Pragmatism and Private International Law

This chapter presents a pragmatic theory of private international law for the development of the subject globally, primarily by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH). It builds on earlier work by Kegel and by Beaumont and McEleavy that outlined the importance of the discipline’s ability to separate conflicts justice from substantive justice (the latter being protected where necessary by exceptions – public policy and overriding mandatory rules – to the normal, objective conflicts justice rules). The pragmatic approach emphasises the empirical study of the effectiveness of a variety of private international law solutions and of the underlying substantive law differences in order to design the best private international law solutions. Th is chapter makes a new contribution to the theory of pragmatism of private international law. First, it goes back to the work of the founders of pragmatism as an intellectual idea, 6 sets out some pragmatic goals for global private international law, and then develops the pragmatic method for global private international law relying on multilateralism, comparativism and empiricism.