Alex Mills
University College London, Faculty of Laws, Faculty Member
- International Law, Private International Law, Public International Law, International Economic Law (Law), International Commercial Law, Jurisdiction, and 8 moreGlobal Governance, Sovereignty, Philosophy Of Law, Conflict of Laws, International law (public and private), Transnational litigation, Globalization, and International Dispute Settlementedit
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... more
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.
Research Interests: Private International Law, International Commercial Arbitration, Conflicts of Law, Jurisdiction, International law (public and private), and 7 moreConflict of Laws, International Commercial Litigation, International private law, Choice of Law, Private International Law (Conflict of Laws), Applicable Law, and Conflict of Laws (Private International Law)
A sharp distinction is usually drawn between public international law, concerned with the rights and obligations of states with respect to other states and individuals, and private international law, concerned with issues of jurisdiction,... more
A sharp distinction is usually drawn between public international law, concerned with the rights and obligations of states with respect to other states and individuals, and private international law, concerned with issues of jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in international private law disputes before national courts. Through the adoption of an international systemic perspective, Dr Alex Mills challenges this distinction by exploring the ways in which norms of public international law shape and are given effect through private international law. Based on an analysis of the history of private international law, its role in US, EU, Australian and Canadian federal constitutional law, and its relationship with international constitutional law, he rejects its conventional characterisation as purely national law. He argues instead that private international law effects an international ordering of regulatory authority in private law, structured by international principles of justice, pluralism and subsidiarity.
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This chapter focuses on private interests and private law regulation in public international law jurisdiction, and discusses how questions of private law are generally marginalized in favour of a focus on public law, particularly criminal... more
This chapter focuses on private interests and private law regulation in public international law jurisdiction, and discusses how questions of private law are generally marginalized in favour of a focus on public law, particularly criminal law. This is surprising and unfortunate for two main reasons. The first is that private law issues played a central role in the development of public international law jurisdictional principles. The second is that public international lawyers have, in a range of other contexts, increasingly recognized the significance of private law regulation, and the ‘public’ function which it can play in pursuing particular state interests. Recognizing the significance of private law jurisdiction presents, however, some important challenges to the way in which public international law jurisdiction has become to be understood.
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This chapter explores the practical entanglement of questions of public and private international law through an examination of the history of ten commercial aircraft belonging to Kuwait Airways Corporation. The aircraft were seized by... more
This chapter explores the practical entanglement of questions of public and private international law through an examination of the history of ten commercial aircraft belonging to Kuwait Airways Corporation. The aircraft were seized by Iraq after the unlawful 1990 invasion of Kuwait, flown to Baghdad, and handed over to Iraqi Airways. Proceedings seeking return of the aircraft and damages were commenced by Kuwait Airways against Iraqi Airways in the English courts, a further saga which led to more than thirty reported cases, including a remarkable five decisions of the House of Lords. The dispute raised a range of issues, including questions of jurisdiction, state immunity, and perhaps most significantly the potential for public international law to be given effect through domestic private law proceedings, in this case as a source of public policy denying effect to acts of Iraqi law which were contrary to UN Security Council resolutions.
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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... more
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.
Research Interests: Law, Arbitration, Private International Law, Political Science, International Commercial Arbitration, and 11 moreConflicts of Law, Jurisdiction, Autonomy, International law (public and private), Conflict of Laws, International Commercial Litigation, International private law, Choice of Law, Doctrine, Private International Law (Conflict of Laws), and Applicable Law
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This year (2017), Australia is very likely to accede to an international treaty commonly known as the Hague Convention - the treaty has been laid before Parliament, the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties has recommended accession, and... more
This year (2017), Australia is very likely to accede to an international treaty commonly known as the Hague Convention - the treaty has been laid before Parliament, the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties has recommended accession, and work is already underway on the implementing legislation. The Hague Convention was negotiated under the auspices of the Hague Conference on Private International Law ('Hague Conference'), the principal international organisation responsible for global efforts to harmonise rules of private international law. It has potentially very important implications for international commercial dispute resolution in Australia, in the Asia-Pacific region and indeed internationally.
