This book provides a comparative perspective on one of the most intriguing developments in law: the influence of basic rights and human rights in private law. It analyzes the application of basic rights and human rights, which are traditionally understood as public law rights, in private law, and discusses the related spillover effects and changing perspectives in legal doctrine and practice. It provides examples where basic rights and human rights influence judicial reasoning and lead to changes of legislation in contract law, tort law, property law, family law, and copyright law. Providing both context and background analysis for any critical examination of the horizontal effect of fundamental rights in private law, the book contributes to the current debate on an important issue that deserves the attention of legal practitioners, scholars, judges and others involved in the developments in a variety of the world’s jurisdictions. This book is based on the General Report and national reports commissioned by the International Academy of Comparative Law and written for the XIXth International Congress of Comparative Law in Vienna, Austria, in the summer of 2014.

Traditionally,the theory of human rights limited its application to the public domain, namely the relationships between individuals and public authorities. The great expansion of human rights legislation and concepts in modern national and international law has given rise to a major issue relating to their potential impact on private relationships. This book examines this important topic, which may revolutionize private law. It presents new approaches which strive to broaden the application of human rights to the private field on the ground that power can be abused and human rights can be infringed even when all parties are private. The subject is examined from theoretical and comparative perspectives by leading scholars representing a diversity of legal systems - the United States, Canada, England, South Africa, Germany and Israel. Among the contributors are Professor Todd Rakoff (Harvard), Professor Roger Brownsword (Sheffield), Professor Hugh Beale (Warwick) and Professor Ewan McKendrick (Oxford), Professor Ernest Weinrib and Professor Lorraine Weinrib (Toronto), Professor Christian Starck (Gottingen), Professor Andreas Heldrich (Munich) and others.

Leading academics and practitioners examine how the Human Rights Act influences private law cases in theory and practice.

1: Introduction 2: Human rights, private international law, and their interaction 3: The right to a fair trial 4: The right to a fair trial and jurisdiction under the EU rules 5: The right to a fair trial and recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments under the EU rules 6: The right to a fair trial and jurisdiction under national rules 7: The right to a fair trial and enforcement and recognition of foreign judgments under the traditional English rules 8: The right to a fair trial and private international law: Concluding remarks 9: The prohibition of discrimination and private international law 10: Freedom of expression and the right to respect for private life: International defamation and invasion of privacy 11: The right to marry, the right to respect for family life, the prohibition on discrimination and international marriage 12: Religious rights and recognition of marriage and extra-judicial divorce 13: Right to respect for family life and the rights of the child: International Child Abduction 14: Right to respect for private and family life and related rights: Parental status 15: The right to property, foreign judgments, and cross-border property disputes 16: Overall conclusions.

An examination of contemporary encounters between public law and private law from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

In this book the interaction between the rights guaranteed in the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and private international law has been analysed by examining the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) and selected national courts. In doing so the book focuses on the impact of the ECHR on the three main issues of private international law: jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. Next to a list of cases consulted and a comprehensive bibliography, the book offers brief introductions to PIL and the ECHR for readers who are less familiar with either of the topics. This makes the book not only a valuable tool for specialists and practitioners in the fields covered, but at the same time a well-documented basis for students and starting researchers specializing in either or both directions.