As frequent readers of this blog and private international law afficionados will appreciate, conflict of laws can often seem like an entirely different creature in international arbitration. General rules of private international law are usually taken not to bind tribunals, and what legislators provide in their stead is often quite open-ended. Despite this, there is […]
The fifth issue of IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) for 2026 was published on 1 September. The following advance abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. B. Steinrötter, The UNIDROIT Conflict-of-Laws Rule on the Law of Crypto-Assets. A contribution to the classification of Principle 5 of the UNIDROIT Principles […]
The second issue of the RabelsZ (The Rabel Journal of Comparative and International Private Law) for 2026 has been published. The RabelsZ has announced an overhaul of its governance structure and editorial processes in this issue. Holger Fleischer, Ralf Michaels, and Anne Röthel will be joined by Jens Kleinschmidt of the University of Trier and […]
The fourth issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) for 2026 will be published on 1 July. The following advance abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. L. Schwannecke, Challenging the European Certificate of Succession: Prerequisites and consequences after the CJEU decision in Albausy (German) According to Art. 67 […]
The third issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) for 2026 was published on 1 May. The following abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. B. Heiderhoff/C. Rüsing, Dealing with parallel proceedings in Third Countries – from Germany via Brussels to The Hague? (German) The extent to which civil […]
The first issue of the RabelsZ (The Rabel Journal of Comparative and International Private Law) for 2026 has been published digitally and is available via open access online, while the print issue is in the process of being delivered. The following titles and English abstracts of the articles have been kindly provided to us by […]
The second issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) for 2026 was published on 1 March. The following abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. C. Budzikiewicz/H.-P. Mansel/K. Thorn/R. Wagner, Europäisches Kollisionsrecht 2025: Im Windschatten der Weltpolitik (German) This article provides an overview of developments in Brussels in the […]
The first issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) for 2026 will be published on 6 January. It features a thought-provoking article by Bea Verschraegen about a particularity of German PIL, the doctrine of the so-called “hidden renvoi” (versteckter Rückverweis). The other articles are also of great interest, as you can see […]
The fourth and final issue of the RabelsZ (The Rabel Journal of Comparative and International Private Law) for the year of 2025 has been published and is now available via open access and in print, featuring topics as diverse as Roman marriage and digital assets. The following titles and English abstracts of the articles have […]
The sixth and final issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) for 2025 has been published on 1 November. The following abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. M. Weller: Fundamental innovations in international art restitution: “Restatement of Restitution Rules for Nazi-Confiscated Art” and introduction of an “Arbitral […]
The third issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) for 2025 has been finalized. This is a special issue with contributions that were presented at the memorial symposium in honour of the late Jürgen Basedow, held in Hamburg on 29 November 2024, under the title “Private International Law – Uniform Law […]
The fifth issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) for 2025 will be published on 1 September. The following advance abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. Two of the articles will be published in English: Krapfl and Krahn discuss evidence gathering in international arbitration via freedom of […]
At the University of Vienna, a Chair for Comparative Law and Private International Law will become vacant in 2026 (current holder: Professor Helmut Ofner). We are looking for experts around the world. The role will primarily involve teaching and research in private international law and comparative law. Knowledge of the German language and the […]
The fourth issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) for 2025 will be published on 1 July. The following advance abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. H.-P. Mansel, 70 Years of the German Council for Private International Law (1953-2023) [German] On the occasion of the seventieth anniversary […]
The newest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. Since 2024, RabelsZ has been an open access publication, with all articles freely available to readers online. The second issue of 2025 contains four German-language articles on comparative and private international law. Here are their titles and English abstracts, […]
The third issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) for 2025 has been published. The following English abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. M.F. Müller-Berg, The effects of the new product liability directive on international product liability [German] The concepts of damage, marketing and the person sustaining […]
How are overriding mandatory rules to be defined, in particular, how can they be distinguished from other mandatory rules? When shall a court apply overriding mandatory rules of a third country (other than the lex fori and the lex causae)? When should an international arbitral tribunal apply such rules? These questions have been struggled with […]
