4th Hamburg International Media Law Forum (IMLF)
MPI for Private Law, Hamburg, 16.05.2011, 18:00
Speakers for "The Violation of Personality Rights in Private International Law – The Reform of the Rome II Regulation and Lessons from the USA" will be:Prof. Dr. Bettina Heiderhoff
Faculty of Law, University of Hamburg
Prof. Dr. Peter Hay
Emory University, School of Law, Atlanta/USA
Dr. Hannes Rösler, LL.M. (Harvard) – Moderation
Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Private Law, Hamburg
Greeting
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jürgen Basedow, LL.M. (Harvard)
Director, Max Planck Institute for Private Law, Hamburg
Dr. Daniel Biene, LL.M (New York)
DAJV-Executive Committee
Conference
In a media world increasingly defined by its international and digital character, the question of the law applicable to media-related torts is of continually growing importance. Even inside the EU, one finds significant differences in the consideration of personality rights and freedom of the media. In its drafting of the Rome II Regulation, Union legislators were unable to agree upon a conflict of laws provision in this regard: Art. 1 para 2 lit g specifically excludes from the scope of the Regulation's application non-contractual obligations arising out of violations of privacy and rights of personality. However, as an improvement of Rome II is presently on the European agenda, the inclusion of personality right violations is now a potential. The present forum will specifically address the various possible solutions and hold them up to the comparative light of a broad US experience whose contours have already in the past influenced European developments in the fields of both personality rights and conflict of laws.
Prof. Dr. Bettina Heiderhoff has been professor of law at the University of Hamburg since 2006 following the completion of her doctoral and post-doctoral work at Leipzig. She has dedicated considerable focus on private international law and international procedure and has previously published on the question of a European conflict of laws rule for media-related torts (EuZW 2007, 428). Also to be highlighted is her recent contribution to the Online-Symposium „Rome II and Defamation“, where Professor Heiderhoff responds to a „Working Document“ of the European Parliament (elaborated by Diana Wallis) as well as the comparative „Mainstrat Study“. Her submission, which runs contrary to the view prevailing in Germany, advocates a lex fori solution and is available at http://conflictoflaws.net/2010/rome-ii-and-defamation-online-symposium.
Prof. Dr. Peter Hay completed his studies at the University of Michigan (B.A., J.D.) before undertaking professorships at the Universities of Pittsburgh and the University of Illinois (1963-1991). Since 1991 he has served as professor at the Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, since 1992 as the L.Q.C. Lamar Professor of Law. Additionally, from 1994 to 2000 he concurrently held the chair for civil law, foreign and international private law and comparative law at the University of Dresden. Hay is an honorary professor of the University of Freiburg and a recipient of the research prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation as well as an honorary member of the DAJV. Hay is renowned for his textbooks „US-Amerikanisches Recht“ (4th ed 2008) and „Law of the United States“ (3rd ed. 2010), which have also been translated into Spanish and Chinese. Additionally, the work Conflict of Laws [Hay/Borchers/Symeonides (5th ed. 2010)] was recently released.
Dr. Hannes Rösler, LL.M. (Harvard), Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Law (since 2004) and lecturer on media law at the University of Hamburg completed his initial studies in Marburg, which were further supplemented by one-year stays at the London School of Economics and the Harvard Law School. His publications include numerous comprehensive and comparative considerations of media law. Of particular note is „Dignitarian Posthumous Personality Rights – An Analysis of U.S. and German Constitutional and Tort Law“ (Berkeley J. Int’l L. 26 [2008], 153-205). To be published shortly is his article „Libel Tourism in U.S. Conflict of Laws“. Rösler has since 2008 been a co-organiser of International Media Law Forum.
E-mail registration by 6.5.2011 at mail@dajv.de is requested.
Date of publication: 28.02.2011
Language
German