Archive for category: Conferences, academic events etc.

As announced in a previous post, the tenth Congress of Private International Law of the Carlos III University of Madrid will take place on 16 and 17 May 2024.

It will be devoted to the recognition and enforcement of decisions in the area of family law and other procedural issues.

The speakers include Esperanza Castellanos Ruiz, Juliana Rodríguez Rodrigo, María José Castellanos Ruiz, Joaquín Delgado Martín, Ilaria Pretelli, Estelle Gallant, Francesco Pesce, Salomé Adroher Biosca, Javier Carrascosa González, Asunción Cebrián Salvat, Isabel Lorente Martínez and Alfonso-Luis Calvo Caravaca.

The programme is available here, together with additional practical information.

The event can also be attended on-line.

For registrations: juliana.rodriguez@uc3m.es.

On 26 April 2024, a half-day conference will be held at 9 am CET, organized by the Centre for Private International Law at the School of Law, University of Aberdeen, in collaboration with the Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana.

The conference aims to explore crucial topics within the realm of private international law.

The event will kick off with a keynote address by Ronald A. Brand, followed by another keynote by Marta Pertegás Sender. After a refreshing break at 10:45 am, the conference will feature parallel sessions from 11:00 to 12:30. Participants will have the option to choose from three streams. The first two will focus on private international law and commercial arbitration and litigation, led respectively by Ronald A. Brand and Uglješa Grušić, while the third stream on decolonial perspectives on private international law will be led by Thalia Kruger.

It is possible to attend online or in-person.

For further information and registration, see here.

A call for papers has recently been issued by Michiel Poesen and Patricia Živković (University of Aberdeen), co-convenors of the Society of Legal Scholars Conflict of Laws section, for the Conflicts section of the SLS Annual Conference 2024 at Bristol University from 3 to 4 September 2024. The theme of the conference is Learning from Others: Lessons for Legal Scholars?.

The call is reproduced below, as received by the promoters.

As scholars, we interact with others – students; fellow academics; legal practitioners; the wider public – and the 2024 conference will reflect on the gains we can achieve from such interaction in a global academic environment.  The conference will examine this theme in two ways.  First, as scholars attending the SLS conference, we benefit greatly from meeting colleagues from different backgrounds and disciplines and, notably, from other legal jurisdictions (both within and outside the common law world).  What can we gain from taking an international or comparative perspective to our work?  To what extent do different perspectives, such as socio-legal, interdisciplinary or historical viewpoints, assist our research? Secondly, one of the significant elements of the conference is the inclusion of papers from both junior and senior scholars. What lessons can we gain from each other, both in terms of mentoring and in recognising the need to promote the interests of early career legal scholars and offering support for those entering the academy? No scholar is an island. The SLS provides a positive inclusive environment for legal academics at whatever stage of their career to engage with each other and learn valuable lessons from a diverse and inclusive community of legal scholars. Doctoral students are very welcome and are encouraged to submit papers for consideration in the Subject Sections Programme.

Conference Information 

The 2024 conference will be primarily in person with a virtual element.  ECR and EDI sessions, together with the AGM and Council meeting, will be available virtually free of charge.  A small charge will be made for virtual attendance at the plenary sessions. Council members who are not attending the 2024 Conference will still be able to attend the Council meeting and AGM virtually and, consistent with our EDI priorities, speakers who cannot attend may, on sufficient notice, be able to present virtually.  We will also endeavour to allow speakers unable to attend at the last minute due to ill-health or travel restrictions to present virtually. This decision reflects a move globally to resume in person conferences, the significant costs of virtual attendance which would require a rise in price due to the absence of suitable facilities at Bristol University and evidence of a significant drop in numbers for virtual attendance at the 2023 conference. We will also continue to offer support for attendance via our Annual Conference Additional Support Fund (ASF) to support those with special circumstances warranting additional support. Priority for support will be given to applicants who have no other source of funding.

If you are interested in delivering a paper or organising a panel, please submit your paper abstract or panel details by 11:59pm UK time on 22 March 2024. All abstracts and panel details must be submitted through the Oxford Abstracts conference system which can be accessed here – and following the instructions (select ‘Track’ for the relevant subject section). If you registered for Oxford Abstracts for last year’s conference, please ensure that you use the same e-mail address this year if that address remains current. For those whose papers are accepted, the original submission offers the facility to upload a full paper nearer the time. If you experience any issues in using Oxford Abstracts, please contact slsconference@mosaicevents.co.uk. If you are submitting as part of the Gesellschaft für Rechtsvergleichung there will be a tick box option for you to select as you complete the form.

This is the second year we will be running first blind peer review, with a subsequent non-blind review once initial decisions have been made to consider profile diversity before final decisions are made and communicated. The feedback from convenors on this process was overwhelmingly positive.

Decisions will be communicated by 26 April 2024.

Submission Format

We welcome proposals for papers and panels on any issue relating to “Learning from Others: Lessons for Legal Scholars?.” We welcome proposals representing a full range of intellectual perspectives and methodological approaches in the subject section, and from those at all stages of their careers.

Those wishing to present a paper should submit a title and abstract of around 300 words. Those wishing to propose a panel should submit a document outlining the theme and rationale for the panel and the names of the proposed speakers (who must have agreed to participate) and their abstracts.  Sessions are 90 minutes in length and so we recommend panels of three speakers, though the conference organisers reserve the right to add speakers to panels in the interests of balance and diversity.

As the SLS is keen to ensure that as many members with good quality papers as possible can present, speakers should not present twice at the conference at the expense of another credible paper.  When you submit an abstract via Oxford Abstracts you will be asked to note if you are also responding to calls for papers or panels from other sections.

The Best Paper Prize

Please also note that the SLS offers two prizes. First, The Best Paper Prize, which can be awarded to academics at any stage of their career, and which is open to those presenting papers individually or within a panel.  The Prize carries a £300 monetary award, and the winning paper will, subject to the usual process of review and publisher’s conditions, appear in Legal Studies.  To be eligible:

•  speakers must be fully paid-up members of the SLS (Where a paper has more than one author, all authors eligible for membership of the Society under its rule 3 must be members. The decision as to eligibility of any co-authors will be taken by the Membership Secretary, whose decision will be final.)
• papers must not exceed 12,000 words including footnotes (as counted in Word; figures and tables are not included in the word count);
• papers must be uploaded to the paperbank by 11:59pm UK time on 23 August 2024;
• papers must not have been published previously or have been accepted or be under consideration for publication; and
• papers must have been accepted by a convenor in a subject section and an oral version of the paper must be presented at the Annual Conference.

The Best Paper by a Doctoral Student Prize 

In 2020 the Society launched the Best Paper by a Doctoral Student Prize, which is open to currently registered doctoral students who are members of the Society. The Prize is £300. There is no link to publication in Legal Studies arising from this award, but any winner would be welcome to submit their paper for consideration by the Society’s journal. To be eligible:

• speakers must be fully paid-up members of the SLS who are Doctoral students. (Where a paper has more than one author, all authors eligible for membership of the Society under its rule 3 must be members and all authors must be Doctoral students, whatever their discipline). The decision as to eligibility of any co-authors will be taken by the Membership Secretary, whose decision will be final;
• papers must not exceed 12,000 words including footnotes (as counted in Word; figures and tables are not included in the word count);
• papers must be uploaded to the paperbank by 11:59pm UK time on 23 August 2024;
• papers must not have been published previously or have been accepted or be under consideration for publication; and
• papers must have been accepted by a convenor in a subject section and an oral version of the paper must be presented at the Annual Conference.
• Where a paper eligible for this prize wins the Best Paper Prize, the judges may at their discretion award the prize for Best Paper by a Doctoral Student to a different nominated paper
• The judges may announce a shortlist at their discretion with the winner to be announced by the first week in August.

Registration and Paying for the Conference 

We have also been asked to remind you that all speakers will need to book and pay to attend the conference and that they will need to register for the conference by 14 June 2024 to secure their place within the programme, though please do let us know if this deadline is likely to pose any problems for you. Booking information will be circulated in due course and will open after the decisions on the response to the calls are made.

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 2024 in Vienna and remotely. It is organised by the University of Vienna, in cooperation with the Interdisciplinary Association of Comparative and Private International Law (IACPIL) and the European Banking Institute (EBI).

The conference will bring together academics, technology experts, and lawyers, from various EU member states, the UK, Switzerland, and Japan. Two of the international organisations active in this field – the HCCH and UNIDROIT – will also be represented.

