Earlier this year, on 19 February 2026, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales handed down judgment in Fridman v Argofirma Oniks LLC [2026] EWCA Civ 139. The case concerned a fundamental question of English private international law: must a defendant be present in England at the time of service of a claim form […]
The second edition of Conflict of Laws Within the UK by Kirsty J Hood, Senator, College of Justice, Scotland, has been published by Oxford University Press. The blurb reads: The operation of conflict of law rules within the UK has changed drastically since the first edition of Conflict of Laws Within the UK published in […]
Private International Law and Children’s Rights Law by Tine Van Hof, Senior Researcher and Guest Lecturer at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing. The blurb reads: How do private international law and children’s rights law interact-and conflict-in international child abduction cases? This book examines the relationship between two legal fields […]
In April this year, the Oxford University Press published The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Private Law, edited by Douglas A Kysar and Ernest Lim. The Handbook provides a comprehensive and authoritative treatment of the intersection between climate change and private law in general, including private international law (PIL), bringing together contributions from leading […]
On 27 July 2026, the UK Supreme Court released three judgments of relevance for private international law, thereby providing a lot of interesting material to read over the summer. Collectively, the three judgments concern state immunity, jurisdiction and the effects of foreign judgments. This post briefly outlines the facts, issues and decisions in these three […]
On 9 July 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered its judgment in Case C‑768/24 Hortis GRC SA v JA, France Travail Île-de-France ECLI:EU:C:2026:566. The judgment concerns the interpretation of Article 6 of the Rome Convention, the predecessor of Article 8 of the Rome I Regulation. More specifically, it concerns the relationship […]
The latest issue of the International and Comparative Law Quarterly (Volume 75, Issue 2) features one article of relevance to private international law. Marcus Teo, Strong Cause, 285 – 313 Common law courts will enforce jurisdiction agreements unless they find ‘strong cause’ or ‘strong reasons’ not to. This article argues that the strong cause test is the […]
The Faculty of Laws of University College London is looking to appoint as Research Fellow in Law one or more outstanding candidates with research interests in law and related fields. This Post Doctoral Research Fellowship provides a development opportunity for early career researchers in law who have exceptional potential, for a fixed and non-renewable term […]
The latest issue of the International and Comparative Law Quarterly (Volume 75, Issue 1) features two article of relevance to private international law. Min Kyung Kim and Jonathan Harris, Arbitration versus Insolvency: Balancing Party Autonomy and Public Policy, 129-155 This article examines the tension between arbitration and insolvency in common law jurisdictions. Focusing on the divergence created […]
I have already reported on the judgment of the High Court of England and Wales in Border Timbers Ltd v Zimbabwe [2024] EWHC 2024 (Comm), which dismissed an application to set aside an order granting registration of an ICSID award. The High Court had reached a similar conclusion in Infrastructure Services Luxembourg SARL v Spain […]
The Law Quarterly Review has published an interesting article by Ardavan Arzandeh (Associate Professor, National University of Singapore) on Validation Principle and the Choice-of-Law Question. The article discusses the elements of the validation principle, its application in cases such as Enka Insaat Ve Sanayi AS v OOO Insurance Company Chubb [2020] UKSC 38 to choice-of-law […]
The latest issue of the International and Comparative Law Quarterly (Volume 74, Issue 4) features one article on private international law. Adeline Chong, ‘Salami-Slicing’ and Issue Estoppel: Foreign Decisions on the Governing Law, 875-903 Whether an issue estoppel arises over foreign decisions on the governing law of the claim has not been directly considered by an English […]
The latest issue of the Journal of Private International Law (Volume 21, Issue 3) features seven articles. Elena Rodríguez-Pineau, Cross-border Insolvency Avoidance Actions in the EU: A Necessary Reflection, 393-416 After 25 years, the European Union can boast of having harmonised EU cross-border insolvencies in a Regulation (recasted once). The EU is presently addressing substantive harmonisation of insolvency […]
The judges of the UK Supreme Court and the Privy Council were quite busy last term with private international law matters. The UK Supreme Court issued one judgment of relevance, whereas the Privy Council issued no fewer than three. This post briefly outlines the issues and decisions in these four cases. P&ID v Nigeria: Currency […]
Had someone asked me before 11 December 2025 to select three key principles underlying the application of Article 6 of the Rome Convention and Article 8 of the Rome I Regulation, dealing with the law applicable to individual employment contracts, I would probably have listed the following: Identical interpretation of the connecting factor of the […]