The second issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) for 2025 has been published. The following abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. C. Budzikiewicz/H.-P. Mansel/K. Thorn/R. Wagner, European Conflict of Law 2024: Business as usual? [German] This article provides an overview of developments in Brussels in the field […]
The German Parliament has adopted a reform of the law of names, including private international law, to enter into force in mid-2025. It includes a ground-breaking change from the classic connecting factor, nationality, to habitual residence. This seems to be a new trend: the incoming Austrian coalition government also plans a similar shift. The Text […]
The latest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. Since 2024, RabelsZ has been an open access publication, with all articles freely available to readers online. The focal point of the first issue of 2025 is international and comparative family law, with contributions critically examining the interactions between […]
A webinar of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on Conflict of Laws Issues in International Arbitration will take place on 18 February 2025. The webinar will be held in two sessions with identical content, to accommodate participants around the world. Here are the zoom links: Session 1 (8 AM London, 9 AM Berlin, 4 PM […]
The Austrian Supreme Court (OGH) has rendered an important decision to solve conflicts between several forum selection agreements. Facts An Austrian company had sub-contracted a German company to perform construction works in Germany. The main agreement contained a clause giving jurisdiction for any dispute to a German court. However, in two additional agreements, jurisdiction was […]
The first issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) for 2025 will be published on 6 January 2025. The following advance abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. W. Hau, Third countries and the revision of the Brussels Ibis Regulation: jurisdiction, parallel proceedings, recognition and enforceability [German] The […]
The latest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. Since the beginning of 2024, RabelsZ has been an open access publication, with all articles freely available to readers online. The fourth issue of 2024 closes off the year with a varied selection of essays on comparative and private […]
The German Supreme Court (BGH) declared a marriage celebrated by a couple from German territory over video in the US as being void in a decision dated 25 September 2024. Facts A Nigerian couple had given their vows during a videoconference before an official in Utah (USA), where the county government offers so-called ‘online marriage […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. The following abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. S. Deuring, Gender and International Private Law – Comments on the New Article 7a of the German Introductory Act to the Civil Code Although the attribution of […]
The latest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. Since the beginning of 2024, RabelsZ has been an open access publication, with all articles freely available to readers online. This issue deals with diverse topics such as sovereign immunities in front of Chinese courts, Puerto Rico’s newly-codified private […]
The latest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to us by the editor of the journal. Holger Fleischer and Heike Schweitzer, Ernst-Joachim Mestmäcker † 22 April 2024 (Open Access) Klaus Ulrich Schmolke, Das Prinzip der beschränkten Gesellschafterhaftung – Ein Streifzug […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. The following abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. Th. Klink, The Commercial Court according to the Justizstandort-Stärkungsgesetz (Legal Venue Strengthening Act) – a model project for cross-border court proceedings The Legal Venue Strengthening Act allows […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. The following abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. While all contributions are interesting, let me especially highlight the first one, written by Tobias Lutzi, who addresses an issue that permeates the whole European Private International […]
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 […]
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!’. […]
Professor Matthias Lehmann, Chair of Private International and Comparative Law at the University of Vienna, seeks two highly skilled and ambitious research fellows from 1 October 2024 (“prae-docs”). Post-docs can also apply; in this case, the two positions would be merged into one. The first position is available in the area of private international law […]
We have already announced the lecture in honour of Albert Armin Ehrenzweig that will take place in Vienna at the Austrian Ministry of Justice on 20 June 2024. The full programme is now available. The event will take place in hybrid mode and is free of charge. Registration is required for both personal and online […]
On 25 April 2024, the CJEU handed down a landmark decision on EU company law. It curtailed the so-called “seat theory”, which still features in many Member State laws, to the extent that it can no longer be applied to companies from the European Economic Area (EEA). The Background The law governing companies has long […]
Sometimes You Lose, Sometimes You Win I have reported about Austrian customers’ attempts to recover their losses from Maltese online casinos and the resulting conflict of jurisdiction previously. Yet sometimes the customer actually wins! And – surprise, surprise – the online casinos refuse to pay out by invoking the prohibition of gambling under the Austrian […]