Topics include the law governing crypto-custody, secured transactions in digital assets, and the law applicable to Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Fundamental issues such as the need for a ‘blockchain revolution’ in Private International Law or the role of consumer law will also be discussed.

The full programme can be downloaded here. Participation is free of charge. Please register for either physical attendance or online participation by 6 April 2024 at service.rechtsvergleichung@univie.ac.at.

A on online conference on the international recovery of maintenance by public bodies is set to take place on 15 May 2024, between 2 and 5 pm CEST, hosted by the German Institute for Youth Services and Family Law (DIJuF).

The event concept is as follows.

The Child Support forum is pleased to invite every interested stakeholder to an open conference deepening the topic of cross-border maintenance recovery by public bodies.

Due to the increase in international mobility of families, the need for immediate child support in case of default of maintenance payment is growing. This support often consists of advance maintenance payments granted by public authorities, which then must be reimbursed by the debtor. The enormous sums of money that states spend on these benefits make the cross-border enforcement of maintenance by public bodies an important political issue. 

The first three meetings of the Child Support Forum showed that there is a great need for exchange between the public bodies. On the one hand, they face different hurdles in enforcing their claims due to the diversity of the maintenance support systems. On the other hand, common problems were also identified. The results of this work will be presented.

In a future perspective, it is clear that the tension between the need for more support for children, for an effective recovery of maintenance against debtors, and debtor protection is growing. It will be interesting to discuss to what extent the States make the grant of benefits dependent on the legal possibilities for reimbursement. For example, in the light of the text of the 2007 Convention and of the EU-Maintenance Regulation, public bodies currently have less support from Central Authorities when they seek reimbursement of maintenance support than children do when they claim child maintenance. Thus, the question arises as to whether debtor protection still justifies this legal situation and how maintenance debtors can be protected from double claims when it is no longer the child alone but a public body that seeks the recovery of maintenance payments.

The conference will mark the end of a series of three seminars on the topic of maintenance recovery by public bodies and is intended to provide insight into its socio-political and legal aspects as well as a unique opportunity for exchange with experts from different fields (academics, Central Authorities, public bodies from different countries). 

The conference program can be found here. Attendance is free, but prior registration (here) is required.

On 8 and 9 March 2024 a conference will be held at the University of Augsburg, organized by Tobias Lutzi, to discuss current developments in connection with punitive damages.

In particular, the event aims to critically discuss whether and to what extent the German courts‘ strict refusal to recognize foreign punitive damage awards is still tenable in light of developments both in legal systems that award punitive damages and in legal systems that do not (but may still recognize such awards).

Speakers include Tobias Lutzi, Lukas Rademacher, Jan Lüttringhaus, Phillip Hellwege, Catherine Sharkey, Rachael Mulheron, Eleni Katsampouka, Cedric Vanleenhove, Marko Jovanovic, Leonhard Hübner, André Janssen, Beligh Elbalti, Johannes Ungerer, Wolfgang Wurmnest, Samuel Fulli-Lemaire, Marta Requejo Isidro, Caterina Benini and Min Kyung Kim.

The full programme is available here.

Registration is possible via this link; attendance is free of charge.

Those interested in attending the conference on-line may get in touch with the organisers (tobias.lutzi@jura.uni-augsburg.de) and ask for a video-link.

A symposium titled “Personal Status on the Move” (La circulation du statut personnel), organised by the Société de Législation Comparée (SLC), the International Commission on Civil Status (ICCS), the Law Faculty of University of Côte d’Azur and the Associazione Civilisti Italiani, will take place on 19 January 2024 in Rome at the Corte Suprema di Cassazione.

The main topics covered will be civil status, persons’ identification, the union of persons, parenthood and nationality in a context of international mobility of persons and families.

Speakers (and chairs) include Claudio Scognamiglio (Chairman, Associazione Civilisti Italiani), Gustavo Cerqueira (Chairman, Section Méthodologie comparée du droit civil de la SLC), Nicolas Nord (Secretary General of the International Commission on Civil Status), Francesco Salerno (Università degli Studi di Ferrara), Marion Ho-Dac, Professeur (Université d’Artois), Camille Reitzer (Deputy Secretary General of the International Commission on Civil Status), Giovanni Di Rosa (Università di Catania), Fernand Munschy (Lawyer at the Strasbourg Bar & Université Haute-Alsace), Francesca Bartolini (Università degli Studi Link di Roma), Michele Sesta (Università di Bologna), Lukas Heckendorn Urscheler (Institut suisse de droit comparé), Alessandra Spangaro (Università di Bologna), Enrico Al Mureden (Università di Bologna), Ilaria Pretelli (Institut suisse de droit comparé), Renzo Calvigioni (Associazione Nazionale Ufficiali di Stato Civile e d’Anagrafe, ANUSCA), Gordon Choisel (Université Paris Panthéon-Assas), Mirzia Bianca (Università di Roma La Sapienza), Sylvain Bollée, (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Roberto Senigaglia (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia), Hugues Fulchiron (Conseiller extraordinaire à la Cour de cassation, France), Sabine Corneloup (Université Paris Panthéon-Assas), Liliana Rossi Carleo (Università di Roma Tre).

Presentations will be held in French and Italian.

Those interested in attending can do so either in-person or on-line.

Attendance is free, but prior registration is required by 12 January 2024, through segreteria.civilistiitaliani@gmail.com.

Additional information, including the full programme of the conference, can be found here.

A link to follow the conference remotely will be provided shortly.

The University of Luxembourg will host a conference on Enforcing Arbitral Awards against Sovereigns: Recent Trends and Practice on 10 January 2024. The conference is organised in partnership with Bonn, Steichen and Partners.

The conference will be divided in four parts. The first will discuss the influence of EU law on enforcement. The second will address new issues related to enforcement such as assignment of awards and the influence of the right to property. The third will be concerned with issues relating to attachment of assets, including sovereign immunities and asset tracing. The fourth will discuss States’ international obligations to comply with arbitral awards.

Speakers will include Gary Born (WilmerHale), Nicholas Lawn (Lalive), Ana Stanic (E&U Law Limited), Gilles Cuniberti (University of Luxembourg), Yael Ribco Borman (Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes), Javier Garcia Olmedo (University of Luxembourg), Fabio Trevisan (Bonn Steichen), Laura Rees-Evans (Fietta LLP), Thierry Hoscheit (Supreme Court, Luxemburg), Paschalis Paschalidis (Arendt & Medernach), Philippa Webb (Twenty Essex/ King’s College London), Michaël Schlesinge (Archipel), Luciana Ricart (Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP), Crina Baltag, FCIArb (Stockholm University), Cameron Miles (3 Verulam Buildings), Manuel Casas (Twenty Essex), Loukas Mistelis (Queen Mary University of London/Clyde & Co), Matthew Happold (University of Luxembourg), Laure-Hélène Gaicio (Bonn Steichen).

The full programme can be found here. The event is free of charge, but registration is necessary (here).

The Paris Court of Appeal will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the establishment of its chamber dedicated to international disputes in a symposium on December 13th, 2023 (4-7 pm).

This will be an opportunity to take stock of its achievements by reviewing progress made since 2018, the modus operandi, the perception of the Chamber’s users, its strengths and areas for improvement, and to consider the future.

Four round tables will discuss the specific procedural framework established for handling international disputes, whether the international chamber has developed a specific caselaw, the international attractiveness of French commercial justice and future reforms.

The programme can be found here.

Speakers will include judges from the court, academics, lawyers practising in Paris and abroad and officials from the French Ministry of Justice.

The symposium will be held in French with simultaneous translation.

Attendance is free, but registration is required at colloque.ca-paris@justice.fr

This post has been written by Jacco Bomhoff (LSE), Uglješa Grušić (UCL), and Manuel Penades (KCL).

As previously announced, the LSE Law School hosted a symposium to celebrate the scholarly work of Emeritus Professor Trevor C. Hartley on 17 October 2023.

The Symposium brought together around 70 participants, colleagues, and friends from the UK and abroad, who celebrated and discussed Trevor’s many contributions.

The first contribution to the Symposium was a keynote by Professor David Kershaw, Dean of the LSE Law School. He reminded us that Trevor came to LSE from the University of Western Ontario in 1969 and taught at LSE for a record-breaking 54 years. In that time, Trevor firmly established himself as a leading scholar in private international law and EU law, and inspired many generations of law students.

