Brasil: Queda de barreiras pode aumentar embarques de Halal!

COMÉRCIO EXTERIOR DESCOMPLICADO -borderless trade-

30/01/2014,

As negociações que o governo brasileiro está empreendendo neste ano para a queda de barreiras sanitárias para carnes produzidas no País podem resultar no aumento das vendas externas de carne halal, que exige um processo produtivo adaptado às regras da religião islâmica.

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Problemas derivados de la aplicación de la lex fori por la falta de invocación o prueba del Derecho extranjero

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Derecho Procesal, Lex Fori, Prueba

La prueba del Derecho extranjero le corresponde a quien lo invoca.

Es común el caso de que la demanda se refiera directamente a la ley del fuero sin que la contestación de la demanda nada diga al respecto, cuando del análisis de la norma de conflicto se extrae la fijación de una ley de gobierno diferente.

Esto puede deberse a varios motivos, enumerados sin ánimo de exhaustividad:

–          El demandado se halla en rebeldía.

–          Impericia de las partes.

–          Estrategia procesal.

La solución propuesta por la norma y la interpretación jurisprudencial a la falta de invocación de la ley aplicable al asunto nos pone en el brete de la remoción efectiva de una serie de normas de DIPr. que en circunstancias normales habrían de regir la elección de la ley aplicable.

Sin duda, una demanda temeraria, basada en la aplicación de la ley nacional puede determinar una posición muy gravosa para el demandado.

Dado que la prueba del Derecho extranjero le corresponde a quien lo invoca nos encontramos con que la contestación basada en la aplicación errónea de las normas de determinación de la ley aplicable exige de nuestros Tribunales una respuesta que resulta absurda en su concepción.

Así, al señalar que el Convenio de Roma nos impone, verbigracia, la aplicación del Derecho noruego, el juzgador impone la carga adicional de la prueba de este Derecho a quien lo ha invocado.

Aquí, el problema es que no se ha invocado el fondo material de una ley distinta de la nacional sino su fijación obligatoria como rectora de la controversia por obra de la norma de reparto.

Esta falta de invocación doctrinalmente ha recibido varios tratamientos: inadmisión de la demanda sin efectos de cosa juzgada por error en el modo de proposición, desestimación de la demanda incluso con efectos de cosa juzgada,…

En opinión de quien suscribe, en controversias en las que a juicio de las partes o de oficio se suscitase la posibilidad de intervención de una norma de determinación de ley aplicable sería deseable, en el acto de la audiencia previa del juicio ordinario o al inicio del acto del juicio verbal, que se determinase la norma que ha de aplicarse, siguiendo el dictado de la norma.

No puede dejarse este aspecto de la controversia a disposición de las partes so pena de dejar sin efecto normas de derecho obligatorio, pudiendo incurrir en ocasiones en perjuicio de terceros y con la esperable generación de problemas de reconocimiento y ejecución de la resolución judicial.

Habría pues que modificar nuestro derecho positivo de modo que la ley aplicable se fije de modo obligatorio y que afecte a la demanda en sede de mutatio libelli.

El demandado en ningún caso debería tener que correr con el gasto que supone la proposición y prueba de un Derecho que en ocasiones le puede resultar extraño y a estos efectos parece razonable que exista un control de oficio de la ley aplicable.

THE PAROT DOCTRINE EXPLAINED

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Conviction, ETA, European Human Rights Court, Henri Parot, Spain

The “Parot doctrine” refers to Henri Parot, member of basque terrorist Group ETA  (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna). Mr. Parot wanted his effective imprisonment time to be reduced from 30 years to 20, while his conviction sum amounted to 4.700 years, on charges that added up to 33 murders.

 The precedent: Until the Criminal Code of the year 1995 a prisoner could redeem time of imprisonment through work hours. Basically you could expect to greatly reduce your conviction time.

The remission operated over your maximum imprisonment time. So, you could have thousands of years of conviction; it   didn´t matter. The remission would be applied over your effective imprisonment time, thirty years at that time.

The Parot doctrine: Spanish Supreme Court, year 2006, takes a copernican change to jurisprudence. The reduction will affect the total conviction time, not the effective max the prisoner will serve. A cut over thousands of hours isn´t that sexy.

Spanish courts sustained that the new jurisprudence doesn´t change the law neither the punishment, but the manner of execution.

Europe gets in the mix: Inés del Río, another ETA convicted, goes to the European Human Rights Court with this case.

On October 21th, the Grand Chamber judgment held the violations of Articles 5 and 7 of the European Conventions on Human Rights.

The Article 7 refers to the principle nullus crimen sine poena. No punishment without law. Principle of legitime confidence.

The Article 5 violation bases on the extra detention time she got because of the unfair change of the jurisprudence.

What´s next: Over 30 convicted, mostly terrorists, have their appeal pending on this judgment.

Spain terminated the remission for work years ago so don´t expect this matter to happen again in the near future. However, the discrepancies between spanish judges and the European Court become a worrisome trend; mostly because our judges have the insurmountable task to patch very deficient laws.

