conflict of laws

1. dissimilarity or discrepancy between the laws of different legal orders, such as states or nations, with regard to the applicable legal rules and principles in a matter that each legal order wishes to regulate.

2. Also called private international law. the branch of law dealing with the determination of the law applicable to a private-law matter, of the legal order having jurisdiction to adjudicate such a matter, and of the extent to which an adjudication in such a matter by another legal order is to be recognized and enforced locally.

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Introduction

also called  private international law 

      the existence worldwide, and within individual countries, of different legal traditions, different specific rules of private law, and different systems of private law, all of which are administered by court systems similarly subject to different rules and traditions of procedure. The “law of the conflict of laws” pertains to the resolution of problems resulting from such diversity of courts and law.

Defining conflict of laws

      Each country's legal system reflects its society's values. As a result, national laws and the structure of domestic judicial systems vary considerably from country to country. Nevertheless, many kinds of legal situations or events, such as marriage, decedents' estates, torts (tort), and business transactions, often are not confined to a single country or even to a single jurisdiction within a country. The courts of each involved country may claim jurisdiction over the matter, and the laws of each involved country may be applicable under certain circumstances. When such conflicts, or differences, exist, procedures need to be in place to resolve them; the term conflict of laws (sometimes also conflicts or conflicts law) describes the body of law of each country or state that is designed to resolve problems arising from the differences between legal systems. Conflict of laws is a term used primarily in the United States, Canada, and, increasingly, the United Kingdom. In most other countries (and historically in the United Kingdom), the term private international law is used. The latter term derives from the civil-law (civil law) distinction between private and public law, whereby private law addresses the legal relationships between and among individuals, corporations, and even the state in its relations with individuals and corporations when it is not acting in a governmental capacity (for example, in the conclusion of contracts (contract)), while public law deals with the law governing state institutions as well as the latter's governmental—e.g., regulatory—relations with private parties. Private international law thus emphasizes the differences between national legal systems: although the term private international law may aptly describe the subject matter, it may also mislead by suggesting that there is an international body of rules to bridge differences between legal systems. This is emphatically not the case. The term conflict of laws refers primarily to rules that are solely national in origin and are explicitly not part of international law (except insofar as countries have concluded treaties (treaty) concerning them).

      Conflicts law must address three principal questions. First, when a legal problem touches upon more than one country, it must be determined which court has jurisdiction to adjudicate the matter. Second, once a court has taken jurisdiction, it must decide what law it should apply to the question before it. The rules governing the court may direct it to apply its own law or call for the application of the law of another country. Third, assuming that the court ultimately renders a judgment in favour of the plaintiff, conflicts law must address the enforcement of the judgment. In the event that the defendant has insufficient assets locally, recognition and enforcement of the judgment must be sought in a country where assets do exist.

Diversity of legal systems

      As noted above, cases of conflict of laws arise from differences between legal systems. Notable differences exist, for example, between countries with a common-law (common law) tradition and those employing civil law. In contract law, for example, civil law has no direct counterpart to the common-law requirement that a promise be supported by “consideration”—i.e., by a bargained-for exchange—in order to be binding. Similarly, the systems differ with respect to formalities that may be required for a contract (e.g., a writing). Even within the broad groups of common law and civil law, national legal systems diverge, sometimes substantially. Thus, English substantive law often differs materially from American law, though the two common-law countries share a common tradition and basic methodology. Similarly, civil-law countries differ in many respects in the solutions they provide for specific legal problems, depending on whether they belong to the Nordic, Germanic, or Roman-Franco legal family. In German law, for example, the Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch) prescribes a subjective approach toward defining a merchant: it depends on the person and the purpose and manner of his actions. The French Code de Commerce adopts an objective approach: it is the particular transaction that determines which party in a transaction is the merchant. Older Swedish (Sweden) law focused on the definition of a merchant (köpman); newer legislative provisions employ more comprehensive concepts of those engaged in commerce (näringsidkare). Differences also surround the question of whether a good-faith purchaser can acquire title to goods that have been stolen. The legal systems of some countries (e.g., Italy and many former Soviet-bloc countries) do permit this, while those of other countries (e.g., Germany and Portugal) do not. Others (e.g., France and The Netherlands (Netherlands, The)) attempt to strike a balance between the interests of the parties—for example, by allowing the original owner to recover the goods but requiring him to compensate the good-faith purchaser in some manner.

