European Law Institute
Posted: 21 Oct 2024
IAFL President, Rachael Kelsey, was honoured to be invited to speak at the European Law Institute Annual meeting, which took place in Dublin on 9-11 October 2024.
Rachael was one of the speakers on a panel on Extra-Judicial Administration of Justice in Cross-Border Family and Succession matters, Chaired by President of the ELI, Pascal Pichonnaz, Professor at Fribourg. Rachael spoke along with Professor Elena Bargelli from the University of Pisa, Caterina D’Osualdo from the European Commission and fellow Elodie Mulon, Avocat, Paris. The panel dealt with the eponymous ELI project which aims to develop an outline for a harmonised European concept of courts, to ensure a harmonised application of EU law in the Member States. IAFL has a number of Associate (Academic) fellows involved in this important project and look forward to providing what support we can to it.
Rachael commended the ELI on the work that they have done in the first phase of the project and underscored how important this work was for children and families in Europe and beyond. She also spoke on Scots law and the elements of the Scottish system that are ‘de-judicialised’ and where parties have party autonomy, or where Scotland has developed processes that see decision making being taken by non judicial officers, for example within their child protection regime, or in relation to the use of non- court based dispute resolution models.
The IAFL was honoured to invited to participate at the meeting, which was attended by the President of the European Court of Human Rights, Marko Bošnjak, the Vice-President of the General Court of the EU, Savvas S Papasavvas, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Michael O’Flaherty, the Attorney General of Ireland, Rossa Fanning, the Chief Justice of Ireland, Donal Gerard O'Donnell, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Estonia, Villu Kõve and the President of the Austrian Supreme Court, Georg Kodek along with academics, ambassadors, EU representatives, heads of international and European associations.
