Private Law Theory

ABSTRACT
For some years now, a breath of fresh air seems to have been sweeping through Private International Law. The field of PIL and research within PIL is gaining new momentum, with discussions about the future of PIL sometimes abandoning the classical paradigm of PIL’s value neutrality, attributing value-laden objectives to PIL, and giving greater attention to more modern, policy-oriented PIL approaches and techniques. Discussions on PIL seem increasingly to revolve around the question of exactly how PIL can be instrumentalized to tackle global issues in the service of a better and more just world. International law is dead, it is said, but viewed in this light, PIL appears to be very much alive these days, and a bright future seems to lie ahead for it.

Methodologically, this paper does not start from a position of either endorsement or rejection of the contemporary regulatory turn in PIL. Rather, it examines both its potential and the pitfalls, risks or even regression it may entail when looking from the perspective of protection of weak and vulnerable parties, exploring under which conditions instrumentalized PIL can genuinely contribute to the protection of weak and vulnerable parties or come into tension with objectives of protecting weak and vulnerable parties.

Building on the author’s earlier work, the paper thus critically explores the shifting role of PIL from a perceived neutrality to an openly instrumentalized function in addressing global issues such as migration, cross-border labor, environmental pollution, and consumer issues, from the perspective of protection of weak and vulnerable parties. It raises concerns about PIL’s ‘complicity’ itself to inequality, highlights at the same time its potential as a tool for protecting weak and vulnerable parties, but it also brings to the fore possible caveats when going the way of ‘using PIL as a tool to address global issues’, ultimately pretending thereby to ‘protect weak and vulnerable parties’.

Building further on the author’s previous work, the paper not only identifies and systematizes tensions, cautions and preconditions for genuine protection, but also aims to lay foundations for a broader research agenda.

Van Den Eeckhout, Veerle, Adapting PIL in an Era of Uncertainty. Uncertain Times, Unequal Burdens: Rethinking Protection for Weaker Parties. A Few Observations, With a Focus on Boundary Conditions, Preconditions and Caveats (May 25, 2026).