Politics of private international law: a critical reflection.

Summary How can one critically reflect on the politics of private international law? The question will undoubtedly be perceived as iconoclastic, since the subject matter is itself supposed to be neutral, or at least devoid of any political agenda other than the promotion of a curiously ethereal form of justice - often described as "conflictual" to emphasize its distance from the content of the national laws in conflict. However, on closer examination, the apolitical dimension of private international law is intimately linked to the idea that the distribution of competences that it operates is done in conformity with the values inseparable from a liberal vision, itself eminently political, of private law.