Tag Archive for: private international law

New Book: La circolazione dello statuto personale / La circulation du statut personnel

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A new collective volume entitled “La circolazione dello statuto personale / La circulation du statut personnel” has recently been published by Pacini Giuridica. Edited by Gustavo Cerqueira (Nice), Nicolas Nord (Strasbourg) and Claudio Scognamiglio (Rome), the book brings together the proceedings of an international conference held on 19 January 2024 in Rome, in the prestigious Giallombardo Hall of the Italian Court of Cassation. Read more

Marola on International Jurisdiction over Infringements of Personality Rights in EU Private International Law: Book Review

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Giacomo Marola’s International Jurisdiction over Infringements of Personality Rights in EU Private International Law (2025 Wolters Kluwer) addresses a deceptively simple but persistently debated question: where should a claimant be entitled to sue when reputation, privacy, or personal data are infringed across borders? As the book makes clear from the outset, this question lies at the intersection of private international law, fundamental rights, and the realities of online communication. Personality rights disputes are structurally conflictual, typically opposing the protection of moral integrity to freedom of expression, while the Internet continues to strain jurisdictional rules built around territorial connecting factors. Against this backdrop, the book offers a timely and systematic assessment of the EU framework.

Chapter I constitutes the analytical core of the work. It provides a detailed examination of Article 7(2) of the Brussels I-bis Regulation and the Court of Justice’s case law on the ‘place of the harmful event’ in personality rights disputes. From Shevill to eDate Advertising, Bolagsupplysningen, Mittelbayerischer and Gtflix, Marola carefully examines the construction of locus actus and locus damni, focusing in particular on the publisher’s place of establishment, the persistence of the ‘mosaic’ approach, and jurisdiction based on the victim’s centre of interests. The chapter goes beyond doctrinal reconstruction by assessing these solutions against the objectives of proximity, predictability, and procedural balance, and by advancing a well-argued proposal de lege ferenda.

Chapter II places the EU approach in comparative perspective through an analysis of US jurisdictional doctrine in defamation and online tort cases. By retracing the path from Keeton and Calder to the rise and decline of the Zippo test and the renewed prominence of the ‘effects’ doctrine, the chapter sheds light on both convergences and structural differences. In doing so, it provides a useful corrective to overly enthusiastic transatlantic borrowings sometimes found in the European literature.

The final chapter turns to the General Data Protection Regulation and its interaction with the Brussels I-bis Regulation. Chapter III examines both public and private enforcement mechanisms, with particular attention to Article 79 GDPR and its implications for jurisdictional choice in data protection litigation. By integrating GDPR disputes into the broader analysis of personality rights, the book captures an increasingly central area of cross-border litigation.

Overall, the monograph combines doctrinal precision, critical insight, and pragmatic proposals, making it a valuable contribution for scholars and practitioners engaged with jurisdictional questions at the crossroads of EU private international law and fundamental rights.

Online Book Launch – Legal Challenges of China’s One Belt One Road Initiative: Private International Law Considerations 

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Following the successful release of Legal Challenges of China’s One Belt One Road Initiative: Private International Law Considerations late last year, as previously announced on this blog,  co-editors Dr Poomintr Sooksripaisarnkit (University of Tasmania) and Dr Sai Ramani Gariimella (South Asian University) are pleased to invite you to an upcoming online book launch.

This virtual event will feature insights from three distinguished contributors:

Presentations will be followed by a moderated Q & A and discussion session.

This event is open to the public; please refer to the attached flyer to scan the QR Code for Zoom access.

Jiménez and Martínez on A Private International Law for Colombia

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Colombian private international law research has been witnessing a notable period of renewed scholarly activity. Following a previous announcement on this blog of the publication of a volume dedicated to the Colombian Draft Project on Private International Law, a further significant contribution has now been published, this time offering a broader and more systematic perspective on the field. This new contribution takes the form of a book edited by María Julia Ochoa Jiménez (Loyola University) and Claudia Madrid Martínez (University of Antioquia), entitled “A Private International Law for Colombia”, published in the Springer Textbooks in Law series (Springer, 2025).