Many will remember the brilliant Austrian-American conflicts scholar Albert A. Ehrenzweig. He is associated with the ‘lex fori theory’, according to which courts faced with cross-border situations should primarily follow their own national law. He is also, together with Eric Jayme, the author of a multi-volume treatise on private international law. This short description does […]
There are big news for RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht). Firstly, they have introduced a new layout, the merits of which are a matter of personal taste. Secondly, they have a new co-editor, Anne Röthel, who has recently joined the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg as a director. However, the most significant […]
So-called ‘defeat devices’, which mimic low carbon dioxide emissions of Diesel cars during tests, have been a problem not just for car purchasers but also for the CJEU. In the case VKI v VW, the Court had to decide on the place at which the purchaser may file a claim against the car manufacturer. As […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. The following abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. H.-P. Mansel, K. Thorn and R. Wagner, European Conflict of Law 2023: Time of the Trilogue This article provides an overview of developments in Brussels in the […]
A curious judgment has been rendered recently by the highest court of Germany in civil matters. The Federal Court (BGH) considers a long-term rental agreement for an apartment in Germany as a ‘purely domestic matter’ (reiner Binnensachverhalt) – even though it was concluded between a foreign state and one of its nationals, who still had […]
The question which law applies to the blockchain and assets recorded thereon, such as cryptocurrencies, stablecoins or other token, is one of the most hotly debated issues in the conflict of laws (see e.g. the recent book ‘Blockchain and Private International Law‘). A conference on this topic will take place on 11 and 12 April […]
Many Member States try to limit gambling through strict prohibitions, with the sole exception for governmental monopolies. Malta, however, has a burgeoning online gambling industry with pan-European reach, which it deems to be protected by the freedom of services enshrined in primary EU law. The island state resists the enforcement of judgments from courts in […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. The following abstracts have been kindly provided by the editor of the journal. G. Cuniberti, Time limitations affecting foreign judgments The issue of time limitations affecting foreign judgments is addressed in remarkably different ways in comparative private international law. The […]
The latest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. This issue features a symposium with several articles focussing on fundamental rights and private international law, one of them in English, the others in German. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to us by the editor of the […]
A new book entitled Blockchain and Private International Law has been published by Brill. It is available in open access and may be downloaded here. A book launch will take place on 20 December 2023 at 18:15 CET online and at the University of Lausanne (here is the link to the livestream). The authors of the […]
The Interdisciplinary Association of Comparative and Private International Law (IACPIL) is hosting a conference titled “Legal Protection of Vulnerable Adults in Central and Eastern Europe” on the 28 November 2023 at the University of Vienna. The aging population and the rise of age-related diseases result in the urgent need to address the legal issues surrounding […]
The latest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. As always, it contains a number of insightful articles, this time also two in English language. Here are the authors, titles and abstracts: Horatia Muir Watt, An Ontology of the In-Between [18th Ernst Rabel Lecture, 2022] (Open Access) The […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to us by the editor of the journal. J. Oster, Provisional Measures Against Cross-Border Online Platforms In its ruling of 15.2.2022 (Trustpilot A/S ./. Interreal Group B.V.), the Gerechtshof Amsterdam had to decide […]
The judgment by the CJEU in Club la Costa (decision of 14 September 2023, Case C-821/21), has already been analysed from a jurisdictional perspective in a previous post. In the same decision, the court also addresses an important issue regarding the applicable law under the Rome I Regulation. Facts Remember that a British resident had […]
The group-of-companies doctrine allows attributing obligations of one group member to another. It may also be used to justify a head of jurisdiction to sue all members of one group at the same place. Yet this doctrine does not apply under the Brussels I bis Regulation, at least not in the consumer contract context, as […]
In a recent article, Pedro de Miguel Asensio points to a seeming contradiction at the heart of EU consumer law (see La Ley – Unión Europea, issue 116/2023, soon available here). This contradiction concerns the notion of consumer in the rules of substantive consumer law and in EU Private International Law (PIL). The CJEU has […]
