On Friday, December 5, 2025, the Hamburg Max Planck Institute will host its month-to-month digital workshop Present Analysis in Non-public Worldwide Regulation at 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (CEST). Dr. Béligh Elbalti (Osaka College) will converse, in English, concerning the subject
“The Double Face of Non-public Worldwide Regulation: Reconsidering Its Colonial Entanglements”
In its common discourse, non-public worldwide legislation (battle of legal guidelines) is commonly introduced as a self-discipline grounded in ideas resembling sovereignty, the equality of states, and comity. Its defining traits are stated to movement from this premise of equality between authorized orders, together with its declare to neutrality, its pursuit of worldwide concord in cross-border circumstances, and its position in coordinating various authorized techniques. Nonetheless, it’s placing that personal worldwide legislation developed in a global context marked by domination, inequality, and subordination, a context that challenged the very premises on which the self-discipline claimed to relaxation.
Inside this broader context, non-public worldwide legislation seems to have performed a twin position. On the one hand, it served as an instrument of colonial domination, notably by denying its foundational premises to authorized techniques not considered “civilized”. In these contexts, as an alternative of making use of the extraordinary strategies of personal worldwide legislation, different mechanisms had been employed to handle foreignness, most notably by way of techniques of extraterritoriality – whether or not within the type of consular jurisdiction, combined courts, or overseas courts working in colonized or semi-colonized territories. However, non-public worldwide legislation additionally functioned as an instrument for restoring sovereignty and reaching independence. The abolition and dismantling of extraterritorial regimes required colonized and semi-colonized states to fulfill the substantive and institutional circumstances thought of crucial for recognition as a “civilized nation”. This included, amongst different reforms, the institution of a functioning system of personal worldwide legislation, alongside the adoption of substantive and procedural authorized frameworks that assured equal rights and safety for foreigners.
The presentation can be adopted by open dialogue. All are welcome. Extra data and sign-up right here.
If you wish to be invited to those occasions sooner or later, please write to veranstaltungen@mpipriv.de.
