Revue Critique de Droit International Privé – Issues 2 and 3 of 2026

The second issue of the Revue critique de droit international privé for 2026 was published last July. It contains two articles dealing with private international law issues and a number of casenotes.

The editorial by the journal’s editors draws on the Paris court’s judgment of 12 March 2026 on duty of vigilance, analysed here (De l’art de régler les conflits de lois en situation d’incertitude : surréalisme, spectralité, diplomatie ou… jeu du Mistigri ?). This issue also includes a brief analysis of the report on the law applicable to generative AI models (Sur un rapport relatif à la loi applicable à l’intelligence artificielle, Antoine d’Ornano), reported here.

In the first article, Étienne Farnoux (University of Strasbourg/Saint-Joseph University of Beirut) examines issues of private international law arising from financial loss to an investor’s bank account in France, as reflected in recent case law from the French Court of Cassation (Localisation du préjudice financier sur le compte bancaire de l’investisseur en France, une nouvelle doctrine de la Cour de cassation pour la compétence juridictionnelle et la loi applicable ?).

In four judgments delivered on October 1st and two further judgments on 26 november 2025, the Cour de cassation located the financial loss suffered by an investor at that investor’s domicile, within the framework of a unitary approach common to both the determination of jurisdiction and the identification of the applicable law. Beyond the outcome – favourable to the investor – the methodology adopted is noteworthy: the Cour de cassation applies a sophisticated connecting-factor, based on a multifactorial and case-by-case analysis, thereby rationalising the complex case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union concerning financial loss in the context of the European forum delicti. This article analyses these rulings, emphasising three significant methodological developments: the alignment of forum and jus, the disaggregation of the connecting rule, and the personalization of the connecting factor.

In the second contribution, Véronique Carole Ngono (University of Douala, Cameroon) investigates the African Principles on the Law Applicable to International Commercial Contracts (Les Principes africains sur la loi applicable aux contrats commerciaux internationaux : un modèle pour l’Afrique ?).

African private international law has been enriched by a flexible legal text: the African Principles on the Law Applicable to International Commercial Contracts, which were officially launched in 2024. While the objective of harmonising solutions for the choice of law in international commercial contracts in Africa is commendable, despite the fact that they are, in principle, an extension of the 2008 Rome I Regulation on the law applicable to contractual obligations and the Hague Principles on the choice of law applicable to international commercial contracts, the question of their impact arises. The answer is nuanced: while these principles constitute a necessary model given the unsatisfactory state of African legislation on the issue, their impact could be hampered by certain shortcomings.

The full table of contents is available here.

The third issue of the Revue critique de droit international privé for 2026 has just been published.

It contains one article dealing with conflict issues and a number of casenotes.

In his paper, Michael Sonnentag (University of Potsdam) analyses the interplays between French inheritance law and the German statutory matrimonial property regime

This article addresses the difficulties arising from the interaction between French inheritance law and the German statutory matrimonial property regime. The primary cause of these problems lies in the succession- based interpretation of the rule in Article 1371, paragraph 1, of the German Civil Code ( BGB), as adopted by the Court of Justice of the European Union ( CJEU). According to this provision, the surviving spouse’s inheritance share is automatically increased by one- quarter. If this is classified as a matter of succession law, which is not by the author, the rule in Article 1371, paragraph 1, of applied. In such cases, no alternative solution is provided To address this gap, the author develops a new applying this rule despite its classification as an issue

The full table of contents is available here.