The Ineradicable Special Consumer Conflicts Rule This post is not about Article 6 Rome I, but about Article 6 of the Unfair Terms Directive (UTD). Paragraph 2 of this provision invalidates any choice of law of a non-EU Member State that would result in the consumer losing the protection afforded by the UTD, provided there is […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. The table of contents is available here. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to us by the editor of the journal. C. Budzikiewicz/K. Duden/A. Dutta/T. Helms/C. Mayer, The European Commission’s Parenthood Proposal – Comments of the Marburg Group The […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. The table of contents is available here. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to us by the editor of the journal. B. Heiderhoff, Care Proceedings under Brussels IIter – Mantras, Compromises and Hopes Against the background of the considerable […]
The latest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. As always, it contains a number of insightful articles, this time also many in English language. Here are the authors, titles and abstracts: Eva-Maria Kieninger, Ralf Michaels, Jürgen Basedow * 29.9.1949 † 6.4.2023 Felix Berner, Implizite Qualifikationsvorgaben im europäischen […]
On 10 May 2023, UNIDROIT adopted the Principles on Digital Assets and Private Law. The Principles contain recommendations to national legislators on how to deal with the private law issues raised by digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies or tokens. The final text can be found here. Principle 5 concerns the conflict of laws. A previous […]
On 30 June 2023, the second edition of the Austrian Private International Law Workshop will take place in Innsbruck. The organisers cordially invite all interested researchers and practitioners to participate and register via evip@uibk.ac.at. Participation is free of charge. The workshop will be conducted in German and will consist of two sessions, chaired by Florian […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. The table of contents is available here. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to us by the editor of the journal. Th. Pfeiffer, Judicial Presumptions: Finding of Facts or Application of Law? The characterization of so-called factual presumptions in […]
The EU has decided on 24 April 2023 to establish treaty relations with Ukraine under the Hague Judgments Convention. Ukraine acceded to the Convention on 29 August 2022 by submitting its ratification to the depositary, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From that moment, the other Signatories have 12 months to object against the establishment […]
Determining financial loss has become the neuralgic point of Art 7(2) Brussels Ibis and Art 4(1) Rome II Regulation. By leaving the EU, the UK has not been able to leave the issue behind. It has retained the Rome II Regulation as domestic law. Additionally, it is obliged to keep the place of damage as […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. The table of contents is available here. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to us by the editor of the journal. H.-P. Mansel, K. Thorn and R. Wagner, European conflict of laws 2022: Movement in international family law This […]
Marco Biasi (Università degli Studi di Milano) has published Decent Work and the Virtual Dimension: Reflections about the Regulation of Work in the Metaverse in Lavoro Diritti Europa 2023/1. The article (written in Italian) deals with conflict-of-laws and substantive law issues of working in the virtual world. What is the Metaverse? The metaverse is more than […]
The latest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. As always, it contains a number of insightful articles, this time also many in English language. Here are the authors, titles and abstracts: Holger Fleischer, Große Debatten im Gesellschaftsrecht: Fiktionstheorie versus Theorie der realen Verbandspersönlichkeit im internationalen Diskurs (Great […]
UNIDROIT has started an online consultation on its Draft Principles and Commentary on Digital Assets and Private Law, which Marco Pasqua has thankfully posted on this blog. Principle 5 titled “Conflict of laws” will be of special interest for our readers, yet even experts of the field may have trouble understanding this somewhat complex provision. […]
The rules on negotorium gestio in Article 11 Rome II Regulation have received little attention so far and are rarely well understood. Jonas Fritsch has written a PhD thesis on them, in which he compares the different legal systems of the Member States and examines in detail the connecting factors of Article 11 Rome II. […]
… they sometimes forget to buy the compulsory toll ticket (“e-vignette”) in advance or make mistakes when filling out the online form. The company collecting the Hungarian toll – which is incorporated as a plc under Hungarian law – proved to be unforgiving and regularly sues the owners of the cars in German courts. Twice […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. The table of contents is available here. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to us by the editor of the journal. R. Wagner, European account preservation orders and titles from provisional measures with subsequent account attachments The enforcement of […]
Michiel Poesen has published an interesting article in the Common Market Law Review (issue 6 of 2022), titled Civil Litigation Against Third-Country Defendants in the EU: Effective Access to Justice as a Rationale for European Harmonization of the Law of International Jurisdiction. The abstract reads: The European Union has taken on an active role in […]
The latest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. As always, it contains a number of insightful articles. Here are the authors, titles and abstracts: Moritz Renner and Torsten Kindt, Internationales Gesellschaftsrecht und Investitionsschutzrecht (Conflict of Corporate Laws and International Investment Law) The withdrawal of the United Kingdom […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published on 1 November 2022. The table of contents is available here. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to us by the editor of the journal. U. Janzen and R. Wagner, The German implementing rules for the Brussels II ter […]
