Journal du droit international: Issue 3 of 2025

The third issue of the Journal du droit international for 2025 has been released. It contains one article and several case notes relating to private international law issues.

It is also worth mentioning a contribution on (public) international law that echoes a special issue of the Journal, published earlier this year to mark its 150th anniversary. In this special issue, eminent scholars analyse and reinterpret major articles – published in the Journal over the years – that have shaped and marked international law doctrine, in a retrospective and forward-looking manner.

In this first contribution, Yves El Hage (University of Jean Moulin Lyon 3) analyses the topical issue of potential imbalance in choice-of-court agreement (Le contrôle de l’équilibre des clauses d’élection de for dans les relations d’affaires internationales).

The English abstract reads:

Choice-of-court clauses in international contracts have recently come under increasing scrutiny, as litigants challenge their potential imbalance. Such imbalance may be objective, arising from the very structure of the clause, or subjective, resulting from a concrete disparity in the parties’ respective abilities to access the designated court. The possibility and appropriateness of subjecting such clauses to a substantive fairness review – beyond contracts involving a weaker party, and thus within commercial relationships – raise persistent questions and warrant a certain degree of caution.

In the second article which reproduces the speech celebrating the Journal’s 150th anniversary, Emmanuel Decaux (University of Paris Panthéon-Assas) offers a personal assessment of contemporary trends in international public law in times of crisis (150 ans du Journal du droit international [1874-2024], Regards de droit international public).

The English abstract reads:

On the occasion of the publication of the Special Issue dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Journal of International Law, a long-term perspective is necessary at a time when the very foundations of public international law are increasingly being challenged. Born in the wake of the Defeat of 1870, the journal founded by Édouard Clunet embodies the ideal of a “common good of civilized nations,” based on comparative law and the critical study of jurisprudence. This pursuit of a multilateralism grounded in law — which has experienced successive incarnations through wars and crises — is once again shaken, whether it concerns the gradual development of international law or the peaceful settlement of disputes. In the face of the primacy of force, the resilience of law is needed now more than ever…

The table of contents of the issue can be accessed here.