Theories concerning private international law

Suppose a Kenyan couple's marriage is challenged in a Mumbai court. The judge will look at Kenyan law, even though no Indian statute tells her to treat Kenya as special. Why does a court ever apply the law of another country? Out of courtesy, because a right has already been created, because the other law is closer to the case, or because the judge is really applying her own law that happens to copy a foreign rule? Each answer is a theory, and each leads to different rules.

In two minutes

The theories of private international law are competing explanations of why a court applies foreign law: comity, vested rights, local law, Savigny's seat of the relationship, nationality or personal law, and the modern interest-based and proper-law approaches.

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