This post was written by Verena Wodniansky-Wildenfeld, Vienna. The Austrian Constitutional Court proceeds further on the way to equal treatment of heterosexual and homosexual couples. In its decision of 30 June 2022, it ruled that the requirements for establishing parenthood of same-sex partners must not be stricter than the ones for opposite-sex partners. Facts of […]
The infamous Wirecard scandal, which involved a German public limited company (AG) reporting non-existing assets and earnings to the tune of several billions of euros, has triggered a wave of litigation not only in Germany, but in several countries. Facts One such action was brought in an Austrian court by an Austrian investor against the German […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) will be published on 1 September 2022. It contains a number of interesting articles and case comments regarding issues of jurisdiction and applicable law. The table of contents is available here. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to us. J. Richter, Cross-border […]
The latest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. As always, it contains a number of insightful articles. Here are the authors, titles and abstracts: Jürgen Basedow, Ulrich Drobnig *25.11.1928 †2.3.2022 Daniel Gruenbaum, From Statehood to Effectiveness: The Law of Unrecognised States in Private International Law One of the […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) will be published on 1 July 2022. It contains a number of interesting articles and case comments regarding issues of jurisdiction and applicable law. The table of contents is available here. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to us. R. Wolfram, Achmea […]
The latest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. As always, it contains a number of insightful articles. Here are the authors, titles and abstracts: Ralf Michaels, Peter Mankowski *11.10.1966 †10.2.2022 Katharina Pistor, Rechtsvergleichung zwischen Rechts- und politischer Ökonomie: am Beispiel des Unternehmensrechts (Legal and Political Economics in Comparative Perspective: […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. As always, it contains a number of articles and case comments on issues of jurisdiction and applicable law (including one by me). The table of contents of the issue is available here. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to […]
In his PhD thesis Normen als tatsächliche Umstände (Rules as factual circumstances), published in 2021, Alexander Kronenberg analysis how overriding mandatory provisions (OMPs) can be considered at the level of substantive law and how this practice relates to Article 9 of the Rome I Regulation. The thesis examines this question against a comprehensive evaluation of case law […]
Through a comfort letter, one party promises to indemnify a creditor if the latter’s debtor does not pay. This is a means for improving the credit of another party. Particularly widespread are comfort letters issued by a parent company for its subsidiary or vice versa. But where can the creditor sue if the comfort letter […]
In 1971, the American Law Institute published the epochal Restatement of Conflict of Laws (Second). Now, a new version is in the making. An overview of the work will be given by Kermit Roosevelt III (University of Pennsylvania) on 10 May 2022, at 5 PM CET, in the context of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) Hamburg […]
Cedric Hornung has published an inspiring book , titled Internationales Privatrecht zwischen Wertneutralität und Politik (Mohr Siebeck, 2021), about a fundamental tension underlying Private International Law. On the one hand, the discipline is meant to be value-neutral, in the sense that it admonishes the judge to abstain from evaluating national legal systems before applying them. On the other […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. As always, it contains a number of articles and case comments on issues of jurisdiction and applicable law (including one by me). The table of contents of the issue is available here. The following abstracts have been kindly provided to […]
This post was written by Paul Eichmüller and Verena Wodniansky-Wildenfeld, University of Vienna. In a recent decision, the Austrian Supreme Court dealt with the interpretation of Article 10(2) of the Succession Regulation. It found that the latter provision does not establish an obligation to initiate probate proceedings ex officio in states having subsidiary jurisdiction. A […]
The environment is on – almost – everybody’s mind. In particular companies committed to sustainable investment are becoming an increasingly relevant economic factor. Accordingly, their business models are now also frequently the subject of court proceedings, raising new legal questions, including those concerning private international law. The CJEU has recently had to decide on such […]
The provisions of the Brussels I bis Regulation on insurance matters (Articles 10-16) are complex and often misunderstood. Now the CJEU has clarified their scope in an important judgment. Suing an Irishman in Britain… A British domiciliary, BT, had an accident on a Spanish property. He brought a suit in Britain against not only the […]
The CJEU has been very generous with airline passengers when it comes to applying the rules on jurisdiction in the Brussels I bis Regulation, especially with regard to indemnity for cancelled or delayed flights. In Rehder v Air Baltic, it had famously ruled that the passenger can actually choose between the place of departure and […]