      Other differences in legal and extralegal (extranational) norms may also give rise to problems of conflict of laws. The situations described above generally presuppose unitary legal systems, which may exist in countries with unitary political structures (e.g., France) and in countries organized as federations (e.g., Germany). Some federated countries, however, do not possess a uniform federal private law. In the United States, private law is, mainly, the law of the several U.S. states; American conflicts law is thus both interregional (interstate) and international, with the substantive and conflicts law of Illinois, for example, differing from that of New York, Louisiana, or Indiana. Similarly, in Canada the law of Quebec diverges from that of Ontario or Newfoundland, and in Mexico the law of Chihuahua is not quite the same as that of Michoacán. In Germany and Switzerland the systems of private law are by and large uniform, but minor differences still exist between the laws of the various Länder (states) of Germany and between those of the Swiss cantons. Also, the reunification of Germany in 1990 left some East German law in force for a transitional period. An example of the latter was the right of married couples who resided in the former East Germany to opt, within two years of the date of reunification, for the continued applicability of East German matrimonial property law.

      Even in countries whose political structure is unitary rather than federal, regional differences can be found. In the United Kingdom considerable differences exist between the laws of England, Scotland, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and Northern Ireland. Significant bodies of regional law also exist alongside national private law in France, Spain, and The Netherlands. Thus, in the Alsace-Lorraine area of France, parties may still resort to concepts of German law in matters of locally applicable law (droit local), particularly when the otherwise-governing French law lacks an applicable provision. One such example involves the Handlungsgehilfe, a type of commercial agent for whom there are special rules in German law regarding continued compensation and prohibitions of competition after termination. In this case, specific articles within the local Handelsgesetzbuch apply. Similarly, associations of civil law in Alsace-Lorraine are governed by portions of the 1914 Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, the version of the German Civil Code in use before Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France. An organization founded in 1985, the Institut de Droit Local Alsacien-Mosellan, publishes commentary on local law in books and journals such as Revue du droit local. In Spain foral (leasehold) law, rooted in medieval practices and documented in compilaciones, applies in place of the Civil Code (Código Civil) to aspects of family and succession law in many regions, particularly in Navarra, Aragón, and Basque areas. In The Netherlands there are provincial and municipal bylaws, and the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba have their own laws (staatsregeling).

      Legal diversity may be based on religion or ethnicity (ethnic group) as well as on territory. Such a situation has existed historically in many Islamic countries. In India the laws concerning matters of the family, including succession upon death, are different for Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Buddhists, and other religious groups, and in Lebanon and Israel they are different for Muslims, Jews, and the various groups of Christians. American Indian reservations present similar problems when the occurrence of events on a reservation or the affiliation of a person with a reservation results in the application of tribal law rather than the law of the state in which the reservation is located. Membership in an American Indian tribe, for example, may determine the applicable law.

      The imperatives of religious law or the traditions of foreign law may need to be accommodated within the framework of local law and procedures. Examples are the state of New York's requirement that a party seeking a divorce must remove impediments to the spouse's ability to remarry (which takes into account the Jewish law that the husband must issue a letter of divorcement—a get—to the wife) and the various ways employed by German courts to accommodate the Morgengabe (a transfer of property in contemplation of marriage within Islamic law) when dealing with questions of support upon divorce under local law.

The nature of conflicts law

      Conflicts law is a part of national legal systems and is not codified in a systematic way at the supranational or international level. Nevertheless, some international treaties have unified particular areas of substantive and conflicts law with respect to the participating states. When a treaty provides uniform rules of substantive law—as does the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (1980)—it may displace national law, rendering the rules of conflicts law obsolete. In contrast, when an international treaty unifies conflicts law, substantive differences between national laws continue to exist, but the uniform rules provide a way to bridge them. However, conventions exist in relatively few areas of substantive law and conflicts law; also, the number of states participating in them is relatively small, and the interpretation and application of international treaties remain matters for the courts of the individual participating states. A notable exception was the Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations (1980), commonly known as the Rome Convention, which applied in the member states of the European Union (EU) and whose interpretation lay within the scope of the European Court of Justice upon reference from national courts. The EU possesses lawmaking powers that enable it to establish uniform rules of substantive law, thereby displacing previous national law and eliminating conflicts. In 2008 the EU adopted the Rome I Regulation, which transformed the Rome Convention into binding EU law, and promulgated the Rome II Regulation, which provided rules for determining the applicable law in cases of noncontractual obligations.

