Since 2000, the European Union has deployed significant efforts towards the harmonisation of private international law based on the competence currently enshrined in Article 81 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union.
The legislation enacted for that purpose consists of rules on jurisdiction, choice of law, the recognition and enforcement of judgments and international judicial assistance. The matters covered includes contracts, torts, intellectual property, insolvency, divorce, the protection of children, family maintenance, succession upon death and the property regimes of international couples.
Private international law has thus become a truly European discipline.
What is missing, however, is a truly pan-European forum to discuss issues of private international law.
Following a conference held in Berlin, in 2018, under the title How European is European Private International Law?, a group of private international law scholars from all over Europe decided to found a European Association of Private International Law (EAPIL).
The aim of the Association, as stated in its Statutes, is to connect European scholars and practitioners and to work towards a pan-European discourse about European Private International Law.
To this end, the Association aims to:
- engage in, or endorse, research projects and scientific events and promote the dissemination of their outcome;
- foster the exchange of information and experiences between the members of the Association and the dialogue between academia, legal practice and the public at large;
- cooperate, as an independent body, with national, European and international legislative bodies concerning the elaboration or revision of texts in the field of private international law;
- edit a scientifc journal and publish reports and studies.