In 1956, ICJ judge Philip Jessup highlighted the gaps between private and public international law and the need to adapt the law to border-crossing problems. Today, sixty years later, we still ask what role transnational law can play in a deeply divided, post-colonial world, where multinationals hold more power and more assets than many nation states. In searching for suitable answers to pressing legal problems such as climate change law, security, poverty and inequality, questions of representation, enforcement, accountability and legitimacy become newly entangled. As public and private, domestic and international actors compete for regulatory authority, spaces for political legitimacy have become fragmented and the state's exclusivist claim to be law's harbinger and place of origin under attack. Against this background, transnational law emerges as a conceptual framework and method laboratory for a critical reflection on the forms, fora and processes of law making and law contestation today.

"This book examines the divorce aspects of the Brussels II bis Regulation (Regulation 2201/2003). It gives detailed consideration to the new jurisdictional rules and to the likely interpretation of the core jurisdictional concept of 'habitual residence'. The scope of the Regulation is analyzed, and particular attention is given to its possible application to civil partnerships and same-sex marriages. The book also analyzes the Regulation's impact on ancillary relief matters and its interaction with related measures of Community and national law in that context. The new recognition procedures are considered in detail, as are the defences to recognition, and the wider consequences of automatic recognition are assessed. The book provides in-depth coverage of relevant case-law of the national and Community courts, and particular attention is given to the likely impact of the cases decided under the 1968 Brussels Convention and under Regulation 44/2001 (including the Owusu case)"--

This book provides an unprecedented analysis and appraisal of party autonomy in private international law - the power of private parties to enter into agreements as to the forum in which their disputes will be resolved or the law which governs their legal relationships. It includes a detailed exploration of the historical origins of party autonomy as well as its various theoretical justifications, and an in-depth comparative study of the rules governing party autonomy in the European Union, the United States, common law systems, and in international codifications. It examines both choice of forum and choice of law, including arbitration agreements and choice of non-state law, and both contractual and non-contractual legal relations. This analysis demonstrates that while an apparent consensus around the core principle of party autonomy has emerged, its coherence as a doctrine is open to question as there remains significant variation in practice across its various facets and between legal systems.

International investment law has become increasingly prominent in the international legal order, spurred on by the explosion of Bilateral Investment Treaties between States and a sharp rise in international investment disputes. This rise to prominence has however not always been matched by academic reflection on the content of procedure of international investment law and its role within general international law. This volume seeks to remedy this situation by providing careful analysis of every area of international investment law and its relationship with other legal fields.
It is written in honor of one of the leading experts in the field of investment arbitration, Christoph Schreuer. The book explores specific and topical problems of international investment law and practice in a focused way. It also provides a forum for broader theoretical reflections on international investment law and its relation to general international law. The book includes chapters on jurisdictional questions, issues of procedure in investment proceedings, the relationship between investment arbitration and other forms of investment protection, problems of substantive investment law, regional aspects, interfaces between investment law and other areas of law as well as the future of the law of investment protection. Featuring contributions by many of the most prominent scholars and practitioners of investment arbitration, this work should become an indispensable tool for practitioners and academics working in the field.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is acknowledged as a landmark in the development of children's rights. Article 3 makes the child's best interests a primary consideration in all actions concerning children and requires States Parties to ensure their care and protection. This volume, written by experts in children's rights from a range of jurisdictions, explores the implementation of Article 3 around the world. It opens with a contextual analysis of Article 3, before offering a critique of its implementation in various settings, including parenting, religion, domestic violence and baby switching. Amongst the themes that emerge are the challenges posed by the content of 'best interests', 'welfare' and 'well-being'; the priority to be accorded them; and the legal, socioeconomic and other obstacles to legislating for children's rights. This book is essential for all readers who interact with one of the Convention's most fundamental principles.

