The United Kingdom deposited its instrument of accession to the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements yesterday. The UK is currently bound by the Convention, because the European Union approved the Convention in 2015. Under the terms of that approval, the Convention bound all EU states except Denmark. But with Brexit on the horizon, the new accession is not a surprise. (more…)
The Hague Conference has announced that China has signed the Choice of Court Agreement Convention. It joins the European Union, Mexico, Singapore, Ukraine, and the United States as signatory. To date, the EU, Mexico, and Singapore have ratified or acceded to the Convention, and the Convention is in effect between them.
I’ve been following the efforts to ratify the Hague Choice of Court Agreement Convention, COCA, for a long time. As readers will remember, the United States has signed the Convention but not ratified it. The hold-up has to do with disputes about how to implement the non-self-executing Convention in US law. For a summary, you may want to read this post from about a year ago. In summary: the bar and several academics have proposed a federal implementing statute analogous to the FAA, which implements the New York Convention. On the other hand, the Uniform Law Commission, which promulgates uniform laws for states to enact, has taken the view that the Convention should be implemented through a uniform law, supplemented by a federal statute, but with state law clearly in the driver’s seat.
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The United States signed the Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance in November 2007, when the Convention was concluded. It was the first state to sign. The Senate gave its advice and consent to ratification in 2010. There were a few signatures in the following years, but there was no real action until the European Union signed in 2011. But even then, the United States did not ratify the Convention until August 2016.
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Readers, if you missed the Georgetown International Arbitration Week event on the effect of the Choice of Court Agreement Convention on international arbitration yesterday, you missed a pretty good discussion. Marta Pertegás started us off with an overview of the history of COCA and of the Hague Conference more generally, and she showed us a map of states, including significant states such as China, Australia, and Canada, that were at various stages of considering signing the Convention. Chuck Kotuby and I both discussed the reasons why US ratification and implementation is so important. David Stewart and Peter Trooboff presented the two approaches to implementation in the US— the cooperative federalism approach and the federal-only approach.
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Readers, I'd like to bring you up to date on two developments from the Hague Conference. First, the European Union has finally approved the Convention on Choice of Court Agreements.…
I wanted to add a few comments to my observations about the new draft text of a Judgments Convention from yesterday:
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Letters Blogatory contributor Pietro Franzina has noted the recent decision of the EU justice ministers approving the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements. According to the EU press release, there are a few steps left to take, but it seems that eventually the European Parliament will approve the COCA and it will then enter into force for Europe.
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Friend of Letters Blogatory Pietro Franzina reports that the European Commission has adopted a proposal for the ratification of the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements by the EU. Under Article 31, two ratifications are necessary for the Convention to come into force, and Mexico has already ratified it, so assuming the Council accepts the proposal, the Convention is on the verge of finally coming into force.
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I want to draw readers' attention to a few recent papers of interest. First, John F. Coyle, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law,…
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