On 30 June 2020, the IBA Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law Committee is presenting a webinar that looks at the impact of digitization on the art market. The massive move to digital business models is of course driven by the loss of live auctions and in-person art fairs. They have resulted in a dramatic shift in the practices of the art market. Read More
Month: June 2020
The Termination of Bilateral Investment Treaties in the EU – One Agreement to End Them All?
My colleagues Nick Storrs and Michael Wietzorek look at the EU memberstates’ exit from bi-lateral investment treaties (BITs) in the wake of the Achmea decision of the European Court of Justice. This case had several appearances on this blog, as it made its way from the Frankfurt Court of Appeals (Oberlandesgericht) and the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) to the European Court of Justice, first under its original name, Slovakia v. Eureko.
On 5 May 2020, 23 Member States of the EU entered into an Agreement for the Termination of Bilateral Investment Treaties between the Member States of the European Union (the Agreement). The Agreement will terminate any bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in force between any of Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain, as well as Belgium and Luxembourg, who had entered into BITs together as the Belgo-Luxembourg Economic Union.
What Else Happened in May 2020
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Nomination of Arbitrators
On 13 May 2020, Germany nominated four new arbitrators and conciliators under Annex VII and Annex V of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, respectively.
All four are academics:
- Rüdiger Wolfrum, Heidelberg University, who served as a judge at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea from 1996 to 2017 and as president of the court from 2005 to 2008;
- Silja Vöneky, Freiburg University, who obtained her doctoral and post-doc qualifiactions in Heidelberg under the supervision of Rüdiger Wolfrum;
- Alexander Proelß, Hamburg University, who in addition to various academic positions, was a clerk (wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) to Judge Udo Di Fabio at the Federal Constututional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht).
- Nele Matz-Lück, Kiel University, who also was Wolfrum’s doctoral student and worked with him a post-doc. Like Alexander Proelß, she clerked for Udo di Fabio.