URL of the press release

http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng-press/pages/search.aspx?i=003-4541406-5482531

POKER VS. TETRIS VS. MAHJONG

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John McCain, Poker, Syria, Tetris

As expected this is about Syria.

Senator John McCain was catched playing a great american game. It wasn´t a big fault even if the moment, apparently, was far from ideal.

He was micro-gaming, playing the game within the game. Let´s go macro.

First, get this straight: Syria is the tool, it doesn´t mean much and it helps our amusement. A card, a tile or what the hell you want to name that long pieces from the tetris.

Second, there is a tetris game going on right now. It´s just that some other player prefer poker. They play poker in Iraq with some good ole royal flushes. Waste a minute in the internet just to look the amount of the contracts the US interests covet there.

Third, tetris is going out of style. It´s still played in Iran, Syria and ages ago in some other places like Libya or Iraq. Now they play poker in Libya and Iraq. One should expect that the tetris players would want to take a hard stance.

You would say, what do they play in Europe? They play mostly soccer but we are talking about other type of games. At most they are like those vultures that come to play a hand while you go to the bathroom.

Maybe some realize there isn´t a whole lot of discussion about mahjong. Well, they don´t like to fight for the right to play a game. They know very well that mahjong is a lengthy, brain based game.

When kids can´t reach an agreement they bow to their pro mediator, their ombudsman, usually a parent. No need to run circles. Ban-ki-moon or the security council don´t have that kind of auctoritas. Not with their bigger spoiled children.

Chemical weapons? Good grief.

 

Mediación como solución a la controversia de las preferentes…y las que seguirán.

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Bankia, Cajas de Ahorro, Derivatives market, Mediation, Novagalicia Banco, Spain

La mediación es una vía alternativa de solución de conflictos en la que las partes asumen la dirección del procedimiento y llegan, o no, al acuerdo que les permite solventar su problemática.

La autocomposición o “nosotros lo guisamos, nosotros lo comemos” presenta una serie de ventajas e inconvenientes. Una ventaja principal se halla sin duda en la posibilidad que se le presenta a los mediados de encontrar una solución a su medida.

Árbitros y jueces deben resolver de acuerdo al principio dispositivo; darán todo, algo o nada de lo que se les pide pero la controversia queda fijada en unos términos que pueden no ser la solución ideal para las partes.

Los Bancos y Ex-Cajas responden con especial sensibilidad al factor reputacional. El propio Sr. Castellano, Presidente de Novagalicia Banco, ha indicado que resulta “absurdo pensar que la entidad no quiere devolver el dinero de las participaciones preferentes”. Sin embargo, “no puede”, ha apostillado.

¿Por qué no puede? Porque la entidad ha sido ayudada o rescatada con dinero de los contribuyentes y se ha dejado claro que la deuda senior ha de pagar parte de este feo pato.

En definitiva, no podemos devolver el dinero porque el que tenemos no es nuestro y, en todo caso, no podemos salvar a “inversores”, así con las comillas destacadas, en perjuicio de nuestros acreedores.

Como es de esperar, nos encontramos con un inconveniente de entidad que justifica que la mediación no se haya considerado hasta la fecha, con una salvedad. Tal salvedad consiste en la articulación de un Med-Arb más que un verdadero arbitraje hasta la fecha. Si no hay acuerdo entre las partes, arbitraje. Yo no me atrevería a llamar a este sistema mediación y muy a duras penas lo denominaría arbitraje.

La “privity clause”, que nosotros llamaríamos principio de relatividad de los contratos y que explica que no quepa la mediación por poder dar lugar a un fraude de acreedores o a una solución fuera de los parámetros de apechugamiento de la troika debiera ser revisada ipso facto.

De acuerdo con que los acuerdos de mediación pueden perjudicar a los contribuyentes y pueden trastocar el esquema de responsabilidades diseñado por Europa pero se está descontando lo esencial: cada persona quemada con NCG, o Bankia, o el que fuere, deja una semilla de desconfianza en un círculo amplio.

El acreedor sagaz, escandalizado de que la solución escogida a la fecha sea la vía judicial. Millones de euros en costas, en intereses y en profesionales. Cientos de horas de empleados perdidas. Coste reputacional. Deterioro de la marca. Coste social. Si el cliente gana el pleito no volverá a pasar el umbral de tu puerta. Si pierde, sus bisnietos recordarán la afrenta.

La mediación es más barata en pecunia y en dolor, sirve para dar explicaciones, para pedir disculpas y para barajar opciones….y si se alcanza un acuerdo, mejor que mejor.

Not so evident advantages of international ad hoc arbitration.

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Ad hoc, Alternative dispute resolution, Arbitration, Dispute resolution, International arbitration

Institutional arbitration guarantees a neutral proccess, a list of savvy arbitrators, predetermined procedures, a track record and, generally speaking, a safety net.

Why would I pass on institutional arbitration?

Well, let´s see some potential advantages of the ad hoc proccess:

1-.)  Ability to negotiate multiple aspects of the arbitration proccess: place, language,…

Those usual suspects can be bargained under the aegis of an arbitral institution, too. Yes, that´s right, but with an ad hoc arbitration parties and arbitrator can fix the prices- probably with a discount if the parties expect issues to arise multiple times through the life of a contract.