According to the publisher’s website, the book offers a “[c]omprehensive study of issues underlying PIL, particularly in Latin America and Colombia”, provides “[s]ystematical analysis of PIL rules in Colombia, allowing readers to understand how they deal with global issues”, and “[a]ddresses rules in force, critically examines them and, accordantly, presents and discusses a legislative proposal”. Read more

Widiez on Specialisation of Private International Law

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Gaëlle Widiez (Bourgogne University) has recently edited a volume entitled The Specialization of Private International Law: Reflections from the Perspective of Business Law (La spécialisation du droit international privé : Réflexion dans le champ du droit des affaires), published by LexisNexis. Read more

[Out Now] Bruijnen on Recognition of Kafala and Child Marriage in Family Law and Migration Law

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Leontine Bruijnen (Maastricht University) has recently published a book titled Recognition of kafala and child marriage in family law and migration law (Wolters Kluwer, 2025) based on her dissertation written under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Thalia Kruger and Prof. Dr. Marta Pertegás. Read more

Symeonides on Private International Law Bibliography 2025: U.S. and Foreign Sources in English

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There is no better Christmas present than a comprehensive and up-to-date compilation of the previous year’s scholarship in private international law, and when that bibliography is prepared by Professor Symeon C. Symeonides (Alex L. Parks Distinguished Professor of Law, Dean Emeritus), it is truly something special.

As usual, and without fail for the past twenty years, Professor Symeonides has produced an exceptionally thorough and reliable survey of the field.

The 2025 compilation (Private International Law Bibliography 2025: U.S. and Foreign Sources in English) lists no fewer than 115 books and 397 journal articles devoted to private international law (or conflict of laws) and related areas.

 

The Absract reads as follows:

“This is the twentieth annual bibliography of private international law compiled by the undersigned as a service to fellow teachers and students of this subject. It includes 115 books and 397 journal articles that appeared in print in 2025.

The term “private international law” is used here in the broadest and arguably expanded sense. It encompasses not only the three divisions of the law of conflict of laws (adjudicatory jurisdiction, choice of law, and recognition of sister-state and foreign judgments), but also prescriptive jurisdiction, extraterritoriality, federal-state conflicts, as well as certain aspects of arbitration, the law of foreign relations, and international human rights.

AI Note: This compilation is the product of human labor-mine. I have visually verified all entries, although I have used electronic search engines to locate them. I have not used generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Access to the bibliography is available on Prof. Symeonides’ SSRN page here.

Readers may also wish to consult his insightful essay, Reflections from Fifty Years in the Conflicts Vineyard, in which he offers a concise yet profound and wide-ranging reflection on half a century of scholarship in the field, available here

Many thanks to Professor Symeonides for this invaluable contribution, which continues to be an essential resource for scholars and practitioners alike.

RabelsZ 89 (2025): Issue 4

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The latest issue of RabelsZ has just been released. The table of contents is available here. All content is Open Access: CC BY 4.0. More recent articles and book reviews are available Online First.

 

ESSAYS

Anne Röthel, Debatten über das Vergleichen. Wanderungen zwischen Rechtsvergleichung und Komparatistik [Debates about Comparison. Journeys between Comparative Law and Comparative Literature], pp 615–647, https://doi.org/10.1628/rabelsZ-2025-0060

Many academic fields look to comparative methods in pursuit of insight, with scholars debating how to proceed and what they hope to learn from the comparison. This article explores what comparative law stands to gain from interdisciplinary dialog with other fields of comparative inquiry. By way of example, it evaluates the potential gain from several journeys into the field of comparative literature. At first, these journeys back and forth between disciplines reveal a number of parallels: a striking resemblance between each field’s narrative of its own becoming; both fields’ exposure to fundamental criticisms; both fields ethicizing along similar trajectories; each one’s encounter with related dilemmas. At the same time, these journeys into comparative literature reveal implicit hierarchies and orientations in comparative law. But these cursory journeys through the history of comparative literature also counsel that comparative law would do well to avoid letting its own debates over the direction of the field veer into polarization and name-calling, into a kind of struggle that is mostly unwinnable and unproductive.

 

João Costa-Neto, João Guilherme Sarmento, From Roman Marriage to Unmarried Unions.
Defining the Requirements for de facto and Registered Partnerships, pp. 648–682, https://doi.org/10.1628/rabelsZ-2025-0059

This study examines the historical and comparative evolution of family law, tracing the transition from Roman marriage to contemporary partnerships. The article explores how Roman law conceptualised marriage as a social institution based on affectio maritalis, detailing its transformation through Christian doctrine into an indissoluble sacrament and its subsequent adaptation within modern legal systems. By analysing legal frameworks in Germany, Italy, France, England, and Brazil, the inquiry highlights the varying degrees of recognition granted to unmarried unions, from informal cohabitation to registered partnerships. The comparative analysis reveals the dynamic interplay between tradition, societal norms, and legal evolution, underscoring how distinct legal systems balance autonomy and protection in family law. This work contributes to the broader discourse on the harmonisation of family law and the impact of evolving societal values on legal institutions.

