The Legal Research Society

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...

A few days ago I commented on the Archbishop of Canterbury’s proposal to have elements of Islamic law coexisting with the English legal system. I questioned the extent to which it would be possible for English law to recognise some facets of Islamic family law. An article on Conflictoflaws.net sheds further light on the matter. Gilles Cuniberti explains how the Cour de Cassation in France has refused to recognise a number of Algerian and Moroccan divorces. He describes the factual background as follows: The facts of the cases are almost invariably the same. The couple was of Algerian (or Moroccan) origin. They were sometimes born there, or even had got married there. They then emigrated to France, where they have been living ever since. They sometimes acquired French citizenship. It seems that it is normally the wife who wants the divorce. She therefore decides to sue, in France. But the husband then travels to Algeria or Morocco and gets an islamic divorce...

Conflictoflaws.net is running an essay competition for students of private international law. The first prize is $500 plus $300 worth of books. The best essays will also be considered for publication in the Journal of Private International Law . Further information can be found here .

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.

“This Convention establishes a comprehensive system of cooperation among child support authorities, which we believe will result in more children receiving more support more quickly.” (USA delegation) A new global Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and other Forms of Family Maintenance has just been finalised under the auspices of the Hague Conference on Private International Law . Just after the adoption of the Final Act, the United Stated of America become the first signatory of the new Convention. The Convention aims to resolve the problems of unpaid or uncollectible child support. I posted a brief report about the work in progress on this Convention just a couple of weeks ago. I had the opportunity to follow the negotiations since I worked as a recording secretary at the Diplomatic Session. I have the pleasure to report that the role played by Professor Beaumont gives the School of Law at the University of Aberdeen much to be proud of. Professor Beaumont w...

Conflictoflaws.net reports upon the following article written by Richard Oppong: “Private International Law in Africa: Past, Present and Future” (2007) 55 AJCL 677-719. The abstract can be found here . I had the pleasure to listen to a presentation by Mr Oppong at the Journal of Private International Law Conference held in Birmingham in June. I must say that the development of Private International Law in Africa, and the necessity of a private international law revival for economic development, is a truly fascinating subject. Mr Oppong's article is published at a time when the Hague Conference on Private International Law is doing sterling work to promote the development of the legal discipline in Africa. Amongst several other initiatives, the Hague Conference recently organised a seminar for francophone African Judges, reported here . I hope to find the time to comment upon the importance of these developments more in future. Till then, I would strongly recommend Mr Oppong's...

Approximately 100 States have gathered in the Hague to conclude a new Convention on the international recovery of maintenance obligations. The following are some extracts from the press release that was issued at the beginning of the Diplomatic Session: "A new Convention…designed to respond to the needs of children and other dependents by providing international procedures which are simple, swift, cost-effective, accessible, and fair." Unpaid child support – as well as support of other dependent family members – amounts to billions of Euros worldwide. When the person liable for support lives abroad, the difficulties of recovery are often insurmountable. At present, international procedures are typically slow, complicated, costly, and under-utilized. They are simply not serving the needs of the children and other family dependents who, in a mobile world in which multinational families are no longer exceptional, are increasing in number exponentially. The new Hague Convention ...