Full Description
This book connects European private international law with decolonial theory.
Decolonial theory calls for alternative modes of producing legal knowledge - ones that give greater weight to the worldviews of formerly colonised peoples across the globe, including in Europe. At the same time, private international law has been described as a particularly suitable field for welcoming more otherness (altérité) in European law. This book therefore develops a decolonial theory of European private international law. To do so, it begins with Western court cases involving what the author terms a 'conflict of worldviews': a clash between the legal frameworks governing the dispute and the worldviews of the formerly colonised parties involved, referred to here as 'postcolonised worldviews'. Through three case studies - respectively addressing religious arbitration, Indigenous sacred land, and faith-based politics - the book demonstrates that courts routinely overlook these conflicts. As a result, the claims of formerly colonised parties are inadequately addressed. To remedy this structural discrimination within European private international law, the book proposes a pluralised theory of choice of court, foreign law, and international jurisdiction, more inclusive of the postcolonised worldviews present in the case studies.
This is an important work, thought-provoking and challenging, which should be read by private international law and comparative law scholars, and more generally by legal and non-legal scholars interested in legal theory and decoloniality.
Contents
Introduction
1. Setting the Scene: Conflicts of Worldviews, Private International Law, Decoloniality, and a Decentering Methodology
Part 1: Conflicts of Worldviews Before Western Courts: Case Studies
2. Jivraj v Hashwani: Religious Arbitration
3. Ktunaxa v British Columbia: Indigenous Sacred Land
4. SMUG v Lively: Sexual Minorities in the Global South
Part II: Learning from the Case Studies: A Plural PIL Framework in Europe
5. For a Plural Theory of Choice of Court
6. For a Plural Theory of Foreign Law
7. For a Plural Theory of International Jurisdiction
8. Conclusion: Elements of a Theory of Decolonial Private International Law in Europe
