Article by Francis A. Gabor
Common law jurists consider conflict of laws the best testing ground on which to prove the advantages of judicial lawmaking. The common law evolved from judicial as opposed to legislative rules, but only the area of conflicts remains the exclusive domain of the judiciary and academicians. While the rules of private international law in civil law countries have similar historical roots, their development has been characterized by significant legislative intervention.
This legislative action has been part of the European codification movement which began in the second half of the eighteenth century. Several major civil codes contain private international law provisions, generally in concise and comprehensive form. It is universally recognized that the essential objective of conflict of laws rules is to provide legal security: certainty, predictability, and uniformity of result. The formulation and codification of firm, definitive rules of private international law are useful in achieving this objective. Socialist countries consider the creation of international legal security essential to the realization of the principles of domestic socialist legality and peaceful coexistence between East and West. Therefore, it is not incidental that the majority of Eastern European socialist countries have enacted specific legislation governing the area of private international law in recent years.
About the Author
Francis A. Gabor. Associate Professor of Law, C.C. Humphreys School of Law, Memphis State University; D. Jur. 1967, Eotvos L. Science University, Budapest; J.D. 1975, Tulane University; LL.M. 1974, University of California, Berkeley. Member of Washington, D.C. and Tennessee Bars.
Citation
55 Tul. L. Rev. 63 (1980)