Philosophical Foundations of Private International Law
Ralf Michaels, director at the Institute, has co-edited the book Philosophical Foundations of Private International Law, an interdisciplinary collection of 18 articles at the intersection of private international law (PIL) and philosophy. The articles stem from a research project established by Michaels along with Roxana Banu of Oxford University and Michael S. Green of the William and Mary Law School.
Private international law was long considered to be a mostly technical area of law without a sophisticated theoretical basis. While legal philosophers such as Kelsen sometimes took up the subject and conflict of laws scholars such as Goldschmidt and Batiffol explored the philosophical aspects of private international law, the mutual exchange between PIL and legal philosophy was very sparing. And regrettably so. For PIL, as a law between laws, requires an unusual degree of theoretical and philosophical support at its foundations and is also fertile ground for legal philosophy.
By assembling a team of authors from different countries and continents, who work in various disciplines and who represent various schools of thought, co-editors Banu, Green and Michaels sought to bridge this gap. Early drafts were shared in the fall of 2020 at an international online workshop, and the articles went through extensive revisions afterwards. Jakob Olbing, then a research associate at the Institute, coordinated the Institute’s portion of the project.
The diversity of contributions, investigating the normative structure of PIL and addressing fundamental questions of authority, plurality, justice and autonomy, reflects a broad topic. The authors, who are jurists and philosophers, attempt to fuse PIL with legal philosophy and thus to pave the way for this discourse in their respective disciplines. It is a broadening of horizons that both legal philosophy as well as private international law ought to benefit from.
Image: © Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
