Droit international général

The Second Report on the application of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has just been published, click here. For the full report, click here: Second Report GDPR.

At a meeting on 11 July 2024, 22 lawyers and academics voted to form the Australasian Association of Private International Law (AAPrIL).  Professor Mary Keyes (Griffith University) was elected the inaugural President and the Honourable Dr Andrew Bell, Chief Justice of New South Wales, has agreed to be AAPrIL’s patron.

The AAPrIL’s first elected officers are as follows:

• President: Professor Mary Keyes (Griffith University, Queensland)
• Secretary: Professor Reid Mortensen (University of Southern Queensland)
• Treasurer: Ms Cara North (Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Melbourne)
• Australian Vice-President: Dr Michael Douglas (Bennett, Perth)
• New Zealand Vice-President: Mr Jack Wass (Stout Street Chambers, Wellington)

AAPrIL has been established to promoted understanding, awareness and the reform of private international law in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, and to provide a regional organisation for cooperation with similar private international law associations across the world.  It plans to hold an annual conference, support regular seminars and roundtables, engage with governments in Australasia on private international law issues and reform, publish a regular newsletter on events and legal developments in the region, and encourage cooperation with the Hague Conference on Private International Law and other private international law inter-governmental organisations.

More details about AAPrIL can be found on its website.  Any enquiries can be made to AAPrIL’s Secretary, Professor Reid Mortensen: reid.mortensen@unisq.edu.au.

The deadline to submit papers for AMEDIP’s Annual Seminar has been extended to Sunday 4 August 2024. Authors whose papers have been accepted will be notified by Saturday 10 August 2024.

For more information, click here  (our previous post). To view the requirements, click Convocatoria AMEDIP 2024.

Papers must be submitted to the following email address: seminario@amedip.org.

Crypto-litigation is an increasingly significant business. The “omniterritorial” nature of digital assets has led to judicial competition in this field. As Matthias Lehman usefully summarised in his recent post on this blog, English courts have taken several steps to position England as a (if not the) leading hub for crypto-litigation, including: allowing actions against persons unknown; permitting […]

The University of Geneva is organising the second edition of the Executive Training on Civil Aspects of International Child Protection (ICPT).

The University of Geneva’s ICPT, offered by the Children’s Rights Academy, is designed to:

• Explore innovative approaches to uphold the fundamental rights of children in transnational situations
• Learn best practices for supporting unaccompanied minors and displaced children seeking asylum
• Collaborate with experts from various fields to create holistic and effective child protection strategies
• Understand the dynamics of how different organisations and stakeholders can work together to protect children

Programme of the 2nd Round 2024 – 2025:

Module 1: Children’s Individual Rights in Transnational Parental Relationships

28 November 2024, 14:15 – 18:15

Module 2: International and Comparative Family Law

19 December 2024, 14:15 – 18:15

Module 3: Vulnerable Migration

27 February 2025, 14:15 – 18:15

Module 4: Practice of Child Protection Stakeholders: Inter-agency Co-operation in Context

10 April 2025, 14:15 – 18:15

This training programme is designed for a diverse audience, including child protection professionals, legislators and lawyers, researchers, students, international organisation staff members, and governmental authorities, among others.

For queries related to the content of the programme, please contact vito.bumbaca@unige.ch.

For more information, please visit the website. To register click here.

The e-mail address is cra-secretariat@unige.ch.

 

 

Nicolas Kyriakides, Heikki A. Huhtamäki and Nicholas Mouttotos have edited European Account Preservation Order – A Multi-jurisdictional Guide with Commentary, on Regulation No 655/2014. The book has just been published by Bruylant / Larcier. This new book on the European Account Preservation Order offers a multi-jurisdictional guide of the Regulation, examining the national operation and […]

This information is kindly provided by Dr. King Fung (Dicky) Tsang, Associate Professor, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

 

CUHK LAW will host an international conference on private international law from August 1, 2024, to August 2, 2024.

 

Theme

The theme of the conference is “Rethinking Jurisdiction in Private International Law.” Jurisdiction is a broad concept in private international law that includes legislative, judicial, and enforcement aspects. Over the past few years, there have been significant developments in the area of jurisdiction across various countries. These developments, while rooted in national law, have extensive cross-border impacts. Additionally, the HCCH Jurisdiction Project has engaged many countries in focusing on jurisdictional issues and seeking to harmonize jurisdictional conflicts. This conference offers a forum for academics and practitioners to rethink and exchange ideas on the evolving new features of “jurisdiction” in the context of private international law.

