Archive for category: Association’s news

At the recent Geneva Conference, EAPIL’s members were called to elect new officers to serve on the Board and the Scientific Council of the Association until 2030.

Congratulations and thanks to the fellow members who will take over from the previous governance.

Board of Administration

Agnieszka Frackowiack-Adamska, President

Silvia Marino, Vice President

Silvia is a Professor of European Union at the University of Insubria (Italy). She authored and edited several works in the fields of private international law and EU substantive law, including EU citizenship and competition law. She is Director of the EAPIL Winter School since its establishment (2024); Coordinator of the Jean Monnet module EUPILart, on future challenges of private international law, funded by EACEA; and head of the Italian unit in the EUSuccess research project, funded by DG Just, on the application of the EU Succession Regulation.

Konstantinos Rokas, Vice President

Konstantinos holds a PhD in Private International Law from Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, with LLM degrees from National Capodistrian University (Athens) and Paris II Panthéon-Assas. His PhD focused on medically assisted reproduction in comparative private international law. He specializes in international family law, particularly artificial reproductive techniques, successions, and parental rights. Admitted to the Athens Bar since 2004, he advises clients on cross-border surrogacy and family matters. Previously a Lecturer at the University of Nicosia (2018-2023), he is currently Assistant Professor of private international law at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He speaks English, French, German.

Erik Sinander, Vice President

Erik is Associate Professor (Docent) of Private International Law at Stockholm University. His research focuses on private international law, with a particular interest in European labour law. He is an editor of the EAPIL Blog and serves as a Swedish expert in the European Labour Law Network. He studied law in Lund, Boston and Heidelberg before obtaining his PhD from Stockholm University in 2017.

Konrad Duden, Treasurer

Konrad is Professor of Private Law, Private International Law and Comparative Law at the University of Hamburg. His research focuses on international and comparative family law as well as general issues of private international law and international civil procedure. He is a member of the EAPIL Board of Administration, an editor of the EAPIL Blog and the founder of the Lindemann Fellowship for Private International Law. He was a senior and junior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, where he also wrote his PhD and postdoctoral dissertation. He studied in Heidelberg, Munich, Bilbao and Cambridge.

Giesela Rühl, Secretary General

Giesela is a Professor of Private International and Comparative Law at Humboldt-University Berlin. She is the author and (co-) editor of books, articles and book chapters on European private international law, including the 4-volume Encyclopedia of Private International Law (Edward Elgar, 2nd edition, forthcoming) and Private International Law and Global Crises (Edward Elgar, 2026). In addition she is an editor of Conflictoflaws.net, a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the European Law Institute as well as the International Academy of Comparative Law. Over the past years she has held visiting positions in the US (Columbia, Duke, Stanford), the UK (Oxford, Cambridge, LSE), Japan (Fukuoka) and Australia (Sydney). She has been invited to teach a special course at The Hague Academy of International Law in the summer of 2026.

Scientific Council

• Gilles Cuniberti
• Pedro De Miguel Asensio
• Konrad Duden
• Morten M. Fogt
• Agnieszka Frąckowiack-Adamska
• Pietro Franzina
• Uglješa Grušić
• Jeremy Heymann
• Costanza Honorati
• Thomas Kadner Graziano
• Vesna Lazić
• Tobias Lutzi
• Silvia Marino
• Johann Meeusen
• Ralf Michaels
• Dário Moura Vicente,
• Konstantinos Rokas
• Verónica Ruiz Abu-Nigm
• Giesela Rühl
• Erik Sinander

The biographies of the members of the Scientific Council can be found here.

The members of the European Association of Private International Law have access to a reserved area of this website, called MyEAPIL, where they can find information on other members.

To ensure this tool is as useful as it can be, it is important that members update their personal details (academic or professional affiliation, e-mail address, etc.) whenever a change occurs. So, fellow EAPIL members, please take a moment to check whether the personal information in our database is up to date!

This would facilitate, among other things, the management of the upcoming election to renew the Associations’ governing bodies. Information on the electoral process, including details on how members can stand for election, can be found here.

The results of the elections will be announced on the occasion of the EAPIL conference scheduled to take place in Geneva on 18-20 June 2026 (by the way, have you registered to attend?).

By accessing MyEAPIL, members will also be able to check whether their annual fees are due.

This year’s General Assembly of the European Association of Private International Law will take place (digitally) this Friday, 28 November 2025, at 5 pm CET.

The agenda and the login details for the meeting have been sent to all members by email on 1 October 2025.

Those who have not received these documents, or need information regarding the General Assembly, are invited to get in touch with the Secretary General at secretary.general@eapil.org.

Don’t forget, fellow Members of the Association, that you can find information about your membership status, fees paid etc. by accessing the reserved MyEAPIL area.

We look forward to seeing you online!

The European Association of Private International Law is delighted to announce the establishment of its own book series with Edward Elgar.

