Michael Bogdan

Private international law aspects of the introduction of same-sex marriages in Sweden

On 1 May 2009, Swedish law was amended in order to allow regular marriages between two persons of the same gender. While this reform was relatively simple from the point of view of Swedish family law, it gives rise to a number of questions concerning private international law, mainly because the large majority of foreign countries do not, and within foreseeable future will not, permit such marriages.

Legal Pluralism in the Comoros and Djibouti

The article deals with the mixture of French, Moslem, and customary legal traditions constituting the legal systems of the Comoros and Djibouti. They are both extremely small jurisdictions in terms of legal resources and depend to a large extent on foreign legal models. They provide an example of how such jurisdictions may combine Western legal thinking with deeply rooted principles of Islamic law.

The First Decade of Namibian Law

The article provides a concise overview of Namibian legal developments since the country became independent in 1990. It presents the constitutional framework of Namibian law, the principle of continued application of pre-independence rules, the history and future of the Roman-Dutch law inherited from South Africa, the role of customary law, and the present state of legal education and the legal profession in the country.

General Principles of Law and the Problem of Lacunae in the Law of Nations

a. international conventions, whether general or particular, establishing rules expressly recognized by the contesting states; b. international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law; c. the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations; d. subject to the provisions of Article 59,1 judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists of the various nations, as subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law.

Regulation Brussels Ia and violations of personality rights on the internet

This article presents and analyses the judgment of the Grand Chamber of the eu Court of Justice of 17 October 2017 in the case of Bolagsupplysningen v. Svensk Handel (Case C-194/16), which represents a new development regarding the application of eu jurisdictional rules to disputes arising out of alleged violations of personality rights on the internet.

Web-sites, establishment and private international law

THE CONCEPTS of “establishment” and “place of business” are of considerable importance in modern European private international law. According to Article 2 of EC Regulation No 44/2001 of 22 December 2000 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (the so-called Brussels I Regulation)1, a person domiciled in a Member State must, irrespective of nationality, be sued in the courts of that Member State, but there are a number of exceptions. One such exception, stipulated in Article 5(5) of the Regulation, provides that a person domiciled in a Member State may, at the option of the plaintiff, be sued as regards a dispute arising out of the operations of “a branch, agency or other establishment”, in the courts for the place in which the branch, agency or other establishment is situated. Although it does not say so explicitly, Article 5(5) seems to have in mind only an establishment of the defendant, not of the plaintiff. The existence of a branch, agency or other establishment is relevant also according to the Regulation’s special rules on jurisdiction in matters relating to insurance2 and jurisdiction over consumer contracts3, but these rules cannot be dealt with in this short paper. An establishment may, of course, serve as a basis for jurisdiction even pursuant to national jurisdictional rules when the Brussels I Regulation does not apply, such as when the defendant is not domiciled in any of the Member States.4

Security Interests in International Bankruptcies in Sweden

The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe Swedish conflict rules concerning the treatment in bankruptcy situations of security rights in rem (such as reservations of title, transfers of title for security purposes and mortgages) in respect of chattels and other assets. One problem encountered in this connection is the difficulty to distinguish between issues of insolvency law, governed by lex concursus, and issues of general private law, mostly governed by lex rei sitae. Other types of problems arise if the asset has after the creation of a security interest been moved from one country to another. Finally, the article deals with set-off in bankruptcy, since the creditor who is entitled to set off his claim is in a situation similar to that of a secured creditor.