Tag Archive for: private international law

4-year PostDoc Position in European law at Humboldt University Berlin

The Law Faculty of Humboldt University is inviting applications for a four-year PostDoc position in European law. The position is fully paid and funded by the graduate research programme DynamInt (Dynamic Integration Order) which itself is funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).

The PostDoc is supposed to pursue her/his research project in the field of European Law (including European Private International Law and International Civil Procedure). She/he is also expected to interact with the group of young researchers, who all work on their dissertation projects within the thematic framework of harmonization and plurality tendencies in the EU.

The position is targeting German-speaking researchers (in contrast to the international PostDoc positions advertised last week). More information is available here.

 

 

PhD positions in Antwerp

The University of Antwerp has opened two vacancies for PhD research related to private international law.

The first covers inter alia EU private international law, and will be supervised by prof. dr. Johan Meeusen and prof. dr. Mathieu Leloup. The four-year scholarship is sponsored by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO). The candidate will write a PhD on mutual trust and rule of law requirements in the field of judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters. The researcher will have to examine, inter alia, the enforcement of the European Union’s rule of law requirements by courts applying EU private international law instruments. All information on this position, and how to apply, can be found on the University of Antwerp’s website.

The second is on the cusp of private and public international law and will be supervised by Thalia Kruger. This position, also for four years, is funded by the Law Faculty. The research will be about international contracts in the context of international treaties on water. The highland water project (Lesotho and South Africa) is a possible approach. More information and requirements are also available on the website of the University of Antwerp.

 

Supreme Court of Canada to Hear Jurisdiction Appeal

The Supreme Court of Canada has granted leave to appeal in Sinclair v Venezia Turismo. In light of the test for obtaining leave and the relatively low number of cases in which leave is granted, this offers at least some suggestion that the top court is interested in considering the legal issues raised in the case.

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Private International Law and Sustainable Development in Asia: REMINDER–Still Time to Submit Your Proposals

The United Nations Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seems to have a blind spot for the role of private and private international law. That blind spot is beginning to be closed. A collective volume with global outlook published in 2021 addressed “the private side of transforming our world”: each of the 17 SDGs was discussed in one chapter of the book devoted to the specific relevance of private law and private international law. In 2022, the IACL-ASADIP conference in Asunción, Paraguay discussed sustainable private international law with regard to Latin America; the contributions published in 2023 in a special issue of the University of Brasilia Law Journal – Direito.UnB., V.7., N.3 (2023).

In this occasion the focus is on Asia. The Chinese Journal of Transnational Law invites submissions for its Vol. 2 Issue 2, to be published in 2025, engaging critically with the functions, methodologies and techniques of private international law in relation to sustainability from an Asian perspective, as well as in relation to the actual and potential contributions of private international law to the SDGs in Asia. Read more

The Nigerian Supreme Court now has a Specialist in Conflict of Laws

The authors of this post are Chukwuma Okoli, Assistant Professor in Commercial Conflict of Laws at the University of Birmingham, and Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg; and Abubakri Yekini, Lecturer in Conflict of Laws at the University of Manchester.

 

On December 21, 2023, the Nigerian Senate in line with Section 231(2) of the 1999 Constitution, confirmed the appointment of Honourable Justice Habeeb A.O. Abiru (“Justice Abiru”), alongside ten other justices, to the Nigerian Supreme Court, following the recommendation of the National Judicial Council and the Nigerian President. This appointment fills the vacancy created by recent retirements or deaths of some justices.

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Private International Law and Sustainable Development: Global and Latin American Perspectives

Revista Direito.UnB | V. 07, N. 3, Tomo I, EDIÇÃO ESPECIAL 2023

A new special issue of the University of Brasilia Law Journal is dedicated to the topic “Private International Law and Sustainable Development: Global and Latin American Perspectives”. The issue, co-edited by Véronica Ruiz Abou-Nigm and María Mercedes Albornoz, is based on contributions to a panel at the 15th conference of ASADIP in Asunción, Paraguay (2022), and contains some articles in Spanish, some in English. The issue is available as open access.

The New Zealand Court of Appeal on the cross-border application of New Zealand consumer and fair trading legislation

The New Zealand Court of Appeal has just released a judgment on the cross-border application of New Zealand consumer and fair trading legislation (Body Corporate Number DPS 91535 v 3A Composites GmbH [2023] NZCA 647). The Court held that local consumer legislation – in the form of the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 (CGA) – applies to foreign manufacturers. It also clarified that fair trading legislation – in the form of the Fair Trading Act 1986 (FTA) – applies to representations made to recipients in New Zealand. The decision is of particular interest to New Zealand consumers and manufacturers of goods that are supplied in New Zealand, as well as traders advertising their products to New Zealanders. More generally, the judgment provides a useful analysis of the interrelationship between statutory interpretation and choice of law, and lends weight to the proposition that product liability is properly governed by the law of the place of supply (or injury).

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First View Articles for International and Comparative Law Quarterly Issue 1 of 2024

The first view articles for ICLQ issue 1 of 2024 was recently published. As regards, private international law, it contains one research article and a book review as follows:

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The jurisdictional hurdles of s 26 of the Trans-Tasman Proceedings Act 2010 (Cth), in the context of interim anti-enforcement relief in aid of New Zealand proceedings

The New Zealand High Court recently granted a permanent anti-enforcement injunction in relation to a default judgment from Kentucky in Kea Investments Ltd v Wikeley Family Trustee Limited [2023] NZHC 3260. The plaintiff, a British Virgin Islands company, claimed that the defendants had committed a tortious conspiracy against it because the Kentucky default judgment was based on fabricated claims intended to defraud it. The defendants were a New Zealand company, Wikeley Family Trustee Ltd (WFTL), and persons associated with the company.

In an undefended judgment, the High Court granted the injunction, awarded damages for the costs incurred in the foreign proceedings (referring to cases such as Union Discount Co Ltd v Zoller [2001] EWCA Civ 1755, [2002] 1 WLR 1517 by analogy), and issued a declaration that the Kentucky judgment would not be recognised or enforceable in New Zealand. As noted previously on this blog (see here), the case is an interesting example of “the fraud exception to the principles of comity” (Kea Investments Ltd v Wikeley (No 2) [2023] QSC 215 at [192]).

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Is this a Conflicts Case?

In Sharp v Autorité des marchés financiers, 2023 SCC 29 (available here) the Supreme Court of Canada has held that a Quebec administrative tribunal, the Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal, can hear a proceeding brought by the administrative agency that regulates Quebec’s financial sector, the Autorité des marchés financiers, against four defendants who reside in British Columbia.  The AMF alleged in the proceedings that the defendants had contravened the Quebec Securities Act.

The courts below, including a majority of the Quebec Court of Appeal, focused the analysis on s. 93 of the Act respecting the Autorité des marchés financiers, CQLR, c. A-33.2, which grants the FMAT jurisdiction to make determinations under the Securities Act.  They interpreted and applied this provision in light of Unifund Assurance Co. v Insurance Corp. of British Columbia, 2003 SCC 40, a leading decision on the scope of application of provincial law, which held that a provincial regulatory scheme constitutionally applies to an out-of-province defendant when there is a “real and substantial connection”, also described as a “sufficient connection”, between the province and the defendant.  This test was met on the facts [see para 22] and so the FMAT had jurisdiction.  This analysis is not generally understood as being within the field of conflict of laws.  Indeed, the majority of the Court of Appeal “saw no conflict of jurisdiction or any conflict of laws that would require the application of private international law rules to this case” [see para 29].

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