News
Conference on Informed Consent to Dispute Resolution Agreements
University of Bremen, 20-21 June 2024
On Thursday and Friday, 20-21 June 2024, Prof. Dr. Gralf-Peter Calliess and Dr. Nicholas Mouttotos convened an international conference on the topic of Informed Consent to Dispute Resolution Agreements. The Conference aimed at exploring the latest developments in contract law and private international law in relation to consent to such agreements. The Conference started with a keynote speech by Professor Symeon Symeonides, a leading authority in private international law both in the US and in Europe. Professor Symeonides set the scene with his presentation on the history and present of the principle of party autonomy, namely, the freedom of the parties to choose the forum or the law under which their dispute will be decided.
The first day included two panels, with the first dealing with the issue of consent and the constitutional rights that may be waived or unintentionally relinquished through acts which are signified as manifesting such consent. This panel included presentations by Professors Nancy Kim and Gralf-Peter Calliess who both noted the importance of dispute resolution agreements as ‘gatekeeper’ or ‘reflexive’ clauses, having the potential to impact the autonomy of the individual, usually without their actual consent. The second panel dealt with the contractual understanding of consent and how standard form contracts pose challenges for identifying when an individual has agreed to a certain clause or term. This panel included many proposals for the potential abandonment of the current model in favor of a model that will be more tailored to the needs of each individual consenter. Professor Frederick Rieländer, Professor Daniel Barnhizer and Dr. Peter McColgan provided fascinating insights on the topic and a necessary forward-looking perspective in correcting the doctrinal issues that are raised.
The second day of the Conference dealt with each type of dispute resolution agreement. Three different panels took place beginning with the choice of law session, the choice of jurisdiction or courts and ending with the arbitration agreements session. The choice of law session included presentations from the American Law Institute reporter of the Conflict of Laws (Third) Restatement, Professor Kermit Roosevelt III, and associate reporter Professor Laura Little. This panel was followed by the panel on choice of jurisdiction agreements with presentations from esteemed experts in the field, Professors John Coyle, Hannah Buxbaum and Marta Pertegás Sender. The final and most controversial dispute resolution agreement/clause, the arbitration agreement, was dealt with by Professors Stephen Ware and Camelia Toader. The final session included a wrap-up and a comparative perspective of the discussions that took place by the conveners of the conference.
The papers of each of the contributors will appear in a Special Issue of the German Law Journal (Vol. 26, 2025). The Conference was sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the law firm GÖRG and the Conrad Naber Foundation.
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.