The break up of Commonwealth private international law in relation to forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in selected Commonwealth jurisdictions

It is well known that in the early stages of legal development in Commonwealth jurisdictions, when these countries were still colonies of the British Empire, there was uniformity in their laws as the English common law was received by these countries and applied by their judiciaries with little or n...

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Main Author: Tong, William Su Hern
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12862/
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author Tong, William Su Hern
author_facet Tong, William Su Hern
author_sort Tong, William Su Hern
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description It is well known that in the early stages of legal development in Commonwealth jurisdictions, when these countries were still colonies of the British Empire, there was uniformity in their laws as the English common law was received by these countries and applied by their judiciaries with little or no modifications. As time passed, with the shift towards independence in these former British colonies, some Commonwealth countries have diverged from the English common law by providing for judicial solutions that are perceived to best fit their individual circumstances, values and needs. In other words, there has been a break up of Commonwealth common law. Whilst there has been much academic discussion on this phenomenon in relation to for example, tort and contract, hardly any has been written on private international law. Accordingly, it is the purpose of this thesis to address the paucity of academic writing on this subject matter by undertaking a comparative study of two areas of private international law, namely the doctrine of forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in Australia, Canada and Singapore, with the relevant English common law positions as the key reference point. Specifically, this thesis began by establishing the existence as well as the nature and extent of the break up of forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in our selected Commonwealth jurisdictions. It is then argued that one reason for this phenomenon is that there are differences in the judicial treatment of policies, concepts and other wider considerations relevant to these areas of private international law in these countries. Subsequently, the issue of how these jurisdictions should respond to this phenomenon was examined and we concluded that the prospects for the harmonisation of jurisdictional and tort choice of law rules at the global, regional and Commonwealth level has been largely unpromising. Accordingly, it is argued that the way forward is for our selected Commonwealth jurisdictions to develop their own rules on these areas of private international law with their own social, economic and political circumstances in mind.
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spelling nottingham-128622025-02-28T11:21:45Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12862/ The break up of Commonwealth private international law in relation to forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in selected Commonwealth jurisdictions Tong, William Su Hern It is well known that in the early stages of legal development in Commonwealth jurisdictions, when these countries were still colonies of the British Empire, there was uniformity in their laws as the English common law was received by these countries and applied by their judiciaries with little or no modifications. As time passed, with the shift towards independence in these former British colonies, some Commonwealth countries have diverged from the English common law by providing for judicial solutions that are perceived to best fit their individual circumstances, values and needs. In other words, there has been a break up of Commonwealth common law. Whilst there has been much academic discussion on this phenomenon in relation to for example, tort and contract, hardly any has been written on private international law. Accordingly, it is the purpose of this thesis to address the paucity of academic writing on this subject matter by undertaking a comparative study of two areas of private international law, namely the doctrine of forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in Australia, Canada and Singapore, with the relevant English common law positions as the key reference point. Specifically, this thesis began by establishing the existence as well as the nature and extent of the break up of forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in our selected Commonwealth jurisdictions. It is then argued that one reason for this phenomenon is that there are differences in the judicial treatment of policies, concepts and other wider considerations relevant to these areas of private international law in these countries. Subsequently, the issue of how these jurisdictions should respond to this phenomenon was examined and we concluded that the prospects for the harmonisation of jurisdictional and tort choice of law rules at the global, regional and Commonwealth level has been largely unpromising. Accordingly, it is argued that the way forward is for our selected Commonwealth jurisdictions to develop their own rules on these areas of private international law with their own social, economic and political circumstances in mind. 2007-07-20 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12862/1/438429.pdf Tong, William Su Hern (2007) The break up of Commonwealth private international law in relation to forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in selected Commonwealth jurisdictions. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. conflict of laws torts australia canada singapore Forum non conveniens
spellingShingle conflict of laws
torts
australia
canada
singapore
Forum non conveniens
Tong, William Su Hern
The break up of Commonwealth private international law in relation to forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in selected Commonwealth jurisdictions
title The break up of Commonwealth private international law in relation to forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in selected Commonwealth jurisdictions
title_full The break up of Commonwealth private international law in relation to forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in selected Commonwealth jurisdictions
title_fullStr The break up of Commonwealth private international law in relation to forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in selected Commonwealth jurisdictions
title_full_unstemmed The break up of Commonwealth private international law in relation to forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in selected Commonwealth jurisdictions
title_short The break up of Commonwealth private international law in relation to forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in selected Commonwealth jurisdictions
title_sort break up of commonwealth private international law in relation to forum non conveniens and tort choice of law in selected commonwealth jurisdictions
topic conflict of laws
torts
australia
canada
singapore
Forum non conveniens
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12862/