Please attend the International Law Committee Meeting at the DRI Annual Meeting in New Orleans
by Bob Allen, Chair: DRI International Law Committee
With my term as Chair of the International Law Committee coming to end, I can't help but reflect on the positive experience of participating in the launching of DRI Europe. I have gotten to know several of you through this process and as an American, the meeting places were always great.
[FULL STORY]
|
Rome II – Conflicts Made Easy
by Roddy Bourke, McCann FitzGerald, Dublin, Ireland
Practitioners need to know key jurisdiction rules to avoid expensive mistakes such as submission to an unfriendly jurisdiction. But applicable law (or proper law, as common lawyers say) can be checked in the textbooks when a dispute with foreigners arises, so this complex aspect of conflicts law gets less day to day attention from busy lawyers than jurisdiction law. However, a new law, called Rome II, will harmonise conflicts of applicable law in tort and delict in all EU states except Denmark from 11 January 2009 and will make the law less difficult to understand and apply. An earlier law, Rome I, has standardised conflicts of applicable contracts law.
[FULL STORY]
|
Anti-Suit Injunctions Vs. International Freezing Orders: Eu Regulation On Jurisdiction In Practice
by Christian Bouckaert, Romain Dupeyré, Bouckaert Ormen Passemard
On December 19, 2002, the French Supreme Court upheld a decision of the Paris Court of Appeals that had ordered a creditor to discontinue a lawsuit initiated in Spain against a company under bankruptcy in France, under penalty of a daily fine.[1] The court held: “subject to international treaties or European regulations, which are not applicable in the present case, bankruptcy proceedings initiated in France produce their effect on all the assets of the bankrupt company.” By so holding, the court recognized the validity of injunctions commanding creditors of a company in bankruptcy to do or desist from doing something with respect to the assets or funds of the company, regardless of the location of assets or funds at issue.
[FULL STORY]
|
Enforcement of Arbitral Awards in France: The Birth of the Universal Arbitral Award?
by Alain Farhad, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Paris, France
(Putrabali v. Rena, Cass., 1ère civ., 29 June 2007)
On 29 June 2007, France's highest court may have given birth to the truly autonomous international arbitral award – that is, an award not subject to any particular national law. This new step towards autonomy was announced by way of a decision enforcing a foreign arbitral award that had been partially annulled by the courts in England, the country where the award was made.
[FULL STORY]
|
Product Liability In Spain After The Coming Into Force Of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007
by Cristina Ayo Ferrándiz, Uria Menendez Abogados Slp Barcelona, Spain
In the Spanish legal system product liability legislation was to be found, until very recently, in article 1902 of the Civil Code (hereinafter, “Cc”), which sets out the rules concerning liability in tort, in the Consumers and Users (Protection) Act (hereinafter, “CUPA”) and in the Defective Products (Liability) Act (hereinafter, “Dpla”), which transposed the EEC Directive of the 25th of July 1985 concerning Liability for Defective Products (hereinafter, the “85/374 Directive”).
[FULL STORY]
|
Efficient Dispute Resolution – Ireland Leads The Way
by Noreen Howard, Stuart Margetson, Matheson Ormsby Prentice, Dublin, Ireland
Commercial Litigation in the Republic of Ireland was revolutionised by the introduction, on 12 January 2004, of the Commercial Court. The inception of this Court stemmed from a recognition that existing High Court procedures were slow and inefficient and that there was a financial imperative for the State in establishing a commercially focused Court.
[FULL STORY]
|