Subsequently, Lord Collins gave another keynote in which he commented on Trevor’s contributions to private international law. Trevor has pursued many topics in the field, but is perhaps best known for his work on mandatory rules, choice-of-court agreements, and comparative international civil and commercial litigation. He joined the team of editors of Dicey and Morris on Conflict of Laws (as it then was) in 1985 and was one of the specialist editors responsible for 10 chapters in the 11th edition (1987) and 12 chapters in the 12th edition (1993). He sat on the Lord Chancellor’s Committee for Private International Law, gave a Hague Academy special course on the common law approach to mandatory rules in international contracts in 1997 and a general course on the modern approach to private international law in 2006, and was a rapporteur on the 2005 Hague Choice-of-Court Convention. Trevor has authored many books in the field, including a student textbook on International Commercial Litigation (CUP, now in its 3rd edition from 2020), and monographs on Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments in Europe (OUP, now in its 3rd edition from 2023) and Choice-of-Court Agreements under the European and International Instruments (OUP, 2013).

These keynotes were followed by the first panel of the day, which focused on global and comparative private international law, one of the main themes of Trevor’s scholarship. This panel was chaired by Dr Roxana Banu (Oxford), who noted that the aim of the Symposium was to celebrate Trevor and, through Trevor, the field of private international law.

The first speaker in this panel, Professor Paul Beaumont (Stirling), outlined the 2019 Hague Foreign Judgments Convention and explained its relationship with the 2005 Hague Choice-of-Court Convention. He commented on key features of the 2019 Convention, such as the broad range of judgments that come within its scope, the broad set of indirect jurisdictional rules, and exclusion of arbitration. Furthermore, he noted that the 2019 Convention supplements the 2005 Convention in different ways, for example by covering non-exclusive choice-of-court agreements, providing for a defence of breach of a jurisdiction agreement, and covering asymmetric choice-of-court agreements (as confirmed in Etihad Airways PJSC v Flother, where the Court of Appeal referred to the Hartley and Dogauchi Explanatory Report at [85]). Finally, Professor Beaumont confirmed that the two conventions should be interpreted in a systematic way. The 2005 and 2019 Conventions represent two key pieces of the Hague global justice system, which is a fitting legacy for Trevor’s excellent work on the 2005 Convention.

Professor Alex Mills (UCL) commented on the importance of the 2005 Convention. He remarked that the fact that the 2005 Convention exists and is in force is important for the Hague Conference and global private international law. However, a relatively modest number of ratifications demonstrates challenges of international harmonisation. Nevertheless, the success of a treaty is not measured only in terms of number of ratifications – the 2005 Convention crystalised the importance and acceptance of party autonomy in the field of jurisdiction and foreign judgments, and is an important sign of consensus in this respect. The 2005 Convention is important for the London litigation market because it provided a degree of continuity after Brexit. Finally, Professor Mills noted the value of the Hartley and Dogauchi Explanatory Report for interpreting and applying the treaty, and its contribution to the success of the treaty.

Professor Koji Takahashi (Doshisha) commented on comparative private international law by pointing out that the relationship between the common law and civil law systems in private international law is often analysed in terms of well-known dichotomies. One of those dichotomies is pragmatism v dogmatism (idealism). Nevertheless, Professor Takahashi noted that all private international law systems combine elements of both pragmatism and dogmatism. He demonstrated this point by showing the pragmatic aspects of pleading and proof of foreign law, renvoi, and the choice-of-law rules for divorce in Japanese law. The application of these doctrines often allows Japanese courts to apply Japanese law.

Professor Veronica Ruiz Abou-Nigm (Edinburgh) closed the first panel by discussing the protection of global commons in private international law, a subject that Trevor touched on in his 2009 Revue Hellenique de droit international article on ‘Multinational Corporations and the Third World’. Prof Ruiz Abou-Nigm did this by drawing out attention to three points: (1) power imbalances and access to justice, particularly in the context of business and human rights litigation; (2) accessibility of the private international law logic to ordinary people and lawyers; and (3) impact of differentials in capacity and expertise. Professor Ruiz Abou-Nigm concluded by remarking on the importance of local solutions to global problems such as sustainable development, and by recognising the importance of academic activism.

This panel was followed by a third keynote given by Professor Hans van Loon, who, as former Secretary General of the Hague Conference, is particularly well placed to comment on Trevor’s contribution to the work of the Conference. Professor van Loon expressed a view that the Hartley and Dogauchi Explanatory Report is a “masterpiece”. Professor Van Loon also reminded us that Trevor is a key member of the European Group of Private International Law (GEDIP).

A fourth keynote was given by Professor Carol Harlow (LSE, emerita). Since Professor Harlow and Trevor joined LSE at around the same time, she was able to comment on Trevor’s contributions to the LSE Law School, as well as on Trevor’s contributions to public law and EU law scholarship. Some readers of the blog may not know that Trevor was a pioneer in EU law in the UK and that his book on the Foundations of European Community Law (Clarendon Press, 1981) had a significant impact in the English-speaking world.

The day’s second panel was chaired by Professor Pippa Rogerson (Cambridge). Its remit was Trevor ’s well-known ICLQ article on the CJEU’s “systematic dismantling of the common law” in its decisions in Gasser v Misat, Owusu v Jackson, and Turner v Grovit. The panel’s task was to revisit the article, almost 20 years after its publication, and in light of all that has happened in the law of civil jurisdiction since.

Professor Andrew Dickinson (Oxford) spoke first, on anti-suit injunctions. Professor Dickinson sketched a contrast between Trevor’s view of anti-suit injunctions, which he characterized as one of “wary receptiveness”, and his own, which was “warier and less receptive”. Zooming out from the discussion of Turner v Grovit, Dickinson also looked further back – to the Privy Council’s seminal decision in Aérospatiale v Lee Kui Jak, on which Trevor recently published a case comment – and to more recent developments, notably the CJEU’s decision in Charles Taylor Adjusting Ltd v Starlight Shipping Co. Professor Dickinson’s conclusion was that “[The] anti-suit injunction is as controversial as it ever was, and the issues that it throws up have become more complex as the world and the ways in which legal systems interact with one another have evolved over time. It is a good thing that Trevor has been willing to serve as one of our principal guides, highlighting the trade-offs involved in choosing between unilateralism and multilateralism.”

Professor Jonathan Harris (KCL) discussed forum non conveniens, taking up not just the ICLQ article just mentioned, but also Trevor’s book on Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments (Sweet & Maxwell, 1984), and his 1992 comment in the European Law Review on the Court of Appeal’s decision in Re Harrods (Buenos Aires) Ltd [1992] Ch 72. Professor Harris noted how Trevor thought the Court of Appeal had reached the right decision in that case, and how he “did not hold back” in his later criticism of Owusu, in both the ICLQ article and in his lectures for the Hague Academy. Again taking a broader perspective, Professor Harris noted that the answer to the question “forum non conveniens – where are we now?” seems to be, roughly, “where we were 35 years ago”, at the time of Spiliada. Professor Harris concluded by giving his views on why, in the way English law is currently structured, so much still turns on the ability of claimants to serve defendants within the jurisdiction, as compared to having to obtain permission to serve out.

Professor Eva Lein (BIICL and Lausanne) was slated to speak on “torpedo” actions – another topic of concern in the “systematic dismantling” article – but unfortunately had to cancel at short notice.

The last speaker for this panel, therefore, was Professor Adrian Briggs (Oxford), who addressed the topic “What is left of the Brussels I Regulation in English law and in the English courts?”. Professor Briggs identified four different layers to the lingering effects of the Brussels regime. First, the direct legacy of the rules of section 15 of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982, as amended, on jurisdiction in certain cases involving consumers and employees. Second, and a little more indirect, is the baggage of CJEU interpretations of key terms in the Rome I and Rome II Regulations that built on their approach to the Brussels regime, and that now threaten to affect the English courts’ approach to the retained rules on choice of law. For both these instruments, in Professor Briggs’ view, the conclusion is that there is nothing much wrong with the “European” rules themselves, but rather a lot wrong with the CJEU’s interpretation of them. The third and fourth layers to the legacy of the Brussels regime in English law, in Professor Briggs’ view, sound in cultural terms. First, certain basic ideas and outlooks familiar from practice under the Brussels rules may still influence English law. The main example for this is perhaps the basic proposition, patterned on Article 4 of Brussels I bis, that it is right that claimants should always be able to sue English companies in England. For the fourth and last lingering effect of the Brussels regime, Professor Briggs returned to the main theme of Trevor’s “systematic dismantling” article. This is the lasting memory, stated bluntly, of a Court of Justice preaching mutual respect but acting with disrespect; to Member States courts and legal systems in general, and to the common law in particular.

