Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Roosevelt III, Kermit --- "Certainty versus flexibility in the conflict of laws" [2019] ELECD 2899; in Ferrari, Franco; Fernandez Arroyo, P. Diego (eds), "Private International Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 6

Book Title: Private International Law

Editor(s): Ferrari, Franco; Fernández Arroyo, P. Diego

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Certainty versus flexibility in the conflict of laws

Author(s): Roosevelt III, Kermit

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

Traditional choice of law theory conceives of certainty and flexibility as opposed values: increase one and you inevitably decrease the other. This chapter challenges the received wisdom by reconceptualizing the distinction. Rather than caring about certainty and flexibility for their own sake, it suggests, we care about them because each makes it easier to promote a certain cluster of values. And while there may be a necessary trade-off between certainty and flexibility, there is no necessary trade-off between the clusters of values. It is possible to improve a choice of law system with regard to both of them. The chapter demonstrates how this has happened in the history of choice of law and how it can be accomplished in the future.