Law to Fight Child Marriages Incompatible with the Basic Law

This is a post for conflicts of laws nerds and lovers of legal policy – a lesson in symbolic politics and disregard for private international law expertise. And it takes me back to my days as a student assistant to Professor Schurig at Passau University where I learned the tools of the trade..

Following a referral by the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof), the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) has overturned the Law to Fight Child Marriages (Gesetz zur Bekämpfung von Kinderehe). Continue reading

Federal Supreme Court: Unrestricted Review of Arbitral Awards in Antitrust Matters

by Lena Rindfus, Stefan Horn and Peter Bert

In a recent decision, the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) held that German courts have jurisdiction to fully review arbitral awards applying competition law, if such an award is before them in enforcement or setting aside proceedings. The prohibition of a révision au fond, that is, a substantive review of the arbitral award by the ordinary courts, which is part of both the German domestic arbitration law and the New York Convention, does not apply in that context. Hence, lengthy and complex arbitral proceedings could end up being just “first instance proceedings” on their way to the ordinary courts if they relate to competition law matters. Continue reading

Security for Costs Post-Brexit: Federal Supreme Court Provides Further Guidance

In a recent decision, the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) had an opportunity to provide further guidance regarding the obligation of UK claimants to provide security for costs in German proceedings.The Federal Supreme Court and the Federal Patent Court (Bundespatentgericht) had already held in 2021 that corporate claimants have to post security for costs pursuant to Sec. 110 German Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO), as there is no surviving treaty that would fill the gap left by Brexit.

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The Month in Retrospect: What Else Happened in August 2021

Coping with the Diesel Caseload

The Volkswagen wave of Diesel cases may be ebbing off in the lower courts, but Diesel-related claims against other manufacturers continue to be filed. In the Stuttgart district court (Landgericht), the number of new civil cases is up by 60%, driven primarily by Diesel claims against Daimler. And increasingly, cases end up in the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof). This had let the court to temporarily create an additional senate, i.e. a bench of five judges. a measure that is taken extremely rarely. It helps distributing the burden more equally across the bench, but does not add capacity, as the number of judges appointed to the Federal Supreme Court does not change. Continue reading