Hague Conferences On Private International Law

Hague Conferences on Private International Law Outline

The word ‘conference’ here refers to an intergovernmental organization established under the Statute of the Hague Conference on Private International Law of 1951, which came into force in 1955. Prior to 1951, there had been six conferences in The Hague on private international law. The first Hague Conference on Private International Law was held in 1893. The conferences turned into a permanent international body in 1951 by the agreement of the conference members. Its main task is to unify the rules of private international law (UNIDROIT is the equivalent organization for the unification of private law. Since the organization is a conference of governments, it can recommend drafts of conventions or treaties directly to its members for approval. But a treaty does not bind a member until the member has ratified it pursuant to the procedures set out in the treaty. The headquarters of the conference are in The Hague. Australia is a member of the conference.
More than thirty treaties have been adopted by the conference since 1893. These include, inter alia, the 1954 Convention on Civil Procedure, the 1965 Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, the 1970 Convention on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters, and the 1973 Convention on the Law Applicable and the Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions Relating to Maintenance Obligations.(1)

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Notes

1. John Mo, International Commercial Law