The last keynote speaker for the day was Professor Damian Chalmers (National University of Singapore). His speech combined an appraisal of Trevor’s early and seminal contributions to the study of the law of the European Communities, with a more personal reflection on Trevor’s role as mentor.

The final panel dealt with the relationship between dispute resolution clauses and EU law, another of Trevor’s significant themes of scholarship. The panel was chaired by Professor Yvonne Baatz (QMUL, retired). She opened the session by highlighting the breadth of Trevor’s work and his characteristic ability to explain complex ideas in accessible and clear ways.

The first talk in the panel was given by Alexander Layton KC (Twenty Essex and KCL), focusing on the reflexive effect of EU private international law. While the topic is now primarily of historical interest in England, Layton explained that it still serves as a good example of the tension between the common law and civil law traditions. He criticised the CJEU for failing to consider the role of comity in the context of the potential reflexive effect of the Brussels regime toward third States in three relevant areas: foreign lis pendens, exclusive jurisdiction, and dispute resolution clauses in favour of the courts of third States. While lis pendens is now resolved by Articles 33 and 34 of Brussels I bis, the other two issues remain contentious. National courts have three options: interpreting the Brussels/Lugano regime as incorporating an implied yet mandatory reflexive effect (“strict reflexivity”); prohibiting such reflexive effect based on the mandatory application of the rules on jurisdiction of the Brussels/Lugano regime in favour of EU courts, regardless of the interests of the third State (“prohibited reflexivity”); permitting EU courts to decide the matter based on national law given the absence of express solution in the Brussels/Lugano regime (“flexible reflexivity”). While all three options present challenges, English courts appear to have adopted the flexible reflexivity approach (Ferrexpo v AG v Gilson Investments Ltd). Layton opined that brief passages in previous European case law suggest that the CJEU could support the “strict reflexivity” model. This uncertainty might be resolved by the forthcoming decision in BSH Hausgeräte v Aktiebolaget Electrolux concerning the validity of a Turkish validation of a European patent.

This talk was followed by Professor Richard Fentiman (Cambridge), who spoke about the relationship between international arbitration and the Brussels/Lugano regime. He identified two reasons why the English legal community was profoundly unpersuaded by the case law of the CJEU that curtailed contractual remedies to enforce arbitration agreements in the form of antisuit injunctions and damages awards. The first was that those EU decisions were not about the hierarchy between arbitration and EU law but about a more profound clash between the integrity of the Brussels rules and the remedies available under national law to enforce arbitration agreements. The second reason concerned the Court’s frustrating technique, which refused to recognise the conceptual distinction between the allocation of jurisdiction, on the one hand, and the enforcement of contractual rights and controlling personal conduct, on the other. The use of open-textured concepts such as mutual trust and effet utile did not inspire confidence and, in fact, was used by the Court to make policy decisions in the guise of legal reasoning. In the second part of his presentation, Professor Fentiman argued that these contractual remedies should become available and effective again after Brexit even vis-à-vis EU Member States (as evidenced by French case law). Also he pointed out that the doctrine laid by the CJEU in Case Charles Taylor Adjusting no longer applies to English decisions and, therefore, their European effectiveness will depend on the national law of each EU Member State and their notions of public policy. The relief brought by Brexit, he concluded, is that the decision whether to request those remedies from English courts in each case will depend on the parties’ litigation strategies, and not on a general prohibition imposed by EU law. Equally, he celebrated the fact that English courts will be free to address outstanding questions such as the compatibility of these contractual remedies with Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights squarely and without the restrictions imposed by the often tendentious unpersuasive reasoning of the CJEU.

The third presentation in this panel was delivered by Jan Kleinheisterkamp (LSE), who spoke about arbitration and EU mandatory rules. He explained that at the root of the problem lies the fact that, unlike national courts with article 9 of the Rome I Regulation, arbitrators do not have a clear choice of law regime for mandatory rules. As a result of Eco Swiss and Ingmar, some European courts have refused the enforcement of arbitration agreements when the use of international arbitration, coupled with the choice of law made by the parties, would lead to the disapplication of EU mandatory law. An option to avoid this radical effect would be to allow court proceedings seeking an undertaking by both parties to apply the relevant mandatory rule as a condition to enforce the arbitration agreement, linked to the possibility of court review at the post-arbitration stage (just like in the SCOTUS decision in Mitsubishi v. Soler Chrysler-Plymouth). Dr Kleinheisterkamp argued that the growing tendency of English courts to issue antisuit injunctions should not impede the operation of this proposal post-Brexit, when a party commenced court proceedings before EU courts to obtain such undertaking from its counterparty to the arbitration agreement. To do this, English courts should reconsider the possible application of Ralli Bros v Compania Naviera Sota y Aznar (1921) 8 Ll L Rep 139 to arbitration agreements and avoid turning England into a safe haven for arbitrations of any colour and shape. A more measured approach was preferable to avoid backlashes against arbitration, and recent decisions by English courts preventing illegality in arbitration (The Federal Republic of Nigeria v Process & Industrial Developments Limited) offered hope that some judges were receptive to that restrained approach.

Professor Linda Silberman (NYU, emerita) closed the panel. She discussed the potential adoption of the 2005 Hague Choice-of-Court Convention by the USA and the controversy raised by the reactions of some arbitration practitioners against the Convention compared to the 1958 New York Convention (see here, here, and here). While the prospects for the adoption of the 2005 Convention are positive, Professor Silberman signalled that one of the main areas of concern was that, unlike in Article V(1)(a) of the NYC, Article 9(a) of the 2005 Convention provides that that the determination by the chosen court in favour of the validity of the forum selection agreement is conclusive. A recent discussion on the subject in the NY Bar Committee concluded that Articles 6(c) and 9(e) of the 2005 Convention offered sufficient safeguards to alleviate the concern. Article 6(c) would allow a party to demonstrate that it never consented to a putative choice of court agreement and that holding a party to such a clause would create manifest injustice or would manifestly violate the public policy of the non-selected court. Article 9(e) would also prevent the recognition or enforcement of a judgment when it would be manifestly incompatible with the public policy of the requested State. Despite Article 9(a) of the 2005 Convention, the NY Bar Committee NY Bar was satisfied that Article 9(e) would allow the court to stop the effect of the finding by the allegedly selected court in favour of the validity of a bogus choice of court agreement. To strengthen this position, the NY Bar Committee recommended the introduction of federal legislation to reiterate the principles that voluntary consent to jurisdiction is an aspect of fundamental US public policy and an element of US constitutional due process, and also that US public policy requires a court to refuse to recognise or enforce a judgment obtained in a judicial system that does not afford impartial tribunal and judicial fairness. The Hartley and Dogauchi Explanatory Report was instrumental to reach this positive conclusion.

An online conference titled The Institution of the Family – Tradition, Reform, Uniformity and Perspectives will take place on 4 and 5 December 2023. The event, organized by a group of academic institutions, including the “Dunărea de Jos” University in Galați, the University of Caen Normandie, the Carlos III University of Madrid, the University of Murcia and the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos of Cuernavaca, aims to explore the evolving approach to family relationships as reflected in domestic, European and international rules.

Scholars interested in making a presentation at the conference have until 19 November 2023 to submit a proposal.

More information on the conference and the call can be found here.

Jacco Bomhoff (LSE), Manuel Penades (KCL), and I are pleased to announce that the LSE Law School will host a symposium to celebrate the scholarly work of emeritus professor Trevor C. Hartley.

Trevor has long been one of the world’s most distinguished scholars of Conflict of Laws (Private International Law), continuing a tradition started at the LSE by Professor Otto Kahn-Freund. For many decades, he has been at the forefront of developments in the field. As a prominent critic, notably of the Court of Justice’s efforts to unify European private international law. But also as an active participant in projects of legislation and modernization. And as author of authoritative treatises and clear and accessible student textbooks.

His publications include the Hartley & Dogauchi Explanatory Report on the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements, Hague lectures on ‘Mandatory Rules in International Contracts: the Common Law Approach’ and ‘The Modern Approach to Private International Law – International Litigation and Transactions from a Common-Law Perspective’, student textbook on International Commercial Litigation (CUP, now in its third edition from 2020), and monographs on Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments in Europe (OUP, now in its second edition from 2023) and Choice-of-Court Agreements under the European and International Instruments (OUP, 2013).

