Max Planck Institutes: Joint Opinion on Judicial Assistance Reforms

In February 2022, we covered the proposed legislation that would relax Germany’s position on the discovery of documents under the Hague Evidence Convention (see here). The draft bill that contained this proposal alongside a whole host of other issues has been reviewed in depth by two Max Planck Institutes (MPI), namely by the Hamburg Institute for Comparative and International Private Law and the Luxembourg Institute for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law. The combined academic fire power was aimed at two bills in the field: Continue reading

Germany and Pre-Trial Discovery of Documents: A New Proposal

Germany has made a reservation under Article 23 Hague Evidence Convention and does not execute letters of request “issued for the purpose of obtaining pre-trial discovery of documents as known in Common Law countries.” Long-time readers of this blog may recall that we had posts like “Is Germany’s Position on Pre-trial Discovery of Documents under the Hague Evidence Convention Softening?” (2015) and even “Germany’s Position on Pre-trial Discovery Softens!” (2017) before. Spoiler alert: Germany’s position did not change. Shortly after the 2017 post, the Legal Committee (Rechtsausschuss) of the Bundestag killed the proposed softening of Germany’s reservation under Article 23. With this note of caution, we report on a new attempt at changing Germany’s position.  Continue reading

The Month in Retrospect: What Else Happened in July 2021

Hague Evidence Convention In Force For Georgia, Mongolia Joins HCCH

On 31 May 2021, Georgia deposited its instrument of accession to the Convention of 18 March 1970 on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters and on 30 July 2021, the Convetion came into force. This takes the total number of contracting parties to the Evidence Convention to 64.

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IBA Virtually Together: Managing International Litigation, 4 November 2020

At this year’s International Bar Association‘s virtual annual conference, I have the pleasure of  moderating a session on managing international litigation, with this wonderful panel:

  • Sam Hosseini of Stikeman Elliott in Toronto, providing the perspective of outside counsel,
  • James Menz, Senior Litigation Counsel at Bombardier, sharing his insights from the corporate perspetive
  • and last but not least Brody Warren of the Hague Conference on Private International Law’s Permanent Bureau in The Hague. Inter alia, Brody will shed light on the use of video technology under the Hague Evidence Convention.

Join us on Wednesday, 4 November 2020 at 12:00 AM GMT!