduces to legal practice, arising awareness within the legal professionals (notaries, lawyers and court judges), providing training and disseminating information in order to promote future uniformity in the application of its provisions. Video footage of the conferences and seminars organized in the frame of the project are available on its website, as well as a database of caselaw and legislation related to succession matters.

The sessions of the final conference will be held in English and Italian (with simultaneous interpreting). Here’s the programme (available as a .pdf file):

Welcome addresses – Presentation of the Project

  • Stefania Bariatti (Univ. of Milan)
  • Domenico Cambareri (Notary in Milan)
  • Petra Jeney (EIPA, Luxembourg)

SESSION 1: Scope and definitions. Chair: Alegría Borrás (Univ. of Barcelona)

  • Introduction to the Regulation and to Its Scope, Domenico Damascelli (Notary in Turi and Univ. of Salento)
  • The Definition of “Succession” and Habitual Residence Within the Meaning of the Regulation (EU) 650/2012, Peter Kindler (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)

SESSION 2: Applicable law. Chair: Roberta Clerici (Univ. of Milan)

  • Applicable Law: Choice of Law, Ilaria Viarengo (Univ. of Milan)
  • Agreements as to Successions, Jacopo Re (Univ. of Milan)
  • Public Policy and Overriding Mandatory Rules, Francesca C. Villata (Univ. of Milan)
  • Renvoi, Luigi Fumagalli (Univ. of Milan)
  • Practice Paper, Daniele Muritano (Notary in Empoli)

SESSION 3: Jurisdiction and recognition. Chair: Alexandra Irina Danila (Notary in Romania)

  • Jurisdiction: General Rules and Choice of Court, Ilaria Queirolo (Univ. of Genoa)
  • Jurisdiction: Other Grounds, Stefania Bariatti (Univ. of Milan)
  • Recognition of Judgments, Stefano Dominelli / Francesco Pesce (Univ. of Genoa)
  • European Certificate of Succession: First Remarks concerning its Application, Carlo Alberto Marcoz (Notary in Turin)

SESSION 4: Round Table: The Impact on Member States and Third Countries. Chair: Stefania Bariatti (Univ. of Milan)

  • Isidoro Calvo Vidal (Notary in Coruña)
  • Cyril Nourissat (Univ. Jean Moulin Lyon 3)
  • Peter Kindler (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
  • Andrew Godfrey (Russell-Cooke, London)
  • Paul Beaumont/Jayne Holliday (Univ. of Aberdeen)

Further information and the registration form are available on the conference’s webpage.




Now hiring: Assistant in Private International Law in Freiburg (Germany)

At the Institute for Foreign and Private International Law of the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany), a vacancy has to be filled at the chair for private law, private international law and comparative law (chairholder: Prof. Dr. Jan von Hein), from 1 April, 2016 with

a legal research assistant (salary scale E 13 TV-L, personnel quota 50%)
limited for 2 years.

The assistant is supposed to support the organizational and educational work of the chairholder, to participate in research projects of the chair as well as to teach his or her own courses (students’ exercise). Applicants are offered the opportunity to obtain a doctorate.

Applicants are expected to be interested in the chair’s main areas of research. They should possess an above-average German First State Examination (at least “vollbefriedigend”) or a foreign equivalent degree and be fluent in German. In addition, a thorough knowledge of German civil law as well as conflict of laws, comparative law and/or international procedural law is a necessity. Severely handicapped persons will be preferred provided that their qualification is equal.

Please send your application (curriculum vitae, certificates and, if available, further proofs of talent) to Prof. Dr. Jan von Hein, Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht, Abt. III, Peterhof, Niemensstr. 10, D-79098 Freiburg (Germany) no later than 1 March, 2016.

As the application documents will not be returned, applicants are kindly requested to submit only unauthenticated copies. Alternatively, the documents may be sent as a pdf-file via e-mail to ipr3@jura.uni-freiburg.de.




New Publication by Mirela Župan (ed): Family at Focus

Mirela2016 A collection of papers from the 11th Regional Private International Law Conference held in Osijek, Croatia, on 11-12 June 2014 is out now. The book, edited by Professor Mirela Župan, contains scientiffic contributions by prominent authors on topics ranging from analysing the role and/or meaning of different connecting factors (habitual residence, nationality, party autonomy) to commenting on the effects which ECtHR case law may have on the interpretation of the Hague Abduction Convention. In addition, the book contains six national reports on the operation of the Hague Abduction Convention in the region.
The links to the books in .pdf and .epub formats are available here.




