Tag: commercial disputes

English Language in German Courts – An Insider’s View from the Experts’ Hearing

As reported previously, the draft law on English language proceedings in international commercial matters is currently being deliberated in parliament. Martin Illmer, a senior research fellow at Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, was one of the experts who testified before the German Parliamnet (Bundestag) on Wednesday this week. He has kindly agreed to provide a guest post and provide an insider’s view:

Read More

My Court is Better than Your Court

“My Court is Better than Your Court” was the title of a session at this week’s annual IBA Conference in Dubai. It presented the approaches to specialized commercial courts in jurisdictions around the globe. It was a very informative session. The presentations that I found the most impressing were on the one hand those from the home region, namely the DIFC Court in Dubai and the QFC Civil and Commercial Court in Doha, Qatar. Both courts, in a way, started with a clean slate and allowed their founders to design state of the art processes and procedures. And budget restrictions appeared not to an obstacle. The DIFC court originally had jurisdiction over matters related to the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). During the IBA Conference, an extension of the DIFC’s jurisdiction was signed into law by the Ruler of Dubai, creating an opt-in jurisdiction which is now available to parties outside the DIFC. Read More