Original scientific paper
Application of conflict-of-law rules and foreign law in court proceedings
Hrvoje Sikirić
Abstract
The author analyses the position of conflict-of-law rules and the application of foreign law in court proceedings. Four legal systems are analysed: German, French, English and Croatian. At each of the mentioned jurisdictions, the author gives answers to four questions: (i) does the court apply foreign law ex officio or at the request of the party, i.e. are domestic conflict-of-law rules considered to be coercive rules or not; (ii) is the content of foreign law determined by the court ex officio or the burden of proof is on the party which invokes its application; which law will be applied in case that the content of foreign law cannot be determined; may legal remedies be obtained due to inappropriate or erroneous application of foreign law?
The analysis shows that there are considerable differences between the analysed legal systems. The most significant ones occur in situations when parties are not aware that foreign law is to be applied, when the content of foreign law is unknown to parties or when they are not able to prove it. In the author’s opinion, differences are caused by different legal traditions of the analysed legal systems.
Keywords
conflict-of-law rules; application of foreign law in court proceedings; legal remedies
Hrčak ID:
5123
URI
Publication date:
20.4.2006.
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