TORT CASES IN THE CONFLICT OF LAWS

Abstract

Conflict of laws problems are as diverse as the activities of the people who generate them. In many cases, the court must choose between several states or nations whose laws compete as the most appropriate to be applied. As a result, the courts have sought to create a systematic body of law to be applied uniformly by all states and nations in defining jurisdiction. Although such attempts, in the main, have produced equally nebulous results, the good news is that conflict of laws rules in torts cases display a greater uniformity than in most other types of cases. Still, there remains a paucity of certainty, uniformity and, therefore, predictability. But there is one advantage: in the conflict of laws, the judge has the opportunity, even within the limits of a government of laws, to give a wider scope to his or her own sense of justice.