Care Proceedings with an International Element, by Maria Sofia Wright, a practicing English solicitor, has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing. The blurb reads: Presenting the findings of a study of 100 care cases, this book provides rigorous analysis of how jurisdictional issues are determined and how information sharing of child protection operates across borders. It […]
The Working Group established under the auspices of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH) to deal with the Jurisdiction Project has developed draft provisions for a possible convention (Draft Text) to address parallel proceedings and related actions taking place in multiple States, acknowledging the primary role of both jurisdictional rules and the doctrine […]
On 5 June 2025, the Law Commission of England and Wales published a consultation paper (paper; summary) proposing reform to certain rules of private international law that apply in the context of digital assets and electronic trade documents. This development was covered by the EAPIL blog. In brief, the Consultation Paper makes four key contributions: Proposals for […]
On 3 July 2025, Advocate General Norkus delivered an opinion in Case C‑485/24 Locatrans Sarl v ES ECLI:EU:C:2025:528. The case concerns the determination of the habitual place of work under Article 6(2)(a) of the 1980 Rome Convention on the law applicable to contractual obligations of a driver who, under a single employment contract, worked for […]
The latest issue of the Journal of Private International Law (Volume 21, Issue 2) features seven articles. Andrew Tettenborn, English conflicts law at sea – the transfer and creation of proprietary interests in ships, 211-227 Surprisingly, the law applicable to the creation and transfer of proprietary interests in ships remains remarkably obscure as a matter of the […]
The United Kingdom signed the Singapore Convention on Mediation (United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, New York, 7 August 2019) on 3 May 2023. Ahead of the UK’s ratification of the Convention, the Ministry of Justice is seeking views on certain proposals and options for how the Convention might be implemented […]
Legal Studies, the journal of the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS), has published an interesting article by Jared Foong on a recent case from Singapore concerning the recognition of foreign solvent proceedings under the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency. Although this article concerns a development under Singaporean law, it will be of interest to the […]
Following Brexit, the Brussels I bis Regulation ceased to apply in the UK. The regulation’s rules of jurisdiction in consumer and employment matters (Chapter II, Sections 4 and 5, Articles 17-23) were replaced by Sections 15A-15E of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982. The Explanatory Memorandum to the amendments to the 1982 Act introducing […]
The Law Commission of England and Wales is reviewing how private international law operates in the context of electronic trade documents and digital assets. As previously reported on this blog, on 5 June 2025 the Law Commission published a consultation paper (paper; summary) proposing reform to certain rules of private international law that apply in the context […]
The latest issue of the Journal of Private International Law (Volume 21, Issue 1) features eight articles. Pietro Franzina, Cristina González Beilfuss, Jan von Hein, Katja Karjalainen & Thalia Kruger, Cross-border protection of adults: what could the EU do better?, 1-29 On 31 May 2023 the European Commission published two proposals on the protection of adults. […]
Today (1 August 2025), the Arbitration Act 2025 comes into force. This is provided by the Arbitration Act 2025 (Commencement) Regulations 2025. The Act applies to arbitration proceedings commenced on or after today, as well as to court proceedings in connection with arbitration that falls within the temporal scope of the Act (section 17(4)(a)). The […]
On 17 April 2025, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales delivered a judgment in Hipgnosis SFH 1 Ltd v Manilow ([2025] EWCA Civ 486; Sir Julian Flax C, with LJJ Phillips and Snowden agreeing) on the interpretation and effect of an asymmetric jurisdiction clause. Facts The parties had entered into a contract containing […]
The Law Quarterly Review has published an interesting article by Richard Garnett and Ying Khai Liew (Professors at Melbourne Law School), titled Trusts Jurisdiction Clauses: An Analysis. The article can be found in (2025) 141 LQR 357-375 and on SSRN. While jurisdiction clauses, or choice of court agreements, are increasingly utilised in trust deeds, the […]
On 5 June 2025, the Law Commission of England and Wales published a consultation paper (paper; summary) making proposals for reform on certain rules of private international law that apply in the context of digital assets and electronic trade documents. The Commission also made proposals for reform of section 72 of the Bills of Exchange […]
The 20th Anniversary Conference of the Journal of Private International Law will take place at the Faculty of Laws of University College London between 11 and 13 September 2025. The conference organizers, Ugljesa Grusic (UCL) and Alex Mills (UCL), and the editors of the Journal, Paul Beaumont (University of Stirling) and Jonathan Harris (King’s College London), are pleased to announce that the conference programme […]