This Symposium will bring together colleagues and friends, from the UK and abroad, to celebrate and discuss Trevor’s many contributions. It is organised around some of the main themes of Trevor’s private international law scholarship.

The first panel will focus on global and comparative private international law. Paul Beaumont, Alex Mills, Veronica Ruiz Abou-Nigm, and Koji Takahashi (chair Roxana Banu) will discuss the 2019 and 2005 Hague Conventions, common law and civil law traditions in private international law, and the role of private international law in protecting global commons.

The second panel will examine contemporary English conflict of laws, through the lens of Trevor’s famous ICLQ article on the systematic dismantling of the common law of conflict of laws. Eva Lein, Andrew Dickinson, Jonathan Harris, and Adrian Briggs (chair Pippa Rogerson) will discuss the ‘Italian torpedo’, anti-suit injunctions, forum non conveniens, and the residual influence (if any) of the Brussels I Regulation in English law.

The third panel will focus on dispute resolution. Alexander Layton, Richard Fentiman, Jan Kleinheisterkamp, and Linda Silberman (chair Yvonne Baatz) will explore the reflexive effect of EU private international law and dispute resolution clauses, the interplay between EU (private international) law and arbitration, and the comparison between the 2005 Hague Convention and the New York Convention.

In addition, Lawrence Collins, Hans van Loon, Damian Chalmers, and Carol Harlow will give keynote speeches, reflecting on Trevor’s influence on private international law, the work of the Hague Conference, EU law, and LSE.

This event is open to all, subject to capacity, but registration is required. Please follow this link for more information about the event, including programme and registration.

On 21 September 2023 at 17 CET Lex&Forum, in collaboration with Εκδοσεισ Σακκουλα – Sakkoulas Publications, will be holding an online day conference titled Environmental claims in Private International Law.

The webinar aims to shed light on the intersection between environmental claims and private international law.

Charis Pamboukis (Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) will chair. Speakers include: Geert Van Calster (KU Leuven), Climate justice litigation and private international law; Ioannis Revolidis (University of Malta), Collective redress in environmental matters: outlooks through the Volkswagen litigation saga; Komninos Komnios (International Hellenic University, Plenary of the Greek Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE)), The ‘Climate Trial’: Procedural Issues; Elina Moustaira (Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA)), Environmental claims in cross-border insolvency; Vasiliki Marazopoulou (PhD, Lawyer), Climate Change Resolution of Disputes: Identifying Legislative and Regulatory tools in international commercial arbitration.

Registration is free and open until 20 September 2023 at 11 CET.

In order to register for the webinar, click here.

For further information, see here.

The Hague Academy of International Law has made known the programme of the winter course on International Law of 2024.

The course will be opened by Yves Daudet (Hague Academy of International Law) with a lecture on Solidarity in International Law.

The general course, titled On the Interface between Public and Private International Law, will be given by Campbell Mclachlan KC (Victoria University of Wellington).

The special courses will be as follows: Ximena Fuentes (University of Chile), Defying Existing International Law as the Starting Point of the Formation of New Customary Law; Patrícia Galvão Teles (Autonomous University of Lisbon) The Advisory Function of International Courts and Tribunals; Maria Gavouneli (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) Energy in International Law; August Reinisch (University of Vienna) The Settlement of Disputes Involving International Organizations; Ben Saul (University of Sydney) The Special Regime of International Counter-Terrorism Law; Santiago Villalpando (Office of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO) The Practice of the Law of Treaties since the Vienna Convention.

The directors of studies will be Fuad Zarbiyev (Geneva Graduate Institute) for the English-speaking section, and Paula Wojcikiewicz Almeida (Getulio Varga Foundation Law School in Rio de Janeiro) for the French-speaking session.

All applicants are required to register online. A limited amount of scholarships is available. Registration period for full fee applicants is between 1 May 2023 and 1 October 2023. Selected attendees of the Winter Courses will also be able to participate in the doctoral networking sessions coordinated by Daniëlla Dam-de Jong (Leiden University), additional afternoon lectures, embassy visits, social activities,  and to register for an exceptional event: the “Hours of Crisis“ Simulation Exercise. The competition will be conducted in English only.

More information on the Academy’s programmes may be found here.

The Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law is organising its 18th annual colloquium on 6 and 7 September 2023 in Swansea. The topic of the event this year is on Commercial Disputes- Resolution and Jurisdiction.

Delegates can attend both in person and online. Early bird registration is available by the end of June.

The list of speakers and chairpersons confirmed includes Masood Ahmed, Simon Baughen, Michael Biltoo, William Blair, Ruth Hosking, John A. Kimbell KC, Monica Kohli, George Leloudas, Aygun Mammadzada, Karen Maxwell, Francesco Munari, Brian Perrott, Marta Pertegas Sender, Richard Sarll, David Steward, Andrew Tettenborn and Patricia Živković.

For registration and further info, see here.

Registration is open for the 9th Journal of Private International Law Conference.

The conference will be held on 3 to 5 August 2023 at the Yong Pung How School of Law at the Singapore Management University. The keynote address will be delivered by Philip Jeyaretnam, President of the Singapore International Commercial Court.

The deadline for speakers to register is 30 May 2023. The deadline for other registrants is 25 June 2023.

Registration is complimentary for speakers, Journal of Private International Law editorial board members and SMU faculty, staff and students. Preferential rates apply for academics, government officials, SMU alumni and non-SMU students – register with your institutional e-mail to enjoy the preferential rate.

More information, including the draft programme and link to register, can be found here.

The Special Interest Group on Family and Succession Law of the European Law Institute invites everyone interested to participate in the webinar titled Application of the EU Succession Regulation in the Member States.

The webinar will present the results gathered during the five webinars on the application of the EU Succession Regulation in the Member States organized in 2022 ( which EAPIL blog covered here).

The webinar will take place on 15 May 2023 between 3 and 5 pm CET.

Attendance is free of charge. A Zoom link will be sent to those who register by sending an e-mail to: zivilrecht@uni-graz.at.

The Swiss Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne will host its 34th Private International Law day on 1 June 2023, under the title Personal Identity and Status Continuity – A focus on Names and Gender in the Conflict of Laws.

The event continues a series inaugurated last year with two webinars on filiation and same-sex marriage, respectively.  The programme and materials of those webinars can be found here and here (under media & fichiers).

The three panels are co-organised with ELI special interest group on family and succession law.

The day before the conference, a special side event organized by the Institute with the collaboration of Walter Stoffel, University of Fribourg, and Lucie Bader, film and media scholar, Bern, will introduce the topic of Law and Gender.

More details here.

As announced on this blog, the IX Congress of Private International Law of the University Carlos III of Madrid will take place on 4 and 5 May 2023.

It will be devoted to the Proposal for a Regulation on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic instruments in matters of parenthood and on the creation of a European Certificate of Parenthood, presented by the European Commission on 7 December 2022.

The speakers include: Esperanza Castellanos Ruiz, Juliana Rodríguez Rodrigo, Ilaria Pretelli, Estelle Gallant, Antonia Durán Ayago, María José Castellanos Ruiz, Aurora Hernández Rodríguez, Javier Carrascosa González, Asunción Cebrián Salvat, Isabel Lorente Martínez, Fabrizio Marongiu Buonaiuti, Emelina Santana Páez and Alfonso-Luis Calvo Caravaca.

The programme and further information are available here.

The University of Urbino will host on 17 May 2023 a conference on the international aspects of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in a hybrid way.

The speakers include Marie-Elodie Ancel, Basile Darmois, Federico Ferri, Valère Ndior, Edoardo Alberto Rossi, Massimo Rubechi and Maria Isabel Torres Cazorla.

For registration and the full programme, see here.

For further info, write an email at edoardo.rossi@uniurb.it.

A conference on the codification of European private international law will take place on 21 April 2023 at the Université Catholique de Louvain. The conference, titled Vers un code Européen de droit international privé, is meant to be a tribute to Marc Fallon.

The working language will be French and English.

Speakers and moderators include: Jean-Yves Carlier, Stéphanie Francq, Pietro Franzina, Cristina González Beilfuss, Fabienne Jault-Seseke, Thomas Kadner Graziano, Catherine Kessedjian, Patrick Kinsch, Thalia Kruger, Paul Lagarde, Johan Meeusen, Marie-Laure Niboyet, Etienne Pataut, Fausto Pocar, Sylvie Sarolea, Andreas Stein, Jinske Verhellen, Pieter-Augustijn Van Malleghem, Melchior Wathelet, Patrick Wautelet, Alain Wijffels, Dai Yokomizo. The concluding remarks will be offered by Marc Fallon.