The United States and Canada are salt water neighbors on the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans. Despite the general closeness of the political, economic and social relationship, the two States have approached their offshore areas from different perspectives. Canada has long supported expansion of exclusive national control over its adjacent offshore; whereas the United States has been concerned with the balance between national authority and international navigation rights. Canada has tended to view maritime disputes with the United States as local matters; whereas the United States has tended to see the disputes with Canada in global terms.
Against this background, Salt Water Neighbor's examines both the international ocean law disagreements that exist between the United States and Canada respecting maritime boundaries, fisheries and navigation rights (e.g., the Northwest Passage) and the numerous cooperative bilateral arrangements that have prevented these disputes from being significant causes of friction between the neighbors. There has not been a comprehensive book-length study of United States-Canada international ocean relations since the early 1970s. Much has changed in the last 30 years. Most importantly, the law and the nature of the disputes between the two States have changed as a result of the adoption of 200 nautical mile zones in the late 1970s.

Until relatively recently, almost all contracts were domestic: both the consumer and the supplier were from the same country and the situation involved no substantial foreign elements. Technological changes (in terms of international travel, means of communication and information technology) have meant that it is a more frequent occurrence for consumer contracts to involve a cross-border dimension.
This book explores the legal regimes which seek to deal with disputes which arise out of such cross-border consumer contracts. In terms of private international law, English law traditionally treated consumer contracts no differently from commercial contracts. However, at European level, jurisdictional and choice of law issues arising out of certain consumer contracts are subject to specific rules. The first part of the book focuses on these European developments and seeks to explain why the private litigation model for the resolution of disputes arising out of cross-border consumer contracts has failed to deal adequately with the problems generated by such contracts. Subsequent to these failures, alternative mechanisms for resolving contractual disputes have a particular significance in the consumer context. The second part of the book focuses on an evaluation of these alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, including online dispute resolution.

This collection explores some of the many ways in which constitutional orders engage with, and are shaped by, their exteriors. Constitutional and legal theory often marginalize 'foreign' elements, such as norms originating in other legal systems, the movement of individuals across borders, or the application of domestic law to foreign affairs. In The Double-Facing Constitution, these instances of boundary crossing lie at the heart of an alternative understanding of constitutions as permeable membranes, through which norms can and sometimes must travel. Constitutional orders are facing both inwards and outwards - and the outside world influences their interiors just as much as their internal orders help shape their surroundings. Different essays discuss the theoretical and historical foundations of this view (grounded in Kelsen, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and others), and its contemporary relevance for areas as diverse as migration law, the conflict of laws, and foreign relations law.

In this book, the author analyses the law and practice relating to the classification, drafting, validity and enforcement of contracts relating to jurisdiction and choice of law. The focus is on English law, EU law and common law measures, but there is also some comparative material built in. The book will be useful in particular to practising lawyers seeking to draft, interpret or enforce the types of contract discussed, but the in-depth discussion will also be valuable to academic lawyers specialising in private international law. Written by an academic who is also a practising barrister, this book gives in-depth coverage of how the instruments and principles of private international law can be used for the resolution of cross-border or multi-jurisdictional disputes. It examines the operation and application of the Brussels Regulation, the Rome Convention and the Hague Convention on Exclusive Choice of Court Agreements in such disputes, but also discusses the judgments and decisions of the courts in significant cases such as Turner v Grovit, Union Discount v Zoller, and De Wolf v Cox. Much of the book is given over to practical evaluation of how agreements on jurisdiction and choice of law should be put together, with guidance on, amongst other things, drafting of the agreements (including some sample clauses), severability of agreements, consent, and the resolution of disputes by arbitration.

The Study Group on a European Civil Code has taken upon itself the task of drafting common European principles for the most important aspects of the law of obligations and for certain parts of the law of property in movables which are especially relevant for the functioning of the common market. Like the Commission on European Contract Law's Principles of European Contract Law, the results of the research conducted by the Study Group on a European Civil Code seek to advance the process of Europeanisation of private law. Among other topics the series tackles sales and service contracts, distribution contracts and security rights, renting contracts and loan agreements, negotiorum gestio, delicts and unjustified enrichment law, transfer of property, and trust law. The principles furnish each of the national jurisdictions a grid reference. They can be agreed upon by the parties within the framework of the rules of private international law. They may provide a stimulus to both the national and European legislator for moulding private law. Beyond this, they aim to further discussion about the creation of a European Civil Code, or a Common Frame of Reference in the area of patrimonial law, by submitting a concrete model. The Principles of European Law are published in co-operation with Bruylant (Belgium), Sellier. European Law Publishers (Germany) and Staempfli Publishers Ltd. (Switzerland).

