The Institute is pleased to announced that it will be supported for the next three years (from 1 January 2013) through a new cooperation between the Austrian Academy of Science and the Karl Franzens University of Graz. Under the cooperation, Institute staff will offer lectures and seminars at the University and participate in the development of a specialist doctoral programme in European Private Law. They will also have the opportunity to pursue their own further qualifications and career development within the University.
 
Institute Director, Ken Oliphant, comments: 'This exciting development secures the Institute's financial stability at a time when other research institutions are facing considerable economic difficulties, and provides the necessary foundations for the successful completion of its current work programme. Having a foot in the university sector opens up new possibilities both for the Institute and for its staff, and we look forward to a rewarding collaboration with the Graz faculty, which is already renowned nationally and internationally for its excellence in the area of civil law.'
 
Monika Hinteregger, Director of the Institute for Civil Law in the University, adds: 'The Institute’s broad international ties and research competences in the field of tort law will further strengthen the international orientation of the Graz faculty. I am confident that this cooperation will enable the Graz faculty to build a centre of excellence in the field of European and comparative private law, in both research and teaching.''
 
The cooperation builds on the recently signed cooperation between the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law and KFU Graz.
 
The Institute remains based at its existing premises in Vienna.

European Tort Law 2011 (ed by Ken Oliphant and Barbara C Steininger) provides information and analysis about tort law developments in Europe in 2011. It includes reports from most EU Member States, plus Norway and Switzerland, and an overview of developments in the field of EU law. Selected highlights are picked out and evaluated from a comparative perspective in the book's introduction. A bonus feature this year is a 10-year conspectus of developments in Israeli tort law, whose timing is especially propitious because 2011 saw the first reading in the Knesset of a proposed Israeli Civil Code.

• K Oliphant/BC Steininger (eds), European Tort Law 2011 (2012), ISSN 2190 7773.

Articles:

• Michael D Green and Olivier Moréteau ‘Restating Tort Law: The American and European Styles’ (2012) 3 JETL 281

• Matthew Dyson ‘Civil Law Responses to Criminal Judgments in England and Spain’ (2012) 3 JETL 308

• Robert J Dijkstra ‘Liability of Financial Supervisory Authorities in the European Union’ (2012) 3 JETL 346

• Bernd J Hartmann ‘Perspectives on the Economic Analysis of Public Liability Law’ (2012) 3 JETL 378

 Case Commentary:

•  Vanessa Wilcox ‘Vindicatory Damages: The Farewell?’ (2012) 3 JETL 390

 Book Reviews:

•  Jens M Scherpe ’Christoph Oertel, Objektive Haftung in Europa. Rechtsvergleichende Untersuchung zur Weiterentwicklung der verschuldensunabhängigen Haftung im europäischen Privatrecht’ (2012) 3 JETL 410

• Florian Wagner von-Papp ’Helmut Koziol/Josef Seethaler/Thomas Thiede (eds), Medienpolitik und Recht: Media Governance, Wahrhaftigkeitspflicht und sachgerechte Haftung’ (2012) 3 JETL 413

 
For online access/subscription details, click here.

The Institute was pleased to receive a visity from a delegation of Chinese judges on Friday 21 December 2012. The judges are all enrolled on a specialist LLM programme for the Chinese judiciary run by the School of Law of the City University of Hong Kong. The following judges attended: HE Li (Kunming intermediate court); JIANG Qiang (Beijing Haidian court); WANG Jing (Guangdong high court); and WANG Hao (Hainan High Court). They were accompanied by two members of City University faculty, CHEN Lei and Rajesh SHARMA. The Institute was represented by Ken Oliphant and Ernst Karner, while Laura Ascher - whose doctoral work was on Chinese tort law - represented ECTIL.



Ken Oliphant, Ernst Karner and Laura Ascher with the Chinese judges and academics

The Conference provides practitioners and academics with the opportunity to learn about the most significant tort law developments in Europe in 2012. It begins on the evening of Thursday 4 April in the splendid surroundings of the Palais Trautson (Austrian Ministry of Justice), where Irmgard Griss (former President of the Austrian Supreme Court) will deliver the opening lecture on the topic of 'How Judges Think: Judicial Reasoning in Tort Law Cases from a Comparative Perspective'.

On Friday 5 April, the venue switches to the Austrian Supreme Court, and the day is given over to reports on developments in Europe's national legal systems and under EU law. In the evening, the Conference dinner is at one of Vienna's famous wine taverns ('Heurigen') on the edge of the Vienna Woods. The Conference concludes on Saturday morning (April 6, 2013) with a special session on Tort Law and the Financial Crisis.

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