This conference is supported by Hitotsubashi University.

 

Speakers, Abstracts and Programme:

The lists of the speakers, abstracts and the programme can be found respectively here, here and here

 

Venue:

The Conference will be held at the Cheng Yu Tung Building (CYT) which is located in Sha Tin, Hong Kong.

Address:
LT1A, 1/F, Cheng Yu Tung Building (CYT), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Map)

Transportation:
MTR: Get off at the University Station. CYT Building is just 1-minute walk away from Exit B.

 

Languages:

The first day will be conducted in English, while the second day will mainly be in Mandarin Chinese. Attendees are welcome to participate in sessions on both days.

 

Details and registration

Please visit the conference website for more details. If you would like to attend, kindly register here by 31 July 2024, 3:00 pm.

For enquiries, please contact CUHK LAW at law@cuhk.edu.hk.

 

FACULTY OF LAW

The Chinese University of Hong Kong | Shatin, NT, Hong Kong SAR, China

T: +852 3943 4399 | E: law@cuhk.edu.hk | W: https://www.law.cuhk.edu.hk

 

As several among our readers (and editors!) are enjoying the summer break, the EAPIL blog will slow down its activity over the next few weeks. There will be just a couple of posts every week until the end of August, when the usual five-post-a-week pace will resume. Have a great summer!

Building on the success of the first edition, a new edition of the EAPIL Winter School is being organized by  the European Association of Private International Law, together with the Department of Law, Economics and Cultures of the University of Insubria in Como (Italy), with the Law Faculty of the University of Murcia (Spain) and […]

The second issue of the Revue for 2024 is dedicated to the law of migration which, in the French tradition, belongs to private international law. The issue features seven articles which, for most of them, discuss certain aspect of a French statute adopted in January 2024 to control immigration and improve integration. The issue also […]

Written by Hadrien Pauchard (assistant researcher at Sciences Po Law School)

The first issue of the Revue Critique de droit international privé of 2024 was released a few months ago. It contains 2 articles and several case notes. Once again, the doctrinal part has been made available in English on the editor’s website (for registered users and institutions).

The opening article is authored by Dr. Nicolas Nord (Université de Strasbourg) and tackles the crucial yet often overlooked issue of L’officier d’état civil et le droit étranger. Analyse critique et prospective d’une défaillance française (Civil registrars and foreign law. A critical and prospective analysis of a French failure). Its abstract reads as follows:

In international situations, French civil registrars may frequently be confronted with the application of foreign law. However, by virtue of the General Instruction on Civil Status and other administrative texts, they are under no obligation to establish the content of foreign law and can be satisfied with the sole elements reported by requesting private individuals. This solution certainly has the advantage of simplifying the task of civil registrars, who are not legal professionals. However, it leads to inconsistencies within the French legal system. The article therefore recommends reversing the principle and creating a duty for the French authority in this area. However, the burden should be lightened by facilitating access to the content of foreign law. Concrete proposals are put forward to this end, both internally and through international cooperation.

In the second article, Prof. David Sindres (Université d’Angers) addresses the complex question of the scope of jurisdiction clauses, through the critical discussion of recent case law on whether Le « destinataire réel » des marchandises peut-il se voir opposer la clause attributive de compétence convenue entre le chargeur et le transporteur maritime ? (Can the “actual addressee” of the goods be submitted to the jurisdiction clause agreed between the shipper and the maritime carrier?). The abstract reads as follows:

In two notable decisions, the French Cour de cassation has ruled that the case law of the Court of Justice Tilly Russ/Coreck Maritime is strictly confined to the third-party bearer of a bill of lading or sea waybill, and cannot be applied to the “actual addressee” of the goods. Thus, unlike the third party bearer, the “actual addressee” cannot be submitted to the clause agreed between the shipper and the maritime carrier and inserted in a bill of lading or a sea waybill, even if he has succeeded to the rights and obligations of the shipper under the applicable national law, or has given his consent to the clause under the conditions laid down in article 25 of the Brussels I bis regulation. The distinction thus made by the Cour de cassation with regard to the enforceability against third parties of jurisdiction clauses agreed between shippers and carriers cannot be easily justified. Indeed, it is in no way required by the Tilly Russ and Coreck Maritime rulings and is even difficult to reconcile with them. Furthermore, insofar as it may lead to the non-application of a jurisdiction clause to an actual addressee who has nevertheless consented to it under the conditions of article 25 of the Brussels I bis regulation, it fails to meet the requirements of this text.

The full table of contents is available here.