2.-) Some aspects of the arbitration can be reshapen. Institutional arbitration uses some rules that ramp up the costs. Not only pecuniary costs. For example, the evidence could go back and forth- think of replication and rejoinder- in a written manner with sworn translators and a number of bothered people.

That means huge lawyer fees and other intrincacies which come with the territory. Then, if I want to be cost conscious, should I prefer mediation? Not neccessarily. Parties could prefer fast and simple procedures, and at the same time an award could be more suited to their needs than a longshot  chance to reach an agreement.

3.-) Impartiality. Institutional arbitration is not always free of doubt. A chamber of commerce that administers issues within the relations of their associates could leave a suspicious taste about their awards. Yes, there are a number of reasons for an arbitrator to separe himself from the duty but the pressure could be there anyways, even if the cause for exclusion present in the rule doesn´t appear.

Integration of services: the path to affordability.

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Business plan, Consulting, Public relations

As an international company, fund, chamber, organization one would wish not to retain multiple services to different providers as costs would get out of hand in a blink of an eye.

This is a not exhaustive list of duties one would expect to put in one simple contract of international services, at the targeted  country:

Trade and investments consultancy. Draft contracts. Acommodate to the business plan.

Lobbying and public relations. Press support.

Legal counsel.

Mediation, in our own language and online, if available.

Do you notice anything missing?

International mediation: give it a fair chance.

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ADR, Dispute resolution, Mediation

As an international lawyer I find the access to jurisdiction highly unpredictable, extremely slow, unsourmountably expensive. A lot of ly, if you ask me.

We usually need translators and sworn translations. We need multiple international conference calls. We need complicated powers of attorney. The access to a second instance makes it even worse. Three years later is usually too late.

The mediation doesn´t cure cancer. But it has some inherent perks:

The parts select a mediator who stablishes the costs in advance. They don´t need lawyers a priori. There is not a need to shop a forum or beg for a governing law. They can save on discovery and impending measures. They save on multiple travels.

They can choose the language of the mediation, the parts can convene a calendar for meetings….if they don´t go for a not-so-old-fashoined electronic mediation.

Best of all, parts won´t go further than desired. Parts are the stars here, not some judge or arbitrator.

Isn´t it ironic a resolution that bothers both parts? Common, yes.

Eventually, the agreement can be signed at a notary public here in Spain, with other jurisdictions using similar procedures. That act generates an enforceable document.

 

Protectionism backfires.

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Argentina, Barriers, DJAI, Protectionism, Russia

DJAI. Spanish term for the argentinian Sworn anticipated imports statement.

What the hell is that? Pretty simple, in fact. The government wants to know what are you going to import in the next few months. This is ill advised on many levels, prone to corruption, collusion and inside trading; it got the angry smiley of the MERCOSUR.

The Russian Federation puts up so many chinese walls to dairy products and livestock that it got nonsensical. They ask for the moon just not to say no.

That´s two examples of how not to make friends. The macro numbers of both countries are quite worrisome and far from their true potential. Not as much because of the rampant bribery but the realization that reciprocity happens.

ALBA and BRICS aren´t specially interested into a rupture of the international scheme but their strategy doesn´t seem to bring them enough benefits. They can´t maintain the bunker policy forever as this stance makes the politic cost too high.

Want to be competitive? Cool, but share the wealth.

The lack of cause and derivative banking products.

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Derivatives market, Mortgage loan, Products, swap

Some banking products are bound to trials centered around the lack of a valid, free and spontaneous consent in Spain.

Basically, the consumer or entrepeneur argues that the bank sold the product without the exhaustive, mandatory information around the intrincacies of the instrument, namely the interest rate swap (IRS) contracts.

However, the unanswered question relies elsewhere. Why did the bank offer the product, in first place? And why was it accepted?

Banks had mastered a malpractice through the commercialization of mortgages. They sold additional binded products, as multiple insurance and the like, which were another bleep in the total revenue.

This practice jumped to the derivatives market. The IRS was sold as your unique, distinct chance to renew your line to discount promissory notes, to get another year in your revolving credit account or some sort of reestructuration to your mortgage.

In fact, most of the IRS clients ended being the ones who didn´t need the product and the ones who coudn´t pay in a dreaded scenario of low interests, referenced to EURIBOR.

Spanish judges, or the majority of them, also neglect the fact that the banks could advance the nature of the financial crisis started circa 2008 so they covered the losses of their mortgages through their senior products and also the IRS products and their variants.

As a client, damn if I do, damn if I don´t.

The scenario is just brutal. I got to see mortgage contracts that included a collar, with a large discrepancy between the floor and the cap, and related to that contract, a supposedly non speculative IRS. That´s nuts.

Of course, the lack of a clear stance from the regulator and the mantle gifted by politicians set the terrain for a bleak future, as for the rights of consumers and small companies involved.

Some days ago, our Supreme Court, expressed that some floor clauses were void, only to sustain that the effects would be ex nunc, so the already paid money never leaves the bank´s pocket. It´s a sad day when financial stability overrides principles with more than two thousand years of validity.

Too big to fail, all over again.