The Cambridge Law Journal has published, on First View (that is, online before print), an interesting article by Marcus Teo (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore) on proof of foreign law in English law, titled The Inference of Similarity English courts have long professed to apply a “presumption of similarity” when faced with […]
A call for papers has recently been issued by Michiel Poesen and Patricia Živković (University of Aberdeen), co-convenors of the Society of Legal Scholars Private International Law section, for the PIL section of the SLS Annual Conference 2025 at Leeds University from 3 to 4 September 2025. The call is reproduced below, as received by the promoters. This […]
On 24 February 2025, the Arbitration Act 2025 received Royal Assent. The Act implements the recommendations of the Law Commission for reform to the arbitral framework in England and Wales and Northern Ireland. It addresses the following matters: Law applicable to arbitration agreement; Impartiality: duty of disclosure; Immunity of arbitrator: application for removal; Immunity of […]
On 24 March 2025, at 6pm UK time, Marta Pertegás (Maastricht University; University of Antwerp; a fulltime member of the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law between 2008 and 2017) and Alex Mills (UCL; a Specialist Editor of Dicey, Morris and Collins on the Conflict of Laws, with particular responsibility for, […]
The UK Supreme Court judgment in UniCredit Bank GmbH v RusChemAlliance LLC [2024] UKSC 30, upholding an anti-suit injunction restraining Russian proceedings brought in violation of an arbitration agreement providing for a seat in France, has caused significant interest. We covered it on the EAPIL Blog in a post noting the judgment and in a […]
Readers of the EAPIL Blog may recall that in late 2023 the High Court of England and Wales applied the forum non conveniens doctrine and refused to hear the dispute in Limbu v Dyson Technology Ltd [2023] EWHC 2592 (KB), thus giving the defendants what I called a ‘Brexit Dividend’. I set out the facts […]
The latest issue of the Journal of Private International Law (Volume 20, Issue 3) is a special issue in honour of Professor Trevor C Hartley. It features an introduction, Professor Hartley’s bibliography and 11 articles: Jacco Bomhoff, Uglješa Grušić and Manuel Penades Fons, Introduction to the special issue in honour of Professor Trevor Hartley, 501-508 […]
I have already reported on this blog that in 2024 the Law Commission of England and Wales published a call for evidence to help them identify the most challenging and prevalent issues of private international law that arise from the digital, online, and decentralised contexts in which modern digital assets and electronic trade documents are used. […]
The latest issue of the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (Volume 44, Issue 4) features one article of interest to private international lawyers. Georgia Antonopoulou, Forum Marketing in International Commercial Courts?, p. 860-888 Forum selling is a legal term used to describe the practices of courts and judges, geared towards attracting cases, such as increasing the […]
The latest issue of the International and Comparative Law Quarterly (Volume 73, Issue 4) features two short articles on private international law. Maria Hook, The Purpose of the Gateways for Service out of the Jurisdiction, pp 1023-1044 This article argues that the purpose of the English gateways for service out of the jurisdiction is to identify a […]
The latest issue of the Cambridge Law Journal (Volume 83, Issue 2) features one article on private international law. Ardavan Arzandeh, Interpreting Multiple Dispute-Resolution Clauses in Cross-Border Contracts, p. 244-273 Cross-border contracts often contain a clause which purports to reflect the parties’ intention regarding how disputes arising from their agreement should be resolved. Some such […]
On 25 April 2024, Oxford University Press published an important book in its Private International Law series: Ekaterina Aristova, Tort Litigation against Transnational Corporations: The Challenge of Jurisdiction in English Courts (OUP 2024). The blurb reads: There is an emerging trend of private claims being brought against parent companies of transnational corporations for their alleged […]
On 3 December 2024, at 6 pm UK time, Geert Van Calster (KU Leuven) will give a talk on Muscles from Brussels at the Faculty of Laws, University College London. The event will be delivered in a hybrid format and the readers of the blog are welcome to join either in person or on line. […]
On 18 September 2024, the UK Supreme Court gave the reasons for its unanimous judgment in UniCredit Bank GmbH v RusChemAlliance LLC [2024] UKSC 30. This development was covered by the EAPIL Blog. In brief, the court upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal ([2024] EWCA Civ 64), which had granted an anti-suit injunction to enforce […]
I have already reported on this blog that earlier this year the Law Commission of England and Wales published a call for evidence to help them identify the most challenging and prevalent issues of private international law that arise from the digital, online, and decentralised contexts in which modern digital assets and electronic trade documents […]