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INTRODUCTION The primary focus in the development of EU private international law has thus far been on ‘internal’ questions and policy goals – principally, enhancing the efficient functioning of the internal market. This chapter analyses... more
INTRODUCTION The primary focus in the development of EU private international law has thus far been on ‘internal’ questions and policy goals – principally, enhancing the efficient functioning of the internal market. This chapter analyses the potential ‘external’ dimension of EU private international law, looking at some of the roles which private international law might play in EU external relations (including potentially, in light of the recent Brexit vote, its relations with the United Kingdom). The need to consider this question arises because the EU has, at least arguably, obtained exclusive external competence in at least most of the field of private international law. It has long been understood that exclusive external competence for the EU may arise where the (potential or actual) external rules ‘are of such a kind as to affect … Community rules’, even if those external rules are not directly inconsistent with Community (now EU) rules, but merely diminish their uniformity. Th...
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This paper examines one aspect of the role of the individual in international law, through analysis of the increasing recognition of individual rights in the context of jurisdiction in both public and private international law.... more
This paper examines one aspect of the role of the individual in international law, through analysis of the increasing recognition of individual rights in the context of jurisdiction in both public and private international law. Jurisdiction has traditionally been considered in international law as a right or power of states. The challenge to this traditional approach has arisen both at the international level and also within states, through the rise in theory and practice of doctrines of ‘denial of justice’, ‘access to justice’ and ‘party autonomy’, which reflect the increasing treatment of jurisdiction as a matter of individual right rather than state power. These developments arguably signify a transformation in the status of individuals at both international and national levels, from the passive objects of jurisdictional regulation to active rights-holders. The analysis in this paper therefore highlights a challenge which cuts across the dual aspects of sovereignty – as international law increasingly recognises the power of legal persons beyond the state, this also provides a challenge to the claims for exclusive legal authority within states. This can also be described as the recognition of the individual, alongside the state, as a ‘sovereign’ actor, or as the recognition of ‘normative individualism’ in international and domestic law. The increased recognition of the individual in international law is a key feature of the arguments of cosmopolitan legal theorists – the challenge of normative individualism may therefore further be described as the question of whether, or to what extent, there is an emerging idea of ‘cosmopolitan sovereignty’ which attempts to accommodate the normative value of both state and individual actors.
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In the European Union, private international law has almost exclusively been developed through the adoption of internal acts (particularly EU Regulations) in the pursuit of internal goals (principally, enhancing the efficient functioning... more
In the European Union, private international law has almost exclusively been developed through the adoption of internal acts (particularly EU Regulations) in the pursuit of internal goals (principally, enhancing the efficient functioning of the internal market, and more recently and broadly the construction of an area of freedom, security and justice). This focus has and must come under challenge in light of two developments. The first is the apparent establishment of EU exclusive external competence in the field of private international law, creating the opportunity for external action by the EU. The second is the increased recognition that internal action by the EU has external effects, which should be viewed not merely as incidental but also as potentially instruments of external policy. In conjunction, these developments demand consideration of what role private international law could and should play as part of EU external relations. This article critically examines a range of ...
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... Alex Mills * ... 1607 (2008) (including contributions by Ralf Michaels, Patrick J. Borchers, Jan von Hein, Dennis Solomon, Symeon C. Symeonides, Larry Cata Bakker, Jens Dammann, Onnig H.Dombalagian, Katharina Boele-Woelki, Horatia... more
... Alex Mills * ... 1607 (2008) (including contributions by Ralf Michaels, Patrick J. Borchers, Jan von Hein, Dennis Solomon, Symeon C. Symeonides, Larry Cata Bakker, Jens Dammann, Onnig H.Dombalagian, Katharina Boele-Woelki, Horatia Muir Watt, Linda J. Silberman, Richard ...
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Abstract International investment law has in recent years become a topic of great practical and academic importance, as the thousands of international investment treaties have given rise to hundreds of investor-state arbitrations, and... more
Abstract International investment law has in recent years become a topic of great practical and academic importance, as the thousands of international investment treaties have given rise to hundreds of investor-state arbitrations, and innumerable books and articles. But ...
