wrongfully affected.

The so-called "private international law," better described as "the
conflict of laws," deals, in reality, with the rules which the Courts of
each country apply, apart from any international obligation, to the
solution of questions, usually between private litigants, in which doubt
may arise as to the national law by which a given transaction ought to
be governed--e.g. with reference to a contract made in France, but to
be performed in England. There is here a "conflict," or "collision," of
laws, and it is decided in accordance with rules adopted in the country
in which the litigation occurs. These rules have no "international"
validity, and the term is applied to them, merely in a popular way, to
indicate that a Court may have in some cases to apply the law of a
country other than that in which it is sitting. The unfortunate
opposition of "public" to "private" international law has to answer for
much confusion of thought. "International law," properly so called, has,
of course, no need to be described as "public" to distinguish it from
rules for solving the "conflicts" of private laws, which are
"international" rules only in the sense that laws are sometimes applied
in countries other than those in which they are primarily binding.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND.
Oxford, December 19 (1918).

NOTES
- 1: Writer's names are omitted as immaterial.
- 2: _Infra_, p. 70.