Private International Law and Public International Law—Increasing Convergence or Divergence as Usual?

Abstract

In Chap. 1, the authors set two questions that need to be answered. First, whether a clear-cut distinction between public international law and private international law still holds in a contemporary environment. Or whether these two disciplines which had not been separated before the seventeenth century become more convergent and are moving toward merger so they become one discipline. In this chapter, the authors conclude that, while evidence suggests increasing convergence between the two disciplines, the time is not ripe for a complete merger into one unique discipline. However, there are ways whereby public international law and private international law may be taught together, as international law and EU law are at present living examples. To do so, the focus of private international law should be slightly adapted with more emphasis on its role in regulatory functioning.