Successful seminar Innovating International Business Courts

On 10 July 2018, the seminar Innovating International Business Courts: A European Outlook was held at the Erasmus School of Law. It was the first big event within our ERC consolidator project Building EU Civil Justice. In total five speakers and seven panellists from the Netherlands, England, France, Germany and Belgium discussed their existing and recently established international commercial courts or initiatives to establish such a court of court chamber (see the seminar flyer).

The sometimes heated debates evolved around the need to establish such courts for international business, the court design and procedural innovations, using English as the court language, the challenges for the judicial system, and the (potential) competitiveness of these courts, also in view of the exit of the UK from the EU as well as the need for collaboration in Europe. Approximately 100 participants from almost twenty European and other countries (including China, South Korea, Iran, and the United States), including judges, practising lawyers, academics, policy makers and business representatives, actively took part in the discussions. These discussions continued during the drinks where four selected PhD candidates presented their poster on a topic relating to international commercial courts.

Papers authored by the speakers and a number of additional papers, selected following a call for papers, will be published in the Erasmus Law Review mid-2019. In addition, a book will be prepared for publication in 2019. Both will not only cover the recent European developments but will take a global perspective.

The seminar was organised by Erasmus School of Law (ERC project ‘Building EU Civil Justice’) of Erasmus University Rotterdam, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Procedural Law Luxembourg, and the Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Judicial Administration (Utrecht University).