The Confluence of Public and Private International Law
Justice, Pluralism and Subsidiarity in the International Constitutional Ordering of Private Law

An analysis of the relationship between private international law, examined from an international systemic perspective, and public international law.

Alex Mills (Author)

9780521731300, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 2 July 2009

420 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.9 cm, 0.67 kg

'… [this] book is to be saluted as one of the most significant and stimulating efforts towards bridging the gap between public and private international law and clarifying the grounds supporting the idea of a common basis for these two fields of international law.' Fausto Pocar, Netherlands International Law Review

A sharp distinction is usually drawn between public international law, concerned with the rights and obligations of states with respect to other states and individuals, and private international law, concerned with issues of jurisdiction, applicable law and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in international private law disputes before national courts. Through the adoption of an international systemic perspective, Dr Alex Mills challenges this distinction by exploring the ways in which norms of public international law shape and are given effect through private international law. Based on an analysis of the history of private international law, its role in US, EU, Australian and Canadian federal constitutional law, and its relationship with international constitutional law, he rejects its conventional characterisation as purely national law. He argues instead that private international law effects an international ordering of regulatory authority in private law, structured by international principles of justice, pluralism and subsidiarity.

1. Justice, pluralism and the international perspective
2. The private history of international law
3. From positivism to constitutionalism
4. Private international law and constitutional law in federal systems
5. The confluence of public and private international law
6. Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Private international law & conflict of laws [LBG], Public international law [LBB]