Revue Critique de Droit International Privé: Issue 3 of 2025

The third issue of the Revue critique de droit international privé for 2025 was just published.

It contains three articles dealing with conflict issues (and a fourth concerned with immigration law) and a number of casenotes.

The case, which arose when recognition was sought in France of a Spanish court’s ruling against a French newspaper ordering it to pay heavy damages, highlights the conflict between the European objective of mutual trust and the protection of fundamental rights, particularly the freedom of the press. In a decision dated October 4, 2024, the Court of Justice (on a preliminary reference by the Cour de cassation) outlined the general methodology for controlling the proportionality of a financial penalty imposed abroad, on the basis of international public policy, a mechanism strongly influenced by European law. This control, which was subsequently implemented by the Court of Cassation in a ruling dated May 28, 2025, is severely limited by the European principle of prohibition of the review on the merits.

In the second article, Fabienne Jault- Seseke (University Paris Saclay, UVSQ) explores the unspoken aspects of European digital law in private international law, with a focus on the Digital Services Act (Les non-dits du droit européen du numérique en matière de droit international privé : l’exemple du règlement sur les services numériques).

The Digital Services Act (DSA) addresses issues of private international law in a very limited way. It mainly defines its territorial scope using a unilateral rule : it applies to any intermediary service provider that targets users in the European Union, regardless of its place of establishment. It is largely silent on other aspects of the private international law, such as determining the law applicable to illegal content or to actions for injunctions and damages. In terms of jurisdiction, it refers to the Brussels I bis Regulation, whose provisions are poorly adapted to the specificities of the digital world. The preference that the DSA seems to give to public enforcement rather than private enforcement cannot justify its silence on most questions of PIL, which are essential if we are to ensure effective protection of rights in the digital environment, which is almost always cross- border.

Finally, Marcel Zernikow (University of Orléans) explores how certificates and digitalisation have renewed the methodology of European judicial cooperation to serve the right to a fair trial (Le renouvellement des méthodes de la coopération judiciaire au service du droit au procès équitable : l’instrument du certificat et la numérisation).

Judicial cooperation is an object of study in private international law that is justified by the need to make the State’s jurisdictional activity effective in a foreign territory. Since it describes the connection between State or judicial authorities of two different States, it is governed by their respective territorial procedural laws. This field is nevertheless undergoing a renewal of its methods, which will be studied through the prism of the introduction of a new instrument: the certificate. The latter is gradually being used to accompany public documents or judicial decisions or for evidentiary purposes. How has this development become the basis for digitalization, which relies on the interconnection of legal systems and individuals via the internet? The renewal of methods is universal insofar as it is based on the guarantee of the right to a fair trial in international civil proceedings.

The full table of contents can be found here.