Out Now: Un Derecho Internacional Privado centrado en los derechos de las personas (Tirant lo Blanch 2025)

By Eduardo Álvarez-Armas, Assistant Professor of Law at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (Spain) and Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)

Earlier this year, publishing house Tirant Lo Blanch released “Un Derecho Internacional Privado centrado en los derechos de las personas” (Private international law as focused on the rights of individuals), a volume that compiles the papers presented in the “VII Seminario AEPDIRI sobre temas de actualidad de Derecho Internacional Privado”, the 7th workshop on trending topics in private international law organized by the Spanish Association of International Law and International Relations Professors. These workshops on trending topics, initiated in 2015, have become one of the most significant academic activities of the Asociación Española de Profesores de Derecho Internacional y Relaciones Internacionales (AEPDIRI). They provide a yearly forum for collective reflection on the most dynamic and debated questions in each of the association’s academic branches (public international law, private international law and international relations), enhancing the exchange of research and practice ideas among academics, judges, and legal professionals, from Spain and beyond.

As reflected in this book (digitally available for free / open access here), the 2024 edition of the workshop was held on 14 March 2024 at the Law School of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE) in Madrid, and was convened by Professors Beatriz Campuzano Díaz (Universidad de Sevilla), Guillermo Palao Moreno (Universidad de Valencia), and Salomé Adroher Biosca (Universidad Pontificia Comillas). The theme chosen for the workshop sought to re-frame and place the spotlight of the field on its ultimate subjects — human beings — by examining how private international law addresses delicate aspects of personal status, family relations, vulnerability, migration, and human rights in transnational contexts. This ambitious thematic framework led to a workshop of remarkable breadth and diversity, gathering scholars from numerous Spanish and foreign universities as well as practitioners who are actively engaged in cross-border litigation and consultancy. Both speakers and the audience engaged in lively discussions around various sub-topics that highlight private international law’s human-centred vocation; amongst the latter, the regulation of personal capacity in cross-border situations; international aspects of parenthood; the rights of vulnerable persons; the impact of digitalisation on personality rights; corporate due-diligence obligations and human-rights accountability in global value chains; civil liability of multinational enterprises for human-rights violations; new challenges in immigration law; migrants’ rights viewed through a private-law lens, etc.

