Category Archives: Conflict of Laws
Christopher Jenkins, ‘“Towards the Attainment of Complete Uniformity” in Private International Law: The Unratified Anglo-Italian Foreign Judgments Convention of 1887′
ABSTRACT This article uncovers a convention on foreign judgments, negotiated between Britain and Italy in 1887. The Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, saw it as ‘the most practical first step towards the attainment of complete uniformity’: proof that the civil and common law worlds could agree on common private international law rules. It was Britain’s first […]
Giesela Ruhl, ‘Cross-border Consumer Protection’
ABSTRACT Cross-border consumer transactions are essential to the functioning of the European Single Market. Yet, despite decades of European integration, consumers and businesses continue to face legal uncertainty arising from the coexistence of multiple national legal systems. Uncertainty regarding the applicable law, jurisdiction, and the enforcement of rights may discourage cross-border contracting and thereby undermine […]
Andreas Giannakopoulos, ‘The recognition of foreign succession judgments at common law’
ABSTRACT This article examines whether the common law recognises a category of foreign judgments ‘in matters of’ succession. Its argument is that it does not: the relevant question of characterisation is whether the orders contained in the foreign judgment are in rem or in personam. Where a foreign ‘succession’ judgment is partly in rem and […]
Augustin Gridel, ‘Registered Shares in Private International Law – A French and European Perspective’
ABSTRACT The private international law rules governing the ownership of shares have long rested on the modalities of their transfer, which afforded considerable significance to the form they take (registered or bearer). This article seeks to demonstrate that this approach, which is of doctrinal origin, does not in reality determine the applicable law, having regard […]
Stewart Sterk, ‘Internal Affairs Revisited’
ABSTRACT In the United States, businesses are free to choose where they incorporate. Delaware has long been the most popular choice because of its expert judiciary and well-developed body of corporate law. But in recent years, a number of high-profile businesses have chosen to reincorporate either offshore or in states that purport to be more […]
Nadia Rusinova, ‘From tort to family law: compensation for cross-border child abduction’
ABSTRACT This article explores the emerging field of intra-family torts, with a particular focus on cross-border child abduction and the law applicable to compensation claims. It traces the historical reluctance of courts to recognise civil liability within families, the erosion of spousal and parental immunities, and the gradual acceptance of claims for serious wrongs between […]
Wilske and Adams, ‘International Arbitration in Times of Disruption – Or: An Invitation for “Dancing in the Dark”’
ABSTRACT This article examines how international arbitration is adapting to an era of persistent global disruption marked by geopolitical upheaval, armed conflict, climate-related disasters, supply chain fragility, pandemics, and rapid technological change. It argues that while these overlapping ‘polycrises’ strain traditional doctrines such as force majeure, hardship, and foreseeability, they do not render arbitration obsolete; […]
Emmanuel Owosanni, ‘Regulating Trust in the Digital Economy: Towards Harmonized Private Law Principles on Algorithmic Decision-Making and Platform Accountability under UNIDROIT’
ABSTRACT Algorithm-based decision-making systems now govern a significant share of global commercial activity, ranging from automated lending decisions and insurance pricing to platform content moderation and smart contract execution; still, private international law has not kept pace with this transformation. Some existing legal and regulatory frameworks, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and […]
Mark Hanna, ‘SLAPPs in Aotearoa New Zealand’
ABSTRACT This article examines strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) in Aotearoa New Zealand, focusing on how civil procedure can be used to suppress public-interest expression. Drawing on 218 reported judgments between 2014 and 2024, supplemented by official records, interviews, and pre-action correspondence, it applies a four-phase socio-legal framework to identify cases that exhibit SLAPP-type […]
Brian Iverson, ‘Forum Selling as a Threat to the Rule of Law’
ABSTRACT Forum shopping has long been a feature of federal litigation, but recent years have brought a more troubling dynamic in which federal courts compete for cases by ‘forum selling’. Judges engage in forum selling by adopting plaintiff-friendly procedures, reliably issuing plaintiff-leaning decisions, and publicly soliciting certain types of cases. These practices transform localized procedural […]