This set deals with the problems generated by those cases of insolvency (either of an individual or of a company) where the presence of contacts with more than one system of law brings into operation the principles and methods of private international law (also known as conflict of laws).
Part I of the main work is mainly devoted to an examination of the body of rules and practice that has evolved in England during the course of the past two-and-a-half centuries, and surveys the current state of the law derived from a blend of statutory and case authorities. Contrasting approaches under a selection of foreign systems -- principally Australia, Canada, France and the USA -- are examined by way of comparison. There are up-to-date accounts of the circumstances under which insolvency proceedings can be opened in respect of debtors which are not primarily based in England, and of the grounds on which English courts will recognize foreign insolvency proceedings and give assistance to the foreign representative of the debtor's estate.
Part II of the main work explores the progress towards the creation of international arrangements to co-ordinate and rationalize the conduct of insolvency proceedings which have cross-border features, particularly where the debtor is capable of being subjected to concurrent proceedings in two or more jurisdictions. Central to the developments described in detail in this Part are the EC Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings and the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency.
This set includes the supplement to the second edition, which covers key developments in case law and legislation in the subject up to October 2006, and is an essential purchasefor all who have already bought the main work. It includes the full text of the Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006, along with commentary on the regulations. The supplement also includes the text of Council Regulation 694/2006, amending EC Regulation 1346/2000 on insolvency proceedings, and references to key developments in case law, including Eurofood IFSC Ltd, Daisytek ISA, and Cambridge Gas Transport Corp v Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Navigator Holdings plc. The commentary on case developments links back to the relevant paragraph in the main work.
New to this Edition:
New supplement updating the second edition with commentary on recent developments, to October 2006
Major recasting of chapter 6 (formerly dealing with the (by then) dormant EC Convention on Insolvency Proceedings) now giving an account of the EC Regulation on Insolvency Proceedings, in force since 31 May 02
Adjustments throughout the book to explain the impact of the Regulation on other aspects of law and practice
Full account is taken of statutory and case law developments since 1998
There is a new chapter assessing other international developments since 1998 including the ALI Transnational Insolvency Project; the World Bank Principles and Guidelines; and the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law (completed 2004)

During the past several years, there have been an unprecedented number of insolvencies and restructurings of multinational corporations, both inside and outside of traditional bankruptcy proceedings. The Law of International Insolvencies and Debt Restructurings is the first treatise to analyze the newly created doctrines of law and procedure that have developed as insolvencies and restructurings have become increasingly international in character and now frequently involve the laws of numerous jurisdictions.
Leading attorneys address developments in bankruptcy and insolvency laws in the countries that have become the focal points for legal proceedings, including the United States, Mexico, England, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Japan, and Canada.
Essential topics in the law of international restructuring and insolvency are also explored in depth, including national legislation and procedures, treaties and cooperation agreements, sovereign debt litigation, and inter-creditor relationships.
Coverage includes:
Methods of restructuring multinational corporate and sovereign debt
Judicial bankruptcy proceedings
Rights of creditors
Jurisdiction and venue
European Council Regulations
Choice of Law
Dispute resolution
Access by foreign parties to U.S. bankruptcy courts

The taking of private property for development projects has caused controversy in many nations, where it has often been used to benefit powerful interests at the expense of the general public. This edited collection is the first to use a common framework to analyze the law and economics of eminent domain around the world. The authors show that seemingly disparate nations face a common set of problems in seeking to regulate the condemnation of private property by the state. They include the tendency to forcibly displace the poor and politically weak for the benefit of those with greater influence, disputes over compensation, and resort to condemnation in cases where it destroys more economic value than it creates. With contributions from leading scholars in the fields of property law and economics, the book offers a comparative perspective and considers a wide range of possible solutions to these problems.

