Fourth Issue of 2012’s ICLQ

The fourth issue of International and Comparative Law Quarterly for 2012 includes one article exploring a private international law issue and a case commentary of the Edate advertising decision of the European Court of Justice.

The article is authored by Janeen Carruthers (University of Glasgow) and discusses Party Autonomy in the Legal Regulation of Adult Relationships: What Place for Party Choice in Private International Law?

This article is an examination of the merits of permitting the exercise of party autonomy in choice of court and choice of law in respect of the personal and patrimonial aspects of adult relationships. It provides a commentary on the party autonomy provisions of EU harmonization instruments, actual and proposed, in family law. The treatment considers the particular issues of drafting which arise from the specialties of family law, and ponders whether or not the refinements required render the exercise of permitting party autonomy self-defeating.