 

Tom Hick, Claiming Back Anticipatory Performance after Failed Negotiations.
A Comparative Analysis of Alternatives to Precontractual Liability, pp. 683–713, https://doi.org/10.1628/rabelsZ-2025-0049

As a matter of principle, breaking-off negotiations or refusing a contract offer are lawful actions. For based on freedom of contract, each individual is free to contract, free to choose one’s counterpart and the content of the contract, and equally free not to contract. Only exceptionally can a party be held liable for breaking-off negotiations based on wrongful conduct. Hence, it appears worthwhile to look for alternative approaches to recover fruitlessly incurred costs in the context of negotiations that failed independently of any wrongful conduct. Undue payment offers precisely this possibility. Therefore, the present contribution offers an exploratory look at the chances of success of an action for undue payment to recover costs incurred in the context of failed contract negotiations in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Germany. The paper finds that in those cases where fruitlessly incurred costs technically qualify as a payment in the respective national legal system, the prospects for the party seeking to recover these costs are surprisingly positive.

 

Derwis Dilek, Sebastian Omlor, Dominik Skauradszun, A New Private International Law for Digital Assets, pp. 714–742, https://doi.org/10.1628/rabelsZ-2025-0053

The increasing popularity of digital assets presents significant challenges for private international law, as fundamental conflict-of-laws rules concerning proprietary issues are often absent. This article outlines a possible approach to a technologically neutral and function-based conflict-of-laws framework. Taking existing instruments into account, it examines in particular the role of party autonomy through a choice-of-law rule, as well as alternative connecting factors based on structural, functional, or factual links between digital assets and legal systems. Building on this, the article proposes a conflict-of-laws framework for determining the law applicable to proprietary issues. This framework is designed to be applicable to various types of digital assets, including those based on decentralized networks. The proposed draft rule combines an express choice-of-law option with a multi-layered system of objective connecting factors and includes supplementary mechanisms for cases where the applicable law lacks substantive provisions.

 

Claudia Mayer, Keine verfahrensrechtliche Anerkennung von beurkundeten oder registrierten familienrechtlichen Rechtsgeschäften innerhalb der EU, [No Procedural Recognition of Acts Affecting Personal Status Based on Certificates Issued by Public Agencies within the EU], pp. 743–765, https://doi.org/10.1628/rabelsZ-2025-0058

In EU law, there is a discernible tendency on the part of the EU legislature to subject legal acts to procedural recognition – including as to their substance – based on certificates of recording or other kinds of documents issued by public agencies. It has therefore already been argued in the literature that a change of method has taken place whereby the conflict-of-laws as well as substantive review in the receiving state has been replaced by a recognition system. But this position must be rejected; generally, such documents issued by public agencies, from a procedural point of view, only have formal probative value. If the validity of the underlying legal act is ultimately uncertain from the point of view of the originating state and if no (procedural) position can be established based on the state’s participation, the substance of the act may and must be re-examined by the receiving state in accordance with the law designated by a conflict of laws examination there, even at the risk of creating a limping legal relationship. The ECJ’s case law on Art. 21 of the TFEU does not alter this principle. To further prevent limping legal relationships at the European level, what is needed instead is better standardization of the conflict of laws in EU secondary law.

 

BOOK REVIEWS

This issue also contains several reviews of literature in the fields of comparative private and private international law and on related topics (pp. 766–820).

New book: Legal Challenges of China’s One Belt One Road Initative: Private International Law Considerations

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A new book Legal Challenges of China’s One Belt One Road Initative: Private International Law Considerations edited by Dr Poomintr Sooksripaisarnkit and Dr Sai Ramani Garimella has now been released by Routledge.

This book is a sequel to the book China’s One Belt One Road Initiative and Private International Law which was published by Routledge in 2018.

Here is the publisher’s blurb:

“This book covers new legal developments of the One Belt One Road (OBOR) project and assesses how litigation may be organised to enforce and compensate for defaults for its related initiatives.

This book is structured into five themes, consisting of essays which assess the decade of BRI’s existence in the context of international economic engagement and the rule of law, private international law, dispute resolution mechanisms – including mediation and judgment mobility. The chapters in the book strike new ground and cover recent developments such as the establishment of China’s International Commercial Court, engagements in multiple Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) construction and investment projects.

The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers and students interested in private international law issues pertaining to the OBOR routes as well as private international law in general, Asian studies and the politics of international trade”.

