The Territorial Approach to the Content of the Closest Connection Principle

The main aim of the research is to substantiate the predominant role of the territorial approach to the content of the closest connection principle. The research is conducted in three steps. Firstly, the title “territorial” (instead of “conflict of laws”) approach is defended. Secondly, the objective test of the closest and most real connection defined by the Bonython formula, which was elaborated in English case law, is analysed. Thirdly, the norms of the private international law of the Russian Federation, other states members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the European Union reflecting the closest connection principle are also analysed. As a result of the research, the following conclusions are formulated. Firstly, the closest connection principle is based on the territorial approach and absolutely cannot function without it. At the same time, material law factors (including weaker party protection, lex validatis, etc.) supplement the territorial approach being able to tip the scale in favour of one of the territorially connected legal orders. On this basis, the author proposes to consider the closest connection principle in narrow (territorial) and broad (territorial, supplemented by material law factors) senses instead of various approaches to its content. Secondly, the territorial approach to the content of the closest connection principle is based on search for contacts with a state (country), whereas the territorial approach enrichment with overriding material law factors, caused by the general trend of private international law materialization, is aimed at the analysis of one or another law's preferences and consequently at the revelation of links with law (system of law). Nevertheless, the analysis of norms of private international law allows concluding that, when prescribing the closest connection principle, the legislator does not make a distinction between terms “country” and “law”, and therefore one should not overemphasise these terms in attempts to understand the content of the principle. Thirdly, modern private international law acknowledges the closest connection principle in broad sense as territorial localization supplemented by material law factors, which is indicated in particular by para. 6 of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation Regulation “On the Application of Norms of Private International Law by the Courts of the Russian Federation”. What is specifically important, the necessity to add material law considerations and their legal weight should be evaluated by the court on the basis of analysing the substance of the existing legal relations between the parties as well as the aggregate of other circumstances of the case.

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