The Dutch Collective Settlements Act and Private International Law

Description

Over het boekDeze uitgave behandelt grondig de IPR-aspecten van de Nederlandse Wet collectieve afhandeling massaschade. Zij kwam tot stand in opdracht van het WODC van het Ministerie van Justitie, en werd voor deze editie aangevuld met recente baanbrekende Nederlandse jurisprudentie.This book analyses aspects of private international law when a collective settlement isconcluded for the benefit of foreign interested parties under the 2005 Dutch CollectiveSettlements Act WCAM. In essence, the Act provides for collective redress by way ofa court approved collective settlement concluded for the benefit of persons to whomdamage was allegedly caused. The WCAM is based on an opt-out mechanism; if thecollective settlement is declared binding, it binds all persons covered by its terms, exceptfor those who have indicated that they do not wish to be bound by the agreement.Since the well-known Shell and Converium settlements, among other cases, the WCAMdefinitively entered the international arena. These settlements were reached in order toobtain relief for interested persons in Europe and beyond who were excluded from USclass actions. This need to provide for relief is a major incentive to settle under theWCAM as the Netherlands is, at present, the only EU Member State with the possibilityof providing relief by way of a collective settlement which would be complimentary to USsettlements or other collective redress proceedings. However, the international applicationof the WCAM does raise questions from a private international law perspective. This bookdeals with those questions and analyses various aspects of private international lawincluding international jurisdiction, cross-border notification, recognition, applicable law, andrepresentation of foreign interested parties.The principal purpose of this publication is to assess the suitability of existing privateinternational law instruments at the national, European and international levels for theapplication of WCAM in transnational mass damage cases. The Brussels I Regulation442001, the Service Regulation 2007, the Hague Service Convention, and the Rome Iand II Regulations are, among other instruments, extensively discussed and explained inthe light of the international application of the WCAM. The book also includes severalcomparative observations in relation to jurisdictions such as the USA and Canada that arefamiliar with collective actions with opt-out mechanisms.Overzicht IPR Thema ReeksOver de auteursDr. Hlne van Lith is a legal consultant based in Paris. She was previously a SeniorLecturer and Assistant Professor of Private International Law Comparative Law atErasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Dr. van Lith carried out the present WCAMand Private International Law research at the request of the Research and DocumentationCentre of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and supervised by the Erasmus School of Law.