The latest issue of the RabelsZ (Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht) has been published. It contains a number of insightful articles and case comments, whose abstracts are provided below. Johannes Ungerer, Nudging in Private International Law: The Design of Connecting Factors in Light of Behavioural Economics Amending the traditional economic analysis of law and its […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. It contains a number of insightful articles and case comments, whose abstracts are provided below. E.-M. Kieninger, Climate Change Litigation and Private International Law The recent Shell ruling by the District Court of The Hague raises the question whether Carbon Majors […]
Facts An Austrian national (A) was born in 1975 as a woman. In 2010, at A’s request, the Austrian authorities changed A’ first name, and in 2016 A’s gender to “male”. A married a German male national in July 2019 in Berlin. On the same day, A gave birth to their common child there. The […]
It is common practice for children to be registered in the country where they are born or where they hold nationality. But what if these countries fail to do so? A judgment of 18 October 2021 rendered by a judge of first instance in Montilla (Spain) gives an answer, which was reported in the blog […]
It had to be anticipated that Brexit would have detrimental consequences for private litigants. Some have nurtured the hope, however, that the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement would mitigate some of the damage. This idea was dealt a blow by a recent judgment by the Higher Regional Court (Court of Appeal) of Munich. The court […]
The latest issue of the IPRax (Praxis des Internationalen Privat- und Verfahrensrechts) has been published. It contains a number of insightful articles and case comments, whose abstracts are provided below. T. Maxian Rusche, Available actions in the German courts against the abuse of intra-EU investor-State arbitration proceedings The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled […]
The most recent issue of the Uniform Law Review contains a number of articles that are interesting from a PIL perspective. The first, authored by Michiel Poesen, has the provocative title Is specific jurisdiction dead and did we murder it? An appraisal of the Brussels Ia Regulation in the globalizing context of the HCCH 2019 […]
Issue 5 of 2021 IPRax has been published recently. As usual, it contains a number of insightful articles and case comments. Here are the English abstracts. Heiderhoff, International Product Liability 4.0 While the discussion on how liability for damages caused by autonomous systems, or “artificial intelligence”, should be integrated into the substantive law is well advanced, […]
Jurisdiction over branches (Article 7(5) of the Brussels I bis Regulation) is shrouded in a cloud of mystery. A judgment dated 16 March 2021 by the German Federal Court (Bundesgerichtshof) provides some helpful clarification in this regard. Facts The claimant had booked a first-class flight with Air France from San Francisco to London, with a connecting flight […]
Background In the judgment in TeamBank dated 19 January 2019, the CJEU ruled that Article 14 of the Rome I Regulation does nothing to identify the law governing the effects of assignment in relation to third parties. The court referred, inter alia, to Article 27(2) of the Rome I Regulation, which tasked the Commission to […]
This post was drafted by Paul Eichmüller and Matthias Lehmann. Almost six years after the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal became public, the issue of international jurisdiction for damage claims arising from the fraud is still creating headaches. In a recent decision from 24 March 2021, the Austrian Supreme Court decided a case that was in many […]
On 12 May 2021, the Court of Justice rendered its long-awaited judgment in the case Vereniging van Effectenbezitters v. BP. The case concerned the international jurisdiction for a collective action based on issuer liability for inaccurate, incomplete and misleading information in capital markets. The Court ruled that under Article 7(2) Brussels I bis Regulation such […]
In a judgment dated 10 December 2020, the German Federal Court restricted the provision tax advice on German soil. The court ruled that advice to German clients cannot be rendered on a permanent basis through a subsidiary unless the partners possess the necessary qualifications under the German Code on Tax Consultancy. Although the case in […]
As the dust settles, the consequences of the British departure from the EU are becoming clearer, including those for British parties litigating on the Continent. Two of Germany’s highest courts have recently ordered litigants with a habitual residence in the UK to provide security for the likely costs of the defendants, which the claimants would […]
On Friday, 23 April 2021, we informed our readers about an article on the legal aspects of a possible claim brought by the EU against the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The post could not have been timelier. Today (Monday, 26 April 2021), the Commission announced it has indeed commenced legal proceedings last Friday against AstraZeneca due […]
The latest edition of the Spanish journal La Ley (No 90 March 2021) contains an interesting article about the contract concluded by the European Commission with AstraZeneca for the provision of COVID-19 vaccines. It is authored by Sixto Sánchez Lorenzo, the renowned expert on private international law at the University of Granada. The author deals […]
