Private international law

As explained in the Preface, this book is based on the traditional subject of private international law, but goes beyond it and treats it in a new way. At least in England (see § 2, below, for other countries), private international law has traditionally been concerned with three topics:

• international or inter-territorial jurisdiction of courts in civil and commercial litigation;

• choice of law (whether the law of another State or territory should be applied); and

• recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.

Certain related matters are also considered – for example, the ways in which the content of foreign law may be established (proved).

Names and what they mean

In England, this subject has traditionally been called ‘conflict of laws’, a name that goes back at least as far as the seventeenth century, when the Dutch jurist Huber called his book De Conflictu Legum (On the Conflict of Laws). This is the name of the leading present-day practitioners textbook. It is also the name under which cases, statutes and other materials on the subject are usually indexed. In deference to foreign terminology, however, the subject also became known as ‘private international law’, the name under which it is most often known on the Continent, especially (today) in EC documents. In England, ‘conflict of laws’ and ‘private international law’ mean exactly the same thing.