Private International Law in the Aftermath of the Covid Pandemic

The coronavirus crisis has forced us to reconsider the classical approach to private international law matters. Indeed, over the last two years, we have seen a high volume of legislation and legal regulations, and of court decisions on different subjects which are at the core of our discipline.Just to list a few examples, the Australian courts had to examine the impact of Covid-19 on an exclusive foreign jurisdiction clause, since the claimants argued that the pandemic prevented them from commencing proceedings in the forum chosen by contract. Also, we have seen this in various European court cases, where it has been debated whether the national regulations arising from the pandemic can operate as overriding mandatory rules, and to what extent. Indeed, in the context of tort claims for damages caused by infection, both against companies and States, the courts have had to face the challenge of applying foreign law as the substantive law on damages.The programme will include speakers from common and civil law jurisdictions based in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas who, based on their experiences, will discuss related sub-topics with the aim of providing a platform to discuss lessons learned in the field by all the participants and to identify challenges, as well as best practices on our session’s subject.