Research Interests: Law and Economic Law
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Abstract Judges are at the very centre of Anne-Marie Slaughter's influential liberal theory of international law. More than a century after liberal internationalists were making bold plans for a permanent... more
Abstract Judges are at the very centre of Anne-Marie Slaughter's influential liberal theory of international law. More than a century after liberal internationalists were making bold plans for a permanent international court, Slaughter's theory offers an alternative liberal account of the constitution of a global community of law. For Slaughter, domestic courts are responsible for enforcing a 'new'transnational legal order established by the interactions between citizens, corporations, and governmental agencies of increasingly disaggregated and ...
Research Interests: Law and International Law
... The Public-Private Dualities of International Investment Law and Arbitration Dr AlexMills * Forthcoming, in Chester Brown and Kate Miles (eds), Evolution in Investment Treaty Law and Arbitration (Cambridge University Press, 2011) ...
The international system as we know it was built in a mood of hope and fear. Fear of the return of war, hope for peace. Now international law is again in a process of rapid transformation, at once invoked as it never has been before, and... more
The international system as we know it was built in a mood of hope and fear. Fear of the return of war, hope for peace. Now international law is again in a process of rapid transformation, at once invoked as it never has been before, and yet also straining under ...
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The international system as we know it was built in a mood of hope and fear. Fear of the return of war, hope for peace. Now international law is again in a process of rapid transformation, at once invoked as it never has been before, and... more
The international system as we know it was built in a mood of hope and fear. Fear of the return of war, hope for peace. Now international law is again in a process of rapid transformation, at once invoked as it never has been before, and yet also straining under ...
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The articles in this section explore the operation of non-governmental organisations at the 'fault lines' of the international order. This concept requires some explanation, and this essay provides an introductory articulation... more
The articles in this section explore the operation of non-governmental organisations at the 'fault lines' of the international order. This concept requires some explanation, and this essay provides an introductory articulation of the context in which these articles are positioned. ...
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... ИНФОРМАЦИЯ О ПУБЛИКАЦИИ. Название публикации, RENVOI AND THE PROOF OF FOREIGN LAW IN AUSTRALIA. Авторы, Alex Mills. Журнал, The Cambridge Law Journal. Издательство, Cambridge University Press. Год выпуска, 2006, ISSN, 0008-1973. ...
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... Article author query; mills a [Google Scholar]. Alex Mills. ... Alex Mills (2011) The Cambridge Law Journal, Volume 70, Issue 01, March 2011 pp 1-4 http://journals. cambridge.org/abstract_S0008197311000018. Alex Mills (2011). ...
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... In Sovereignty over Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks and South Ledge (Malaysia/Singapore) (Judgment of 23 May 2008), there were no such difficult issues of jurisdiction, because the parties submitted the case to the ICJ by... more
... In Sovereignty over Pedra Branca/Pulau Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks and South Ledge (Malaysia/Singapore) (Judgment of 23 May 2008), there were no such difficult issues of jurisdiction, because the parties submitted the case to the ICJ by mutual Special Agreement. ...
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ABSTRACT This contribution commemorates the award of the tenth ever Nobel Peace Prize to Tobias Michael Carel Asser on 10 December 1911, and examines his life and his lasting contribution to scholarship and practice in private and public... more
ABSTRACT This contribution commemorates the award of the tenth ever Nobel Peace Prize to Tobias Michael Carel Asser on 10 December 1911, and examines his life and his lasting contribution to scholarship and practice in private and public international law. After a ...
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... The Public-Private Dualities of International Investment Law and Arbitration Dr AlexMills * Forthcoming, in Chester Brown and Kate Miles (eds), Evolution in Investment Treaty Law and Arbitration (Cambridge University Press, 2011) ...
ARBITRAL JURISDICTION AND THE MISCHIEVOUS PRESUMPTION OF IDENTITY OF FOREIGN LAW DISPUTES wholly unconnected with England and governed in substance by foreign law are, for reasons of neutrality and expertise, frequently arbitrated in... more
ARBITRAL JURISDICTION AND THE MISCHIEVOUS PRESUMPTION OF IDENTITY OF FOREIGN LAW DISPUTES wholly unconnected with England and governed in substance by foreign law are, for reasons of neutrality and expertise, frequently arbitrated in London. English ...