The second issue of 2024 has been released and will be presented shortly on this blog.

Previous issues of the Revue Critique (from 2010 to 2022) are available on Cairn. 

On 26 and 27 September 2024, an international conference in honour of professor Paul Lagarde, on the occasion of his 90th  birthday, will take place in Paris, at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Centre Sorbonne, Liard Auditorium). It will deal with the international sources of private international law, drawing on the major role that […]

A call for abstracts has been launched for the TEGL (Transformative Effects of Globalisation in Law) Conference entitled “Re-imagining Law for Sustainable Globalization: Navigating Uncertainty in a Globalized Era”, which will take place on 16-17 December 2024. For more information, click here.

Interested persons may submit a paper proposal abstract, a panel proposal abstract or an abstract to participate in the PhD session. Abstracts should be no more than 500 words. A short bio (of max. 200 words) should also be included. Both documents should be submitted by 15 September 2024 by using the following link.

As stated on its website, the topics are the following:

The conference focuses on the four TEGL research streams: 1) Constitutionalism and Subjects of Globalization; 2) Economic Law and Globalization’s Infrastructures; 3) Courts, Science and Legitimacy; 4) National and Regional Institutions as Global Actors.  It, therefore, welcomes submissions on a wide variety of topics. For reference, specific questions include but are not limited to:

• How does law produce socio-economic inequalities in the context of uncertainty and across various areas?
• How can existing categories of law be rethought in different areas to reduce these inequalities and the resulting sense of uncertainty?
• How does law constrain or regulate uncertainties within global value chains, exploring its role in shaping and responding to crises in this interconnected world?
• How does law guarantee or contribute to uncertainty in international economic exchanges, encompassing trade and investment?
• How effective are legal mechanisms in mitigating uncertainties arising from the current climate crisis? Discuss how the law can contribute to sustainable solutions.
• What is the role of law in empowering or disempowering individuals facing socio-economic inequalities and exploring potential legal reforms to address disparities?
• How does the law address humanitarian concerns during the conflict, considering its effectiveness and proposing innovative solutions?
• What role do principles play in risk regulation/environmental/climate change litigation (before international/EU/national courts)?
• What role do experts play in decision-making and courts, and what role do NGOs/public interest litigation play?
• What is the role of science and its legitimacy in courts?
• How does uncertainty affect legal coherence and migration governance, and can uncertainty be considered a ‘governance strategy?’
• How to regulate and control in times of uncertainty.
• Proportionality in times of uncertainty.
• What role should law play in navigating uncertainty in the digital age, including in platform regulation (e.g., the political economy of platforms, AI utilization in content moderation, design of platform interfaces, access to datasets), automated decision-making, digitization of lawmaking and the use of AI in courtrooms (Robot judge, natural language processing and automation in law).

This event is organized within and supported by the Sector Plan TEGL and the Globalization and Law Network of Maastricht University. For inquiries, please contact glawnet-fdr@maastrichtuniversity.nl.

TEGL research project is a collaboration between the law faculties of Maastricht University, Open Universiteit NL, Tilburg University and the University of Amsterdam. More information is available here.

In competition law, a parent company is liable for any infringements of EU competition law by its subsidiary (see CJEU Case C-516/15 P, Akzo Nobel, para 51–57). Both are considered ‘a single economic unity’, notwithstanding their separate legal personalities (id para 53). The question whether this theory also works in the context of Brussels Ibis […]

This post was written by Fabienne Jault-Seseke, who is Professor of Private Law at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin (Paris Saclay). On 12 June 2024, the French Supreme Court for civil and criminal matters (Cour de cassation) confirmed in a ruling that the “primary” matrimonial property regime is defined by mandatory laws, which are applicable […]

As recently highlighted by contributions on this blog, new technologies have a significant impact on the development of the law. Hence, the Curatorium of the Hague Academy of International Law has chosen for the the 2025 edition of the Centre for Studies and Research (18 August – 5 September 2025) to focus on the emerging topic of “Artificial Intelligence and International Law“. This year, the selected researchers will be work under the guidance of the Directors of Research, Marion Ho-Dac (Université d’Artois) for the French-speaking section as well as Marco Roscini (University of Westminster) for the English-speaking section.

Interested candidates must be researchers and preferably hold an advanced degree (PhD or Doctorate degree). Registration for the 2025 Centre is open from 1 July to 15 October 2024 via the institution’s own Online Registration Form.

