Summary
Presentation given at the Association belge pour le droit d’auteur (ABA-BVA) on 14 February 2005, a few months after the adoption of the Belgian Code of private international law (Act of 16 July 2004). The first part deals with international jurisdiction in copyright cases: Regulation 44/2001 when the defendant is domiciled in an EU Member State (choice of court, general jurisdiction, special jurisdiction in contract and in tort), the new Code when the defendant is domiciled elsewhere, and international work (Hague Conference, draft by Ginsburg and Dreyfuss). The second part covers the applicable law: the law of the country of protection for infringement (Article 5(2) of the Berne Convention, Rome II proposal) and for the copyright itself (Article 93 of the Code), where acts of reproduction and communication to the public take place, the law of the contract under the Rome Convention, the respective scope of the law of the right and the law of the contract, and the correctives of the Code (public policy, evasion of law, exception clause). An example shows an assignment in writing that is valid under US law as the law of the contract but not under Belgian law as the law of the country of protection.
Reference
H. Haouideg, « Le droit d'auteur et le droit international privé », Association belge pour le droit d'auteur, 2005.