      Projects for the unification or harmonization of laws on a wider (in some cases worldwide) basis have been pursued since the middle of the 19th century, when the Italian minister of justice Pasquale Stanislao Mancini (Mancini, Pasquale Stanislao) sought to convene a conference for the harmonization of private international law. Similar efforts by the Dutch jurist Tobias Michael Carel Asser (Asser, Tobias Michael Carel) proved successful in 1893 with the founding of the Hague Conference on Private International Law. In 1904 Japan became the first non-European state to participate in the Hague Conference. Over the years, the Hague Conference has produced many conventions, some of which have enjoyed notable success, such as the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (1980) and the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (1965). The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (Unidroit), established in Rome in 1926, sponsors projects for the unification of substantive law. Examples include its early efforts with respect to international sales law and the more recent drafting of the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts (2004). In Latin America, Mercosur (also known as the Common Market of the South)—whose members include Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay—led the harmonization of important aspects of international business law, particularly in the areas of trademark, investment, and competition (antitrust (antitrust law)) law. The Andean Community (Comunidad Andina; CAN) has promoted the harmonization of copyright and patent law between its member countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. (See also intellectual-property law.)

      Another unifying force of growing importance is international business practice and custom (the so-called lex mercatoria [Latin: “law merchant”]), to which courts, arbitration tribunals, and parties increasingly refer in their decisions and commercial dealings.

Common principles

      Although few uniform international conflicts rules exist, there are a number of common principles that are recognized to varying extent throughout the world. The ancient international principle of comity—which, like the biblical Golden Rule, posits that even sovereign states should extend courtesies and privileges to each other—explains why one country would give effect to the law of another. A formal requirement of reciprocity could actually limit the extent of these courtesies and privileges to those that the other state is willing to extend. Party autonomy (i.e., the freedom of parties to decide what court shall hear their case and what law shall govern it) is recognized by most countries, those of Latin America being a notable exception.

      Legal systems have established different criteria for the selection of one country's law over that of another for application to a particular case or problem. There are, however, some widely (albeit not uniformly) shared principles. For questions of family law, inheritance, and (in limited types of cases) even liability in tort, legal systems will consider the nationality or, alternatively, domicile or habitual residence of a person. For commercial transactions, a transaction's “closest connection” to a legal system may be emphasized over traditional connecting factors such as where the transaction was concluded. Factors determining a close connection to a particular state and its law may be the place of business or principal residence of the party that is to effect the performance in question, the language used by the parties in their negotiations and contract formation, the currency and modalities of payment specified, and other factors that are not as incidental as the place of contracting may be (e.g., when a contract is concluded in a hotel or other meeting place because both parties are in transit). For cases involving legal persons (corporations (corporation)), many countries, particularly those of the common-law tradition, refer to the law of the state where the entity is incorporated, but others, especially those employing civil-law principles, refer to the law of the corporate “seat,” defined as the place of central management and decision making. Among the latter countries, especially in the EU, there is now a trend to change to the place-of-incorporation rule.

      Especially with respect to commercial transactions (e.g., contracts), modern conflicts law emphasizes flexibility. This quality is evident in Article 4 of the Rome Convention, which first established the general principle that the applicable law should be that to which the contract has the closest connection. Although the article provided some presumptions regarding what law that might be, it concluded by making it possible for the court to correct the result: if the court found that, exceptionally, another law was more closely connected to the contract or to one of its issues, then it should apply that law. The convention's successor, the Rome I Regulation, replaces the presumptions with specific rules for a number of contract types and retains the general reference to the most closely connected law for all other contracts (see below Choice of law (conflict of laws)).

Jurisdiction

      As stated above, the first question in an international case potentially involving conflict-of-laws problems is which court has jurisdiction to adjudicate the matter. Although the plaintiff decides where to sue, the courts in that location may not have jurisdiction, or they may have jurisdiction but be unwilling to exercise it, for reasons of forum non conveniens (Latin: “inconvenient forum”), as may happen in some common-law countries.

Rationale behind choice of jurisdiction

      There are several factors that affect the plaintiff's decision of where to file a case. One is convenience. For example, a plaintiff is likely to want to sue in a jurisdiction that is reasonably close to his home, particularly because witnesses and evidence may be more readily available there. Legal questions also are important. A plaintiff may be more likely to file suit in a jurisdiction that will afford him procedural and other advantages and where the defendant has assets with which to satisfy an ultimate judgment. Examples of likely procedural or substantive law advantages include the possibility of a jury determination of damages in a tort case, the availability of punitive damages, the ease of obtaining pretrial discovery of evidence (commonly used in the United States), the possibility of suing on only a part of one's claim to determine the likelihood of success before committing resources to a suit on the entire claim (a common practice in Germany), and advantageous exploitation of variations in liability standards.

