He left the UPC somewhat unexpectedly late 2022, and now he’s back already: Alexander Ramsay, long-time chairman of the Preparatory Committee of the Unified Patent Court, has been appointed as Registrar of the new court.
This has been announced on the UPC’s website. Axel Jacobi from Germany will be Deputy-Registrar. Both new officials of the Court take up their positions today. They took oath before the Court’s Presidium yesterday, in a small ceremony conducted on the margins of the preparatory training for UPC appointed judges, currently taking place in Budapest.
Ramsay has been been working on the UPC project since 2008, first as a Swedish delegate. When the UPC Preparatory Committee was inaugurated in March 2013, he became vice-chairman and from 2015 he was chairman. Following Austria’s ratification of the Protocol for Provisional Application of the UPCA in January 2022, the official preparatory phase of the court started, and the Preparatory Committee was replaced by the Administrative Committee, headed again by Ramsay.
Last November, after stepping down, Ramsay told JUVE Patent he would concentrate again on his duties as national judge: “I felt that the project has the stable leadership that would allow me to step down and for a while give priority to my family and my other affairs.” He didn’t rule out the possibility of a return to the UPC.
As is explained on the UPC’s website, the Registry plays a key role in the functioning of the Court. The Registrar’s tasks involve in particular
- to organise the court proceedings and keep the register which includes records of all cases before the Court;
- to keep lists of judges and representatives;
- to publish the decisions of the Court;
- to maintain the Court’s IT system;
- to assist the Presidium in the preparation of the Court’s budget and to implement the budget;
- to publish annual statistical data, and other Court related information;
- to prepare and publish the official communication of the Court;
- to provide secretarial support to the Administrative, Budget and the Advisory Committees.
The Deputy-Registrar has particular tasks related to the Court of First Instance, such as inter alia
- the organisation of the sub-registries;
- to keep records of all cases before the Court of First Instance;
- to provide administrative and procedural assistance to the divisions of the Court of First Instance;
- to handle the communication of the Court of First instance;
- budgetary and IT related functions in relation to the Court of First Instance.
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Elected by unelected diplomats.
Intergovernmentalism took over parliamentary democracy.
Mr Ramsay has been well rewarded for his dedicated and faithful service.
In spite of the announcement by the Chair of the Preparatory Committee of a declaration relating to Art 3 PPA and a following signature ceremony at the COREPER, nothing like this has occurred. It is the depository which took, on its own volition, the decision that the PPA entered into force.
It would be interesting to hear from Mr Ramsay
– what the legal basis of this procedure could have been, and why he did not carry out what he announced;
– whether it is possible to amend the UPCA at 8.00, so that upon opening of the UPC on the same day at 9.00, Art 7(2) UPCA and Annex II can simply be ignored;
– whether any interpretation of the UPCA can be given by wilfully ignoring the VCLT, and especially its Art 31 and 56 VCLT.