This book provides a detailed and up-to-date exposition of English and Scottish rules of choice of law in inter vivos transfers of property. It traces the development of the lex situs rule, and its application to inter vivos dealings with immovable property, tangible movable property (including the special case of cultural property), and intangible movable property (including indirectly held securities). The author offers two alternative models of suggested choice of law rules in property, introducing a greater degree of flexibility into choice of law rules in property, and formulates even-handed solutions to the complex problems of space, time and policy which arise in this area of the conflict of laws.

Arbitration is the dispute resolution method of choice in international commerce, but it rests on a complex legal foundation. In many international commercial contracts, the parties will choose the law governing any future disputes. However, where the parties do not choose a governing law, the prevailing approach in arbitration is to afford arbitrators broad and largely unfettered discretion to choose the law considered most appropriate or most applicable. The uncertainty resulting from this discretion potentially affects the parties' rights and obligations, the performance of their contract, the presentation of their cases, and negotiations undertaken to settle their disputes. In this text, Dr Benjamin Hayward critically reviews the prevailing approach to the conflict of laws in international commercial arbitration. The text adopts a focused and detail-oriented analysis - being based on a study of more than 130 sets of arbitral laws and rules from around the world, and drawing heavily on arbitral case law. Nevertheless, it remains both practical and accessible, taking as its focus the needs and expectations of commercial parties, who are the ultimate users of international commercial arbitration. This text identifies the difficulties that result from resolving conflicts of laws through broad and unconstrained arbitral discretions. It establishes that a bright-line test would be a preferable way to resolve arbitral conflicts of laws. Specifically, it recommends a modified Art. 4 Rome Convention rule as the ideal basis for law reform in this area of arbitral procedure.

It is an unfortunate feature of the common law conflicts landscape that, for all its sophistication, the relationship between the equitable principles of the forum and the forum's choice of law process remains unclear. This book examines this relationship from the perspective of English law, taking account of the impact of European law. What law applies when litigants invoke the principles of equity of the forum or analogous doctrines in foreign law? This book suggests that there is nothing inherent in the invocation of the forum's equitable jurisdiction or in the nature of equitable discourse that renders the application of the forum's equitable principles inevitable. It then considers whether a different methodology should be adopted for equitable doctrines, and concludes that this should not be the case. Thus, unless the issue involves the application of fundamental public policy, mandatory forum laws or the procedure of the forum, equitable doctrines of any country should be subject to the same choice of law analysis like other principles of substantive law. The book then analyses equitable doctrines within the traditional choice of law categories of property, contracts, torts and restitution in three steps: first, many equitable doctrines may be regarded as substantive and not procedural; secondly, property and obligations issues raised by equitable doctrines may be segregated; and thirdly, by considering the functions of the respective doctrines, equitable obligations may be analysed as contractual (or based on agreement), tortious (or based on wrongs) or restitutionary (or based on unjust enrichment).

Each generation of lawyers in common law systems faces an important question: what is the nature of equity as developed in English law and inherited by other common law jurisdictions? While some traditional explanations of equity remain useful - including the understanding of equity as a system that qualifies the legal rights people ordinarily have under judge-made law and under legislation - other common explanations are unhelpful or misleading. This volume considers a distinct and little noticed view of equity. By examining the ways in which courts of equity have addressed a range of practical problems regarding the administration of deliberately created schemes for the management of others' affairs, modern equity can be seen to have a strongly facilitative character. The extent and limits on this characterisation of equity are explored in chapters covering equity's attitude to administration in various public and private settings in common law systems.

Put together as a festschrift for Sir Peter North, one of the world's leading private international lawyers, this book is also a valuable contribution in its own right to the field of reform and development of private international law. The contributors, who are drawn from around the world, are all acknowledged experts of international standing and reputation. Many have been involved in recent attempts to reform this area of the law and provide a unique insight into this process.