      However, the place of suit is not entirely up to the plaintiff. The chosen court must have the power to entertain the case (jurisdiction to adjudicate). The jurisdictional grant will usually be defined by statute. In addition, the exercise of jurisdiction may also be limited (as a check on the statutory grant or on the judicial exercise of it) by constitutional provisions or pervasive principles of law. In the United States this is the function of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution (Constitution of the United States of America), which limits the exercise of the jurisdiction of state courts to protect defendants against unreasonable burdens. The Fifth Amendment similarly limits federal courts in asserting jurisdiction in cases not based on state law. In addition, in common-law countries, provisions of law or court decision making practice may limit the exercise of jurisdiction to adjudicate for any number of reasons, including the need to prevent local courts from becoming clogged with litigation with which they have no concern (e.g., litigation between foreigners concerning a claim that arose abroad), especially when it seems likely that the courts of the forum state were chosen only as a means of gaining procedural- or substantive-law advantages not available to the plaintiff in his home country's courts (so-called “forum shopping”). Especially in the United States, courts may consider themselves to be a forum non conveniens in these circumstances and dismiss the action. This occurred in Piper Aircraft v. Reyno, a suit filed in the United States on behalf of Scottish parties whose relatives were killed in an airplane crash. The flight originated in Scotland and was scheduled to end there, the aircraft was owned by a British entity, the pilot was Scottish, and all of the relatives were Scottish; only the defendants—the airplane manufacturer (Piper) and the propeller manufacturer—had a connection to the United States. Because the plaintiffs sought remedies that were not available—at least not to the extent desired—under Scottish law, they decided to bring suit in the United States, making this a clear case of forum shopping.

      American courts may dismiss for forum non conveniens when the exercise of jurisdiction would be unduly burdensome for the defendant. In many cases, dismissal protects the foreign defendant as much as it protects the local court from unfair burdens of foreign litigation. Courts likewise will not entertain actions concerning title to real property located in another country; while their judgment would bind the parties before them, the power to deal with the property itself (with effect as against all potential claimants) belongs solely to the country of location (situs).

      Civil-law countries generally do not dismiss actions for reasons of forum non conveniens. The European Court of Justice has held expressly that the allocation of jurisdiction by EU law (namely, the Brussels I Regulation) is binding on national courts. As an exception, the Brussels II Regulation permits dismissal or transfer for forum non conveniens reasons in child-custody cases. (See below Recognition and enforcement of judgments (conflict of laws).)

      Each country determines the jurisdiction of its courts to entertain a civil law suit. In federal countries or unitary systems with strong traditions of regional or provincial jurisdiction (e.g., the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Switzerland), it becomes necessary to have rules to determine in which jurisdiction a civil suit may be brought. In some countries (e.g., Germany and Austria) the central (national) law governs, while in others the constituent states may determine the jurisdiction of their courts themselves (e.g., the United States). Although state-court jurisdiction is a matter of state law in the United States, federal constitutional law, particularly the Fourteenth Amendment's due process, equal-protection (equal protection), and privileges-and-immunities clauses, limits the assertion of state-court jurisdiction.

      Most countries allow the parties to agree to the jurisdiction of a court. Consent may take the form of an express agreement in the initial business contract or at the time the dispute arises. Alternatively, consent may be the result of conduct. The plaintiff's consent appears from the filing of the action. The defendant's consent may be presumed when, rather than objecting to the court's jurisdiction, the defendant confesses judgment or appears and begins to litigate the controversy. Even when both parties consent to a court's jurisdiction, the court in a common-law country may still decline to hear the case—for example, when neither of the parties nor the controversy has a connection to the country in which the court is located. In most cases, however, a court's jurisdiction is not an issue unless and until the defendant objects to it.

Differences between civil-law and common-law countries in the absence of a choice by the parties

      Traditionally, civil-law and common-law countries have followed different approaches in determining which court has jurisdiction in a civil action when the parties have not agreed on or submitted to the forum. Civil-law countries start from the premise that there is one principal place where a suit can be filed: the domicile of an individual or the seat of legal persons such as a corporation (“general jurisdiction”). In addition to these general bases of jurisdiction, a suit ordinarily may be brought in the courts of the place to which the suit has a special connection—e.g., where a tort was committed or where its effects were felt, where the alleged breach of a contract occurred, or, if title to real property is involved, where the property is located (“specific jurisdiction”). Increasingly, countries have limited the exercise of jurisdiction (and have prohibited parties from varying these limitations by agreement) for the protection of weaker parties, such as employees and consumers. Such a pattern has emerged, for example, in the procedural law of the EU.