The concept is as follows.

Why and for what purpose should European private international law be codified? This twofold question will be at the heart of the discussions on April 21, 2023, during a colloquium paying tribute to the remarkable work of Professor Marc Fallon in the fields of private international law and European law, and in particular to his involvement in the Belgian and European codification of private international law.

How did we come to envisage a European codification of private international law? What do we expect from it? Does an EU codification have the same ambitions as national codifications? Do these ambitions not vary according to the place, the time and the context of international constraints imposed on the legislator? Does a codification at the European level, and at the present time, imply specific needs, challenges and consequences, even dangers, for both the national and the European legal orders?

And above all, does it offer new prospects or hopes for the European project and for the discipline of private international law?

The full programme is available here, together with the registration form.

It has already been announced on this blog that a conference on The Law of Treaties as Applied to Private International Law is set to take place in Milan, on 5 and 6 May 2023, under the auspices of SIDI, the Italian Society of International Law and EU Law, and EAPIL.

The early bird period, which was initially meant to end on 6 March, has been extended until 20 March 2023. Those registering before the latter date will benefit from a discounted registration fee of 80 Euros (further reduced to 50 Euros for PhD students and those who earned their PhD over the last few weeks).

For more information, and the registration form, see here.

A conference on The Law of Treaties as Applied to Private International Law is scheduled to take place in Milan on 5 and 6 May 2023, under the auspices of the Italian Society of International Law and EU Law (SIDI) and the European Association of Private International Law (EAPIL).

The conference will be opened by two general presentations. Catherine Brölmann (University of Amsterdam) will present the rules of public international law relating to treaties and discuss the manner in which, and the extent to which, they can reflect the specificities of the subject-matter of the treaty concerned. Patrick Kinsch (University of Luxembourg) will outline the relevance of the law of treaties to the development and implementation of international conventions in the field of private international law.

Five thematic panels will follow, each featuring a discussion between experts in the law of treaties and speakers familiar with the practice relating to private international law treaties, respectively.

The first panel, on The conclusion and entry into force of private international law treaties, will be chaired by Hans Van Loon (former Secretary-General of the Hague Conference on Private International Law). The discussion will involve Jean-Marc Thouvenin (University of Paris Nanterre; Secretary-General of The Hague Academy of International Law) and Antonio Leandro (University of Bari).

The second panel, chaired by Sergio Carbone (University of Genova, Emeritus), will be devoted to The observance, application and interpretation of private international law treaties. Luigi Crema (University of Milan), Pedro De Miguel Asensio (Complutense University of Madrid) and Paul Beaumont (University of Stirling) will speak on the topic.

The third panel will be about The amendment and succession of private international law treaties: Catherine Kessedjian (University Paris II Panthéon-Assas, Emerita) will moderate a discussion between Jan Wouters (KU Leuven) and Andrea Schulz (German Federal Ministry of Justice).

Burkhard Hess (Director of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law) will chair the fourth panel, on The management of conflicts between private international law treaties, with Jan Klabbers (University of Helsinki, TBC) and Alex Mills (University College London) as speakers.

Finally, with Etienne Pataut (University Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne) chairing, Malgosia Fitzmaurice (Queen Mary University of London), Chiara Tuo (University of Genova) and Zeno Crespi Reghizzi (University of Milan) will discuss issues in connection with Avoiding, exiting and litigating commitments arising from private international law treaties.

A roundtable on The role of IGOs in the elaboration, implementation and coordination of private international law treaties, chaired by Fausto Pocar (University of Milan, Emeritus), will follow. Participants will include: Nicolas Nord (Secretary-General of the International Commission on Civil Status), Andreas Stein (Head of Unit (Civil Justice) at the European Commission Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers – Civil and commercial justice), Ignacio Tirado (Secretary-General of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (Unidroit), and Luca Castellani (Secretary of Working Group IV (Electronic Commerce) – Uncitral).

The conference, which will also feature a key-note speech by Maciej Szpunar (Judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union, TBC), will be closed by remarks by Stefania Bariatti (University of Milan).

The conference is organised by a scientific committee consisting of Stefania Bariatti, Giacomo Biagioni, Pietro Franzina and Lorenzo Schiano di Pepe, and will take place at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.

The full programme can be found here, together with additional practical information. Those wishing to attend must fill in the registration form available here. Early bird rates are offered to those registering before 6 March 2023.

For further information, please write an e-mail to: pietro.franzina@unicatt.it.

On 20 January 2023, the University of Strasbourg will host a conference on the private international law aspects of the Digital Market Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) organised by Etienne Farnoux, Nicolas Gillet, Kansu Okyay and Delphine Porcheron.

This conference is structured in two parts. The first part will be dedicated to general presentation of the new regulations. The second will address specific topics in private international law.

Speakers include Frédérique Berrod, Stéphanie Carre, Tobias Lutzi, Yves El Hage and Nurten Kansu Okyay.

The conference will be held both in site and online. The full program and details about the location and registration can be found here.

The programme for the fourth German Conference for Young Scholars in Private International Law has been released.

The conference will be held at the Sigmund Freud University in Vienna, 23-24 February 2023.

The speakers will present papers in German and English on different aspects of the general topic “Deference to the foreign – empty phrase or guiding principle of private international law?”.

The keynote speech will be delivered by Professor Horatia Muir Watt (Sciences Po) and a panel discussion will provide practical insights.

Please register here in order to participate. Attendance will be in-person only, free of charge. The organisers can be contacted at ipr@sfu.ac.at.

As announced in an earlier post, the International Law Association will celebrate its 150 anniversary next year through a number of events.

The celebration will start with an inaugural conference which will take place on line on 12 January 2023 and will discuss the role of parliaments in the creation of International Law so that to increase its legitimacy.

Throughout 2023, webinars will be organised on a variety of topics, including Democracy, Governance, Digital challenges, Civil Status, Anthropocene, Taxation and many others. Each of these webinars is prepared by a White Paper, which will be the focus of the webinar. Members of the public are invited to review the White Papers and comment on them until 31 December 2022 or 31 January 2023.

The organisation has already issued 10 Newsletters, which can be found here.

The programme of the webinars is available here. The White Papers can be accessed here. Registration for these events can be made here.

The Hague Academy of International Law has made known the programme of the summer course of Private International Law of 2023.

The course will be opened by Maarit Jänterä-Jareborg (Uppsala University) with a lecture on Women’s Rights in a World in Transition: The Challenges of Private International Law.

The general course, titled Responses to a Legally Fragmented World: A Private Law Perspective, will be given by Francisco Garcimartín (Autonomous University of Madrid).

The special courses will be as follows: Olivera Boskovic (Université Paris Cité), Tortious Liability in Contemporary Private International Law; Matthias Lehmann (University of Vienna), Crypto Economy and International Law;  Pedro J. Martinez-Fraga (New York University – School of Law), Evidence-Gathering, Transparency, and Risk Assessment in International Commercial Arbitration; Anselmo Reyes (Singapore International Commercial Court), The Use of Domestic Law to Regulate the Conduct of Individuals, Corporations and Governments Extra-Territorially; Geneviève Saumier (McGill University), Specialised National Courts and International Business Disputes;  Maja Stanivuković (University of Novi Sad), Property Rights of Individuals After Changes of Territorial Sovereignty.

The directors of studies will be Philippa Webb (King’s College London) and Verónica Ruiz Abou-Nigm (University of Edinburgh) for the English-speaking section, Lucie Delabie (Université de Picardie Jules Verne) and Malik Laazouzi (Université Paris 2 – Panthéon-Assas) for the French-speaking session.

All applicants are required to register online. A limited amount of scholarships is available. Registration period for full fee, scholarship, doctoral scholarship and Directed Studies applicants is between 1 November 2022 and 31 January 2023. Attendees will also be able to participate in the doctoral networking sessions coordinated by Vaios Koutroulis (Univesité libre de Bruxelles) and Alexia Pato (University of Girona), additional afternoon lectures, embassy visits and other social activities.

More information on the Academy’s programmes, including the upcoming Winter Course, may be found here.

