Preliminary References to the Court of Justice of the European Union

Academy of European Law Workshop: Parental Responsibility in a cross-border context.
I have just returned from Florence where I delivered a presentation on applying for preliminary rulings from the CJEU in family matters. Judges from Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia and Austria were attending a 2 & 1/2 day workshop covering aspects of BIIbis, the 1980 Hague Convention and mediation. My presentation was a bit of a 'lifeboat' talk: something you need to have but hope you never have to use. The discussion groups on the case studies did reveal some interesting and different interpretations of some of the Articles of BIIbis although overall the majority of participants across the board interpreted them in the same way. Re-assuring that this was so given the fears that some involved in cross-border work have about how consistently BIIbis and 1980 Hague are applied across the widely differing legal systems where they apply.
Some interesting translation issues arose as well which taken with Sir Peter Singer's observations in L-v-E on the difference between the French and English versions of the CJEU judgment in Mercredi-v-Chaffe are a good reminder of the value in considering translation issues.
Speaking of which the workshop was conducted in Italian and English and the simultaneous translation provided by  ARTIG (www.traduzioni-giuridiche.it) was excellent.
As ever the discussions outside the Workshop were as interesting (more than mine!) as those inside. Meeting practitioners from other jurisdictions and getting some insight into how their family justice works is always fascinating.