Pietro Franzina

The paper is about categorisation in private international law (PIL). Part one explains the specificity of categorisation in this area of law. The task of PIL rules is, basically, to determine whether the legal order of the forum should open itself to foreign legal values (abstract rules of substantive private law, court decisions, etc.). The categories used for this purpose must accordingly be shaped in such a way as to enable the forum to capture a range of diverse legal expressions. Part two focuses on the approaches to categorisation followed by PIL scholars since the mid 19th century...