Part II Preliminary Topics, 8 Exclusion of Foreign Law

Subject(s):

Choice of law clauses — Exclusion of foreign law — Limitations on jurisdiction

This chapter examines issues surrounding the exclusion, or non-enforcement, of foreign law. There are circumstances when the law of the forum must be preferred to the foreign law that would normally be applicable to the case. An outstanding example of this is the civil law doctrine of ordre public under which any domestic rule designed to protect the public welfare must prevail over an inconsistent foreign rule. This chapter discusses four cases in which foreign law will not be enforced, either directly or indirectly, by English courts: foreign revenue, penal and other public laws; foreign expropriatory legislation; foreign laws repugnant to English public policy; and the mandatory rules of the forum. It also describes the effect of European private international law on the rule against the enforcement of foreign revenue, penal and other public laws in England.