      Courts in common-law countries, particularly the United States, also assert jurisdiction on these bases but additionally will exercise jurisdiction simply on the basis of physical power over the person of the defendant. Thus, a court in the United States has jurisdiction over a defendant if he has been served with the documents commencing the suit in the territory of the state in which the court is located, even if he was there only temporarily or while in transit (“transient jurisdiction”). The United Kingdom and Ireland also exercise jurisdiction on this basis. U.S. law also provides for jurisdiction over a company when it has been connected in some ongoing way with the state, even if the particular dispute does not arise out of that connection. Thus, a court is authorized to assert jurisdiction when the defendant is “doing systematic and continuous business” within its state, even if the dispute arose elsewhere.

      Most countries provide some bases of jurisdiction for the benefit of local plaintiffs. French law, for example, grants jurisdiction if the plaintiff possesses French nationality, and German statutory law permits a local plaintiff to sue an absent defendant on the basis of any property the defendant may have in Germany, regardless of whether the litigation is related to the property or even to Germany in any other way (though modern German court decisions have given provision a more limited reach). Rules such as these, which favour plaintiffs (“transient jurisdiction” also falls into this category), are known as “exorbitant” rules of jurisdiction. Within the EU they have been abrogated in cases in which the defendant is habitually resident within the EU. However, EU member-states may retain exorbitant jurisdictional bases of national law in cases involving non-EU defendants. Internationally—i.e., beyond the EU—these rules, as well as the American “doing business” jurisdictional rule, are a source of considerable tension. The Hague Conference on Private International Law sought to formulate an international convention on jurisdiction and judgment recognition. The effort was abandoned when the differences proved too large to bridge. Instead, a much more limited convention on choice of court agreements was adopted in 2005 and proposed for adoption by member states and others.

      Both civil-law and common-law countries have special rules governing suits for in rem (Latin: “with respect to the thing”), which concern proprietary legal rights. Unlike actions for judgments in personam (Latin: “with respect to the person”), which concern personal legal rights and may seek money damages or injunctions to do or not to do an act, an in rem action seeks a judgment that produces effects of its own on a legal relationship. Examples include actions to quiet title to land, to foreclose a mortgage on land (by selling it), and to remove a party's interest that encumbers title to land. In common-law countries, family-status actions (e.g., divorce or the creation of an adoptive family-child relationship) have been likened to in rem actions; for example, in divorce proceedings, particularly in the United States, the domicile of each spouse localizes the status and permits the court at the domicile to assert divorce jurisdiction. At the same time, residence of varying length (from several weeks to several months) may take the place of—or may presumptively equal—domicile for divorce-jurisdiction purposes. In contrast, civil-law countries have not likened divorce jurisdiction to in rem proceedings. They provide for divorce, including the possibility of ex parte divorce (i.e., only the petitioner is before the court), on the basis of a close relationship to the forum state—e.g., residence of a specified length of time. Central to the continued divergence of these jurisdictional approaches is the applicable law: a court following an in rem approach to status matters will always apply its own law. In contrast, courts in civil-law countries treat the action as in personam and make a choice-of-law determination that focuses on personal connecting factors such as the nationality or marital residence of the parties. Because civil-law courts make choice-of-law decisions with reference to the particular parties and their case, jurisdictional standards can be more liberal in those countries than in common-law countries, where less-restrictive standards would lead to forum shopping.

Notification of parties

      Fundamental fairness requires that the defendant receive notice sufficient to afford him an opportunity to defend. In common-law countries this notice is effected by “service of process” on the defendant; similar procedures exist in civil-law countries. Service on the defendant in person is considered ideal; alternatively, “substituted service” (e.g., even by publication) is a last resort when the whereabouts of the defendant are unknown. International cases pose special problems. Countries often cooperate bilaterally, either on the basis of express agreements or as a matter of practice, in aiding each other's courts to effect service on the defendant. A very effective multilateral mechanism is the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, to which some 50 countries, including the United States, China, Russia, and all the EU states, are party. It provides for a “Central Authority” in each member state that receives service requests from other convention states and executes them according to its own national procedures.

Choice of law

      In its choice of the applicable law, the court that exercises jurisdiction determines which law to apply to a case that involves foreign parties, foreign transactions, or a number of foreign elements. In a simple world, the court would always apply its own law, the law of the forum (known in Latin as the lex fori). Indeed, some modern methodologies, particularly in the United States, favour the lex fori approach.

