Managing the Risk of Conflict between Private International Law Treaties

Abstract

Private international law is a field replete with numerous treaties, reflecting the continuing influence of an internationalist perspective on its purposes and methods. It is characteristic of this field that there are repeated treaties on the same, related or neighbouring topics, both because older treaties have been updated with new techniques, and because a sectoral approach is generally adopted to deal with particular problems or subject areas. Given the traditional concerns of private international law with reducing the risk of conflicting (national) regulation, this practice, somewhat ironically, gives rise to a risk of conflict between private international law treaties. The treaties, in response, include a variety of clauses which are intended to address this risk in one of two main ways - first, through rules of interpretation or scope which are designed to avoid a conflict arising, and second, through resolving a conflict in favour of one of the treaties. This article provides a taxonomy of these treaty interaction clauses, and an evaluation of the difficulties and complexities which arise from their application in practice. 

Keywords: private international law, public international law, treaties, interpretation, conflict, conflict of laws