Book Description

"Our world is in a deep dual crisis – deeper yet than the crisis emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic. The socio-economic part of that crisis has been known for a long time: poverty, combined with ills such as inequality or the maltreatment of women and children. Unfortunately, these socio-economic problems are accompanied by a threefold planetary crisis of climate change, loss of biodiversity, and pollution.The ensuing conundrum for the world is considerable. On the one hand, we want to spur development to reduce poverty and inequality. On the other hand, we know that economic development, with its usage of carbon fuels and land resources, has devastating effects on the planet. We must then achieve development in the Global South that is sustainable. And we must, in addition, change practices in the Global North, which creates the majority of the negative impacts.This is the dual crisis addressed by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDGs) formulated by the United Nations in 2015. Law plays a crucial role in their realisation. However, while their relation to public international law has been studied, private law has received less attention, and private international law (sometimes called conflict of laws) none at all.This is a significant lacuna, because most development occurs not only through public action, but also through private action. Investment, construction and distribution are matters for private contracts. The exploitation of the environment is based on private property rights. Both the empowerment of and the discrimination against women may come about through family arrangements like marriages.Such private action is governed predominantly by private law – contracts, property, company law, bankruptcy law, etc. Moreover, the transnational aspect of these actions is governed by private international law – the law applicable to contracts and other issues, the availability of courts and the enforceability of judgments from one state in another. Without analysing their role, we cannot understand what it takes to achieve the SDGs.This book demonstrates an important, constructive role for private international law as an indispensable part of the global legal architecture needed to turn the SDGs into reality. Renowned and upcoming scholars from around the world analyse, for each of the 17 SDGs, what role private international law actually plays towards advancing these goals and how private international law could, or should, be reformed to advance them. Together, the chapters in the book bring to the fore the hitherto lacking private side of transforming our world."--