Adapting Private International Law in an Era of Uncertainty

On 24 October 2025, a conference titled Adapting Private International Law in an Era of Uncertainty will be held at the Asser Institute in The Hague.

The conference will begin with a welcome by Machiko Kanetake (Asser Institute) and the opening remarks by Vesna Lazić (Asser Institute and Utrecht University), followed by a keynote address from Hans van Loon (IDI member and Former Secretary-General of the HCCH).

The event will feature three panels.

The first panel – Private International Law in the Digital Age – will explore how digital technologies are challenging traditional legal frameworks, with presentations by Marion Ho-Dac (Artois University), Louwrens Kiestra (HCCH) and Marco Giacalone (VUB Brussels), under the moderation of Xandra Kramer (IDI member, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Utrecht University).

The second panel – Uncertain Times, Unequal Burdens: Rethinking Protection for Weaker Parties – will turn to whether weaker parties are being protected in cross-border disputes. Vesna Lazić will moderate the conversation with Geert van Calster (KU Leuven), Veerle Van Den Eeckhout (Court of Justice of the European Union and University of Antwerp) and Uglješa Grušić (University College London).

The third panel – Emerging Voices in Private International Law – will give the floor to Marco Pasqua (LIUC University, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) and Agatha Brandão de Oliveira (University of Lucerne), two early career researchers selected through a competitive call for abstracts already announced on this blog. The discussion will be chaired by Steven Stuij (VU Amsterdam).

The event is part of the Asser Institute’s 60 Years Series and connects to the research strand Transnational public interests: constituting public interest beyond and below the state.

For the programme and registration, see respectively here and here.