The research within the Private International Law Department covers private international law, with a particular focus on the fundamental principles of formal private international law.

Formal private international law concerns issues such as the international jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. It is an area of law that has many sources: treaties, European law and Dutch law. It is also one of the areas of private law within which European unification has been in existence for a long period of time and indeed has progressed to an advanced stage.

The research strives to focus on the fundamental principles of formal private international law. In this way, inter alia, the coherence of European and Dutch private international law can be examined. Therefore, the focus of this research is closely linked to the Institute of Private Law’s research programme, entitled ‘ Coherent Private Law.’ Researching the fundamental principles of formal private international law is interdisciplinary as this intertwines with various other areas of law such as procedural law, public international law and comparative law.

In addition, the research may also be directed at the correlation between (principles of) formal and material private international law (conflict of laws) and at the coherence between uniform private law, in this case, procedural law.