The table of contents and contributors include:

Poomintr Sooksripaisarnkit and Sai Ramani Garimella: Current Developments of the One Belt One Road Project and the Emerging Private International Law Issues

Dilini Pathirana: Sri Lanka’s Loan Agreements with China under the BRI: A Reflection of Selected Infrastructure Project-Related Loans

Atul Alexander: China and Foreign State Immunity Law: Legal Implications on State-Owned Entities

Mark McLaughlin: Global Standards, Local Realities: An Analysis of Singapore Convention on Mediation in the Context of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises

Zhengxin Huo: China’s International Commercial Court and Their Operation

Beligh Elbalti: Choice of Law in Contracts and Foreign Law before MENA Arab Courts from the Perspective of Belt and Road Initiative

Anna Wysocka-Bar: Circulation of Judgments Between EU Member States and China: A Path Through Complicated Framework Examined on the Example of Poland

Nobumichi Teramura: Recognition and Enforcement of Chinese judgments in Cambodia: Uncertain Foundations of the Rigid Reciprocity Standard in Cambodian Law

Jie (Jeanne) Huang: Recognition and Enforcement of Chinese Judicially Confirmed Mediation Decisions Abroad: The Challenges of Finality

Poomintr Sooksripaisarnkit: Private International Law Dimensions of Blockchain-Based Bills of Lading

Poomintr Sooksripaisarnkit and Sai Ramani Garimella: Conclusion and Reflection

The book can be ordered directly from Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Legal-Challenges-of-Chinas-One-Belt-One-Road-Initiative-Private-International-Law-Considerations/Sooksripaisarnkit-Garimella/p/book/9781032805733

Anyone can use the below discount code to obtain 20% discount (available until 31st March 2026:

The editors are in the process of planning a book launch event (online). Currently, it is scheduled on 26th January 2026 between 8:00 -9:00 p.m (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). Further details will be announced once the full programme of event is available.

 

 

[Out Now!] Sooksripaisarnkit and Garimella on Legal Challenges of China’s One Belt One Road Initative: Private International Law Considerations

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This note was kindly prepared by Dr. Poomintr Sooksripaisarnkit.

 

A new book Legal Challenges of China’s One Belt One Road Initative: Private International Law Considerations edited by Dr Poomintr Sooksripaisarnkit and Dr Sai Ramani Garimella has now been released by Routledge.

This book is a sequel to the book China’s One Belt One Road Initiative and Private International Law which was published by Routledge in 2018.

Here is the publisher’s blurb:

“This book covers new legal developments of the One Belt One Road (OBOR) project and assesses how litigation may be organised to enforce and compensate for defaults for its related initiatives.

This book is structured into five themes, consisting of essays which assess the decade of BRI’s existence in the context of international economic engagement and the rule of law, private international law, dispute resolution mechanisms – including mediation and judgment mobility. The chapters in the book strike new ground and cover recent developments such as the establishment of China’s International Commercial Court, engagements in multiple Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) construction and investment projects.

The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers and students interested in private international law issues pertaining to the OBOR routes as well as private international law in general, Asian studies and the politics of international trade”.

 

The table of contents and contributors include:

 

Poomintr Sooksripaisarnkit and Sai Ramani Garimella: Current Developments of the One Belt One Road Project and the Emerging Private International Law Issues

Dilini Pathirana: Sri Lanka’s Loan Agreements with China under the BRI: A Reflection of Selected Infrastructure Project-Related Loans

Atul Alexander: China and Foreign State Immunity Law: Legal Implications on State-Owned Entities

Mark McLaughlin: Global Standards, Local Realities: An Analysis of Singapore Convention on Mediation in the Context of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises

Zhengxin Huo: China’s International Commercial Court and Their Operation

Beligh Elbalti: Choice of Law in Contracts and Foreign Law before MENA Arab Courts from the Perspective of Belt and Road Initiative

Anna Wysocka-Bar: Circulation of Judgments Between EU Member States and China: A Path Through Complicated Framework Examined on the Example of Poland

Nobumichi Teramura: Recognition and Enforcement of Chinese judgments in Cambodia: Uncertain Foundations of the Rigid Reciprocity Standard in Cambodian Law

Jie (Jeanne) Huang: Recognition and Enforcement of Chinese Judicially Confirmed Mediation Decisions Abroad: The Challenges of Finality

Poomintr Sooksripaisarnkit: Private International Law Dimensions of Blockchain-Based Bills of Lading

Poomintr Sooksripaisarnkit and Sai Ramani Garimella: Conclusion and Reflection

 

The book can be ordered directly from Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Legal-Challenges-of-Chinas-One-Belt-One-Road-Initiative-Private-International-Law-Considerations/Sooksripaisarnkit-Garimella/p/book/9781032805733

 

Anyone can use the below discount code to obtain 20% discount (available until 31st March 2026:

The editors are in the process of planning a book launch event (online). Currently, it is scheduled on 26th January 2026 between 8:00 -9:00 p.m (Australian Eastern Daylight Time). Further details will be announced once the full programme of event is available.