Out now: von Hein & Rühl (eds), Coherence in European Union Private International Law

von Hein & Ruehl, Coherence in European Union Private International LawReaders of our blog might recall that Jan von Hein and I convened a conference on coherence in European private international law in Freiburg i.Br. (Germany) in October 2014 (see our previous post). Today, we are happy to report that the findings of the conference have just been published by the German publishing house Mohr Siebeck.

The  volume critically assesses the current state of European private international law including the law of international civil procedure. It sheds light on existing incoherences, describes the requirements for a more coherent regulation and discusses perspectives for a future European codification in the field of private international law. In addition, the volume contains English language summaries of each contribution as well as detailed discussion reports.

More information is available on the publisher’s website. The table of contents reads as follows:

Part 1: Grundlagen

  • Jürgen Basedow, Kohärenz im Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrecht der Europäischen Union: Eine einleitende Orientierung
  • Anatol Dutta, Gemeinsame oder getrennte Kodifikation von IPR und IZVR auf europäischer Ebene: Die bisherigen und geplanten Verordnungen im Familien- und Erbrecht als Vorbilder für andere Rechtsgebiete?
  • Thomas Kadner Graziano, Gemeinsame oder getrennte Kodifikation von IPR und IZVR: Das schweizerische IPR-Gesetz als Modell für eine europäische Gesamtkodifikation – Lehren für die EU?

Part 2: Der räumliche Anwendungsbereich des europäischen IPR/IZVR

  • Burkhard Hess, Binnenverhältnisse im Europäischen Zivilprozessrecht: Grenzüberschreitende v. nationale Sachverhalte
  • Tanja Domej, Das Verhältnis nach „außen“: Europäische v. Drittstaatensachverhalte
  • Andrea Schulz, Die EU und die Haager Konferenz für Internationales Privatrecht

Part 3: Subjektive und personale Anknüpfungspunkte im europäischen IPR/IZVR

  • Felix Maultzsch, Parteiautonomie im Internationalen Privat- und Zivilverfahrensrecht
  • Frauke Wedemann, Die Verortung juristischer Personen im europäischen IPR und IZVR
  • Brigitta Lurger, Die Verortung natürlicher Personen im europäischen IPR und IZVR: Wohnsitz, gewöhnlicher Aufenthalt, Staatsangehörigkeit

Part 4: Objektive Anknüpfungsmomente für Schuldverhältnisse im europäischen IPR/IZVR

  • Michael Müller, Objektive Anknüpfungsmomente für Schuldverhältnisse im europäischen IPR und IZVR: Die Behandlung vertraglicher Sachverhalte
  • Haimo Schack, Kohärenz im europäischen Internationalen Deliktsrecht

Part 4: Schutz schwächerer Parteien und von Allgemeininteressen im europäischen IPR/IZVR

  • Eva-Maria Kieninger, Der Schutz schwächerer Personen im Schuldrecht
  • Urs Peter Gruber, Der Schutz schwächerer Personen im Familien- und Erbrecht
  • Moritz Renner, Ordre public und Eingriffsnormen: Konvergenzen und Divergenzen zwischen IPR und IZVR



Latest Issue of RabelsZ: Vol. 80 No. 1 (2016)

The latest issue of “Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht  – The Rabel Journal of Comparative and International Private Law” (RabelsZ) has just been released. It contains the following articles:

Armin Steinbach, Investor-Staat-Schiedsverfahren und Verfassungsrecht (Investor-State Dispute Settlement and Constitutional Law)

Investment treaties allow foreign investors to claim damages against states before tribunals of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). More frequently, such dispute settlement procedures tend to replace proceedings before national courts. This has given rise to the heated debate surrounding the ongoing negotiation about the free trade agreements between the European Union and the United States of America. This article identifies and discusses the constitutional law implications of such tribunals. The composition of the tribunals of private persons, the lack of a legal ground for public policy reasons to override investors’ rights, the dynamic development of the adjudication based on vague legal terms and the lack of publicity and transparency in the proceedings – all this raises questions from the perspective of democratic principle and rule of law. Based on democratic principle doctrine, this article classifies rulings of tribunals as acts of public authority and highlights the lack of material and personal legitimacy and examines whether a state monopoly of adjudication can be derived from the separation of powers principle. It discusses the publicity and control of ISDS tribunals as an obligation enshrined in the democratic principles and highlights the missing legal reviewability of ISDS rulings compared to tribunals established under German administrative law. Finally, the article explores possible compensatory instruments addressing the identified deficits based on an application of investments treaties in line with constitutional law principles.