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CONTROLLING CONTROL ORDERS: ARTICLE 5 ECHR AND THE PREVENTION OF TERRORISM ACT 2005 THE decision of the House of Lords in A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] UKHL 56, [2005] 2 AC 68, that section 23 of the... more
CONTROLLING CONTROL ORDERS: ARTICLE 5 ECHR AND THE PREVENTION OF TERRORISM ACT 2005 THE decision of the House of Lords in A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] UKHL 56, [2005] 2 AC 68, that section 23 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security ...
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In the past decade, social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have gone from being a novelty to becoming an essential part of many people's personal and professional lives. Like previous changes in communications technology,... more
In the past decade, social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have gone from being a novelty to becoming an essential part of many people's personal and professional lives. Like previous changes in communications technology, social media poses a legal challenge. Can existing laws be applied or adapted to this new context, or does it pose new problems requiring new solutions? This article examines one aspect of this question through an analysis of the private international law issue of what law applies (or should be applied) to cross-border defamation claims on social media. Cross-border defamation raises a range of issues, including private international law questions regarding which courts should adjudicate claims and which substantive law should be applied. While the jurisdictional issues are important and have a significant impact on the issues of applicable law, there are distinct questions and concerns raised by the choice of law question for cross-border defamation on social media. Indeed, it is a topic which perhaps raises some of the most difficult issues in private international law, as well as having important broader consequences for media law and free speech regulation. At a general level, it concerns choice of law in defamation, which has proven a particularly challenging subject in practice and in proposed law reforms – at present it remains excluded from both UK and EU statutory rules concerning choice of law in tort. More specifically, it concerns defamation online, a context which might be grounds for suggesting that a further specialised rule is required – a view taken by the ECJ in relation to jurisdiction over online defamation. And finally, it concerns defamation online on social media, which raises challenging issues in terms of adapting the law to new media contexts, as well as identifying the relevant ‘public’ within which a reputation is established. These are not just difficult practical questions, arising with increasing frequency in litigation, but also problems of principle which have broader implications. As social media become increasingly important modes of socialisation and communication, greater attention will need to be paid to the question of whose law governs standards of free speech on social media platforms – an important part of the question of whose law rules ‘Facebookistan’.
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This article discusses the background and implications of the judicial review reforms adopted in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 (UK). The reform process began with a 2013 government report and 2013-14 public consultation on the... more
This article discusses the background and implications of the judicial review reforms adopted in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 (UK). The reform process began with a 2013 government report and 2013-14 public consultation on the possibility of reforming a range of issues relating to judicial review proceedings, including the law of standing, the ‘no difference’ principle, and various matters concerning party and third party costs. This article examines each of these issues, particularly highlighting the consultation submission made by the Senior Judiciary, the proposals introduced in the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill 2014, and the revisions which were adopted in the Act as a consequence of parliamentary debates. Although the Act includes a number of important concessions, there remain concerns as to how the reforms will affect the balance between the competing interests at stake in judicial review.
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Jurisdiction has traditionally been considered in international law as purely a question of the rights and powers of states. Conceived in this way, the rules on jurisdiction serve the important function of delimiting (while accepting some... more
Jurisdiction has traditionally been considered in international law as purely a question of the rights and powers of states. Conceived in this way, the rules on jurisdiction serve the important function of delimiting (while accepting some overlap of) state regulatory authority – the question of when a person or event may be subject to national regulation – a function which is shared with the cognate discipline of private international law. This article suggests that the idea and the rules of jurisdiction in international law require reconceptualisation in light of three developments. The first is the growing recognition that in a range of circumstances the exercise of national jurisdiction may, under international law, be a question of duty or obligation rather than right. The second development is the increased acceptance that such jurisdictional duties may in some circumstances be owed not only to other states but also to private parties, particularly through the emergence and strengthening of the doctrines of denial of justice and access to justice. The third development is the widely recognised phenomenon known as party autonomy, under which private parties in civil disputes have the power to confer jurisdiction on national courts and to determine themselves which law governs their relationships. In combination, these developments suggest the necessity of rethinking the concept of jurisdiction in international law, to reflect the more complex realities of an international legal order under which states possess both jurisdictional rights and obligations and are no longer the exclusive actors.
