The Private Side of Transforming our World

In 2015, the United Nations formulated 17 ambitious goals towards transforming our world – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2030). Their relation to public international law has been studied, but private law has received less attention in this context and private international law none at all. Yet development happens – not only through public action but also through private action, and such action is governed predominantly by private law and private international law.

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 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.

An open access online version of this book is also available, thanks to financing by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. Read it here.

With contributions by Eduardo Álvarez-Armas (Brunel University London), Vivienne Bath (University of Sydney), Gülüm Bayraktaroğlu-Özçelik (Bilkent University), Klaus D. Beiter (North-West University), Sabine Corneloup (University Paris II Panthéon-Assas), Klaas Hendrik Eller (University of Amsterdam), Nikitas E. Hatzimihail (University of Cyprus), Thalia Kruger (University of Antwerp), Ulla Liukkunen (University of Helsinki), Benyam Dawit Mezmur (University of the Western Cape), Ralf Michaels (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law/Queen Mary University, London), Richard Frimpong Oppong (California Western School of Law), Fabricio B. Pasquot Polido (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais), Verónica Ruiz Abou-Nigm (University of Edinburgh), Jay Sanderson (University of the Sunshine Coast), Tajudeen Sanni (Nelson Mandela University/One Ocean Hub), Geneviève Saumier (McGill University), Anabela Susana de Sousa Gonçalves (University of Minho School of Law), Drossos Stamboulakis (Monash University), Jeannette M.E. Tramhel (Organization of American States), Hans van Loon (Institut de droit international; former Secretary General Hague Conference) and Jinske Verhellen (Ghent University).