Private International Law: Change Or Decay?

Abstract

The aim of this article is to survey the private international law scene in a number of regards, tracing developments in this country over recent decades, offering some thoughts on how such changes have come about and on their impact, concluding with an element of crystal gazing for the future. The turn of the century, to say nothing of the millennium, is as good a time as any to reflect on these developments. How then has the subject changed since the end of the nineteenth century? A useful, though unsophisticated, yardstick with which to start is to look at the approaches of the two major English books on the subject and to see how their coverage of different aspects of the subject has changed over the decades.