Historical development

      Classic theories of conflicts law were territorially oriented. The German jurist and legal scholar Friedrich Karl von Savigny (Savigny, Friedrich Karl von) (1779–1861) sought to identify the law where, “according to its nature,” the legal problem or relationship had its “seat.” Anglo-American law also sought the territorially applicable law because, in the view of the American legal scholar Joseph Beale (1861–1943), whose thoughts shaped much of American conflict-of-laws theory in the first half of the 20th century, that is where the rights and obligations of the parties “vested.” This vested-rights doctrine maintained that, once a right was created in one locale, its existence should be recognized everywhere. Classic theories of conflicts law used a number of connecting factors to determine the territorially applicable law. In matters of family law, Anglo-American law used the parties' domicile (narrowly defined). In civil-law countries, by contrast, a person's nationality was until recently the most important connecting factor. Because of the influence of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, however, the reference is now more commonly to the law of a person's “habitual residence” (as it is in the law of jurisdiction).

      For torts, American law traditionally looked to the law of the place of injury, whereas European law referred either to it or to the law of the place where the wrongful conduct had occurred. Some European systems referred to the law of either of these places; this was, and continues to be, the plaintiff-favouring choice-of-law rule in Germany. For contracts, most legal systems looked to the place of performance for breach but stipulated that the place of formation was a more important connecting factor for questions of validity. These examples illustrate that rather well-defined connecting factors can identify the applicable law in a predictable manner, subject to exceptions in certain difficult cases.

      Despite, or perhaps because of, their predictable results, these rules at times failed to serve the interests of justice: they were inflexible, and they did not prevent important aspects of a particular case from being overlooked. Such problems could have occurred in cases involving the fortuitous commission abroad of a tort involving parties with a common domicile in the forum or in another state (where the long-term effects of the tort would be felt) or the conclusion of a contract in an unrelated state (for example, at a trade fair) between two or more parties, all of whom conducted business in a common (but different) state. In both examples, the common (“home”) law of the parties might serve the parties' interests—and those of society—better than the mechanical application of traditional tort or contract choice-of-law rules. Consequently, courts and parties resorted to so-called “escape devices” that yielded better, more appropriate results. Among these is the recharacterization of a set of facts—e.g., the recasting of a question of contract as a tort or a tort question as one of family law. For example, what law governs the question of whether spouses have the capacity to sue each other or whether they have immunity? In a personal-injury case, is this a question of tort law (i.e., the law of the place of injury) or family law (law of the state of the marital domicile)? If the two laws differ, the characterization of the issue may produce different outcomes. The escape from rigid rules by means of recharacterization resulted in a period of considerable uncertainty, especially in the United States.

Contemporary developments

      New approaches to choice of law, starting with the governmental-interest analysis developed by the American legal scholar Brainerd Currie, began to emerge in the 1950s. Currie's approach sought to determine whether a “true” or “false” conflict exists between the law of the forum state and that of the other involved state. A false conflict exists if the laws of both states do not differ; if, though ostensibly different, both laws are designed to effectuate the same policy; or if one law is construed to be inapplicable to cases such as the one before the court. If by these guidelines the other state is determined not to have an interest, a false conflict exists, thus making the local law of the forum the applicable choice of law.

      In cases of “true conflict”—i.e., in cases in which both the forum's law and another law claim applicability—Currie called for the application of forum law. He rejected any evaluation or weighing of the competing state interests, considering this to be a legislative, not a judicial, function. Contemporary applications of interest analysis do undertake to weigh the relative interest; an example is California's “comparative impairment” approach. Overall, governmental-interest analysis has had a significant influence on modern American conflicts law.

      Another approach, known as the better-law approach, attempts to determine which of two potentially applicable laws is better as a solution to the problem at hand. Not surprisingly, both the governmental-interest and the better-law approaches tend to apply the lex fori, either because the other law is deemed to be inapplicable (i.e., the other state is disinterested, or there is a so-called “false conflict”) in view of the forum's determination that it has the greater interest in having its law applied or because forum law, according to the better-law approach, is deemed to be better. American case law employing these approaches has tended to display a “homeward trend”—i.e., one that favours the home forum.

Applications in the United States

      The American Law Institute (ALI), a private association of lawyers, judges, and law professors, drafts so-called “restatements” of specific areas of the law. Bearing some resemblance to European codes in their form and structure, the ALI's restatements synthesize all U.S. state case laws on a particular subject, such as tort, agency, or contracts. As the laws change, the ALI publishes new restatements. Although the material presented in them is not law, many ALI restatements have proven so reliable that courts have been known to cite the restatement instead of case law precedents. This has occurred, for example, with the restatements of contract and of tort law.

