Alberto Malatesta

The essay deals with the issue of interim measures in international commercial arbitration, including a private international law stance. It is well known that in principle they can be claimed and granted (or dismissed) both by arbitral tribunal and state courts. The Author highlights and explores the main types of measures, their limits and their spatial scope under the main jurisdictions on the one hand and the arbitral practice on the other. It is noted that this concurrent jurisdiction is usually interpreted by statutes, case law and legal writers in that state courts should intervene only when the authority of arbitrators is ineffective or limited. In spite of this, it is submitted that such priority of arbitral tribunals is not justified and that on the contrary a state support, even in case of foreign arbitration, would be for the benefit of a better protection of the parties of the parties and an effective access to justice.

This essay outlines the various options for a future cooperation between the EU and the UK in the field of recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters. After examining some alternatives, it focuses especially on the 2007 Lugano Convention, which appears to be a good tool for this purpose. However, pursuant to Art. 72(3) of the Convention itself, the EU has recently objected to the UK's application of accession. The Author explains the reasons why the EU's position is appropriate from the point of view of the Member States' interests, and upholds the Hague Conference of Private International Law as the best venue where cooperation between the EU and the UK can be strengthened.

This essay shows the need for a revision and modernisation of the Italian Law No 218/1995 with respect to the law applicable to i) contractual and ii) non-contractual obligations. With regard to the first category, the development of the European system of private international law makes a general national conflict-of-law rule such as the one at Article 57 of Law No 218/1995, based on a referral "in all the cases" to the 1980 Rome Convention, of little relevance, if not counterproductive. This is true especially from the practice point of view (and it would remain true even assuming that the referral in such provision were updated and made to the Rome I Regulation). As to non-contractual obligations, many rules in Title XI of Law No 218/1195 have been supersesed by some provisions of the Rome II Regulation. On the other hand, the main torts still governed by national law – i.e., "the violaton of privacy and rights relating to personality, including defamation" – call for a reconsideration of the connecting factor traditionally used in this area of the law (the lex loci delicti).

This article deals with the residual scope of art. 7 of Law no. 218/1995 on lis pendens after the adoption, in recent past years, of numerous EU acts. In fact, the national provisions of member States have progressively reduced their importance especially after the entry into force of Brussels I-bis regulation, whose arts 33 and 34 provide for rules applicable to proceedings pending before judges of third States. The author first examines such new regime and its underlying reasons, secondly its impact on art. 7 of Law no. 218/1995, and finally discusses the option of a future revision of the same rule, in line with the content of the European rule.

L'autore illustra i principali caratteri del regolamento CE n. 864/2007 sulla legge applicabile alle obbligazioni non contrattuali (Roma II),la cui entrata in vigore è prossima. La normativa comunitaria costituisce un importante sviluppo della costruzione di un diritto internazionale privato europeo e allo stesso tempo una straordinaria novità dei settori, quali quelli delle responsabilità civile, tuttora poco aperti alla cooperazione internazionale. Essa si ispira ad un'ampia specializzazione delle norme di conflitto in materia, e utilizza tecniche in parte nuove per l'ordinamento italiano. L'articolo si sofferma soprattutto sulle disposizioni di carattere generale, valutandone da un lato l'impatto sul diritto italiano e le modifiche che ne conseguono, dall'altro la loro collocazione nell'ordinamento comunitario.