Reinhard Zimmermann, Das Ehegattenerbrecht in historisch-vergleichender Perspektive (The Intestate Succession Rights of the Deceased’s Spouse in Historical and Comparative Perspective)

The coordination of the position of the surviving spouse with that of the deceased’s (blood-) relatives is one of central problems faced by the intestate succession systems of the Western world. While the succession of the relatives essentially follows one of three different systems (the “French” system, the three-line system, and the parentelic system) which have remained relatively stable, the position of the surviving spouse has, over the centuries, become ever more prominent. Roman law, at the time of Justinian, took account of the surviving spouse only in exceptional situations, medieval customary law often not at all. Today, on the other hand, she (much more often than he) has worked her way up, in most countries, to the position of main beneficiary under the rules of intestate succession, for small and medium-sized estates sometimes even to the position of exclusive beneficiary.

The present essay (based on the author’s Rudolf von Jhering lecture at the University of Gießen) traces this development. In doing so it attempts, in the spirit of Jhering, not to line up the laws in the various epochs of our legal history “like pearls on a pearl string” but to look at them as part of a development and to trace their interconnections. The same idea can also be applied to comparative law in view of the fact that the modern national legal systems do not coexist in isolation but in a “system of mutual contact and influence” and, as may be added, on the fertile soil of a common legal culture. Today we find a wide-spread desire to allow the surviving spouse to remain in her familiar environment and to continue to enjoy the standard of living she has become accustomed to. Legal systems still differ as to the way in which best to achieve this aim, i.e. as to the details of the surviving spouse’s intestate succession right. An important guideline for assessing the various solutions to be found in the national legal systems is what the average deceased typically regards as reasonable, as far as the distribution of his estate is concerned. This can sometimes be gauged from the way in which wills are commonly drafted, and it has indeed guided the reforms in a number of countries. In Germany, the so-called “Berlin will” is particularly popular. Nonetheless, it does not appear to offer a satisfactory cue for the regulation of the law of intestate succession. In spite of a certain degree of arbitrariness inherent in this way of proceeding, the surviving spouse will have to be given a share (e.g. one half ) of the estate. In addition, she should be granted the right to retain the right to continue to live in the family home.

Talia Einhorn, The Common Law Foundations of the Israeli Draft Civil Code – A Critical Review of a Paradigm-Shifting Endeavor

(no English abstract available)

Diegeo P. Fernández ArroyoMain Characteristics of the New Private International Law of the Argentinian Republic

(no English abstract available)




New publications: Practical Handbooks on the Operation of the Service and Evidence Conventions

The Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law has just published two Practical Handbooks:
* Practical Handbook on the Operation of the Service Convention (4th edition);
* Practical Handbook on the Operation of the Evidence Convention (3rd edition).

Both publications are for sale in e-Book format on the Hague Conference website here.

Here is the announcement by the Permanent Bureau, as published in the news section of the Conference’s website:
“The new editions of these Handbooks bring together and synthesise the wealth of case law and commentary on the Convention on the one hand, as well as the work of the Special Commission and practice communicated by Contracting States on the other. Furthermore, in recent years, new issues have arisen with respect to the operation of the Conventions, many of which are the result of unprecedented technological developments. Thus, these new editions also include comprehensive research and analysis relating to the use of information technology in the operation of the Conventions, an area that continues to evolve.

Before their official release, both Handbooks were formally approved by the Council on General Affairs and Policy, the highest organ of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. This of course only increases the authoritative value of these Handbooks as a secondary source of information on the operation of these important Conventions.
For more information, please see the Service and Evidence Sections of the Hague Conference website.”