Conflict of laws

Conflict of laws, or international private law, arises from the universal acknowledgement that local law cannot or should not govern every human transaction. Less than ever before can the events of human life be confined to a simple jurisdiction. The increasing multinational complexity in matters such as those related to personal status or to commercial phenomena make the choice of applicable law a highly complex matter in case of controversy. Legal disputes often contain a foreign element and the conflict of laws is the study of how national courts deal, in practice and in theory, with such foreign elements.