The public policy exception is used as a shield to protect fundamental domestic values in case of a contradiction between the applicable foreign law and fundamental principles of justice of the forum. Alongside the public policy exception, the instrument of “overriding mandatory provisions” – or “public policy rules” – was established in the middle of […]
Oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where most it promises… William Shakespeare Yesterday has been an emotional rollercoaster for those interested in European judicial cooperation. After initial reports in the Financial Times about an impending recommendation in favour of the UK’s accession to the Lugano Convention, the journal later reported that the Commission has […]
On 8 April 2020, the UK formally applied to accede to the Lugano Convention. The one year period recommended for deciding on this application in Article 72(3) of the Convention has thus expired on 8 April 2021, causing harm for judicial cooperation. However, things seem to start moving. According to a report in the Financial […]
Which conflict-of-laws rule is the most appropriate for the blockchain? This fundamental question is part of two parallel targeted consultation papers issued as recently by the European Commission. One of the consultations covers the Settlement Finality Directive (SFD), while the other concerns the Financial Collateral Directive (FCD). Both regulate the “plumbing” of financial markets (the so-called market […]
It is well-known that the Succession Regulation contains specific rules relating to succession agreements in its Article 25. Inter alia, it allows the parties to select the law applicable to such agreements, offering the choice between the law of the parties’ last habitual residence or nationality (Article 25(3)). But when can such a choice be […]
The Journal for European, Private International and Comparative Law (Zeitschrift für Europarecht, Internationales Privatrecht und Rechtsvergleichung – ZfRV) just released its latest issue. It includes two interesting articles. The first, published in English and authored by Leszek Bosek and Grzegorz Żmij, is titled “On the CETA’s compatibility with European Union law in light of Opinion […]
Update — In light of the interest triggered by this post, an on-line symposium has been organised on this blog to discuss the fate of the 1968 Brussels Convention. The first contribution, by Andrew Dickinson, can be found here. Brexit has dealt a major blow to judicial cooperation in Europe. With the end of the […]
On 4 November 2020, the Austrian Supreme Court (OGH) ruled on the applicability of the consumer jurisdiction under Article 18 Brussels I bis Regulation to transactions related to Bitcoin. Facts The facts of this case were quite peculiar. An Austrian resident offered investment opportunities on a cross-border basis, which could only be paid for in […]
On 10 December 2020, the CJEU decided in the case of A. B. and B. B. v Personal Exchange International Limited whether and under what circumstances a player in an online poker game can be considered a “professional” and accordingly fall outside the scope of the consumer provisions of the Brussels I and Brussels I bis […]
By a judgment of 18 November 2020 in the case Ryanair v DelayFix, the CJEU has ruled that an assignee is not bound to a jurisdiction clause in the contract from which the assigned claim arose. While the ruling concerned the compensation claim of a passenger for a cancelled flight, it is cast in very […]
The EAPIL Blog hosts today two posts on the ruling of the Court of Justice in E.E., a case regarding the Succession Regulation decided on 16 July 2020. Matthias Lehmann and Carlos Santaló Goris, the authors of the two contributions, approach the judgment from different angles and express different views (the post by Carlos Santaló […]
Tilman Imm has written a thesis on the mechanism of equivalence in Financial and Capital Markets Law (Der finanz- und kapitalmarktrechtliche Gleichwertigkeitsmechanismus – Zur Methode der Substitution in Theorie und Praxis). The author has kindly provided the following summary: The concept of equivalence or substituted compliance is of considerable importance in today’s financial and capital market […]
A new monograph written in German deals with cross-border insurance brokerage in the Single Market (Christian Rüsing, Grenzüberschreitende Versicherungsvermittlung im Binnenmarkt, 2020). The monograph is aimed at practitioners, national and European supervisory authorities as well as academics dealing with private international law, its relationship to international supervisory law and insurance law. This book complements studies […]
As reported in this blog, the CJEU gave on 9 July 2020 its long-awaited judgment in VKI v Volkswagen (Case C-343/19). It ruled that the buyers of VW cars equipped with emissions test defeat devices can sue the manufacturer at the place where they had purchased the cars. This result, which is broadly in line […]
The number of transnational couples continuously increases within the European Union. At the same time, there are still large differences between the national rules on matrimonial property regimes and on the property consequences of registered partnerships. These disparities do not only affect the property relations among such couples themselves, but also – and even more […]
One consequence of the Europeanisation of private international law is the need to examine and characterise certain phenomena, which have already been classified under national law, by reference to new EU Regulations. Family law, in particular, raises the question as to whether existing characterisation under national private international law regimes can be maintained. The German […]