The 20th Anniversary Conference of the Journal of Private International Law will take place at the Faculty of Laws of University College London between 11 and 13 September 2025. The conference organizers, Ugljesa Grusic (UCL) and Alex Mills (UCL), and the editors of the Journal, Paul Beaumont (University of Stirling) and Jonathan Harris (King’s College London), […]
The latest issue of the Journal of Private International Law (Volume 20, Issue 2) features eight articles. Reid Mortensen & Kathy Reeves, The common law marriage in Australian private international law, 249-279 The common law marriage is a curiosity in the private international law of marriage in the Commonwealth and Ireland. In some cases, a marriage […]
On 18 September 2024, the UK Supreme Court finally gave the reasons for its unanimous judgment (Lord Leggatt, with whom Lord Reed, Lord Sales, Lord Burrows and Lady Rose agreed), announced on 23 April 2024, in UniCredit Bank GmbH v RusChemAlliance LLC [2024] UKSC 30. It upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal ([2024] […]
Private International Law in Russia, by Anton Asoskov, Daria Levina and Milana Karayanidi, has just been published by Bloomsbury Publishing. The blurb reads: This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to Russian private international law (PIL) for the foreign lawyer. The book carefully examines the applicable conflict of law and jurisdictional rules on the basis […]
The 19th Regional Private International Law Conference will take place on 20 September 2024 at the Faculty of Law, University of East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the support of the Deutche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ). The theme of the Conference is Application of General Legal Principles in Contemporary Private International Law. The opening panel will […]
Private International Law in BRICS: Convergence, Divergence and Reciprocal Lessons, edited by Stellina Jolly and Saloni Khanderia, has just been published by Bloomsbury Publishing. The blurb reads: This book examines the convergences, divergences and reciprocal lessons that the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) share with one another in developing the principles […]
Crypto-litigation is an increasingly significant business. The “omniterritorial” nature of digital assets has led to judicial competition in this field. As Matthias Lehman usefully summarised in his recent post on this blog, English courts have taken several steps to position England as a (if not the) leading hub for crypto-litigation, including: allowing actions against persons unknown; permitting […]
On 27 June 2024, the English Court of Appeal delivered a judgment on the Rome II Regulation (which is assimilated EU law in the UK) in Nicholls v AXA Assistance Group Group T/A AXA Travel Insurance [2024] EWCA Civ 718 (LLJ Dingemans, Stuart-Smith and Coulson). The case concerned personal injuries in Spain, Spanish law was […]
The second edition of Pedro De Miguel Asensio‘s Conflict of Laws and the Internet has just been published by Edward Elgar. The blurb reads: In this thoroughly revised second edition, Pedro De Miguel Asensio presents a practical analysis of jurisdiction, choice of law, and recognition and enforcement of judgments in the context of online activities, […]
The fifth edition of Adrian Briggs‘ Conflict of Laws was published in Oxford University Press Clarendon Law Series on 22 March 2024. The blurb reads: The Conflict of Laws provides an introduction and analysis of the rules of private international law as they apply in England, describing the topic’s three distinct branches comprising the conflict […]
It was widely reported (including on this blog) that the UK Government signed the 2019 Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters on 12 January 2024. The Government is now preparing to ratify the convention. On 15 and 16 January, it made ministerial statements to the House […]
English courts are renowned for upholding party autonomy. However, a recent judgment in Re Russian Aircraft Operator Policy Claims (Jurisdiction Applications) [2024] EWHC 734 (Comm) (Henshaw J, 28 March 2024) demonstrates their reluctance to give effect to Russian jurisdiction agreements in the current climate. Facts The claimants are owners, lessors, financing banks and managers of […]
A new book titled Tort Litigation against Transnational Corporations has been published in the Oxford University Press Private International Law series. The author, Ekaterina Aristova, is Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford. The description of the book on the publisher’s website reads as follows: […]
Jacco Bomhoff, Associate Professor at LSE Law School, has published an important article on US conflicts revolution and history of private international law. The title of the article is ‘Rationalising Mid-Century Choice of Law: Legal Technique and its Limits in the “Dark Science” of Conflicts’ and it has been published by the Modern Law Review. […]
In March 2023, Professor Bernd Waas, Chair of Labour Law at Goethe University Frankfurt, organised an event under the auspices of the European Centre of Expertise on EU private international law of employment. The event was an expert meeting, whose aim was to provide the European Commission with academic expertise on this particular topic, thus […]
Introduction Beverly Hills Polo Club branded goods are sold in the USA and the UK. Trade marks in the USA are owned by X. Corresponding trade marks in the UK are owned by Y. Trade mark law is territorial. Does Amazon infringe UK trade mark law by advertising the USA branded goods on its USA […]