Out now: EAPIL Wroclaw Conference Volume – Private International Law and Global Crises

The world is experiencing a growing number of interconnected crises. Armed conflicts, democratic backsliding, climate change, and human rights violations in global supply chains increasingly transcend national borders and expose the limitations of legal systems designed primarily within territorial frameworks. Private international law, traditionally perceived as a technical and neutral discipline, is therefore confronted with questions of growing political and normative significance: Which national courts deal with transnational human rights violations and how? What law governs claims related to environmental damage, climate change or supply chain failures that span multiple jurisdictions? Can mutual trust between legal systems survive the erosion of democratic standards in certain States?

These questions are at the heart of Private International Law and Global Crises (Edward Elgar, 2026). Edited by our new President, Agnieszka Frąckowiack-Adamska, and our Secretary General, Giesela Rühl, the volume brings together thirteen authors from eleven jurisdictions. Building on the discussions at the Second EAPIL Conference, held in Wrocław in June 2024, and organized in five thematic parts, the contributions examine both the potential and the limits of private international law in responding to contemporary global challenges.

In the first part Verónica Ruiz Abou-Nigm (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom), revisits the functions and contemporary relevance of private international law, asking whether the discipline is capable of contributing to the resolution of today’s global crises. In addition, Raffaele Sabato (European Court of Human Rights) and Mateusz Pilich (University of Warsaw, Poland) explore, more broadly, the relationship of private international law with human rights. In the second part Iryna Dikovska (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and Private International Law, Hamburg, and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) and Tamás Szabados (ELTE Lötvös Loránd University, Hungary) examine the impact of war and armed conflicts on private international law. In the third part Alex Mills (University College London, United Kingdom) and Matthias Weller (University of Bonn, Germany) consider how the discipline can and should respond to democratic backsliding and challenges to the rule of law. In the fourth part (Eduardo Alvarez Armas (Comillas Pontifical University, Spain) and Olivera Boskovic (University Paris Cité, France) analyse the contribution private international law can make to addressing one of the defining global challenges of our time: climate change. In the fifth part Rui Dias (University of Coimbra, Portugal), Laura Carpaneto (University of Genova, Italy) and Klaas Eller (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) shed light on the role of private international law for the protection of human rights in global supply chains. The volume concludes with an epilogue by Hans van Loon that reflects on the potential role of private international law in promoting sustainability.

All in all, the volume is an impressive collection of contributions dealing with the role that private international law plays in times of global crises. And even though the contributions address diverse topics, several common themes emerge. First, they demonstrate that private international law can no longer be understood as a purely technical and politically neutral discipline. Instead, it must be understood and reconceptualized as central instrument for addressing complex global challenges – as an essential tool for determining not just where justice can be sought, but also whether it can be achieved at all. Secondly, many contributions illustrate the growing tension between private international law principles – such as territoriality, mutual trust, and equality of legal systems – and new regulatory approaches with significant extraterritorial reach, particularly in the field of sustainability and corporate due diligence. Finally, the volume shows that today’s interconnected “polycrisis” requires private international law to evolve. It invites reflection on the question of how private international law can be more normatively engaged and globally responsive and develop into a field that takes crises as central to its future development – both as an academic field and as a practical instrument of transnational justice. The book is intended as a starting point for these broader questions and wishes to encourage further discussion on the future role of private international law in an era of global crises.

More information about the volume, including the table of contents, the editors and the authors is available here.