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This article, first presented as part of a conference entitled "What is private international law?", responds to this question through analysis of four different "identities" through which private international law has been viewed. It... more
This article, first presented as part of a conference entitled "What is private international law?", responds to this question through analysis of four different "identities" through which private international law has been viewed. It begins by exploring two contrasting classical approaches, under which private international law is concerned with the international ordering of state power, or with the national recognition of private rights. It then turns to examine the US and EU private international law "revolutions," and the very different further identities of private international law which have emerged as a consequence of each. After reflecting critically on the experiences of these revolutions, the article offers some concluding thoughts as to how the identity or identities of private international law can or should be constructed, arguing that there are valuable lessons and potentially propitious elements in each of the four examined identities.
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This paper examines one aspect of the role of the individual in international law, through analysis of the increasing recognition of individual rights in the context of jurisdiction in both public and private international law.... more
This paper examines one aspect of the role of the individual in international law, through analysis of the increasing recognition of individual rights in the context of jurisdiction in both public and private international law. Jurisdiction has traditionally been considered in international law as a right or power of states. The challenge to this traditional approach has arisen both at the international level and also within states, through the rise in theory and practice of doctrines of ‘denial of justice’, ‘access to justice’ and ‘party autonomy’, which reflect the increasing treatment of jurisdiction as a matter of individual right rather than state power. These developments arguably signify a transformation in the status of individuals at both international and national levels, from the passive objects of jurisdictional regulation to active rights-holders.
The analysis in this paper therefore highlights a challenge which cuts across the dual aspects of sovereignty – as international law increasingly recognises the power of legal persons beyond the state, this also provides a challenge to the claims for exclusive legal authority within states. This can also be described as the recognition of the individual, alongside the state, as a ‘sovereign’ actor, or as the recognition of ‘normative individualism’ in international and domestic law. The increased recognition of the individual in international law is a key feature of the arguments of cosmopolitan legal theorists – the challenge of normative individualism may therefore further be described as the question of whether, or to what extent, there is an emerging idea of ‘cosmopolitan sovereignty’ which attempts to accommodate the normative value of both state and individual actors.
The analysis in this paper therefore highlights a challenge which cuts across the dual aspects of sovereignty – as international law increasingly recognises the power of legal persons beyond the state, this also provides a challenge to the claims for exclusive legal authority within states. This can also be described as the recognition of the individual, alongside the state, as a ‘sovereign’ actor, or as the recognition of ‘normative individualism’ in international and domestic law. The increased recognition of the individual in international law is a key feature of the arguments of cosmopolitan legal theorists – the challenge of normative individualism may therefore further be described as the question of whether, or to what extent, there is an emerging idea of ‘cosmopolitan sovereignty’ which attempts to accommodate the normative value of both state and individual actors.
This paper argues that private international law rules constitute a form of international ‘public’ ordering or global governance, and it explores some of the implications of this argument for the international development of private... more
This paper argues that private international law rules constitute a form of international ‘public’ ordering or global governance, and it explores some of the implications of this argument for the international development of private international law. It begins by examining the theoretical foundations for this perspective as well as its historical context and justification, arguing that it is more coherent and more consistent with pre-modern conceptions of the subject. It then turns to examine recent developments in federal systems – the European Union, Canada and Australia – which demonstrate the emergence of a similar ‘public’ perspective on private international law at a regional level. The paper then considers two major problems with the idea that developments within federal systems can be transplanted or applied by analogy at the international level, as well as the potential of two ideas which present responses to these problems. The first problem is that of hierarchy – the complexity of the relationship between federal and international developments – and the idea examined in response is that of variable geometry. The second problem is that of heterarchy – the absence of institutional structures comparable to those in federal systems to support international developments – and the idea of peer governance is examined as a response to this issue. The paper concludes that these ideas have a potentially important impact on a range of international law questions, and that they should form a key part of the research agenda for studies of global governance both within and beyond the context of private international law.