The author of this post is Michele Casi, Post-doc, DILHPS Università degli Studi di Milano, and researcher involved in the EFFORTS (Towards more EFfective enFORcemenT of claimS in civil and commercial matters within the EU) project.

The Final Conference of the EFFORTS Project (JUST-JCOO-AG-2019-881802) took place on 30 September 2022 at the Sala Napoleonica of the Università degli Studi di Milano. More than 160 participants attended the Conference, either online and in presence.

Francesca Villata, Coordinator of the Project, opened the conference by outlining the scope, the objectives, and the results of the EFFORTS Project.

The challenges that the EFFORTS Project has aimed at addressing include gaps and divergences in Member States implementing legislation and enforcement procedures, the lack of transparency in the overall system of cross-border enforcement, the lack of (mutual) trust, and the limited use of the EFFORTS Regulations. The objectives of the Project have been tackled by dialoguing with operators, sharing good practices, drafting analytical activities and testing the outcomes, with the help of the Academic Advisory Board, the Stakeholders Cross-Border Committee, the National Working Groups and a Professional Evaluator.

At its core, the Project has produced a wide variety of outputs that:

(i) identify the difficulties users encounter and how the practice is addressing them (seven Reports on national implementing rules, seven Reports on national case-law, seven National Exchange Seminars, one International Exchange Seminar, one Report on practices in comparative and cross-border perspective, and one Report on the digitalization of the enforcement procedures and of cross-border cooperation);

(ii) provide support and guidance (Bilingual Practice Guides for the application of the EFFORTS Regulations in the targeted Member States, complemented by Annexes on national enforcement procedures, for a total of 35 Guides and seven Annexes, seven Policy Recommendations for national legislators and one EU Policy Guidelines); and

(iii) spread awareness, knowledge and trust (see further the Project’s website, the Project LinkedIn and Facebook accounts, the Final Conference, the Final Study (soon available on the website) and the EFFORTS Network).

The presentations of the Final Conference were divided into three panels, respectively chaired by Ilaria Viarengo (Director of the Department of International, Legal, Historical and Political Studies of the Università degli Studi di Milano), Burkhard Hess (Director of the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law), and Fausto Pocar, (Emeritus of International Law, Private International Law and European Law at the Università degli Studi di Milano).

During the conference, the speakers discussed a wide variety of topics relating to the cross-border enforcement of claims in civil and commercial matters within the EU, concerning the EFFORTS Regulations – Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 (Brussels I bis), Regulation (EC) No 805/2004 on the European Enforcement Order (EEO), Regulation (EC) No 1896/2006 on the European Payment Order (EOP), Regulation (EC) 861/2007 on the European Small Claims Procedure (ESCP), and Regulation (EU) 655/2014 on the European Account Preservation Order (EAPO) – such as: the certification of judgments, the effectiveness of the regulations on cross-border enforcement and national implementing rules, the suspension of the enforcement proceedings under the Regulations, the digitalization of cross-border enforcement procedures, cross-border provisional measures and the European Account Preservation Order, policy options for the re-drafting of the EFFORTS Regulations, and many others.

The discussion benefited from the interaction between national legislators, judges, lawyers, academics, in-house counsels, notaries and enforcing agents, showing once again the EFFORTS Project’s practice-driven approach and the interest of various professionals. In fact, to give one example, during the final debate the case of a lawyer working in the field of commercial cross-border transactions was brought up. The case concerned the payment of invoices, and the lawyer would advise his client to proceed in obtaining an Italian decreto ingiuntivo di pagamento rather than using the EOP procedure. According to the discussion, the Italian order for payment would be more convenient considering that the procedure is more familiar to practitioners and could be later certified for enforcement under one of the other EFFORTS Regulations (under Article 53 Brussles I-bis or as an EEO).

This observation meets, at its core, one of the issues that have been discussed amongst the EFFORTS research groups, and has been reflected in the EFFORTS EU Policy Guidelines: i.e. the differentiation among the existing Regulations. In order to expand ‘the role of uniform European procedures in this area of the law‘, it has been observed, ‘domestic orders for payment procedures would need to be excluded from the scope of the BI bis (n.n. Brussels I bis) and EEO Regulations – a solution which would at the same time reduce the difficulties related to the existence of a wide variety of simplified procedures across the different Member States and encourage economic operators to turn themselves to the EPO and the ESCP‘ (page 28 of the Report). This has further confirmed the practice-driven approach that has shaped the EFFORTS Project’s objectives and results during its implementation.

The activities of the conference lasted the entire day and included several presentations as well as formal and informal discussions and Q&A from the participants, showing that the topics presented at the Conference have captured the attention and the interest of the public.

The contents extensively discussed at the Final Conference will be reflected in the upcoming and conclusive deliverables of the Project: the EU and national Policy Recommendations and the Final Study, soon to be published on the Project’s website.

The Academy of European Law (ERA) will held its Annual Conference on European Family Law on 22-23 September 2022 .

The conference will deal with the new Brussels II Regulation, which is applicable from 1 August 2022, hearing of the child, parentage, surrogacy and double motherhood, as well as recent CJEU case law on international family law.

Speakers include Véronique Chauveau, Dagmar Coester-Waltjen, Gilles Cuniberti, Joanna Guttzeit, Frank Klinkhammer, Carlos de Melo Marinho, James Netto, Marta Requejo Isidro, Caroline Rupp, Nadia Rusinova and Andrea Schulz.

For further information, see here.

The yearly seminar on European and Comparative law  organized by the Centre of European Legal Studies (CELS) in Urbino (Italy) will take place this summer from 22 August to 3 September 2022.

The Seminar aims to develop knowledge of European and International law as well as to facilitate exchanges between lawyers, officials of the European Communities, professors, judges and advanced students.

The list of speakers for 2022 includes Marie-Elodie Ancel (University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas), Robert Bray (former Head of Unit of the Secretariat of the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament), Georges Cavalier (University of Lyon 3), Ilaria Pretelli (Swiss Institute of Comparative Law), Tuto Rossi (University of Fribourg), Martin Svatos (Charles University), Alessandro Bondi (University of Urbino Carlo Bo), Fabrizio Marrella (University of Venezia Ca’ Foscari), Rosa Maria Emilia Palavera (University of Urbino Carlo Bo), Jens Karsten (Lawyer), Edoardo Alberto Rossi (University of Urbino Carlo Bo), Helmut Satzger (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich).

The programme is available here and enrollment information here.

The Interest Group on Private International Law of the Italian Society of International Law (SIDI) will host two webinars – one in English, the other in Italian – in the framework of its recurring webinar series, titled Private International Law in Europe: Current Developments in Jurisprudence.

On 28 June 2022, from 5 to 7 pm (CET), Andrea Bonomi (University of Lausanne) will speak of Habitual Residence of an Abducted Child for the Purposes of the Law Applicable to Maintenance. Francesco Pesce (University of Genova) will serve as discussant.

On 8 July 2022, from 5 to 7 pm (CET), Javier Carrascosa González (University of Murcia) will deal with the recent case law of the Court of Justice relating to the citizenship of the Union and its implications for private international law. The discussant will be Bruno Barel (University of Padova).

The webinars will be chaired by Stefania Bariatti (University of Milan), convenor of the Interest Group.

Those wishing to attend the webinars are are invited to write an email to sidigdipp@gmail.com. Further information available here.

As announced on this blog, the final conference of the DXB – Identities on the move – Documents cross borders will be held in Italy on 23-24 June 2022 and will be hosted at A.N.U.S.C.A.’s Academy in Castel San Pietro Terme (Bologna, Italy).

All interested scholars and registrars, public authorities and officials, lawyers and students are invited to take part to it for the outcomes of the research. This final event will offer an opportunity to become aware of the Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 on promoting the free movement of citizens by simplifying the requirements for presenting certain public documents in the European Union and to discover the strengths and the challenges of this still relatively unknown instrument. The conference will connect the scientific and applicative dimension of the Regulation, sharing, inter alia, the Commentary on the Regulation and an EU-wide Comparative Survey placing the Regulation into the context of daily national practice.

The event will be held in person, in compliance with health safety regulations, and will also be broadcast online in live streaming for free. Deadline registration for on-line attendance is 21 June 2022 and working languages of the conference will be English, German and Italian.

