How European is European Private International Law?

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A conference in Berlin, 2 and 3 March 2018,

Organized by Jürgen Basedow, Jan von Hein, Eva-Maria Kieninger and Giesela Rühl

Over the course of the last decades the European legislature has adopted a total of 18 Regulations in the area of private international law (including civil procedure). The resulting substantial degree of legislative unification has been described as the first true Europeanisation of private international law and even as a kind of “European Choice of Law Revolution”. However, until today it is largely unclear whether the far-reaching unification of the “law on the books” has turned private international law into a truly European ”law in action”: To what extent is European private international law actually based on uniform European rules common to all Member States rather than on state treaties or instruments of enhanced cooperation? Is the way academics and practitioners analyse and interpret European private international law really different from previously existing domestic approaches to private international law? Or is the actual application and interpretation of European private international law rather still influenced or even dominated by national legal traditions, leading to a re-fragmentation of a supposedly uniform body of law?

To answer these and related questions Prof. Dr. Jürgen Basedow, Prof. Dr. Jan von Hein, Prof. Dr. Eva-Maria Kieninger and Prof. Dr. Giesela Rühl kindly invite you to the conference “How European is European Private International Law?” that will take place on 2 and 3 March 2018 in Berlin.  Bringing together academics and practitioners from all over Europe the conference will provide a platform to shed light on the present lack of „Europeanness“of European private international law and to discuss how European private internaitonal law can become more truly European in the future.

More information is available on the conference website: www.eu-pil.uni-jena.de.

Contact: Prof. Dr. Giesela Rühl (MWF LAW 2007-2008) ([email protected])

Registration and conference fee

Please register by 1 February 2018 by filling out the electronic form available on the conference website at www.eu-pil.uni-jena.de. You will then receive an in-voice and information about how to transfer the conference fee (€ 90,00 per person).Please note that the total number of participants is limited.Registrations will, therefore, be on “first come, first serve” basis and not be valid until the conference fee has been paid in full.

Conference Programme

Thursday, 1 March 2018

7 pm                            Speakers’ dinner

Friday, 2 March 2018

9.00 am                       Registration

9.30 am                       Welcome addresses: The Europeanisation of Private International Law

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jürgen Basedow, MPI Hamburg (Germany)

Prof. Dr. Giesela Rühl, University of Jena (Germany)

Dr. Andreas Stein, Head of Unit, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission

1st Part: Europeanness of Legal Sources

10.00 am     The relationship between EU and international Private International Law instruments

Speaker: Prof. Pietro Franzina, Università degli Studi di Ferrara (Italy)

Commentator: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jürgen Basedow, MPI Hamburg (Germany)

10.45 am         Discussion

11.15 am         Coffee break

11.45 am         The relationship between EU and Member State Private International Law

Speaker: Prof. Johan Meeusen, Universiteit Antwerpen (Belgium)

Commentator: Prof. Dr. Jan von Hein, University of Freiburg (Germany)

12.30 pm         Discussion

1.00 pm                       Lunch break

2nd Part: Europeanness of Actual Court Practice

2.00 pm       The application of European Private International Law and the ascertainment of foreign law

Speaker: Prof. Marta Requejo Isidro, MPI Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

Commentator Prof. Paul Beaumont, University of Aberdeen (United Kingdom)

2.45 pm                       Discussion

3.15 pm                       Coffee break

3.45 pm       The application of European Private International Law and the role of national judges

Speaker: Prof. Agnieszka Frackowiak-Adamska, University Wroclaw (Poland)

Commentator: Prof. Michael Hellner, Stockholms Universitet (Sweden)

4.30 pm                       Discussion

5.00 pm       The application of European Private International Law and the role of national court systems

Speaker: Prof. Xandra Kramer, Universiteit Rotterdam (Netherlands)

Commentator: Prof. Pedro de Miguel Asensio, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)

5.45 pm                       Discussion

6.15 pm                       End of day 1

7.30 pm                       Reception and conference dinner

Saturday, 3 March 2018

3rd Part: Europeanness of Academic Discourse and Legal Education

8.30 am       National styles of academic discourse and their impact on European Private International Law

Speaker: Prof. Sabine Corneloup, Université de Paris/Sorbonne (France)

Commentator: Prof. Dário Moura Vicente, Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal)

9.15 am                       Discussion

9.45 am                       Coffee break

10.15 am     Overriding mandatory laws, public policy and European Private International Law

Speaker: Prof. Marc-Philippe Weller, University of Heidelberg (Germany)

Commentator: Prof. Stephanie Francq, Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)

11.00 am         Discussion

11.30 am         Legal education and European Private International Law

Speaker: Prof. Thomas Kadner Graziano, Université de Genève (Switzerland)

Commentator: Prof. Gilles Cuniberti, Université de Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

12.15 pm         Discussion

12.45 pm         Lunch break

2.00 pm       Panel discussion: The future of European Private International Law in theory and practice

Opening statement: Karen Vandekerckhove, Former Head of Unit, DG Justice and Consumers, European Commission

Discussants: Prof. Paul Beaumont, Prof. Gilles Cuniberti, Prof. Dr. Eva-Maria Kieninger Prof. Johan Meeusen, Prof. Marta Requejo Isidro

4.00 pm                       Concluding remarks

Prof. Dr. Jan von Hein, University of Freiburg (Germany)

4.15 pm                       End of conference