This book provides a comprehensive and comparative examination of private international law in Commonwealth Africa. It offers an unrivalled breadth of coverage in its examination of the law in Botswana, the Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The book is clearly and logically structured - it is organised around broad themes or issues, with country reports and accompanied by detailed commentaries. Drawing on nearly 1500 cases decided by courts in these countries and numerous national statutes, this book covers the four cornerstones of private international law: jurisdiction, choice of law, foreign judgements and arbitral awards enforcement, and international civil procedure. The author also provides an extensive bibliography of the literature on African private international law. Scholars and practitioners alike will find Private International Law in Commonwealth Africa invaluable and illuminating.

Global Securities Litigation and Enforcement provides a clear and exhaustive description of the national regime for the enforcement of securities legislation in cases of misrepresentation on financial markets. It covers 29 jurisdictions worldwide, some of them are important although their law is not well known. It will be an invaluable resource for academics and students of securities litigation, as well as for lawyers, policy-makers and regulators. The book also provides a comprehensive contribution debate on whether public or private enforcement is preferable in terms of development of securities markets. It will appeal to those interested in the legal origins theory and in comparative securities law, and shows that the classification of jurisdictions within legal families does not explain the differences in legal regimes. While US securities law often serves as a model for international convergence, some of its elements, such as securities class actions, have not been adopted worldwide.

Codifying Choice of Law Around the World chronicles, documents, and celebrates the extraordinary, massive country-by-country codification of Private International Law (PrIL) or Conflict of Laws that has taken place in the last 50 years from 1962-2012. During this period, the world has witnessed the adoption of nearly 200 PrIL codifications, EU Regulations, and international conventions--more than in all preceding years since the inception of PrIL. This book provides a horizontal comparison and discussion of these codifications and conventions, firstly by comparing the way they resolve tort and contract conflicts, and then by comparing the answers of these codifications to the fundamental philosophical and methodological dilemmas of PrIL. In the process, this book re-examines and dispels certain widely held assumptions about choice of law, and the art and science of codification in general. Written by Symeon C. Symeonides, a renowned PrIL and comparative law expert with extensive first-hand experience in drafting codifications and advising other drafters, Codifying Choice of Law Around the World will serve as an indispensable point of reference for any serious study or discussion of PrIL and comparative law.

Conflicts in a Conflict outlines and analyzes the legal doctrines instructing the Israeli courts in private and civil disputes involving the Occupied Palestinian Territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, since 1967 until the present day. In doing so, author, Michael Karayanni sheds light on a whole sphere of legal designs and norms that have not received any thorough scholarly attention, as most of the writings thus far have been on issues pertaining to international law, human rights, history, and politics. For the most part, Israeli courts turned to conflict of laws, or private international law to address private disputes implicating the Palestinian Territories. After making a thorough investigation into the jurisdictional designs of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, both before and after the Oslo Peace Accords, Conflicts in a Conflict comes to focus on traditional topics such as adjudicative jurisdiction, choice of law, and recognitions and enforcement of judgments. Related issues such as the foreign sovereign immunity claim of the Palestinian Authority before Israeli courts as well as the extent to which Palestinian plaintiffs were granted access to justice rights, are also outlined and analyzed.
This book's compelling thesis is the existence of a close relationship between conflict of laws doctrines as they developed over the years and Israeli policies generally in respect of the Palestinian Territories. This study of the conflict of laws in a war setting and conflict of laws in a jurisdictionally ambiguous location, will greatly serve scholars and practitioners in similarly troubled and complex legal situations elsewhere.

This book emanates from a duo-colloquium which explored the Europeanisation of private law in the context of efforts to consolidate the consumer acquis, the Draft Common Frame of Reference, the appointment of an Expert Group on a Common Frame of Reference in the area of European contract law, the passage of the Consumer Rights Directive and the proposed Common European Sales Law. This book, with fully updated contributions, critically reflects on whether the process of Europeanisation, which has shaped private law in the EU Member States, has now reached a significant turning point in its development, a point of punctuated equilibrium. Written by a team of leading authors, the topics covered will be of concern in all European legal systems and beyond.