      The Restatement of the Law, Second: Conflict of Laws (1971– ) not only updated its predecessor document (which was promulgated in 1934 and reflected a bias toward vested-rights thinking) but took a forward-looking stance by presenting recommended approaches, particularly for tort and contract conflict-of-laws cases. Drawing upon all of the approaches that had been the subject of academic discourse over the preceding quarter century, it called for the applicable law to be the law of the place where the “most significant relationship” between the transaction (in contract) or occurrence (in tort) and the parties is located. Furthermore, the Restatement (Second) provides a number of connecting factors (“contacts”) to determine the place of the most significant relationship, such as the place of the tort, the domicile of the parties, and so forth. These contacts are to be evaluated in light of the “general principles” of section 6 of the Restatement (Second). They include party expectations, societal interests—including the policies underlying particular rules of law—ease in the administration of justice, and fairness, among others. This approach, which some earlier contract cases had called the search for the contract's “centre of gravity,” has been very influential in the United States.

      Nevertheless, several of its features can make its application somewhat uncertain. For example, because the criteria provided by the Restatement (Second) are not ranked in order of priority, different courts may assign different priorities, thereby contributing to different (divergent) results. The Restatement (Second) also provides expressly that the choice-of-law determination be made for each issue of the case; as a result, different laws may apply to different issues of a case (a situation known as dépeçage [French: “break into smaller pieces”]). This “splitting” of a case into its various component issues may promote just solutions for difficult international cases, but the practice significantly increases the burden on courts and on the involved parties. In addition, it diminishes the decision's value as a precedent for later cases, even if they differ only slightly. Finally, the general principles of the Restatement's section 6 accommodate all doctrinal schools—from interest analysis to the better-law approach—thus giving courts substantial leeway. Predictability thus depends on the development of a consistent body of case law, yet its orientation may differ from state to state.

Applications in EU member countries

      European choice-of-law methodology has undergone similar changes, both in the law of individual European states and within the EU—in the latter first as a result of the Rome Convention and more recently as the result of EU legislation. In tort the EU's Rome II Regulation contains specific rules for a few torts but in general calls for the application of the law of the place of injury, with exceptions in favour of the law of the parties' common habitual residence and, as an alternative, of a more closely connected law. In contract the Rome I Regulation also provides specific choice-of-law rules for a number of contract types—for example, seller's law for contracts for the sale of goods in the absence of a contrary party stipulation. In so doing, it translates the preceding Rome Convention's reference to the law of the party rendering the “characteristic performance” (e.g., selling the goods, providing the service) into concrete rules. The Rome Convention's underlying policy—application of the most closely connected law—becomes the default rule when no specific rule applies. The Rome I Regulation also provides special rules for consumer, insurance, and employment contracts.

Applications in other countries

      In many countries around the world, including many that are civil-law oriented, recent legislation similarly has made the determination of the applicable law more flexible. Many codifications, such as in eastern Europe outside the EU, or legislative projects, such as in China, no longer make reference to a single governing law in tort but also give weight to such alternatives as the parties' common domicile and other relevant factors.

Other considerations

      Differences between the conflicts law of different countries may raise additional choice-of-law questions, such as those pertaining to the renvoi (French: “send back”) principle. If the foreign law, to which the forum's conflicts rule refers, contains a conflicts rule that refers back to the law of the forum, will the latter accept the reference and apply its own law? Similarly, if the foreign law contains a conflicts rule that refers to the law of a third country, will the forum follow that reference? The underlying question hinges on whether the forum's reference to foreign law includes that law's conflicts rules in the first place. Many legal systems answer the question in the affirmative and thereby resolve the two questions posed in the foregoing. But not all conflicts systems utilize renvoi (most American courts do not), and even those legal systems that do use it or have used it in the past exclude renvoi. This is now the case in EU conflicts law with respect to tort and contract cases.

      On procedural issues, a court will always apply its own law. There is no agreement, however, on which issues are procedural and which are substantive. Time limitations (statutes of limitations (limitations, statute of)), for example, are considered substantive in civil-law countries but procedural in certain other countries and in many states of the United States.

Recognition and enforcement of judgments (judgment)

      Judgments are sovereign acts that have no force beyond the jurisdiction of the court that renders them. Thus, if assets for satisfying a judgment in favour of a creditor are unavailable locally, recognition and enforcement of the judgment will need to be sought in a state in which the debtor does hold assets. Within the United States, recognition and enforcement of sister-state judgments are mandated by the full faith and credit clause of the federal Constitution and are facilitated procedurally in many states by uniform state laws. For EU member-states the Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (1968) and its successor, the Council Regulation on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (2000; Brussels I), perform a similar function by mandating the automatic recognition and enforcement of EU member-state civil and commercial judgments in all other member states, subject only to few exceptions. Another EU regulation, the Council Regulation concerning Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Matrimonial Matters and the Matters of Parental Responsibility (2003; the Brussels II Regulation), does much the same for divorce and custody decrees.