The European Association of Private International Law Series will publish the outcome of the association activities.

These include the proceedings of its conferences, but also papers based on the lectures given at the EAPIL Winter School, the results of its working groups and any other outcome of its activities worth publishing in a book format.

The first volume of the series is the proceedings of the founding conference of the association held in Aarhus a few years ago, Private International Law in an Era of Change, which were published at the end of last year. A dedicated post will be out shortly on this blog.

Other volumes are currently in press with Edward Elgar after the Wroclaw conference and the first EAPIL Winter School.

Membership in the European Association of Private International Law comes with a small burden: the annual fees!

If you’re a member, and have not paid your fees for 2023, please take a moment to do so.

The amount of the fees is reasonable (and has not changed since the Association was created), and the process is rapid and straightforward: you may pay by bank transfer, or use PayPal.

All information is found here.

Thank you!

Planning to become a member of EAPIL, and join the 255 scholars and practitioners who have already done so? We are glad to provide you with one more reason to submit your application before the end of the year!

While, as a general rule, fees are due for each calendar year, those applying for membership in December 2020 will not be required to pay any fees for 2020. The first fees due by such new members will be the fees due for 2021.

See here for information on the benefits you would be entitled to as a member, as well as on the types of membership offered and the admission process.

Once you are ready to apply for membership, just fill in the form you find here!

In accordance with its goal to be a pan-European forum for reflection on issues of private international law, the European Association of Private International Law is seeking to establish working groups which will reflect on selected topics of private international law and submit their conclusions for endorsement by the Association.

EAPIL Working Groups might be constituted to reflect on any topic of private international law, whether broad or specific, theoretical or practical. The goal of Working Groups is to publish their conclusions in a document which could take various forms (reports, draft legislation, principles, recommendations, position papers, etc.).

All EAPIL members are entitled either to join any established Working Group, or to follow the work of the Working Group by joining its Members Consultative Committee.

Finally, the Association invites all members to propose the constitution of Working Groups on any topic of interest. More information on the procedure for establishing Working Groups can be found here.

Project on the Feasibility of a European Private International Law Act

The first Working Group established by EAPIL will refect on the feasibility of a European PIL Act and is chaired by Professor T. Kadner Gaziano. A full description of the project is available on the Group’s page.

Other Contemplated Working Groups

The establishment of several other working groups is currently contemplated. Proposals will be submitted for approval to the Scientific Committee once an appropriate number of members has expressed interest to join them. Any interested member is invited to contact the responsible person for the relevant group.

Project on a future European Regulation on International Property Law

So far, International Property Law has not been a subject matter in the ongoing process of Europeanisation of Private International Law through Regulations. This does not mean that the European legislator has not yet touched property law. The Regulations on matrimonial property and on succession have certain overlaps with international property law which the CJEU is in the process of clarifying (see e.g. the famous Kubicka case). Rights in rem also play a role for the rules on exclusive jurisdiction (Article 24 nr. 1 Brussels I bis Regulation). Furthermore, numerous directives, especially in the realm of finance law, use the lex rei sitae as a connecting factor.

This fragmented picture and the fact that Member States’ autonomous rules on international property law are by far not uniform although most, if not all, still use the lex rei sitae principle as a starting point, call for a European Regulation on the law applicable to proprietary rights. The project is meant to be limited to tangible movable and immovable property, leaving out rights in intangibles (claims, intellectual property rights) and securities whether incorporated or unincorporated.

The group is still under formation. EAPIL Members who like to join it are invited to signal their interest to Prof. Dr. Eva-Maria Kieninger (Kieninger@jura.uni-wuerzburg.de).

Project on Interests in European Private International Law

The issue of interests is a topic of the highest practical importance, which is raised by the award of any sums of money. In cross-border relations, it is necessary to assess which law applies to them, whether at the adjudicatory stage when a court rules on a financial claim, or at the enforcement stage, when an enforcement authority is requested to enforce a foreign judgment. Yet, European Regulations of PIL are largely silent on the topic. The working group will aim at proposing either amendments to existing legislation or interpretations addressing these issues.

Members interested to join the working group or follow its work in the Members Consultative Committee are invited to contact Prof. Dr. Caroline Kleiner (caroline.kleiner@parisdescartres.fr).

Project on the Evidence Regulation

The Evidence Regulation is currently being recast. Unfortunately, the contemplated reform neglects the most important of its flaws, the need for liberalization of the cross-border taking of evidence in the European Union. The CJEU has underscored the backwardness of the Evidence Regulation by allowing courts of the Member States to ignore it and use directly their national procedures. The working group will aim at proposing a new ambitious framework liberalizing cross-border taking of evidence in the European Union.

Members interested to join the working group or follow its work in the Members Consultative Committee are invited to contact Prof. Dr. Gilles Cuniberti (gilles.cuniberti@uni.lu).