The Academy describes the scope of its 2025 Programme as follows (emphasis added to highlight passages of specific interest to col.net readers):

The increasing integration of digital technologies based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) into human activities requires a thorough re-examination of most normative frameworks in the international order. Advanced AI systems operate with ever greater autonomy, generating content, recommendations, predictions and decisions for States, organisations and individuals. AI thus offers enormous opportunities for humankind by facilitating (or even making possible) the performance of certain tasks. At the same time, however, it presents significant risks related, for instance, to potential biases and accountability gaps. In this context, is (public and private) international law capable of addressing the profound changes that the contemporary rise of AI is bringing? 

The Centre of Studies and Research 2025 of The Hague Academy of International Law aims to analyse these challenges and opportunities through the lenses of international law in a holistic manner by focusing on three different aspects: AI’s impact on the sources and institutions of the international legal order, AI’s impact on special regimes of international law, and AI’s role in addressing specific contemporary problems.

Selected researchers will be called to work on the following topics under the guidance of the Directors of Research:

• AI and International/Regional Organisations
• AI and International/Regional Courts and Tribunals
• AI and the Making of (Public/Private) International Law
• AI and the Practice of (Public/Private) International Law
• International Governance of AI including Technical Standardisation
• AI and the Risk-based Approach
• AI and the International Law of Armed Conflict
• AI and International Environmental Law
• AI and Conflict of Laws 
• AI and International Human Rights Law
• AI and the Law of State Responsibility
• AI and International Criminal Law
• AI and International Business Law 
• AI and the Maintenance of International Peace and Security
• Lethal Autonomous Weapons and International Law
• AI and the North-South Divide
• AI and Cybersecurity
• AI and Privacy  
• AI and Humanitarian Action
• AI and the Cross-border Movement of Persons
• AI and (Mis)Information

For further information on the HAIL 2025 Centre and the Academy in general, please consult the HAIL Homepage or refer to the attached PDF Programme.

The registrations for the Hague Academy Centre for Studies and Research of 2025 are open. The 2025 edition of the Centre will focus on Artificial Intelligence and International Law. The Directors of Research will be Marco Roscini (University of Westminster) for the English-speaking section, and Marion Ho-Dac (University of Artois) for the French-speaking session. The […]

The Channel is Really an Abyss When reading court judgments from the UK and the EU, one is often struck by the different attitudes on either side of the Channel. While courts on the continent try to get rid of cases as quickly as possible, their English counterparts seem to tell litigants ‘Bring them on!’. […]

Williams C Iheme, “The Overdependence of African Courts and Businesses on English Law and Forum:
The Negative Repercussions on the Development of African Legal and Economic Systems”  (2024) 15 Pravni Zapisi, pp. 151-190

The uncritical transplantation of English law by Anglophone-African legislators and judges, and their failure to sufficiently adapt English legal concepts to suit the idiosyncratic socioeconomic conditions in Africa, arguably contribute to the perpetuation of English law’s hegemony therein. It is argued that the overdependence on English law and courts by African businesses in resolving contractual disputes
is not necessarily due to any alleged stellar qualities of the former, but largely due to the over-marketing of the English legal system’s competence by its apologists. The analysis uses piquant examples to elicit some adverse effects of using/overreliance on the English law and forum by African businesses in resolving contractual disputes.

To reposition from the lengthened shadow of English law, Anglophone African legislators, judges and legal scholars, must craft autochthonous legal processes that suit Africa’s tastes and socioeconomic milieu.

 

Georgia Antonopoulou, “Forum Marketing in International Commercial Courts?” (2024) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies

Forum selling is a legal term used to describe the practices of courts and judges, geared towards attracting cases, such as increasing the predictability of judgments or speeding up trials. However, do courts also go beyond forum selling to attract cases? Taking international commercial courts as its focus, this article explores how these courts market themselves to attract cases and coins the term ‘forum marketing’. It demonstrates that the courts’ recent establishment, coupled with their voluntary jurisdiction, creates a compelling context, which encourages them to engage in forum marketing. The article argues that forum marketing is not merely a byproduct of the competition in commercial dispute resolution, but a powerful mechanism with deeply persuasive, normative and, effectively, structuring properties. Forum marketing is central to disseminating and reinforcing a pro-business approach in civil justice, consequently setting the stage for procedural inequality and a one per cent procedure.

Janeen M. Carruthers (University of Glasgow) and Bobby W.M. Lindsay (University of Glasgow) edited Research Handbook on International Family Law. Published by Edward Elgar in its Research Handbooks in Family Law series, the book addresses legal topics pertaining to family relationships in a cross-border context, and international family law disputes. It shows how this field […]