      Internationally, the recognition of a judgment is a matter of national law, although it is sometimes dealt with in bilateral or multilateral treaties (except in the United States, which is not party to any judgments-recognition treaty). National legal systems will ordinarily recognize a judgment rendered in a foreign country (sometimes on the condition of reciprocity), provided that the rendering court had jurisdiction (as measured by the standards of the recognizing court), that the judgment debtor had received notice sufficient to enable him to defend, and that the foreign judgment does not offend the public policy of the recognizing state. Most systems do not allow a review of the foreign judgment on the merits (a so-called révision au fond [French: “review of the background”]). However, when a court rejects a foreign judgment on the basis of public policy, it will necessarily have considered substantive or procedural aspects of foreign law and, because of its disapproval of them, refuse to accept the outcome of the case. A German court, for example, will refuse to recognize an American punitive damage judgment because, according to the German view, punitive damages exceed the purview of tort law, which seeks compensation but not punishment. Similarly, an American court may refuse to recognize an English judgment for damages because English substantive and procedural law (e.g., the burden of proof in defamation) violates U.S. constitutional-law principles.

      In composite jurisdictional systems such as those of the United States and the EU, where a central norm establishes jurisdictional limits for the constituent units, alleged jurisdictional defects must be raised directly (on appeal within the particular constituent unit's system) when both parties are before the court. They cannot be raised collaterally—i.e., as a defense against recognition of the judgment in another constituent unit. The effect of the first court's judgment (and of issues necessarily bound up with it) on the immediate parties, when not appealed or when affirmed on appeal, becomes res judicata (Latin: “the matter is adjudicated” or “a thing adjudged”) and is not open for reexamination in a second forum (nor in the original forum after a period fixed by the statute of limitations (limitations, statute of) has expired). The scope of a judgment's res judicata effect (the recognition of a judgment as a bar to the initiation of a new suit all over again) is ordinarily that which attaches under the law of the rendering state. Exceptions may apply when the judgment is rendered by default (i.e., the defendant is not before the rendering court), when certain effects are unknown in the law of the recognizing country, or perhaps also when a judgment goes beyond the res judicata effect that the latter's law would accord.

International criminal law

      Criminal law is part of public law and is not subject to the individual's disposition (in the way that parties can choose the applicable law by contract in their private transactions), its sphere of application is determined by public international law, which defines the reach of state sovereignty. Prosecution and court proceedings are almost never governed by foreign laws. The most important issue is therefore whether a state's authorities may commence criminal proceedings in cases involving foreign persons or elements.

      According to the generally recognized principle of territoriality, the country where the offense was committed is competent to investigate and adjudicate it, because that country's authorities are responsible for preserving law and order in its territory. Territoriality may be modified in two ways. First, countries may claim jurisdiction over offenses committed by their citizens abroad. Second, public international law recognizes the jurisdiction of all countries over certain universal crimes, including genocide and piracy. A number of bilateral and multilateral conventions facilitate the obtaining of evidence, provide legal aid, or ensure the extradition of offenders. In the EU the Europol Convention provides for judicial and police cooperation in criminal matters. See also international criminal law.

Max Rheinstein Ulrich M. Drobnig Peter Hay

Additional Reading

The literature on individual national legal systems is too vast to list exhaustively. Some standard works that include comparative treatments are, for the United Kingdom, Dicey, Morris, and Collins on the Conflict of Laws, 14th ed., edited by Lawrence Collins et al. (2000); for France, Henri Batiffol and Paul Lagarde, Traité de droit international privé, 8th ed., vol. 1 (1993); for Germany, Gerhard Kegel and Klaus Schurig, Internationales Privatrecht, 9th rev. ed. (2004); and Christian von Bar, Internationales Privatrecht, 2 vol. (1987–91), with a 2nd ed. of vol. 1 coauthored with Peter Mankowski (2003); and, for the United States, Eugene F. Scoles et al., Conflict of Laws, 4th ed. (2004). Clarifications of American conflict of laws are provided in Russell J. Weintraub, Commentary on the Conflict of Laws, 5th ed. (2006), with annual supplements; and Symeon Symeonides, The American Choice-of-Law Revolution in the Courts: Today and Tomorrow (2003). A comprehensive treatment of classic conflicts law, still valuable for its rich historical sources, is Ernst Rabel, The Conflict of Laws: A Comparative Study, 4 vol. (1945–58). A more contemporary overview is in Friedrich K. Juenger, Choice of Law and Multistate Justice (1993, reissued 2005).Peter Hay

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