Edward Elgar Publishing The Elgar Companion to the Hague Conference on Private International Law (Elgar Companions to International Organisations series)

This comprehensive Companion is a unique guide to the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to developing multilateral legal instruments pertaining to personal, family and commercial legal situations that cross national borders. The Companion is a critical assessment of, and reflection on, past and possible future contributions of the HCCH to the further development and unification of private international law. Written by international experts who have all directly or indirectly contributed to the work of the HCCH, chapters analyse its structure and working methods, as well as explore its significant achievements in the areas of international family law, civil procedure, legal cooperation, commercial and finance law. The contributors also discuss the many challenges both the HCCH and other global organisations are facing, including the advent of regionalism and renewed nationalism.Scholars and students of private international law, as well as private legal practitioners and members of the judiciary, will find this book to be crucial reading. Those working at other international organisations such as NGOs, banks and businesses will also find its insights into the workings of a successful international organisation beneficial. Review 'Elgar grants us this Companion to the HCCH, a gift to facilitate the understanding of its history and work, as well as showing a path to the future of private international law. Cleverly gathering contributions from renowned experts on relevant issues, Elgar's Companion is not limited to a picture of a moment, but sets foot on solid bases to push further, revealing the cutting-edge issues that defy the idea of sovereignty nowadays.Sovereignty: the abstract power vested in the Nation States. That is what substantiates private international law ideas and actions. The monopoly to compel people to do or not to do something is kept to the almighty State, without the possibility of any dispute. For three centuries, this abstract idea served the development of Nation States organized under the rule of law rather than under the rule of a person. It needed some adjustment, however, when those Nation States departed from their inward absolute power to realise the existence of other similar institutions vested with similar power within their own territorial and political scope.Those ideas face real life when one assesses people's day-to-day relationships and actions. They go to other countries (other Nation States) to buy food, to work, to entertain, to reach health services. People enter into business agreements abroad seeking profit or move to a different country to settle a new family or find a job, challenging the imaginary lines called borders and the abstract wall separating law systems. What would the power of the almighty Nation State do to those endeavouring to leave homeland safety?Concerns for juridical safety, a general understanding of human rights protection, respect for genuine situations that blur the abstract construction of the Nation State's sovereign power, together with the comity between States, all lead to the need to review some of the precise, logical national solutions.The challenge faced by private international law and the HCCH is to open a window onto other Nation States' law, be it through the exercise of jurisdiction over internationally connected cases, applying foreign law, cooperating in recognition of foreign judgments or documents, or by conducting relevant acts in favour of foreign authorities. From Tobias Asser's leadership in 1893, the institution developed into an international intergovernmental organization in 1951 and onwards, growing in diversity of membership by the same Nation States that hold seemingly conflicting sovereign power.This is the beauty of the HCCH's work. It derives its mandate from the Nation States and has the objective of finding cooperation amongst them