LL.B. (Three Years) Sem 3 Private International Law Oct 2025 Question Paper with Solutions

For full marks, cover: what private international law is; the two names and why "conflict of laws" is used; why both names mislead; its nature as municipal law; the historical evolution: the Italian statutists (Bartolus), the French statutists (Dumoulin, d'Argentré), the Dutch school and comity (Huber), England and America (Story, Hilton v. Guyot, vested rights, the American revolution), Savigny and Mancini, the Hague Conference; the Indian development (Y. Narasimha Rao); a table; a conclusion.

Introduction

Suppose an Indian woman marries a French man in London, and they later quarrel in Mumbai over property in Paris. Indian, English and French law each seem to claim the case. Private international law is the body of rules for such cases. It decides which court hears the case, which country's law applies, and whether a foreign judgment is recognised. It is concerned with cases that have a foreign element.

1. "Conflict" misleads. The laws do not actually fight. The court decides which law applies, and the other law simply does not apply to that issue. The name also leaves out jurisdiction and foreign judgments, which are not conflicts of law at all.
2. "International" misleads. It suggests a body of law that is the same everywhere and binds States, like the law of treaties. It is neither.

5. Its true nature: municipal law. Private international law is a branch of each country's own law. India's rules come from the Code of Civil Procedure, the Indian Succession Act, the Foreign Marriage Act and Indian decisions. A treaty becomes part of it only when Parliament enacts it (article 253 of the Constitution). So two countries may answer the same question differently. That is why the Hague Conference works for "the progressive unification of the rules of private international law" (Article 1 of its Statute).

6. Why foreign law is applied. An Indian court applies foreign law because its own choice of law rule tells it to. The aim is justice to the parties, who expect to be judged by the law they were connected with.

4. England and America. Story's Commentaries (1834) made comity the basis of the American and English law. In Hilton v. Guyot, 159 U.S. 113 (1895), the United States Supreme Court defined comity as neither a matter of absolute obligation nor of mere courtesy. Later, Dicey and Beale developed the theory of vested rights: the forum enforces rights acquired under a foreign law. In the twentieth century, American scholars revolted against fixed rules and developed interest analysis and other modern approaches.

5. Savigny and Mancini (nineteenth century). Savigny (1779 to 1861) asked, for each legal relationship, where its seat is, and applied the law of that seat. His approach influenced the Montevideo treaties of 1888 to 1889. Mancini, in his address of 1851, made nationality the basis of the personal law, which much of the Continent adopted.

6. The Hague Conference. The Hague Conference on Private International Law held its first session in 1893, with thirteen States. Its Statute came into force on 15 July 1955. It has produced conventions on child abduction, inter-country adoption, service of documents and judgments.

7. The Indian development.

Part D. Why the subject matters today

Trade, travel and migration have made cases with a foreign element common. Indians work abroad, marry foreigners, buy property overseas and sign contracts online with foreign firms. Without private international law, each court would apply its own law to every case, and the same dispute could end differently in each country. The subject gives the parties certainty about which law governs them. It discourages a plaintiff from choosing a court only because its law suits him. It also lets courts respect rights acquired under foreign law, as justice to the parties requires.

A worked example

A Pune court hears a claim by a Dutch company against an Indian buyer under a contract governed by Dutch law.