Codification of Private International Law of France: evolution of conflict-of-laws regulation

In March 2022, the draft Code of Private International Law of France was published. This project is a huge event not only for France, but also for the entire global legal community. If the Code is adopted, its entry into force will radically change the French Private International Law and will have a serious impact on the further development of codification processes both in other European countries and within the European Union as a whole. The purpose of this article is to familiarize the Russian readers with the history of the codification of French Private International Law, with the general concept and structure of the 2022 draft, focusing on a fundamental innovation in assessing the nature of conflict-of-laws rules. In modern French practice, conflict-of-laws rules are optional (except for the rules defining the competent law on personal status and legal capacity) and are applied by judges at their own discretion. The draft records the imperative nature of conflict-of-laws rules – the judge is obliged to apply them in all situations where the dispute affects the sphere of Private International Law. The 2022 draft as a whole is a full-scale comprehensive autonomous codification of Private International Law, built according to the classic “Cheshire triad”: definition of competent jurisdiction – definition of competent law – recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. At the same time, the draft structure is not rigid, but takes into account the special place of the general provisions of Private International Law and security measures. The volume of the draft is 207 articles, thus exceeding the current national codifications in other countries. The tasks set in the study are solved using a proven legal methodology – historical, formal logical and comparative legal methods. It is concluded that despite the active universal and regional unification processes of Private International Law, its national dimension does not lose its positions, and the national codification of Private International Law remains in demand and relevant. Unfortunately, in three years after the publication of the 2022 draft, there is no official data on its movement, and there is a possibility that its fate will be a repeat of the fate of the three previous drafts of Private International Law Code.