International private law, private international law or conflict of laws is the branch of private law which regulates lawsuits involving foreign laws or jurisdictions. It is mainly concerned with determining whether the proposed forum is appropriate for dealing with the dispute, and with determining the legal system whose law applies to the dispute. Private law is that part of a legal system which is part of the jus commune that involves relationships between individuals such as the law of contract or torts as it is called in the common law and the law of obligations as it is called in civilian legal systems. ... A lawsuit is a civil action brought before a court in which the party commencing the action, the plaintiff, seeks a legal remedy. ...

Names

The subject has three names which are generally interchangeable, although none of them is wholly accurate or properly descriptive. 'Conflict of laws' is somewhat misleading, since the object of this branch of law is to eliminate any conflict between competing systems of law rather than provoke such a conflict.

In inter-state situations (such as in the United States) "conflict of laws" is almost invariably used as each state jurisdiction is considered a separate state and calling it "international" law would be confusing.

Choice of law rules

Courts faced with a choice of law issue traditionally have had two choices: Choice of law is a concept within the field of the conflict of laws, relating to relationships between different nations, and in the United States between individual states. ...

1. A court can apply the law of the forum (lex fori)-- which is usually the result when the question of what law to apply is procedural or deals with real property; or
2. the law of the site of the transaction, or occurrence that gave rise to the litigation (lex loci)-- this is usually the controlling law selected when the matter is substantive.

Most courts in the United States have abandoned these traditonal approaches for new approaches that compare the interests of relevant states to the litigation. Choice of law is a concept within the field of the conflict of laws, relating to relationships between different nations, and in the United States between individual states. ...

Many contracts include a choice of law clause that determines what law should apply and even a clause which determines the venue of any such dispute (called a forum selection clause. Generally, when the court must consider the foreign law, it must be proved by foreign law experts. It cannot merely be pleaded, as the court has no expertise in the laws of foreign countries or how they might be applied in a foreign court. Such foreign law is technically considered to be evidence, rather than law, for the purposes of the determination of venue. A choice of law clause in a contract is one whereby the parties to that contract specify which law (i. ... A Venue is commonly the scene of an event or action (especially the place of a meeting). ... A forum selection clause is a clause in a contract in which the parties agree that any litigation resulting from that contract will be brought in a specific forum. ... The law of evidence governs the use of testimony (eg. ...

A minority of courts have, however, determined that if the foreign law can not be proved, then local law may be applied. Conversely, they might assume that the place where the wrong occurred would provide certain basic protections - for example, that the foreign courts would provide a remedy to someone who was injured due to the negligence of another. Finally, some courts have held that local law will be applied if the injury occurred in an "uncivilized place that has no law or legal system." See Walton v. Arabian American Oil Co., 233 F.2d 541 (2d Cir. 1956). Court citation is a standard system used in common law countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada to uniquely identify the location of past court cases in special series of books called reporters. ... The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States District Courts: District of Connecticut Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of New York District of Vermont The Second Circuit hears argument at the Thurgood Marshall U.S... 1956 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Harmonisation

The Hague Conference on Private International Law is a treaty organization that oversees conventions implementing many of these principles. The deliberations of the conference have recently been the subject of controversy over the extent of cross-border jurisdiction on electronic commerce and defamation issues. The Hague Conference on Private International Law is the preeminent organisation in the area of private international law. ... Electronic commerce or e-commerce consists of the buying, selling, marketing, and servicing of products or services over computer networks. ... In English and American law, and systems based on them, libel and slander are two forms of defamation (or defamation of character), which is the tort or delict of making a false statement of fact that injures someones reputation. ...

See also

• Hague Securities Convention
• Place of the Relevant Intermediary Approach

The Hague Securities Convention, often known as the PRIMA Convention, is an international multilateral treaty intended to remove, at a global scale, legal uncertainties for cross-border securities transactions. ... The Place of the Relevant Intermediary Approach, or PRIMA, is a conflict of laws rule applied to the proprietary aspects of security transactions, especially collateral transactions. ...

External links

• Hague Conference on Private International Law official website
• Why the Hague Convention on jurisdiction threatens to strangle e-commerce and Internet free speech, by Chris Sprigman