News
Conference on Informed Consent to Dispute Resolution Agreements
University of Bremen, 20-21 June 2024
On 20-21 June 2024 Gralf-Peter Calliess and Nicholas Mouttotos of the Institute for Commercial Law of the University of Bremen convene a transatlantic conference on ‘Informed Consent to Dispute Resolution Dispute Agreements’ in Bremen.
The Topic
Dispute Resolution Agreements (DRA) are a very special kind of contract. They allow parties to make a choice on the rights (applicable law) and remedies (competent forum, including procedural rules), which govern their relationship. Party autonomy, i.e. the freedom to enter into DRA, enables international merchants to provide for legal certainty and to bargain on the ‘law market’ for the most efficient institutional framework for their transactions. However, where DRA are included in the fine print of standard form contracts with less sophisticated contract parties, the question of legitimacy arises. For instance, where mandatory consumer rights or constitutional rights to a remedy are waived, a higher quality of consent might be required, one that is informed, instead of a simple manifestation of assent to the transaction. However, ‘informed’ consent has been criticized as a legal fiction.
DRA are regulated by diverse instruments on the national, supra-, and international level. Despite their similarities they are rarely discussed in a consistent fashion. The conference convenes leading scholars of private international law, international civil procedure, international arbitration, and standard form contracts from both sides of the Atlantic in an effort to develop a coherent framework.
Speakers
Following a keynote by Symeon C. Symeonides, Daniel D. Barnhizer, Hannah Buxbaum, Gralf-Peter Calliess, John F. Coyle, Nikitas Hatzimihail, Nancy S. Kim, Laura Little, Peter McColgan, Nicholas Mouttotos, Marta Pertegás Sender, Frederick Rieländer, Kermit Roosevelt, Stefan Thönissen, Camelia Toader, and Stephen J. Ware will present in the five sessions on theory, standard form contracts, choice of law, choice of jurisdiction, and arbitration agreements.
Registration
Places are limited. Please register no later than April 30, 2024 with your name, institution and billing address at knipperprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de. Registration fee is 150 €. After acceptance of your registration a bill will be sent. For more information please refer to our flyer.
7th Bremen Conference on Maritime Law
On 26 and 27 October, the Research Association for Maritime Law organised the 7th Bremen Conference on Maritime Law. Representatives from science, industry and administration discussed the topics autonomous shipping and resilience of maritime critical infrastructures with about 50 participants. As a result of the conference, regulatory demands on the legislator were defined with regard to both topics. A conference report will be published in the journal Transportrecht.
Bremen Insolveny Law Day 2023
Following two training events in the years 2012 and 2013 on the fundamental changes to the Insolvency Code brought about by the ESUG (Act on the Further Facilitation of theInsolvency Procedure), which focussed primarily on the judiciary, the Faculty of Law in cooperation with GÖRG Lawyers organised the Bremen Insolvency Law Day for the fourth time on 1 Septemer 2023. The conference was once again mostly aimed at practitioners and provided a comprehensive presentation and discussion of topics of practical relevance at a high scientific level. The welcoming address by Prof. Dr. Gralf-Peter Calliess for the faculty and Prof. Dr. Gerrit Hölzle as host was followed by a specialist programme including Prof. Dr. Christoph Thole (University of Cologne), Prof. Dr. Georg Bitter (University of Mannheim), Prof. Dr. Ulrich Haas (University of Zurich) and Dr. Andreas Schmidt (Hamburg local court). Once again, the participants highly praised the format of event, which is an incentive for the 5ht Bremen Insolvency Law Day on 30 August 2024.
The UNIDROIT principles on international trade agreements and sustainable development
Third place: Nicholas Mouttotos
Nicholas Mouttotos won third place in the essay competition 'UNIDROIT and Sustainability'.
He is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bremen on a Walter Benjamin Fellowship of the German Research Foundation (DFG) at the Institute of Commercial Law. He holds an LL.B. from the University of Cyprus and an LL.M. and Ph.D. from the University of Maastricht. Nicholas' research interests include the unification of contract law, the relationship between private international law and substantive contract law, and the role of comparative law in the development of national and international rules.
Block seminar on the independence of the judiciary in comparative law: EU rule of law mechanism Poland, Germany
Even seven years after the election victory of the PiS and the start of its restructuring of the Polish judiciary, the discussion about the state of the European rule of law is still topical. The focus is on the concepts of judicial and court independence. On the other hand, the German judiciary is also facing certain criticism - for example in the area of personnel management. Accordingly, the EU has significantly intensified its efforts to protect the principles of the rule of law over the last decade. The seminar deals with the dimensions of judicial independence from a legal-historical, political and comparative perspective and examines the question of how European institutions should deal with the "Rule of Law Crisis" in Europe.
It is possible to acquire credits in the SG Jura according to § 31 para. 2 no. 1 PO. In addition to the oral presentation, a written seminar paper must be submitted by 22 June 2023. For more information on the block seminar programme and possible topics, please contact the
preliminery meeting on Thursday, 13. April at 12:00 hrs in GW1 A 2350 IGMR Bibliothek (following the lecture on antitrust law)
Thur., 29. June 2023, 14:00-18:00 hrs, GW-HS H1000
Fri., 30. June 2023, 09:00-18:00 hrs, GW-HS H1000
Register via StudIP or at galyga@uni-bremen.de
Joint seminar on property law
On Thursday, 19 January 2023, Prof. Dr Gralf-Peter Calliess, Prof. Dr Dietrich Grashoff and Prof. Dr Dirk Weitze-Scholl held a joint seminar on real estate law on the premises of the law firm Ebner Stolz as part of the specialisation in international and European business law. The seminar was intended to give students an insight into property practice and thus complemented the lectures on contract and property law from the third semester.
Legal issues relating to property transactions were discussed from a historical, financing, liability and tax law perspective.
Our picture shows the participants of the seminar on property law.