The meeting took place by video conference. There are 355 participants and 40 Observers. The documents can be reached by the website.
After the welcome speeches of the Chair and the SG de EU, GB and Lithuania spoke about the invasion in Ukraine by Russia and their disregard. The representant of Russia responded by announcing peace talks were going on and proposed to stay with the Agenda of the meeting. Also the Philippines pointed at the situation of Ukraine and reads the statement of de governments of the states in his region. The SG underlined the meeting is taken place in an extreme difficult situation.
II. Work relating to possible new legislative instrument
II.1 Tourism project (International Tourists and Visitors)
The presented paper (Practical Guide to Access to Justice for International Tourists and Visitors) is the result of years of deliberation and is a compromise. It is mostly about ODR in tourism problems. The question in the meeting was of more awareness must be created, for example if an app must be developed or it has to be a (free) responsibility of the platforms/governments? The members are divided on that item. By saying the mandate of HCCH is not broad enough for more than now was done, ended the chair the discussion. There will be a publication of the Guide on the HCCH website in an interactive online format.
Personal note: the Guide is quite interesting and gives a good overview and practical manual when parties (or yourself) have problems abroad.
To make it more comprehensible the Guide contains examples of common claims made by tourists and visitors, and how HCCH Conventions and select other international and regional instruments may assist in access to justice.
Short, hypothetical examples are given on how HCCH Conventions and other international instruments may assist a tourist or visitor (with between brackets the countries where the parties come from or where it happens):
- who suffered an injury at a hotel overseas (China-France-United States) or (America, Belarus Kazakhstan-Brazil);
- whose baggage is lost by a common carrier while traveling internationally (Canada-Hong Kong SAR, China) and (Argentina-Italy) and (Mexico-Denmark);
- who reserves a cruise that is otherwise disrupted while traveling abroad, for example the cruise is cancelled due to weather (Republic of Korea-France) and (Mexico-Denmark), or
- whose property is damaged or stolen when left to the care of a hotel abroad (Russia-Turkey), (Uruguay-Spain). And so on.
So, I recommend to read it and share the Guide with your national authorities
II.2 Parentage/surrogacy
Because of COVID-19 a lot of meetings of the Experts Groups (or Working Groups) did not proceed. It was in the field of parentage/surrogacy, and later in the afternoon, Jurisdiction, Insolvency and IP. Mostly there was a request to prolong the deadlines. These were usually granted.
II.3 Jurisdiction
This is the subject ‘Jurisdiction and the Working Group on matters related to jurisdiction in transnational civil or commercial litigation’ (Agenda III.2b). It is about parallel procedures in different states and the question or there should be an ‘exclusive’ connection (for one court in one state to proceed) and ‘priority’ connections (fe party autonomy).
See the flow chart in Annex 2 which gives a quick reference to the future Convention. A lot of work has to be done.
The discussion on Insolvency and IP is short. Work is going on.
A day later we speak about Family Agreements (Agenda II.6, no big developments, it is carried on) and afterwards the Digital Economy (Agenda II 7) with a tenting speech of the Experts Group.
II.7 Digital Economy
The last subject will grow more important in the future I expect. In 2022 there will be a Commercial and Financial Law Conference, with a view to including the questions raised in the document in the program of the Conference. It will be reported on the conclusions and outcomes of the 2022 Commercial and Financial Law Conference in relation to the digital economy to CGAP at its 2023 meeting.
III. Post-Convention work
III.1 The International Family and Child Protection Law
In the afternoon it is time for the International Family and Child Protection Law. The International Hague Network of Judges (IHNJ was named as important. It became clear judges like to have more contact and proposes regular conferences especially on the 1980 Child Abduction and 1996 Child Protection Conventions. It comes to fine grinding the document.
In all there is work going on. A lot of work but not much to mention here. As I said earlier, it is more or less: “Keep calm and carry on.”
The same for (B.) Transnational Litigation and Authentication of Public Documents and the other subjects.
When the 2019 Judgment Convention was to be discussed, and from the preliminary document it was already clear that a lot of promotional activities were held, despite COVID-19, I took the flour and made the proposition on behalf of IAJ/UIM that we can work together in the field of promoting and training Judges.
Ceremonies Relating to Membership and HCCH Conventions
On 2 March 2021, the Council on General Affairs and Policy (CGAP) of the HCCH welcomed El Salvador as the newest Member of the Organisation. It also witnessed Ecuador and the United States of America sign and/or ratify a number of HCCH Conventions and instruments. United States of America signed
the Convention of 2 July 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters (Judgments Convention). Although the 2019 Judgments Convention is not yet in force, the United States of America is its sixth signatory. This is a very important step towards the implementation of the very important Convention.
Meanwhile, the Judgment Convention 2019 is signed by the following states: Uruguay, Ukraine, Israel, Costa Rica, Russia, USA and very recently (12-7-2022) by the EU.
It was the last meeting for the chair Mr. Andrew Walter (Australia) and he thanked all who helped hem during his time as chair, amongst others Professor Paul Vlas, the President of the Netherlands Standing Government Committee on Private International Law.
For the rest of the year there is not much to mention for the moment. Several treaties were signed by different states.
Mr. M.F.J.N. (Tijn) van Osch, Observer.
The Netherlands, August 24th, 2022.