After a presentation by the organizers, the book begins with the key-note speech, delivered by Nicolas Nord, Professor at the Université de Strasbourg and Secretary General of the International Commission on Civil Status, “Un Derecho Internacional privado centrado en los derechos de las personas: un análisis transversal, crítico y prospectivo”: a “cross-cutting, critical and forward-looking analysis” of the book´s theme (the field “as focused on the rights of individuals”) that rightly sets the tone and paves the way for the three conceptual blocks of presentations (round tables) that the conference was structured around.
The first round table, “Rights of vulnerable persons”, focused on the international protection of vulnerable individuals, both minors and dependent adults, and was led by two main presentations. The first one by Laura Martínez-Mora Charlebois, Secretary at the Hague Conference on Private International Law, was entitled “La protección internacional de las personas, en particular los niños, a través de los Convenios de La Haya” (The international protection of persons, particularly children, through the Hague Conventions), and outlined the role of the Hague instruments in safeguarding children’s rights. The second one, by Mónica Herranz Ballesteros (UNED) analysed “La protección de los derechos de los menores y de los adultos en el Derecho Internacional Privado de la Unión Europea” (The protection of the rights of minors and adults in the private international law of the European Union), examining how EU private-law measures complement human-rights protection. Five other papers enriched this session: María González Marimón, “La protección del adulto vulnerable en la UE: un principio en construcción” (The protection of vulnerable adults in the EU: a principle under construction); Briseida Sofía Jiménez-Gómez, “Los derechos de protección de datos en Internet y la decisión de adecuación con EE.UU.” (Data protection rights on the Internet and the “adequacy decision” vis-à-vis the US); Lidia Moreno Blesa, “La confluencia del Derecho Internacional público y privado en la protección de adultos vulnerables” (The convergence of public and private international law in the protection of vulnerable adults); Natividad Goñi Urriza, “Novedades de la propuesta de Reglamento sobre protección de adultos y competencia judicial internacional” (Novelties in the proposed Regulation on the protection of adults, and international jurisdiction); Raúl Lafuente Sánchez, “Foros competentes y normas de conflicto en la protección de adultos” (Jurisdiction and conflict rules on adult protection); and Stefania Pia Perrino, “Post-mortem reproduction, filiation and parenthood”. Jointly considered, these papers illustrated the increasing interaction between private international law and other fields of law (as for instance, data protection, or bioethics) highlighting how the field serves as a vehicle for the effective implementation of individual rights across borders.
The second round table, “Due diligence, corporations, environment and human rights” explored the interplay between corporate conduct, sustainability, and human-rights accountability from a private international law perspective and began with presentations by Francisco Javier Zamora Cabot (Universitat Jaume I) on “Empresas, derechos humanos y acceso: cruzando -de nuevo- el Atlántico” (Business, human rights and access: crossing the Atlantic once again), reflecting on comparative experiences of transatlantic litigation, and Antonia Durán Ayago (Universidad de Salamanca) on “Diligencia debida y Derecho Mercantil materialmente orientado hacia la sostenibilidad: implicaciones para el Derecho Internacional Privado europeo” (Due diligence and sustainability-oriented commercial law: implications for European private international law), assessing the EU’s take on regulatory aspects of due diligence and sustainability as combined with private international law. Further papers included: Laura García Álvarez, on the EU directive on corporate due diligence and its private-international-law implications (“Extraterritorialidad y competencia judicial internacional en la Directiva de la UE sobre diligencia debida de las empresas en materia de sostenibilidad”); Nerea Magallón Elósegui, on the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/2772 enhancing non-financial reporting standards (“Un nuevo paso en el camino de la diligencia debida hacia una mayor transparencia de la conducta empresarial: el Reglamento delegado por el que se completa la Directiva 2013/34/UE en lo que respecta a la norma de presentación de información no financiera”); and María Font-Mas, on the Anti-SLAPP Directive and its private international law aspects (“La Directiva (UE) 2024/1069 sobre demandas estratégicas contra la participación pública (Anti-SLAPP): aspectos de Derecho Internacional privado”). Overall, this session underscored the growing convergence between private-law regulation, environmental governance, and human-rights enforcement, stressing private international law’s potential as a tool for corporate accountability and sustainable global commerce.
The third and final round table, “Inmigration through a rights-based perspetive”, examined migration and foreign-national status through the prism of individual rights and vulnerability, and was led through presentations by Isabel Eugenia Lázaro González (ICADE) on “El derecho a la identidad de los extranjeros y la determinación de la edad” (The right to identity of foreigners and age determination), addressing legal and evidentiary issues in identifying minors, and by Carmen Azcárraga Monzonís (Universitat de València) on “Extranjería y violencia contra la mujer” (Immigration laws and violence against women), assessing the evolution and remaining challenges of Article 31 bis of Spain’s Organic Law 4/2000. Further presentations enriched the debate, including: Lucas Andrés Pérez Martín, “Gestión de niños y niñas migrantes no acompañados” (Management of unaccompanied migrant children); Nieves Irene Caballero Pérez, “Los niños invisibles y su reconocimiento jurídico internacional” (Invisible children and their international legal recognition); Dulce Margarida de Jesus Lopes, “Matrimonio de menores en el Derecho privado europeo e internacional” (Marriage of minors in European and international private law); Antonio Quirós Fons, “La nueva tarjeta azul y los derechos del inmigrante altamente cualificado” (The new blue card and the rights of highly skilled immigrants); Vito Bumbaca, “Protective coordination for children seeking asylum”; and Carmen Parra Rodríguez, “Acogida familiar de menores migrantes no acompañados” (Foster care for unaccompanied migrant children). This final round table enshirned the human-rights dimension of migration management, emphasising how private international law contributes to the recognition of personality, to family unity, and to the procedural protection of migrants and minors.

In a nutshell, the book serves as a collective reaffirmation of private international law as a filed of law at the service of persons and their rights, integrating theoretical innovation with practical commitment to justice in an interconnected world. It further condenses, black on white, the workshop’s exceptional thematic richness and participation, demonstrating the vitality of the AEPDIRI network and the relevance of private international law to contemporary human-rights debates.