The Conference programme is available here and includes as speakers Maria Caterina Baruffi, Elsa Bernard, Giacomo Biagioni, Laura Calafà, Matteo Caldironi, Renzo Calvigioni, Cristina Campiglio, Giacomo Cardaci, Gregor Christandl, Mădălina Cocoșatu, Diletta Danieli, Sanjay Dharwadker, Ester di Napoli, Ornella Feraci, Caterina Fratea, Marco Gerbaudo, Susanne Gössl, Paride Gullini, Steve Heylen, Marion Ho-Dac, Fabienne Jault-Seseke, Eva Kaseva, Dafni Lima, Balwicka-Szczyrba Małgorzata, Francesca Maoli, Claudia Elena Marinică, Martina Melcher, Dominik Damian Mielewczyk, Nicolas Nord, Guillermo Palao Moreno, Lina Papadopoulou, Paolo Pasqualis, Paul Patreider, Cinzia Peraro, Stefania Pia Perrino, Marco Poli, Camille Reitzer, Simon Rijsdijk, Alexander Schuster, Sharon Shakargy, Nicole Sims, Thomas Stigari, Anna Sylwestrzak, Marie Vautravers, Rob van der Velde, Jinske Verhellen and Brody Warren.

If you have any questions or inquiries, please write an email to info@identitisonthemove.eu.

On 15 and 16 June 2022, the University of Zaragoza will host an online conference under the title Challenges of Private Law and the 2030 Agenda. Presentations will be held in in Spanish and in Italian. Several, among them, will address issues of private international law.

Topics include international surrogacy, child abduction, cross-border divorce, children born under irregular migration circumstances, international trade sanctions, climate change litigation and the role of Private International Law with respect to immigration.

Those interested in presenting a communication (in Spanish, English or Italian) are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 500 words by 10 June 2022.

More information is available here.

A conference on the location of damage in private international law will be held at Paris Cité University on 30 and 31 May 2022.

The conference is convened by Olivera Boskovic and Caroline Kleiner. Speakers include Laurence Idot, Ugljesa Grusic, Aline Tenenbaum, Dmitriy Galuschko, Etienne Farnoux, Veronica Ruiz Abou-Nigm, Ludovic Pailler, Symeon C. Symeonides, Tristan Azzi, Zhengxing Huo, Yuko Nishitani, Yves El Hage, Matthias Lehmann, Sandrine Clavel, François Mailhé, Cyril Nourissat, Sarah Laval, Maud Minois and Pascal de Vareilles-Sommières.

The conference is structured in two parts. The first will be dedicated to the location of damage in specific field of the law (competition law, financial law, personality rights, environment, etc.). The second will address general topics such as party autonomy or cyber torts

The full programme of the conference and details about location and registration can be found here.

As announced on this blog, the Journal of Private International Law-Singapore Management University Virtual Conference on Conflicts of Jurisdiction will be held online on 23 to 24 June 2022 (6.00 pm to 10.20 pm Singapore time, 11.00 am to 3.20 pm British Summer Time on each day). The event is supported by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH).

The conference is intended to support the ongoing work of the HCCH on Jurisdiction.

The speakers are leading private international law scholars and experts, many of whom are directly involved in the ongoing negotiations at the HCCH.

Attendance at the conference is complimentary for academics, government and international organisation officials, Journal of Private International Law Advisory Board members and students. Registration is required.

More information on the conference and the link to register can be found here.

The Private International Law Festival will take place on 16 and 17 May 2022 in Edinburgh.

The topics that will dealt with include: private international law and sustainable development; decolonising law and private international law; private international law in Scotland; forum conveniens annual lecture; private international law and sustainable migration governance; interdisciplinary latam perspectives; a book launch; new horizon for private international law.

This event is free, in person only and open to all but registration is required. To secure your place, please register through Eventbrite here.

Further information is available here.

As announced on this blog, the VIII Congress of Private International Law of the University Carlos III of Madrid will take place in dual mode on 12 and 13 May 2022.

It will be devoted to Regulation (EU) 2019/1111 on jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of decisions in matrimonial matters and the matters of parental responsibility, and on international child abduction.

Under the direction of Juliana Rodríguez Rodrigo, the speakers include: Esperanza Castellanos Ruiz, Javier Carrascosa González, Beatriz Campuzano Díaz, Nuria Marchal Escalona, Giacomo Biagioni, Elena Rodríguez Pineau, Celia Caamiña Domínguez, Mónica Herranz, Ilaria Pretelli, Teresa Peramato Martín, Alfonso-Luis Calvo Caravaca.

The Congress programme and information to attend it are available here.

Within the activities of the Jean Monnet Module “CoRiMaR” (Consumer’s Rights and Market Regulation in the European Union), the Department of Legal Sciences of the University of Udine (Italy), together with a consortium of European universities including the University of Essex, De Montfort University, Universitatea de Vest din Timisoara, East Anglia University, University of Belgrade and University of Rijeka, organises the 15th edition of the Summer school Consumer’s Rights and Market Regulation in the European Union, to be held 13-22 July 2022 in Udine (Italy), at the Campus of Legal and Economic Sciences.

The Summer school on Consumer’s Rights and Market Regulation is an intensive course (40 hours of lectures, a workshop and a moot court), held in English by internationally renowned academics. It addresses theoretical and practical issues related to the legal protection of consumers and the market regulation in the European Union.

The call for application and the brochure is available here and here.

The application deadline is 15 June 2022.

For further info, please write an email to ip.europeanlaw.uniud@gmail.com.

On 30 June and 1 July 2022 the University of Amsterdam will host the 4th International Class Action Conference.

The conference is organized by a team from the University of Haifa, the University of Tilburg and the University of Amsterdam, in collaboration with other institutions. The theme of this year’s conference is From Class Actions to Collective Redress: Access to Justice in the 21st century.

A broad range of issues will be addressed in the conference, including issues that specifically relate to cross-border situations.

The Conference will bring together a diverse range of international expertise in collective redress, and is intended to act as a forum for the sharing of experiences and knowledge.

See here for the full programme and practical details.

A series of online seminars has been in launched in December 2021, organised by the team of the Vici project Affordable Access to Justice at the Erasmus School of Law: the general topic is Trends and Challenges in Costs and Funding of Civil Justice.

The next seminar in the series is scheduled for 20 April 2022 (14-16 CET) under the title Austerity policies and litigation costs reforms.

The relationship between access to justice, efficiency of courts, and litigation costs has never been an easy one. Yet, finding a proper equilibrium has never been more challenging than in recent times. The EU economic crises of the last decade and austerity policies deeply impacted justice budgets in several EU Member States and triggered justice reforms, particularly in the area of litigation costs. Building on the experiences of three EU jurisdictions that have been greatly affected by such developments (Greece, Portugal, and Spain), the seminar will assess the impact of austerity measures on access to justice.

The speakers are Panagiotis Perakis (Vice President CCBE), Paula Costa e Silva (Lisbon University) and Fernando Gascón Inchausti (Complutense University of Madrid).

Register here to attend the event.

Since the Millennium, public interest litigation has become a growing phenomenon in civil courts. Activists and NGOs are filing civil lawsuits, both domestic and cross-border, in order to promote societal and political shifts.

Typical examples are (business and) human rights claims, environmental claims, climate change litigation but also cartel damage claims. Targeted defendants react also developing litigation strategies, such as bringing the disputes to the general public through the media. A currently much discussed example are SLAPP, strategic lawsuits against public participation – libel lawsuits brought against journalists, media and other stakeholders of the civil society in order to deter them from making investigations.

On 8 April 2022, at 4 pm CET, a Max Planck Law curriculum course is taking place under the title Strategic Litigation – A New Phenomenon in Civil Litigation?, where Burkhard Hess (Director, MPI Luxembourg) will present strategic litigation on the basis of actual cases, and analyse the main features of this (not that new?) phenomenon. The class will primarily focus on civil actions but equally look at recent developments at constitutional and international courts, trying to assess whether and to what extent this type of dispute is transforming civil litigation as we know it.

Those wishing to attend are required to register here by 6 April 2022.

On 10 December 2021, from 16.30 to 19.00 CET, a webinar in English on The Recommendation of GEDIP Concerning the Private International Law Aspects of the Future EU Instrument on Corporate Due Diligence and Corporate Accountability, will take place, organised by the Interest Group on Private International Law of the Italian Society of International Law (SIDI).

Hans Van Loon, former Secretary General of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, and Giulia Vallar, of the University of Milan, will intervene.

This is the final event of a series of webinars entitled Private International Law in Europe: New Developments on Corporate Social Responsibility and Private International Law.

Attendance is free. Those wishing to join the webinar are invited to send an e-mail to sidigdipp@gmail.com.