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International investment law has in recent years become a topic of great practical and academic importance, as the thousands of international investment treaties have given rise to hundreds of investor-state arbitrations, and innumerable... more
International investment law has in recent years become a topic of great practical and academic importance, as the thousands of international investment treaties have given rise to hundreds of investor-state arbitrations, and innumerable books and articles. But fundamental questions concerning the regulatory character of international investment law, and what its aims and objectives are, remain the subject of contestation reflected in a variety of policy debates and in competing historical narratives regarding the development of the field.
This article contends that two ‘public–private’ distinctions or antinomies lie behind this indeterminacy, at international investment law’s uncertain foundations—the first dealing with the characterization of international investment law as a form of ‘public’ or ‘private’ law, and the second dealing with the balance that international investment law strikes between ‘public’ and ‘private’ interests or objectives. A number of disputed issues in international investment law and arbitration, which are presented at the surface as merely technical problems, may in reality, it is argued, be products of these deeper underlying theoretical uncertainties.
This article contends that two ‘public–private’ distinctions or antinomies lie behind this indeterminacy, at international investment law’s uncertain foundations—the first dealing with the characterization of international investment law as a form of ‘public’ or ‘private’ law, and the second dealing with the balance that international investment law strikes between ‘public’ and ‘private’ interests or objectives. A number of disputed issues in international investment law and arbitration, which are presented at the surface as merely technical problems, may in reality, it is argued, be products of these deeper underlying theoretical uncertainties.
The United States has long been a source of influence and inspiration to the developing federal system in the European Union. As E.U. federalism matures, increasingly both systems may have the opportunity to profit from each others’... more
The United States has long been a source of influence and inspiration to the developing federal system in the European Union. As E.U. federalism matures, increasingly both systems may have the opportunity to profit from each others’ experience in federal regulatory theory and practice. This article analyses aspects of the federal ordering in each system, comparing both historical approaches and current developments. It focuses on three legal topics, and the relationship between them: (1) the federal regulation of matters of private law; (2) rules of the conflict of laws, which play a critical role in regulating cross-border litigation in an era of global communications, travel and trade; and (3) ‘subsidiarity’, which is a key constitutional principle in the European Union, and arguably also plays an implicit and under-analyzed role in U.S. federalism. The central contention of this article is that the treatment of each of these areas of law is related – that they should be understood collectively as part of the range of competing regulatory strategies and techniques of each federal system. It is not suggested that ‘solutions’ from one system can be simply transplanted to the other, but rather that the experiences of each federal order demonstrate the interconnectedness of regulation in these three subject areas, offering important insights from which each system might benefit.
Public policy is both a ubiquitous and fundamentally important part of private international law, defining the limits of the tolerance of difference implicit in rules on choice of law and the recognition and enforcement of foreign... more
Public policy is both a ubiquitous and fundamentally important part of private international law, defining the limits of the tolerance of difference implicit in rules on choice of law and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. It has, however, been frequently criticised for its uncertainty and discretionary character. This article looks at the justifications for limits on public policy in private international law, and considers three principles which should constrain the application of public policy - proximity, relativity and seriousness of breach. It then analyses the practice of English courts through the perspective of these three 'dimensions'. While the courts do not expressly acknowledge these principles, they not only explain the majority of cases involving the application of (or refusal to apply) public policy in private international law, but also provide reasons why certain decisions have been considered unsatisfactory. The argument developed in this article thus suggests an analytical framework through which the application of public policy in private international law might be made more certain, principled and justifiable.
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The purpose of this article is to address two related false assumptions, or myths. The first is an assumption of public international law. It is the myth that the history of international law is one of progressive expansion, of increasing... more
The purpose of this article is to address two related false assumptions, or myths. The first is an assumption of public international law. It is the myth that the history of international law is one of progressive expansion, of increasing concern in public international law with matters traditionally considered private or internal to States, and that this expansion is a relatively recent phenomenon. The second is an assumption of private international law. It is the myth that private international law is not actually international, as it is essentially and necessarily a part of the domestic law of States. These assumptions, taken together, constitute the myth that public and private international law are discrete, distinct disciplines, with independent, parallel histories. This article addresses these myths through an analysis of the role played by international law theory in the history of private international law.