The Centre of Commercial Law Studies (CCLS) at Queen Mary University London is publishing a new journal, the Transnational Commercial Law Review (ISSN 2515-3838). This is an online fully open access peer-reviewed journal. It is dedicated to publishing academic research and commentary of the highest quality in terms of originality and rigour. Submissions to the Review […]
The Diesel scandal has produced a wave of litigation word-wide. We are still waiting for the CJEU’s decision on whether claims can be brought in Austria by Austrian purchasers (Case C-343/19). The Advocate General’s opinion in this case has been the subject of an earlier post on this blog. One of the important issues in the case […]
The German Federal Court (Bundesgerichtshof) rendered an important ruling on jurisdiction and applicable law in claims against internet portals publishing crowd-sourced reviews about businesses on 14 January 2020 (BGH VI ZR 497/18). Facts Yelp Ireland Ltd., a company incorporated under Irish law, offers a well-known website and application (“app”) providing businesses recommendations. Yelp uses an […]
Felix M. Wilke has published a well-researched, innovative and thought-provoking book titled A Conceptual Analysis of Private International Law (Intersentia, 2019). In it, he makes a strong plea for the establishment of a general notions, methodologies and principles for conflict of laws on the European level. This book is much more than the repeated calls, mainly […]
On 6 April 2020, the High Court of England and Wales handed down its judgment in the VW NOx Emissions Group Litigation. Besides many points of interest for owners of VW cars, it contains a new and rather unexpected development of EU private international law. In effect, the judgment significantly increases the role of administrative […]
Brexit and its legal consequences was the topic of an earlier post in this blog, suggesting the United Kingdom should join the Lugano Convention. The British government has now taken the first step in this direction.18 The UK’s Application for Accession On 8 April 2020, the UK deposited an application to accede to the Lugano Convention […]
On 25 and 26 September 2020, the University of Bonn will host a conference titled The 2019 Hague Judgments Convention: Prospects for Judicial Cooperation in Civil Matters between the EU and Third Countries. The conference focuses on the Hague Convention of 2 July 2019 on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in civil and commercial […]
On 2 April 2020, the conclusions of Advocate General Sánchez-Bordona in Verein für Konsumenteninformation v Volkswagen (Case C-343/19) were published. They add a new piece to the puzzle of locating purely economic loss – a much-discussed issue which was recently considered in this blog. Facts The case concerned a request by the Landesgericht Klagenfurt (Regional Court in Austria) for a […]
The raising of a problem child The creation of the European Patent Court has been fraught with difficulties. After Spain and Italy had impeded its establishment for linguistic concerns, it was embedded in 2013 in an international treaty, the Agreement on a European Patent Court. In March 2017, the German Parliament (Bundestag) passed a law […]
Courts in the EU increasingly issue injunctions against anti-suit injunctions, or “anti-anti-suit injunctions”. We have already read in this blog about the French practice. The Germans are doing it as well. Facts One example is a decision by the Court of Appeal in Munich dated 12 December 2019 (English translation here). As in the French […]
This is the second in a series of posts aimed to explore the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the phenomena of mobility and exchange that form the constituent elements of private international law, and to discuss the responses that private international law rules provide to the challenges posed by the crisis itself (see the […]
On 13 February 2020, the CJEU ruled again on the competence of the court to hear passenger compensation claims under the Flight Compensation Regulation regarding cancelled flights. Facts Flightright v Iberia concerned a three-leg journey by two passengers from Hamburg to London, then London to Madrid, and finally from Madrid to San Sebastián. The whole […]
On 29 January 2020, the Rechtbank Rotterdam (a Dutch court of first instance) ruled on the law applicable to claims by investors against the Brazilian company Petrobas. The case concerns the long-disputed localisation of financial or economic loss under Article 4(1) of the Rome II Regulation on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations. The Dutch court has […]
Which rules are more important to determine the protection of weaker parties in financial disputes – the Brussels I bis Regulation on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments, or the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID)? That is, in a nutshell, the question faced by the CJEU in Petruchová v. FIBO Group Holdings, a […]
Today, 31 January 2020, at midnight (11 PM GMT), the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. This is a historic event with innumerable implications, amongst others, for private international law. However, during the transition period – which expires earliest at the end of 2020 – most things will stay the same. This is thanks […]
The European Order for Payment (EOP) is an efficient tool against recalcitrant debtors. The conditions for the order’s issuance are listed exhaustively in the EOP Regulation (1896/2006). Or so you thought. The judgment by the CJEU of 19 December 2019 in Bondora (Joined Cases C-453/18 and C-494/18) has effectively added a new requirement for consumer cases: […]