Month: February 2020

Cases of the Week: How (Not) To Bundle Claims

Landgericht BraunschweigGermany does not have US style class actions. The introduction of the Capital Market Investors’ Model Proceeding Act (Kapitalanlegermusterverfahrensgesetz, KapMuG) in 2005 (triggered by the Deutsche Telekom securities litigation) and of the Model Declaratory Proceedings (Musterfeststellungsklage) that were added to the German Code of Civil Procedure (ZPO) in November 2018 in order to address the wave of Diesel litigation have not really changed that. In the assessment of the plaintiffs’ bar, Germany’s legal tools for seeking collective redress are still not fit for purpose. Read More

Art Law: Magdeburg Court on Deletion of Entry in Lost Art Database

Kalabrische KüsteIn a judgment of November 2019, which was reported in the press only recently, the Magdeburg District Court (Landgericht) had to decide a dispute between the current owner of a painting and the heirs of a former owner who had the painting registered in the Lost Art Database. The judgment has, in true German tradition, been published in an anonymised version. Read in conjunction with the press coverage of the dispute in The Art Newspaper, Süddeutsche or Handelsblatt, it is however easy to fill in the blanks.  Read More

The Hague Judgments Convention: Prospects for Judicial Cooperation in Civil Matters between the EU and Third Countries, Bonn, 25 and 26 September 2020

Uni Bonn LogoIn this guest post, Matthias Weller of Bonn University introduces a conference on a topic at the very heart of this blog, The Hague Judgments Convention.

Brexit has become reality – one more reason to think about the EU’s Judicial Cooperation with third states:

The largest proportion of EU economic growth in the 21st century is expected to arise in trade with third countries. This is why the EU is building up trade relations with many states and other regional integration communities in all parts of the world. The latest example is the EU-MERCOSUR Association Agreement concluded on 28 June 2019. With the United Kingdom’s exit of the Union on 31 January 2020, extra-EU trade with neighboring countries will further increase in importance. Another challenge for the EU is China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”, a powerful global development strategy that includes overland as well as sea routes in more than 100 states around the globe. Read More

Hague Choice of Court Convention, United Kingdom and Brexit: Withdrawal Agreement Triggers Withdrawal

hcch logoAcceding to the Hague Choice of Court Convention is one of the unilateral steps the United Kingdom is planning to take to partially close the gap that will open in the field of judicial cooperation when the Brussels Regulation falls away upon Brexit.

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