Providing a unique and clearly structured tool, this book presents an authoritative collection of carefully selected global case studies. Some of these are considered global due to their internationally relevant subject matter, whilst others demonstrate the blurring of traditional legal categories in an age of accelerated cross-border movement. The study of the selected cases in their political, cultural, social and economic contexts sheds light on the contemporary transformation of law through its encounter with conflicting forms of normativity and the multiplication of potential fora.

Contemporary debates about the changing nature of law engage theories of legal pluralism, political economy, social systems, international relations (or regime theory), global constitutionalism, and public international law. Such debates reveal a variety of emerging responses to distributional issues which arise beyond the Western welfare state and new conceptions of private transnational authority. However, private international law tends to stand aloof, claiming process-based neutrality or the apolitical nature of private law technique and refusing to recognize frontiers beyond than those of the nation-state. As a result, the discipline is paradoxically ill-equipped to deal with the most significant cross-border legal difficulties - from immigration to private financial regulation - which might have been expected to fall within its remit. Contributing little to the governance of transnational non-state power, it is largely complicit in its unhampered expansion. This is all the more a paradox given that the new thinking from other fields which seek to fill the void - theories of legal pluralism, peer networks, transnational substantive rules, privatized dispute resolution, and regime collision - have long been part of the daily fare of the conflict of laws. The crucial issue now is whether private international law can, or indeed should, survive as a discipline. This volume lays the foundations for a critical approach to private international law in the global era. While the governance of global issues such as health, climate, and finance clearly implicates the law, and particularly international law, its private law dimension is generally invisible. This book develops the idea that the liberal divide between public and private international law has enabled the unregulated expansion of transnational private power in these various fields. It explores the potential of private international law to reassert a significant governance function in respect of new forms of authority beyond the state. To do so, it must shed a number of assumptions entrenched in the culture of the nation-state, but this will permit the discipline to expand its potential to confront major issues in global governance.

Is Private International Law (PIL) still fit to serve its function in today’s global environment? In light of some calls for radical changes to its very foundations, this timely book investigates the ability of PIL to handle contemporary and international problems, and inspires genuine debate on the future of the field.

Horatia Muir Watt and Diego P. Fernández-Arroyo: Introduction: The Relevance of Private International Law to the Global Governance Debate Part I: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: THE PRIVATE MODEL AND ITS DISCONTENTS Section A. Epistemological Challenge: The Meaning of 'Private' in Private International Law 1: Geoffrey Samuel: Comparative Law as Resistance 2: Robert Wai: Private v Private: Transnational Private Law and Contestation in Global Economic Governance 3: Ralf Michaels: Post-critical Private International Law: From Politics to Technique Section B. Political Critique: Privatization as Homogenization 4: Tomaso Ferrando: Global Land Grabbing: A Tale of Three Legal Homogenizations 5: Veronica Corcodel: Governance Implications of Comparative Legal Thinking: On Henry Maine's Jurisprudence and British Imperialism Section C. Searching for Legitimacy: Questions of Design 6: Diego P. Fernández-Arroyo: Private Adjudication Without Precedent? 7: Gilles Cuniberti: The Merchant Who Would Not Be King: Unreasoned Fears about Private Lawmaking 8: Yannick Radi: Balancing the Public and the Private in International Investment Law PART II: BEYOND THE SCHISM: EMERGING MODELS AND WORLDVIEWS Section A. The Global Turn to Informality: Pragmatism and Constructivism 9: Benoit Frydman: A Pragmatic Approach To Global Law 10: Harm Schepel: Rules of Recognition: A Legal Constructivist Approach to Transnational Private Regulation 11: Michael Karayanni: The Extraterritorial Application of Access to Justice Rights: On the Availability of Israeli Courts to Palestinian Plaintiffs Section B. Re-importing Public Law Methodology: Federalism and Constitutionalism 12: Alex Mills: Variable Geometry, Peer Governance, and the Public International Perspective on Private International Law 13: Jacco Bomhoff: The Constitution of the Conflict of Laws 14: Jérémy Heymann: Importing Proportionality to the Conflict of Laws Section C. Reinventing a Global Horizon: Working towards a Global Public Good 15: Bram van der Eem: Financial Stability and Private International Law 16: Ivana Isailovic: Recognition(and Mis-recognition) in Private International Law 17: Sabine Corneloup: Can Private International Law Contribute to Global Migration Governance? Horatia Muir Watt: Paradigm Change in Private International Law: Renewal, Circularity, or Decline?

This book provides a substantial overview of the discipline of private international law viewed from a global perspective. The guide is divided into 4 key sections. Theory Institutional and Conceptual Framework Issues Civil and Commercial Law (apart from Family Law) Family Law Each chapter is written by a leading expert(s). The chapters address specific areas/aspects of private international law and consider the existing global solutions and the possibilities of improving/creating them. Where appropriate, the chapters are co-authored by experts from different legal perspectives in order to achieve as balanced a picture as possible. The range of contributions includes authors from Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. An essential resource for academics, practitioners and students alike.

Critically explores how international law is mobilised, by global and local actors, to achieve or block global justice efforts.

This classic textbook provides a thorough overview of European private international law. It is essential reading for private international law students who need to study the European perspective in order to fully get to grips the subject. Opening with foundational questions, it clearly explains the subject's central tenets: the Brussels I, Rome I and Rome II Regulations (jurisdiction, applicable law for contracts and tort). Additional chapters explore the Succession Regulation, private international law and insolvency, freedom of establishment, and the impact of PIL on corporate social responsibility. The new edition includes a new chapter on the Hague instruments and an opening discussion on the impact of Brexit. Drawing on the author's rich experience, the new edition retains the book's hallmarks of insight and clarity of expression ensuring it maintains its position as the leading textbook in the field.