The Legal Research Society

Although term start is still a few weeks away, the Legal Research Society kick starts this academic year with a presentation by founding member J ustin Borg Barthet titled “ How Corporate Europe was Built in Kirchberg: An overview of AG Maduro's Opinion in Cartesio ". The presentation will take place on Monday August 25 (sorry for the short notice) at 14.00 in Taylor Building room C16. Here is the abstract: This presentation addresses the opinion of Advocate General Maduro (ECJ) in Case C‑210/06 Cartesio Oktató és Szolgáltató bt . The case concerns the refusal of the Hungarian courts to allow a Hungarian limited partnership to transfer its operational headquarters to Italy while remaining incorporated under Hungarian law. In keeping with the flow of liberalisation that began with the ECJ's judgment in Centros , AG Maduro finds that the Hungarian law at issue constitutes an unjustified restriction on freedom of establishment as provided in Articles 43 and 48 of the EC...

Advocate General Maduro (ECJ) today delivered his opinion in Case C‑210/06 Cartesio Oktató és Szolgáltató bt , a reference for a preliminary ruling from a Hungarian Court of Appeal. The case concerns the compatibility of the real seat theory with Articles 43 and 48 EC. The relevant question referred is the following: ‘(4(a)) If a company, constituted in Hungary under Hungarian company law and entered in the Hungarian commercial register, wishes to transfer its seat to another Member State of the European Union, is the regulation of this field within the scope of Community law or, in the absence of the harmonisation of laws, is national law exclusively applicable? (b) May a Hungarian company request transfer of its seat to another Member State of the European Union relying directly on community law (Articles 43 [EC] and 48 [EC])? If the answer is affirmative, may the transfer of the seat be made subject to any kind of condition or authorisation by the Member State of o...

Conflictoflaws.net has introduced guest editorials from scholars and practitioners to be posted monthly in 2008. This is a welcome development and yet another great contribution of that website to private international law scholarship. Students the world over who attend universities that have limited library resources must be particularly thankful for the availability of quality scholarly work on the internet - I know I would have been in my undergrad years. The first guest editorial was posted last week: “Trust and Confidence in the European Community Supreme Court?” by Andrew Dickinson. Mr Dickinson makes a compelling case that the ECJ should be reformed in order to compensate for what he considers to be a gap in the court's expertise in the fields of private law and private international law.

Y esterday the ECJ delivered yet another judgment in one of the most fascinating areas of European law – the intersection and conflict between social policy and European internal market laws. The judgment in the matter C-438/05 The International Transport Workers' Federation and The Finnish Seamen's Union is a preliminary ruling in a reference from the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) (England and Wales). The case concerns a Finnish shipping company (Viking Line) that decided to reflag its ship to Estonia in order to benefit from lower wage costs. The International Transport Workers’ Federation took collective action on behalf of the Finnish seamen in order to dissuade Viking Line from effecting the proposed changes. Viking Line felt aggrieved by the action because it was of the view that it breached the company’s freedom of establishment per Article 43 ECT. The EU Observer reports that the case ‘was closely followed across the EU as it appeared to encapsulate mu...

I suppose that everybody takes something different from an academic presentation. A spin-off discussion from yesterday’s lecture and seminar by AG Sharpston concerned the functioning of the EC’s legal system. On this somewhat hazy Saturday morning, I’ve been thinking about how the legal system could be made both efficient and coherent. The following are some Saturday morning thoughts (which means that they might only make as much sense as Friday night was sober – you may be the judge of that). It seems to me that the time has come for the Community to rethink its legal system completely. The legislative process is not entirely fit for purpose. A system of regulations and directives makes sense in the context of a Community whose competences are limited. However, Europe is fast-approaching a time when it will need to think in terms of Codes and Acts. Piecemeal legislation cannot be sustainable in the long-run. To my mind, the debate regarding the possible adoption of a European ...

On Friday 07 December Ms Eleanor Sharpston, Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, will return to the University of Aberdeen for the second consecutive year. She will deliver a lecture to LL.B. students in European Union Law (Institutions and Judicial System)’. The lecture will address ‘The role of the Advocate General’. All are welcome to attend. Following her recent opinion delivered in Case C-212/06 Government of the French Community and Walloon Government v Flemish Government (the Belgique Francophone case) , Ms Sharpston will also deliver a seminar to postgraduate students and members of staff to continue last year’s discussion regarding citizenship of the European Union. The title of the seminar is ‘Civis europeus – quo vadis?’ The programme is as follows: 12:00 ‘The role of the Advocate General’ (Regent Building, Lecture Theatre 12) 15:00 ‘Civis europeus – quo vadis?’ (KCF 22) Ms Sharpston comes to the University at the invitation of the School of Law and the Legal...